Backing out on a deer is hard.

My 10 year old shot another one tonight and he was hunting by himself and picked his own spot. It was closer to the truck so I went further back with my 12 year old becust it's a large and rugged property and I didn't want him further back alone.

I heard the suppressed shot then got the txt he shot one. I was not surprised because he had been sending me pictures of small bucks extremely clostle to him all ready.

I got over there and he thought the deer was 15 yards to the left from where he actually shot it so we wasted 35 mins looking for blood from that point to the direction he said it went and he saw and heard it crash.

I walker the other direction and found white hair. Then he found some blood. The blood got better but it had some green stomach contents in it. It had been about an Hour since the shot at that point. I followed the trail maybe 50 yards having glow bracelets at blood ever so often. The trail stayed easy to follow but I decided to error on the side of caution and not to risk jumping it and backed out. I was going to wait tell morning but at 3 there is a 20% chance of rain and it goes up to 50% @ 5.

It's my first time having to track a gut shot deer in my life out of hundreds. The boys always make good shots. This will be his 11th deer. It could be the angle and he shot back a bit but got a good hit into the chest but I didn't want to take a chance on loosing it. Neither of the boys have lost one and I want to keep it that way.

I bet it hit a touch low becuse he was using a AR platform and it was a 24 yard shot and the bullet had not rose to the line of sight yet.

I bet the deer was dead when I was there with the bullet either entering back a bit or exiting back a bit during to the angle but why take chances.

With the chance of rain I'm going to go back about 230am and see what happens. The trails was a good one and could be followed at a slow walk in the dark with head light.

I'm sure not used to backing out. It's tough to do.

Good call and I agree with going out before morning if it's going to rain. I pushed an antelope once because had to get home for a funeral and I still regret pushing it.

This is your 10 year olds 11th deer?

You did the right thing. Let’em lay for about 4-6hrs and they’ll be right close and dead. Most people keep following and jump it then that’s when you run into trouble. Keep us posted.

Down here you’ll find 10 year olds with 30+ deer to their tally, lol.

Good luck. I would head out about 5 hours after it was shot.

That is impressive!

It is a tough decision. Good chance if you dont leave him, you jump him from his bed. At my place, a good chance if you do leave him, the coyotes get him. If most leaves off the trees, I will track one at night and hope he is still alive. I have found quite a few deer as they lay wounded, looking back and see the reflection of their eyes in the light.

If you didn't push it, and it is indeed a lethal wound, they normally walk, or trot in a straight line. Keep that in mind if the blood trail dries up.

If you have good blood for a reasonable distance there is a very good chance that it is dead. I wouldn't wait too too long to go after it like 9 or 10 because of the rain. If it rains on the blood trail it's not gonna matter one way or the other. In my experience over 58 years gut shot animals do not bleed a whole lot and their will normally be stomach contents along the way.

160user- I think its a Southern thing to have kids start that young and that aggressive in deer hunting. Not a slam if that's your thing and you all want to do it. I don't mind eating deer but I'm not going to eat 5-10 a year unless I actually get systematically hungry. I think South Dakota started dong mentored youth hunts about 10-15 years ago but no 10-12 year old in this state has 10-30 deer kills, probably because we don't have a half a million or more deer in the state to try killing. Different strokes for different folks...

In Ky they can’t sit by themselves if they are that young . But keep us posted ! What weight type bullet was he using ?
He’s from Indiana nonpc so southern thing might not apply! Maybe the kids just love to hunt ! Sounds like they know what they are doing and it could be done in Ky if in the right zones!
Good luck on recovery!!

Here they tend to head to water, for whatever reason.

it is hard , last year was the first time I ever had to leave one in the woods over night

plenty cool , and based on where I found it it was dead 30 yards from last sighting , dead like it just ran dry dead not dead like it laid down and curled up.

but I had shot it very near dark , and then jumped it at last possible shooting light it was going to get pushed off property if I made another push so I let it go overnight. it was dead before I had it pinned in my gps but I had no way to know that.

hope you find it

in WI under 12 you have to be in arms reach and one gun between both of you , they call it mentored hunting and it has only been a thing for about 9-10 years.
12 with hunters safety may hunt within sight and sound distance of you and have their own gun
at 14 with 2 years hunting experience they can hunt on their own.
no pistol hunting till your 18 here even braced pistols

it is just different rules for different places , some kids are ready sooner than others and some are not , some people sit in stands and some people do drives it is all context and location and experience.

A lot of gut shot deer bleed out in the first bed but if pushed - they can go for a long, long way.
Good Luck

Yes this is his 11th deer, he killed his first 2 at 7 well both the boys killed 2 at 7. I don't remember how many they shot each year but they both shot 3 last year. They keepna list of their kills and can tell you how many of each species they have killed .We hunt it's what we do vacation is all during hunting season i get 3 weeks and I only have to work 14 days out of 28 to begain with. The rest is hunting time.

I have a family of 5 we homeschool and my wife stays home. She cooks every meal most from scrach and thinks the world will end if she does not have food on the table not only at meal time but also when anyone gets home and may not have eaten. Like if we have been out hunting or if I or my daughter have been at work.

Deer don't go very far maybe 30 to 35 meals for a mid size one. I do all our processing and the only things that are not used are the hide, head, and guts. Liver, and heart are saved. All bones, far silver skin and trim is saved and feed out to the dogs. We ear the heart and liver or it goes to the dogs if to shot up. Liver often is sliced and put in the dehydrator like jerky and saved for dog treats.

My family prefers deer to beef. Infact a few years back we went to a signature Steak place for my wife's birthday. Only my youngest went the other two had other things they were doing. When the waitresses asked him how he liked his steak his response was" its not as good as moms deer steaks but I will be back" that got a surprised look from her. Wow how red neck are these people I think her expression said,.

I. A Few years back we had 7 deer and I bought half a cow. We were out of meat by deer seasion. I also take then to hunt in KY some years during their youth seasons. This year we .also got drawn for youth refuge hunt on the old Jefferson proving grounds




We. Went back out and got there a little after 3Am. This glow bracelets are great you can see them hanging in the woods easily and they are cheep... we went to my last marker and another 10 yards there was the deer. Shot dead in the front shoulder no exiti noticed so no idea where the white hair came from unless I missed a small exit as the bullet ran out of steam. I will look closer in the morning I was in a hurry to get it gutted and washed out.

It must have been a sharper angle Than he realized it hit one lung Liver and cut the esophagus at the connection of the stomach. I don't think it made it 60 yards total. I don't think I have had to track any deer these boys have shot much farther. But I'm not used to seeing stomach contents on the ground and got nervous. Better save than sorry. If my head light had been charged better I would have seen the deer from where I stoped .

He was using an 8.5" braces pistol with suppressor and 110 gr v max. Should be about 2100fps and the slow speed makes that varmint bullet act more makes a controlled expansion round vs the 3000fps plus speed it would be shot at out of most rifle rounds. I put that combo together for him when he was 6 because he was recoil sensitive and with our silly cal restrictions on public land I figured it was the lowest recoil legal set up I could come up with. BUT buy the time season came in he was over the recoil and shot his first deer in KY youth seasion with suppressed 7mm08. Go figure. I keep it for when we hunt on public land and it works well for that. They also use a 357 handy rifle on public in Indiana.

So far they have shot deer with 357 mag carbine, 300 blackout, 243, 7mm-08 and x bows.

I don't normally bother taking a gun and haven't shot a Deer in years I enjoy taking the kids. It's just more fun taking and teaching others especially kids.


So I was right and my confidence in my kid was well founded. He picked his own spot and hit dead where he was intending just like he told me he shot it in the front shoulder. Sure enough he did, just miss judged the angel it was standing a little.
He was so proud of himself. It's the first time he hunted by himself and shot one.. He has been picking his own locations and methods since last year and doing very well. This was the first year I have not sat right beside him every hunt. But I'm never far away and he had our extra phone to let me know if he needed anything. He was sitting on the ground with Harris bi pod.

Great job, give him a big high 5!

Glad to hear you found it! Congrats to your son!

Way to go...
Both of you should be proud

congrats , you should get some sleep

my vmax 300blk shouldn't have been that much faster maybe 2300 but they just blew up in everything shot with them never an exit wound

glad it is working for you.

the 110 hornady soft points worked better for me but they just finally came back in stock last week

I am trying a 150gr Deer season xp round this year it is another polymer tipped bullet that is supposed to be for deer , I shoot the 300 so little I figured components being what they are lately I would try a box 2 of factory ammo and see

They get 18 to 23 inches of penetration from what I have seen. I have had some exit some have not. I recovered one that shattered the shoulder clipped the lungs and heard went through the diagram and liver and was laying on top of the stomach when I opened it up. Now there was not much left of it, no jacket just some lead flattened out almost like it had hit a steel plate. It did it's job.

My 12 year old shot 2 down in KY with it 3 years ago on the same day facing him. The first a young one folded hit top of heart one lung and snaped the spine. The 2nd was a large doe and her heart was split nearly clean in half the bullet continued up and at a slight angle hitting the back of one lung going through the diafram and out just behind the liver . She made it 30 yards. We were on the ground in aground bind and they were coming up hill slightly.

It's a balancing act with the blackout speed and bullet preformance . I error non the side of more expansion and possibly not an exit vs getting an exit and maybe not any expansion. I may be wrong in that but it's worked with 100% recovery so far. My cousin had the same set up he built right after I did and went with heavier bullets. He lost one or two and recovered one bullet from a nice buck shot facing him in the back leg. The deer dropped but the bullet had rifling marks and could have been loaded again and shot.

I think 110- 130 soft points would be a good choice especially with longer barrel on the heavier ones.

I was going to try Speer hot core 130s becuse they were cheap but worried they may not expand as well as I wanted and never did.

Good job Dad!

Outstanding! - good shot great outcome.

I'm glad it all worked out!!

Good job ! Enjoy every moment you have with them boys ! As for them writing down their kills I can believe that. I did it when I was their age with squirrels and foxes . Didn’t have deer here in the early 1970’s Heck it made the paper if someone saw a deer People talked for weeks if a deer track was found !
You should’ve said “ pushing “ 11 deer killed!! Lol

I couldn't even do a good job wiping my butt at 7 years old...never mind shooting a deer by myself

Good work! Angles are hard for kids. My 8yr old is 2 for 2 so far using his .243 and SST’s. For some reason those bullets exit does and bucks out of that rifle. Now out of a .308 or 7mm/08 there’s an entrance wound only. It kills the deer and they normally drop within sight, but if they don’t it’s tough tracking.

Green County I recovered that v max under the skin. I didn't weight it but it's a nice mushroom less so on the side it turned around and faces backyards on and the base has a smear/ dent where it hit something as it turned.
It did loose its jacket. I can send you pictures if you pm me your # or email

Providence Farm,

A lot of folk's kids can't drive any vehicle, even at 18 years old......and sure can't be trusted with a firearm.

Good on you for starting 'em young.!!!!

My youngest changed the tire on our gator for my wife when I was away for work when he was 7. This year he did most of the work putting the new motor into that gator after it threw a rod. I picked the old one out and placed the new one in becuse it was to heavy for him. But he did the rest with me walking him through it.

I try to take th time and make sure they are hands on. That the first time we got a 4 h project done so far ahead of time.

Thanks, for the compliment. They don't come with a manual I often hope I dome screw them up. I figure to do my best to teach them to thin, be respectful , and responsible. I won't always be there and they need to be able to thrive when I'm gone without me.

We all should raise our children with this same concept^^^^^