Not sure what to think

Not sure what to think. My oldest, Brennan, took his baby brother, CJ, hunting this evening. Now he has free reign where they were hunting, as in the manager told him he didn’t care if it had spots or a 200” rack, if he wanted to shoot, then he’d have every worker out there to find it.
He’s taken a doe two years ago, and an old 7pt last year. The deer they were after was chasing does 400 yards away, but this young buck came out and CJ told Brennan it was to small and they’d wait for something bigger, lol. Brennan asked several times if he wanted to shoot, but he said if we don’t get one tonight we can come back because that one was just way too small.
I don’t know whether to be proud or worry, lol. I am proud of him for recognizing a young deer, but at 8yrs old I would have shot that joker and thought I was a God!! Of course he’s hunting a lot better land than we did back in the day, lol.

No shame taking that deer or letting it go.

Proud or worry? I'd say a little of both. It's gonna be difficult to keep that young'un in big deer....lol

At 8 I would of been proud of a Cottontail much less any deer.

I would have shot that at 8 years old, and I'd shoot it today at 56!
But if he wanted to let it walk, so be it. Nothing wrong either way.

He has a 140-150” 10pt on camera and I told my oldest he didn’t deserve anything like that yet. I believe in putting in your time before an antler wise trophy. We’re just keeping him on the old bucks that need taken. The one they were after is pretty stout and will definitely take two of us to load up. We have another that has either a third beam or some serious trash on one side that needs taken out as well.
I’m not really worried because I’ve let all my kids go through their own progression on deer. None of the others started that young though. I encourage kids to shoot whatever makes them happy. My goals aren’t theirs and I don’t push it. Guess they just follow what they see. Come Christmas time he’ll start laying the does down and we’ll join him.

This is the buck they were after. According to my son he’s a lot bigger body wise than the camera makes him out to be.

It would be another six years before I got my first one and it was only a five pointer. Should've been a seven but had no brow tines.
I did shoot a squirrel at eight.