Little bit warmer today in southern Michigan and no rain. I was gonna leave at noon to take my daughter hunting. I got tied up on the phone trouble shooting a piece of equipment. Left an hour later than planned. No biggie. Get home, shake the gear out, load the truck and we go. South wind, so we head to the field and sit on the NE corner that has a hill behind it. Should keep out scent contained pretty good. Last year I had bucks come out in that corner with that wind, so I was set up just to the north of where they were coming out. I DRT up the preset, set the platforms. Lower the rope for my daughter to repeat and she joins me in the tree. I adjust my platform after seeing how it lays. We are finally set. 4:57pm. I send my wife a picture of us hanging out. I tell my daughter which way the bucks came from last time, so we gotta watch they don't sneak in that way and pick us off. Adjust my saddle to a nice position and get comfy to start watching. My daughter is scribbling in her note book. Soon she motions at me and makes an antler with her hand. I peak around the tree and suprised to see large deer out there, not a spike. He is on the field edge in front of us and my guess is looking for us because he saw us walk in, or heard us. He is so close their is leaves and branches between us and him. My daughter has the safety off, but there is no clear shot. I anticipated they would be a few yards out, not right on the edge. He goes past and turns back into the woods on the other side of us and seems like his nose has detected us. But he runs 3-4 steps to the back side of the tree and stops. He is right at the base of the tree. My daughter gets the crossbow back around the other side. I tell her heart. She lines it up, steadies, and sent that 150gr Crimson Talon single bevel I got right thru the top of the spine, across the top of the heart, and exits out in front of his front leg. He drops like a stone. I can see the blood pooring out. Not sure if he needs another, I fumble to re-cock the crossbow. By the time I get another arrow in it, he has stopped moving. He's done. Cant believe that just happened. Wow. He's dead right at the base of the tree. Best kinda tracking job. It's her second deer. First Buck. First saddle kill. All before 5:08pm. So we give it a few minutes to process it all.. little celebration. We climb down, check it.. yep. She nailed it good. Take a quick photo. Walk back to truck, drive out and grab him and take him back up by the road to try and not blow the area up to bad. Crazy night. So proud of my daughter. She is a killer. Maybe I can just go the recurve and let her do all the work!
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