Youth weekend in Ky this past weekend. I took my son up on a knob for his first trip in a tree stand. I have a 2 man ladder stand and we settled in (safely strapped in). At 8:35 a couple of does were side hilling on the knob. Not in any hurry just eating and slowly walking. They hung around for about 10 minutes. The pair were off to our right so my son had to get his body turned a little bit in the tree in order to get ready for the shot. I did not think that everything would work out but somehow it did. One of the does stood broadside and my son settled the crosshairs behind the shoulder and squeezed off a shot. The hole you see on the pic is the exit. The shot was uphill. The entrance was absolutely perfect, blew the heart in half and took out some lung too. After the shot the deer turned and collapsed. My son was stoked and so was I. This was his first treestand hunt, first deer taken without a manufactured rest (caldwell field pod etc,) had to use the elbow on the knee, and also the first deer taken with the new "forever" rifle he got last Christmas. A Browning X Bolt Stalker in 7-08. Bullet was a 120 gr Nosler ballistic tip going 3040 fps.
