My son allowed his 8 yr old sister and his best friend the opportunity to shoot deer with his gun on our deer lease this year before he would even attempt to shoot anything. After both had made perfect shots with his gun and killed their first deer each, only then he and I started hunting hard for a nice rack. Only one time the whole deer season did he have a chance to shoot and he opted out due to a branch hanged over a shooting lane and he not wanting to make less than a perfect shot. So he let a nice deer walk. The character and respect for hunting this little fella displayed this season made me want to do something special for him. So the search for a memory we could make together commenced. We search high and low and decided on a buffalo that would also feed our family and many friends for the entire year. He went to school the following Monday and told his friends in class what he had done over the weekend shooting this beautiful animal, and the teacher told him not to make up stories. Needless to say she was all apologies when I sent her an email with pictures that night after he told me how she shut him down mid story in class.
We estimated this bison cow to be around 1500 lbs, and my son at 11 yrs old took her down with one shot. Using a ruger American 7mm08 youth model with a witt machine recoil reducing muzzle brake and hornady 139 grain solid copper zinc alloy bullets made the job much easier for the little guy. Rob our guide found the bullet stuck in the hide on the opposite shoulder, and the heart was obliterated. Rob told my son right where to shoot, and he made a perfect shot. Not one drop of blood on the ground, but when gutting it an easy 5 gallons of the red stuff had bled internally into her carcass. It took the animal almost five minutes to fall. We were thinking of a follow up shot but she never turned to present a second shot. The processor weighed the meat at 783 lbs.
As father and son we had the skull European mounted and went into the swamps and found a very old piece of cypress and made a custom 4 ft tall wood plaque that the skull was to be attach upon. we also fleshed the hide (an 8 hour job) and spent two weeks salting and drying it out for tanning which we will have back in 7 months or so from moyle and mink tannery in Idaho. My son told me on the drive home that this was one of the best experiences of his life thus far. He has shot several other animals but this one was really special for him.
I want to take this opportunity to thank kimber1911 for this hunt and we are in the process of booking something with him in the near future.
We estimated this bison cow to be around 1500 lbs, and my son at 11 yrs old took her down with one shot. Using a ruger American 7mm08 youth model with a witt machine recoil reducing muzzle brake and hornady 139 grain solid copper zinc alloy bullets made the job much easier for the little guy. Rob our guide found the bullet stuck in the hide on the opposite shoulder, and the heart was obliterated. Rob told my son right where to shoot, and he made a perfect shot. Not one drop of blood on the ground, but when gutting it an easy 5 gallons of the red stuff had bled internally into her carcass. It took the animal almost five minutes to fall. We were thinking of a follow up shot but she never turned to present a second shot. The processor weighed the meat at 783 lbs.
As father and son we had the skull European mounted and went into the swamps and found a very old piece of cypress and made a custom 4 ft tall wood plaque that the skull was to be attach upon. we also fleshed the hide (an 8 hour job) and spent two weeks salting and drying it out for tanning which we will have back in 7 months or so from moyle and mink tannery in Idaho. My son told me on the drive home that this was one of the best experiences of his life thus far. He has shot several other animals but this one was really special for him.
I want to take this opportunity to thank kimber1911 for this hunt and we are in the process of booking something with him in the near future.
