My 13 yr old got a doe today! How far was the shot? (Pic included)

[jay1313g]

My 13 yr old son, my 9 yr old son, and I went to Chickasaw State Park to hunt today. (We haven't seen anything there so far this year but, this got us out of cleaning up all the Christmas decorations that Mama was now tired of.) We live over an hour away and didn't get to the woods until almost 8 a.m. but, weren't in any hurry. My 13 yr old wanted to use our new climbing stand in a new spot today overlooking a cutover. I made him carry it and the gun he would be using all the way while me and the 9 yr old followed behind him with nothing. (I had to see how far he was willing to carry everything back.) He found a good point to the cutover and proceeded to set up the climber. He only went up about 10 feet and the 9 yr old and I left to go get our guns and go to our stand.

I looked at my watch and it was 8:30 a.m.

As the 9 yr old and I made it down in to the valley and crossed two creeks, we heard the loud, "BLAM!" that could have only come from him. We looked at each other and then I called out his name to be answered with a "WoooooHoooooo". We headed back up the hill and when made it to the tree he had been in, I looked at my watch.

It was now 8:40 a.m.

He had been in the stand 5 minutes or less before getting a shot off at a doe. He told us that two doe came out in to the cutover and he KNEW he hit the one he was aiming at. (He was using my Remington .308 since he would be able to shoot a good distance.) The doe, he believed, was only a hundred yards off and he knew exactly where she went. We followed him to a semi-road through the cutover and began walking, and walking, and walking. I told him that I thought it was much more than 100 yards. When we arrived to where he thought he shot her, I didn't see any signs and thought he had played a bad joke on us. As I was about to let him have it, he yelled, "There she is!" and sure enough, there she was.

The round hit on the chest, just to the inside of the right shoulder and ended up obliterating the left shoulder. She only made it about 20 yards.

Here's a pic of him showing the "5" minutes he was in the stand until he shot. (Little punk!)

Here's the real question though. As I went back to the truck to get needed things to field dress and transport the deer, I stopped by his stand and took a picture back to where the boys were still with the deer. To me, it looked like 250-300 yards but, I could be waaaayyyyy off. Here is the picture with my boys circled in orange. If you look closely, you can see them as little orange dots in the circle. When I took the picture, I was standing on a tall stump and the stand was about 10 yards behind me.

How far of a shot woud you estimate this to be?

[robin48]

Don't know about the distance, im still in shock over seeing deer there at all.

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[Westwindmike]

Congrats to your son! That is the way to hunt. 5 minutes in the stand and "Blam". I love it!

[Slappy]

Congrats to your son! He shot about 5 minutes before I shot my deer this morning. I have access to property close to Chickasaw State Park so I am sure I heard him shoot.

[DaveS]

I don't know how far it is, but it's an AWESOME shot to say the least! Congrats to your son. So, did you and your 9 year old get back in the woods to hunt?

[KahrMan]

Congrats to your son. That was a great shot. Distance is really hard to judge from pics.

[jay1313g]

The 9 yr old and I went back out for about an hour. He was GREEN with envy! He and I will go back out on Saturday without his brother.

We are going to take a friend's rangefinder and I'll post how far the shot was. Something tells me we will e in the same spot.

[jay1313g]

Don't know about the distance, im still in shock over seeing deer there at all.

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Us too! First one we have seen all season.

[robin48]

Well I hope you see more. I'd like to read about the 8 yr old getting one.

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[DaveS]

Well I hope you see more. I'd like to read about the 8 yr old getting one.

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+1

[whiskey]

Congrats! Hard to tell distance from the photo, but a neat trick to learn is to step off distance in the woods. The Army taught me to do this over rough terrain and smooth terrain, then you can count steps and get pretty close. The trick is to use a 50 yard (150 feet) open reel tape measure to measure out a known distance and then walk out and back while counting your steps. Then you can get some idea of how many steps it takes you to cover 100 yards in the woods. This could be a fun project for you and your boys during the off season.

[Lumber_Jack]

In my professional opinion I'd say 100-125 yards. It appears far in the pic but using tree heights and other references that's my guess. I've seen 100s of cuts just like that and walked across them all. So I know they appear vast but in reality aren't that far across.

[gregintenn]

Congratulations. That's good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[FJCrusing]

Congrats to your son! Nice way to end the season.

[jay1313g]

I'm actually in a blind with the 9 yr old now and we haven't seen anything today. (He doesn't sit still very well yet.)

He and I used my brother-in-law's rangefinder and determined the shot my 13 yr old made on Wednesday was 276 yards. His first deer ever, last year, was at 30 yards.

I'd say he has stepped up his game!

[jtmaze]

I grew up about 5 minutes from there and fixing to move back and was wondering if the forest has recovered from the state selling the trees to pay deficits.

JTM🔫

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[Jon in TN]

Nice! Nothing like takin a kid huntin!

[DaveS]

Nice shot indeed!

[Sidinman]

Congrtas to the both of you. You for taking them, to him for a nice shot.