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.

Awesome! Kimber is good people

Awesome! Congrats to you and your son

Thanks for sharing the story with us. Congrats to your son on a fine trophy and some great eating for your family!!! Well done dad!
PS: I too have hunted with Robert and will again as well..... Elk

Way to go all the way around! Great job to Dad and good shooting to son! I love the mushroom on that bullet. Nice job on the euro too, looks really cool with the light in it.

Great story, love that you rewarded good character behavior in your boy. Well done sir!

Awesome! Congrats to your son!

Oh that skull mount/light is super cool.

Congrats to both and that skull light is pretty cool!!!

Congratulations! I am very impressed with your son in there helping to flesh out the hide. You, Sir are a Blessed man.

fantastic job on Euro mount! How much is tanning going to run you? Well deserved hunt for young man. Would love to do hunt like that but too much meat for just one person...the joys of being single are sometimes a pain.

$492 for bison hide. Has to fleshed out and properly salted and dried. A lot of time and effort before going to the tannery

awesome!

Great memories and fine young man you are raising there. Congrats to you both!

That's cheap I payed $800 for mine

[u]X2! You gotta love that 7mm08........[b]CONGRAT 2ALL!!!!!![/b

Congrats to that young man! Excellent shot! Love his new night light... Very unique Euro mount..... Must be one proud Dad!
Diane

Great story and trophy! Thanks