DaytonDailyNews.com

This is a tale of two young hunters, boys from the Miami Valley who last month were able to take their first bucks. They were hunting with their fathers during Ohio's special Youth Deer Gun Season. During those two days, only youths can hunt. The non-hunting adult is there for supervision.

A chilly morning

Luke Woodruff was getting cold as he and his dad, Matt, sat in their ground blind.

"We got there at 6:30 (a.m.) and I was getting ready to ask my dad if we could leave," said Luke, an 11-year-old fifth-grader at Bogan Elementary in the Talawanda School District. "It was about 8 o'clock. Then Dad heard something behind us."

"It was the biggest buck I had ever seen in 19 years of hunting around this area," Woodruff said. "We had just been joking about what if he got a buck bigger than I had ever gotten."

The big deer worked his way around the blind and stopped not 40 yards in front of them.

"I had pulled off my glove and taken the safety off," Luke recalled. "He was looking the other way, sniffing the air. I stood up and took aim. When he looked at me, I took my shot.

"I was a little nervous. When I saw the buck I was pretty excited. My friends couldn't believe it when I showed them the picture. They thought I faked it," he said.

Luke and his father, residents of McGonigle, near Oxford, were hunting on a friend's Butler County farm during the second day of the youth hunt, Nov. 23.

The buck is a 20-pointer and is Luke's first deer. He used a 20-gauge shotgun. It will be scored by Gary Trent of Buckeye Big Bucks after its 60-day drying period.

Patience pays off

The 9-point buck taken Nov. 22 by Evan Eichenauer, 9, of Vandalia was the second deer he has taken. Last year toward the end of the archery season, he killed a doe with a crossbow.

He was hunting on private property in Montgomery County, near his home. He had hunted that morning with a family friend and then returned in late afternoon for a second try.

He was seated on a tree-stand base a few feet off the ground at about 5 p.m. when the buck began moving toward them. When it was about 20 yards away, Evan took it down.

"When the deer was about 30 yards away, I whispered, 'Evan, shoot it,' " said Rob Eichenauer, Evan's father. "He had his gun (a .410 shotgun) up, but didn't take the shot. Then the deer moved in even closer and before I could say 'shoot it' again, he shot."

"It was really cool," Evan recalled. "My heart was pounding."

The third-grader at St. Christopher School in Vandalia said he likes the excitement of hunting, but also enjoys "being outside and seeing all the squirrels and birds and other creatures while I am waiting for a deer."

Eichenauer said: "Evan did everything right. I was a very proud father.

"It's also great that they have the youth hunts, because the kids get a chance to hunt when there aren't any adults hunting and the deer haven't been spooked."

When Evan first got the deer, his father said, "His first comment was, 'WOW! A 9-pointer.' Then he followed that up with, 'Dad, this one is for Grandpa,' who died last December.

"It is what the outdoors experiences are all about."