It was the kind of invitation Blake Garrett couldn’t refuse. His buddy Joe Umphries had asked Blake and his 8-year-old son, Hudson, to head over from Missouri to a farm in Indiana for the state’s youth deer weekend on Sept. 27 and 28.
The Garretts drove from their home in Marshall to the farm in west-central Indiana on Friday, the day before the opener. They met Umphries there, and on Saturday afternoon he dropped them at their spot on private ground.
“Joe told us where we were going to hunt, and we walked about 500 yards to a slightly elevated shooting house on the edge of a food plot,” Blake tells Outdoor Life. “It was a warm, calm afternoon, and we settled into the blind about 4:15 p.m.”
Umphries had trail cameras out around the farm, so they knew there were plenty of deer moving. But none of thee trail cam photos had prepared the father and son for the buck that stepped into the field around 6 p.m.
“We looked up, and 150 yards away a giant of a buck walked into the field,” says Blake, a 41-year-old marketing executive. “He walked into the middle of field and bedded down. The grass was high, and we could see his antlers, but there was no chance for Hudson to make a clean shot on his shoulder.”
The buck stayed bedded in the field for 30 minutes, then rose and took a few steps. As Hudson was preparing to shoot, the buck bedded down again in the tall grass — its vitals still hidden from view.
“I was panicking, thinking eventually the buck would wind us and spook,” Blake says. “But at 7:20, he stood up again.”
Hudson was ready. His shot hit the buck perfectly behind its shoulder. The deer ran just 30 yards to the field edge and fell.
It was still daylight when Umphries met the Garretts in the field to load the buck, where they all celebrated Hudson’s biggest deer yet.
“Hudson was through-the-roof happy,” Blake says. “He’s taken a couple nice bucks with his rifle, but nothing like that one.”
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The buck has 14 points and rough scores as a non-typical at 184 inches. Blake says they’ll have a pedestal mount made that Hudson might get to put in his bedroom.
“Hudson kept his cool, took his time, and made a great shot on the deer. No one could have asked for anything more.”
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