Eleven-year-old Gunner Friedrichs has been diligently honing his archery skills and working on his accuracy for months.
Last year he harvested his first deer with a bow, a doe, and this season he had his sights set on arrowing a buck. Recently, all of his hard work paid off when he harvested his first buck with stick and string, an 11 pointer, while hunting on some family land with his dad, Scott Friedrichs, in Colorado County near Eagle Lake.
“I was hunting out of a two-man ladder stand with my dad,” the youngster said. “The buck I was after had started showing up on our trail camera in the evenings, about a week before archery season started.”
Friedrichs said he and his dad climbed into the tree stand and got settled for an evening sit. He ranged some spots around the feeder he was overlooking from his stand, so he would have an idea how far the deer might be, depending on where it was standing, if it showed up.
“We saw a few does early on during the hunt,” he said. “They ended up winding us and running off. Soon after they left, a young buck came in and ate around the feeder for a little while.”
The evening wore on, and the buck Friedrichs was hoping to see finally made his appearance.
“We only got a glimpse of him at first at the edge of the brush,” Friedrichs said. “When we noticed his antlers off in the distance, I stood up, grabbed my bow, and got ready to shoot.”
Friedrichs said the buck was extremely cautious as he made his approach towards the feeder. The deer stopped about 30 yards away from the stand.
“He was standing perfectly broadside, and I knew this was my chance,” Friedrichs said. “I had been practicing shooting out to 30 yards a lot in my back yard and was confident I could make a good shot.”
The young archery hunter drew his bow back, found his anchor point, and released his arrow. Reacting to the sound of the arrow releasing, the buck spun; however, the arrow struck him just inside the shoulder, piercing the vitals.
“We watched him run about 80 yards, before piling into some brush,” Friedrichs said. “I wasn’t sure if I had made a good shot at first, but luckily my dad was able to film it on his phone. We played the video back and confirmed that the arrow hit him in the vitals.”
Friedrichs and his dad found the deer lying about 15 yards into the brush where they last saw him disappear, just under 100 yards from where the arrow struck him. From there, the celebration began.
