Eight-year-old scores big with a 14-point

The young hunter shot the 144-inch deer on his last holiday hunt.

When Hayden Kyle’s Christmas break started at Pontotoc Elementary School, he and his dad Jay began a quest to get the 8-year-old hunter his first trophy buck.

Two full weeks later, on the final Sunday of the holiday, he scored.

Boy, did he ever.

The 14-point the youngster shot at their 10,000-acre deer camp in Prairie near the border of Monroe and Clay counties measured 144 7/8 inches gross, including a 22-inch inside spread.

“Hayden has killed several deer before, including bucks, but we had decided this year that it was time for him to stop shooting smaller deer and hunt for a mature buck,” Jay Kyle said. “I kept telling him that patience would pay off and it did.”

But it wouldn’t be easy. There were a lot of trying times, especially one morning when the young hunter missed a nice 8-point, and the area they were hunting was never easy to manage.

“The bottom where we were hunting always produces some very good deer, but it is very muddy and wet,” the daddy said. “It is very tough hunting on an adult, not to mention how tough it is on a kid. But to his credit, at age 8, it only increased his determination. We were up at 4 a.m. every morning for those two weeks except on Christmas Day.

“We had seen several deer and a couple of good bucks and he had a shot at a good 8-point in there, but he missed him. It got him very upset.”

Hayden Kyle was convinced, his dad said, that he had missed his opportunity to get his trophy.

“I mean he was so upset that he had tears rolling down his cheeks,” said Jay Kyle, who knew he had to shore up his son. “I told him ‘Son, that is why they call it hunting. It happens to the best of us.”

The pair continued to hunt daily and started to see a lot of young bucks, which caught the eye of the disappointed boy.

“He kept wanting to shoot one of them, and I just kept telling him patience would eventually pay off, if he would just wait,” dad said. “He didn’t understand that message until that last Sunday afternoon before he had to return to school the next day.”

Father and son got to the stand at 3 p.m., and started seeing deer a few minutes later. This time, they had moved from the bottom to a big field that meant long shots would likely be in order, tough enough for a veteran shooter and more so for a youngster with a .243 rifle.

“By 4:30, we had around 20 does in the field and they were at every angle around us, so I had him watching one end of the field while I watched the other,” Jay Kyle said. “He already had his gun out of the window of the shooting house and as he watched deer through his scope, I just told him that if a big boy walked out that he needed to take his time and wait until I said to shoot.

“We already had it already planned out that if one came out that we were both going to shoot on the count of three, since it was such a long shot.”

Yeah, right. Forget about it. Never gonna happen.

At 5 p.m. Jay Kyle felt the shooting house shaking.

“All I heard was, ‘Daddy, Daddy, there he is. He is big. No, he is huge,’” the elder hunter said.

When Jay Kyle turned to see what his son was talking about, he understood the child’s excitement.

“He was a big buck,” dad said. “I think I was as nervous as he was because I wanted him to get that buck so bad. I continued to tell him to take his time and stay on the deer while I got my gun out the window. As I reached for my gun…”

BOOM!

“He shot, and I looked up and saw the buck was running back into the woods,” Jay Kyle said. “As I looked at Hayden, I could see excitement and fear, because we both just knew that he had missed his chance again.

“He said, ‘Daddy, I’m sorry that I did not wait on you to get your gun out the window, but I just couldn’t wait.’ At first I got frustrated but then I thought it would be great to experience that moment with him, since it is what it’s all about.”

After a few minutes, dad told son they might as well get down and just make sure he had not hit the buck. When they arrived at where they thought the buck had been standing, they found hair in the food plot but no blood.

“He said, ‘well I hit him,’” Jay Kyle said. “Then we followed (the route) that the buck had taken to the woods, which was full of water and we couldn’t find any blood. But, when we got about 20 yards into the timber, I heard a deer get up and then fall back down.

“I knew then that it wasn’t going to be easy but that we still might have a chance to find that buck. We backed out and I explained to Hayden that we needed to give him some time and not push him any further.”

The two returned to the stand and waited for Jay Kyle’s brother and a friend to come and join the search.
Waiting, the youngster called his mom Amanda and told her that he’d hit a big one, but had to find it.

About 45 minutes later, the group went back in the timber and resumed the search. They found no more sign and after spreading out to broaden the search, they still came up empty.

“As we were about to call it quits, I had this feeling that he was close by,” Jay Kyle said. “As we turned to walk back, I just happened to shine the light to my right and there he was.

“Hayden started hollering, ‘I got him, I got him.’ He had the biggest smile on his face. We all ran to the buck and saw that he was bigger than we had thought. I don’t know who was more excited, us or him, but we just all started cheering and giving each other high fives.

“It was a great night, and will provide memories from that great Christmas break. He was so excited that he had shot that deer at 292 yards. Later, when we were in the truck headed home, he turned to me and said, ‘Dad, you were right. Patience did pay off!’”

Click here to read about other big bucks killed this season.

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