"My son, Cesario, 12, has been on many deer hunts with me since he was 7," said Rey Velasco of New Hope. "He has helped track and drag, but this was his first real hunt, with his tag and his gun. This was during the youth hunt in October in Winona County. After three days of getting up early and eating cold breakfasts and cold lunches, he was beginning to think it was not going to happen. He said: 'Dad, this has been a lot of fun; even if I don't get a deer.' I told him to sit tight and that at any moment a deer could show up.
"Well, about 30 minutes later this deer started our way from about 80 yards at the bottom of a ravine. I knew it was a buck, but had no idea how big. Cesario perked right up, and then at about 60 yards I told him it was a big buck. Cesario was wound up tight. He put his gun to his shoulder and would not put it down for second as he was afraid the deer might see him. He held that pose for an eternity, and I thought he was getting fatigued, but when the deer finally came to 35 yards and he had a clear shot, he took it.
"The deer had 14 main points and three stickers. The inside spread is more than 20.5 inches, and the main beams are 25 inches. A taxidermist rough-scored it at 174 gross points. When we got it out of the woods, every hunter and every car that saw it had to stop and see it. Everywhere we went, we drew a crowd. Cesario is very happy, I am happy too -- and so is our taxidermist."
