Brody Mace, 13, of Stockton Springs almost didn’t get to go hunting for deer this fall.
He broke two major bones in his right arm at school while playing football about six or seven weeks before deer hunting season began. Brody was in a full arm cast and couldn’t even bend his elbow.
He and his dad Josh Mace were afraid his arm wouldn’t heal enough to get the cast off for hunting. But just before the season opened, the doctor put Brody’s arm in a removable cast so that he had more movement with his hand.
Brody went from the disabled list to having family bragging rights with one well-placed arrow from his crossbow.
The family owns 9 acres on Cape Jellison in Stockton Springs, where the Maces hunt.
They had seen a particular buck on their game camera early one morning. It had bedded down in a nearby thicket. There are old apple trees that the deer and other animals and birds like to frequent in that area, so it’s a good place to watch for game, Josh said.
The Maces were a little late getting to their hunting spot, so they weren’t sure if they might spook some deer. But they cleared a spot, set up their blind, cleared some branches out of their expected shooting lane, set up Brody’s crossbow on its shooting stand and settled in to wait, hoping a deer would show up.
During the last 45 minutes of daylight, Brody was looking through his crossbow scope into the woods and saw a deer rack.
“Dad, big buck! Big buck!” his dad recalled Brody whispering.
The buck was looking right at them, Josh said. He got out a range finder to figure out the distance, but was having trouble focusing it because he was breathing so hard, he said.
There were a few trees to work around, but they waited for the deer to take just one step and it would be enough.
Brody dropped the buck at 45 yards with his crossbow.
Brody said he was shaking really hard after, and Josh said he got as much of a rush as Brody did, watching his son shoot his big deer.
The eight-point buck weighed 205.4 pounds, qualifying Brody for the Big Buck Club, which is a distinction that his father hasn’t earned in 27 years of hunting. Josh has been hunting since he was 10 years old.
This wasn’t Brody’s first deer. He has shot two does, a spike horn buck and a six-point buck with his crossbow. He also has killed turkeys with a crossbow. Brody fishes too and this year caught a 41.5-inch-long striped bass.
“Every time he goes, he gets big fish, turkeys, deer,” Josh said. “After this deer, he rubbed it in to Dad.”
Josh has killed a bear, but Brody hasn’t yet. Brody thinks he may try regular archery next.
His favorite part of the hunt was seeing the deer’s rack through his scope, Brody said.
A taxidermist is doing a head and shoulders mount of the deer for Brody. The teen plans to hang his prize buck in his bedroom.
