Young Davis takes one good shot to bring down first buck, a 9-pointer
Published 11:15 am Tuesday, December 3, 2024
- Young Bowen Davis holds the horns of a 9-point buck he shot and killed Nov. 24 while hunting with his grandfather, Milton Davis, on the family's lease in southwest Arkansas near Magnolia. The proud youngster harvested a doe a few days later. FACEBOOK.COM
A 6-year-old Lydia boy had much to be thankful for Thanksgiving Week.
Bowen Davis, the son of Dusty and Candi Viator Davis, traveled to Arkansas with his family to hunt deer and knocked down his first-ever buck, then a doe. The feat was celebrated by his paternal grandfather, Milton Davis, his father and his older brother, Layn Davis, 10.
And Bowen was on Cloud 9, too, especially after one shot dropped the 9-point, 168-pound buck on Nov. 24 while he was in a deer stand with his grandpa on a cool but not cold morning near Magnolia in southwest Arkansas.
“Ah, he was fired up, jumping up and down. He’s happy. Yeah, he’s on Cloud 9. He was excited and ready to go kill another one. Oh, it’s nice. It’s nice,” Dusty Davis said midday on Dec. 2, the day after the family returned from their 2,000-acre lease just across the border in Louisiana’s neighboring state.
Bowen Davis drives around camp with his grandfather, Milton Davis, during Thanksgiving Week at the family’s lease near Magnolia in southwest Arkansas. The elder Davis was in the deer stand Nov. 24 when Bowen shot and killed his first buck, a 9-point weighing nearly 170 pounds. The 6-year-old boy who fishes and hunts attends Caneview Elementary School.
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“And, oh, he (Milton Davis), was fired up, too. He was tickled pink. He was excited,” he said. “He was telling us how he got him lined up — the rifle on the tripod — and how Bowen did the rest.”
Dusty Davis, a 39-year-old electrical worker for W&T Offshore Inc. with interests in 60-plus offshore oil fields, was hunting at the time with Layn about 1 mile from his dad and Bowen. He heard the shot around 8:30 a.m., he said, then got a quick phone call from Milton Davis, who said they were looking for the deer.
“It took a little bit but they got it,” he said, adding that his dad sent a photo right away of the youngster holding the deer’s rack.
Bowen Davis, 6, takes aim with a Youth Model .350 Legend Savage rifle while hunting at his family’s lease in southwest Arkansas. Davis shot his first buck, a 9-point that weighed 168 pounds, on Nov. 24 and a few days later downed a doe, the third deer of his hunting career.
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Bowen pulled the trigger of a Youth Model 350 Legend Savage rifle and hit the buck in the right shoulder, he said, “right where you’re supposed to … a good shot for 6 years old.”
His oldest son was proud, too, according to Dusty Davis.
“Layn was more excited than me that his brother got him one,” he said, noting the 10-year-old Caneview Elementary School student killed a hog that same morning. For the week his oldest son finished with a doe and two hogs.
Bowen also harvested a doe on Nov. 26 on the recent trip to Arkansas.
The young hunter’s buck will get the shoulder mount treatment from a taxidermist, his father assured.
“If it’s the first buck, we get it mounted,” Dusty Davis said.
“He’s waiting on a big one now. He said he’s got to top his brother. His (Layn’s first buck), was a 10-point with a bigger body,” he said.
Both sons probably will get another chance at a deer during a youth hunt weekend before Christmas in Arkansas, said their hopeful father.
Bowen, who attends Caneview Elementary School, killed the first deer of his life, a doe, earlier this 2024-25 season on a youth hunt while in a deer stand with Milton. Milton also was in a deer stand a few years ago when Layn dropped his first buck.
