A very young hunter enjoyed a very eventful afternoon Oct. 7 in the woods while deer hunting with his maternal grandfather in Natchitoches Parish.

How eventful? Owen Edwards, 7, left with the first deer kill of his life.

That morning sure wasn’t anything to write home about for Owen and Keith Price, both of New Iberia. That afternoon, however, once they eased into a blind big enough for both of them, started with a gobbler showing up, followed by four more male turkeys on the private property they were hunting.

Owen wondered aloud why he couldn’t shoot them with his crossbow. Price explained about seasons and such.

The Belle Place Middle School student curled up in a chair and napped for a while. He got up as the sun was beginning its descent to the horizon.

Price said a small “spike” buck started grazing in the food plot. That thrilled both of them but as it moved behind the blind the boy was unable to get a clear shot.

That sequence of events was frustrating because at one time the “spike” ambled within 5 feet of the blind, Price said. Still, the experience had his grandson shaking a little, he said.

The “real shaking” began minutes later when the youngster saw another deer, a doe. He wasn’t the only one with the shakes.

Owen said, “It’s kind of funny. Pa was shaking so much he thought the stand was going to fall.”

There was a whole lot of shakin’ going on, for sure.

“He turns around and says, ‘Pa, there’s one over there in front of the blind.’ I said, ‘Go ahead and get on it. If he turns broadside, take it,’ ” Price said.

The maternal grandpa, who retired in June 2021 after 25 years as owner of Blue’s Archery in New Iberia, said he couldn’t see the deer from his vantage point in the blind so it all was up to Owen. Price watched as the crossbow tracked the deer’s movement, however.

“He looked through the ‘scope trying to find it. I watched the ’bow. I could see it moving, going back and forth (left and right). I saw it stop. I knew he had found it. He had it locked in.”

“I thought I would miss,” the boy said.

Owen, the son of Nick and Cassie Edwards, took the shot at an estimated 30 yards, sending the Wicked Ridge Rampage 360 crossbow’s bolt speeding to the target. The deer, standing quartered to his aim, was hit in the front right shoulder.

“It might have gone 50 yards and piled (fell down),” Price said about the seconds following the bolt’s impact.

Owen was ecstatic.

“He turned and fist-pumped me, an elated 7-year-old. He was about to hyperventilate. He really did a good job,” Price said, noting he was a “proud and happy grandpa.”

“I thought it was cool that I shot my first deer. I was excited,” his grandson said.

Owen smiled broadly a few minutes later when he posed in the dark with the doe he shot. A few swipes of the deer’s blood on his cheeks and chin can be seen, vaguely, in the time-honored hunting ritual dating back to the 700 ADs as a tribute to St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters.

Owen simply called it, “Nasty.”

Owen’s older brother, Graham, was 11 when he killed his first deer while hunting with Price the morning of Jan. 17, 2021, on the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area. The older brother shot the “spike” buck with a Ruger American Compact Bolt-Action .308-caliber Winchester rifle.

“Graham was happy for his little brother. For sure they all want to shoot but they’re pretty close boys,” Price said.

“I would have liked to get a shot at him (the “spike”) but it worked out fine. That’s a good doe he wound up shooting.”

Price, a veteran bowhunter who started hunting deer in the late 1970s, soon after he graduated from high school, has harvested one deer while archery hunting so far in 2023-24.

Cassie Edwards’ two sons now have registered their first deer kills.

“I’m kind of jealous because I haven’t got mine yet,” she said, laughing.

Seriously, she said, “I’m excited they got their first and both have had an experience with my dad.”

Edwards probably would have had more opportunities to kill her first deer but, she admitted, she’s stubborn.

“I only bowhunt. I refuse to use a crossbow or rifle. I’m trying to make it more of a challenge. I missed two this weekend,” she said.

Owen got the one that counted.