By Horace Gore
Tate and Tanner Miles are Trophy Hunters of Tomorrow. The brothers are the sons of Trace Miles of Poolville, located in Parker County, Texas. Tate is 10 and Tanner is 7, and they attend Poolville Elementary. An interesting aspect of both young brothers is that they are outstanding bowhunters, and each has taken deer and hogs with compound bows. This story will relate the bowhunting success of each brother.
Tate has about 30 successful bow hunts on deer, hogs, and one turkey gobbler. He started using a compound bow at age 6. The poundage rule for compound bows was relaxed from 40 pounds by Texas Parks and Wildlife several years ago, so younger bow hunters could pull a bow with enough poundage to take a deer or hog. Trace took advantage of the rule, and Tate began hunting deer with a compound bow when he was in the first grade.
During the last five seasons, Tate has taken 10 bucks on the family hunting lease in Shackelford County. Three of these bucks netted Pope & Young Book scores, and Tate entered bucks in the Fort Worth Hunters Extravaganza Deer Competition for seasons 2021-22; 2022-23; and the past 2023-24 competition.
Tate hunts from a blind with his father, and besides the deer, he has a lot of hogs to his bowhunting credit. You can be assured that Tate will be in a deer blind when deer season opens.
Tanner has about 11 successful bow hunts to his credit since he started shooting a crossbow when he was 5 years old. During his three years of bowhunting, he has taken three bucks and several hogs with the crossbow. During the 2023-24 season, Tanner switched from the crossbow to a compound bow and took two does and some hogs.
Tanner’s buck from 2022-23 season won first place for Youth, Open Range at the Fort Worth Extravaganza Deer Competition. He’s anxious to get into the blind with dad this season, and woe is the deer or hog that gets within shooting distance of Tanner and his compound bow.
Tate and Tanner are lucky to have a father who makes sure that the boys get every opportunity to bow hunt each season. The Clear Fork of the Brazos in Shackelford County is a great place for deer, turkey and hogs, so I guess we will hear much more about the bow hunts of Tate and Tanner.
Did we mention when the Miles brothers are not bowhunting or practicing with their bows, they like to fish and play baseball? Sounds like Tate and Tanner are busy in the outdoors of Parker and Shackelford Counties.
