Sorry, this will be a long story, but a good one. This past weekend was one of the most awesome 2.5 days of my life! My daughter passed her hunter education course this summer and it was her first hunting trip with me. She is 10 years old and she is my oldest child......she has wanted to go hunting for a few years and this was our time to see what she could do. She was armed with her new youth model Savage .243 and ready for the long drive to the dry side of the state. Opening day provided us with many deer sightings, with two separate setups, but either the deer wasn't a legal buck, or there just wasn't enough time to get her a proper setup.....I was starting think that it was going to be a miracle to get her on a legal deer with enough time to get her calm and steady on the shooting sticks. She went through every nervous emotion on each setup....and I was feeling like it was going to be a lot of the same going forward. I was only able to take her hunting Saturday through midday Monday....not a lot of time! Sunday afternoon we headed out to an area of the property that we had access to hunt in which a fellow member of our hunting party had jumped a legal buck earlier in the day. We started walking and about 50 yards into our walk, I happened to look to my left to see what appeared to be animals bedded on the opposite side of a draw.......it was three bucks, and one looked to be really nice! We ducked down in the grass and I ranged them at 398 yards....way too far for my daughter to shoot with her 9 power scope with a case of the buck fever jitters....and a stiff wind. Luckily the wind was in our faces!!! The deer had no idea we were there and the grass was long enough for us crawl through. I dropped my pack, took her rife, she took the shooting sticks, and I showed her how to belly crawl. We cut the distance by 80 yards, but could still only see the neck and head of the larger buck. I was not going to shoot....I had to get her the shot. We made it to the first draw where we could stand and walk around to the backside of the next hill between us. We climbed and slowly looked over but we dropped a little in elevation so I could not see over the next hill and see the bucks....so we climbed higher on that finger ridge and I was able to see they were still there......and the wind was still perfect...strong, noisy, and in our faces! We slowly climbed down to the bottom of the next draw and I had to decide to crest over the hill opposite the side of the draw that the deer were on, or do we walk down and sneak around the bottom of ridge...I decided to walk around since it wasn't far. Peeked around the corner and slowly stood up above the long grass to see four bucks bedded down, and the heads of some does in the middle of them. The biggest buck was bedded at the head of the draw and facing away from us. There were no deer facing our direction at the moment....and the wind was perfect. I snuck back around the corner and got both of us ready....took off the sling for her rifle, got the shooting sticks...and showed her where to aim since she still only had a neck and head shot, but this time is was 120 yards away. We snuck back around the corner and I had her look at the animals through the binos and them look without them for her to get her orientation. I got her rifle and shooting sticks setup and had her look at the animals through the scope. I was tough because the grass was tall and she is so small that she was unable to kneel or sit and still see the animals through the scope....she started getting stressed out and quivering so I stuck my leg out like a bench and she sat on my leg like a chair...she could now see the big buck through the scope, but the other legal buck had gotten up and walked between us and the bigger buck and bedded down. Now there was no room for error...she had to shoot it in the neck or head.....over the other bucks back.....there was just a little of the body visible behind the closer buck. I really wanted her to get the bigger of the two. She began to get nervous about the noise of the gun when she shoots and I told her she won't even notice (I should have remembered to have ear protection on our hunt!!). I'm watching the buck....talking with her while she is getting ready.....she is shaking......and I watch her quivering finger rest on the trigger. I tell her to just breathe and squeeze the trigger when she is ready.......then it happened.......the boom of the gun and the head of the bedded buck drops below the grass. I turn to her.......my mouth wide open....look at her eyes which are wide open....she is covering her ears. She starts to panic that she is deaf....I told her it will soon go away and that she just shot a buck......"you just shot a buck.......on my, you just shot a buck!!!" I looked back at the deer and none of them even moved.....I grabbed my gun.....rested on the shooting sticks....looked through the scope, and the buck that was bedded closer to us, stood up and looked right at me. Crosshairs on the base of the neck, and boom.......he dropped straight back into his bed. Luckily I told my daughter to cover her ears before I shot......I looked at her and said "we just shot two bucks.....we just shot two bucks!!!" This time she smiled and almost started hyperventilating....she was excited. Still, none of the other deer moved.......so we slowly gathered our stuff.....and then the does stood up. We stood up in the cow trail we were on and the deer just stood and looked at us.....two more legal bucks in the bunch. Finally, they started off up the draw and we watched as the other bucks stopped and turned to look at us one more time...skylined....200 yards away.....seemed like they wanted to take in the sight as well.....it was amazing. When I walked up to my daughter's buck, I was so damn excited, and proud...I have to say I did well with tears when I saw her walk up on it and she was smiling and saying "Oh my gosh......oh my gosh......THAT IS HUGE!" It is the biggest buck our camp has ever taken on this property both in antler size and body size. It was a pig! This all occurred right before dark and the first person I could get on the scene happen to be my dad and when I told him that "she did it" and told him she shot a buck.....he about lost it....he was so excited....his first grandchild to hunt...and to get a buck as well. He had yet to even see the animal! The rest of the night was filled with excitement.....when we got back to camp the fun started and we were up quite late telling the tale. To top it off, it turned out that our camp shot 4 bucks that day.....an unbelievable day! I get a little emotional just retelling the story. I just had to share with all of you!
P.S.- The picture my daughter took of me and my buck shows her buck and rifle lying in the grass over my right shoulder....pretty cool.
