Daughter's first deer, and with a ML

[lokidog]

So, this fall, my daughter says she wants to deer hunt.  It came a bit out of the blue.  We decided to try the ML as her mom was going to hunt archery and I was doing modern.

She tried her mom's ML but it misfired a couple of times so she tried mine.  No misfires but the stock was a bit long so we put her mom's stock on my gun.

We sat out in the neighbor's meadow almost every day during early season.  She had some shots at a couple of does, including one really dumb one that just begged her to shoot it, but she didn't.  We did see some bucks, including one face to face at 12 yards but could not get a shot.  One evening, we had a smaller forky come out and then saw a really, for here, big fork horn behind him.  The smaller buck came out and stopped within my daughter's self-imposed 50 yard range with the big buck following.  I suggested she wait for the big guy... of course, at 62 yards he turned and walked away, and pulled the smaller one with him.     at myself for getting greedy for her.  After that, she had no more opportunities.

Late season comes along, and the orchard near the meadow is empty.  We sit Thanksgiving morning and evening and see nothing.  We went to the Apple Cup Friday so no hunting.  We got out again last night and jumped a buck bedded about 50 yards from our blind, nothing else was seen.

Shortly after getting home last night, I saw a decent sized buck and a doe out behind the house.  I decided to try to keep him around until morning by tossing some apples over the fence during the evening and just before bed.  I got up early and waited until just before legal shooting time and tossed a few more apples out.  At about 7, legal time but stil way too dark to shoot, I saw a big bodied deer, too dark to see antlers, but I knew he was a buck.

My daughter was getting antsy, so we snuck out around the house.  He was munching away so did not mind our bit of activity.  He turned mostly broadside and BOOM, he flipped around, landed on his back with his feet flailing.  I thought, nice, no looking for him, but then he stands up and hurries off while we reloaded.  We waited about 40, for her quite agonizing minutes, to let him die and get some better light for searching.  When we went back out, we found a small splotch of bright blood and a small piece of bone.  We followed the trail we saw him leave on and only found one small drop of blood.  We continued on the trail hoping to find him piled up, but found no more blood.  She moved off on a slight side trail while I continued almost to our property line.  Seeing nothing, I circled back and found him piled up in the salal about 20 yards farther than my daughter had walked.  I breathed a big sigh of relief, as I think most of us do when we find them.

It is kind of cool that she got her first deer in the same location as my wife's first deer and with a piece of each of our muzzleloaders.  Now, she just wants me to grind the whole thing as she doesn't like steak... good luck with that though.   

[PolarBear]

Very cool, congrats to her!!!!   

[Bob33]

Way to go, Dad and daughter.

[blackveltbowhunter]

Great Buck!! Congratz

[Taco280AI]

Awesome 

[Whitpirate]

Awesome!  When she's off at WSU you'll have an excuse to hunt whitetail in the Palouse. 

[MLBowhunting]

Alright great job    

[Sabotloader]

lokidog

Holy Cow! Assume! Congrats to the proud young lady... cool!

[Hunterman]

Nice looking buck there young lady    Congrats   

Hunterman(Tony)

[Turner89]

Nice job Lokidog.   Have fun grinding

[gonehuntin68]

Nice BT

[SemperFidelis97]

  Nice shooting

[huntnfmly]

The smile says it all . Congrats

[runamuk]

Saw that on FB this morning huge congrats to her.....

[singleshot12]

congrats looks like a fairly good size bt for out there

[Wea300mag]

Congrats to team loki.

[Rooster1981]

way to go you two   

[BOOM!!]

Thats awesome!! congrats!   

[lokidog]

Awesome!  When she's off at WSU you'll have an excuse to hunt whitetail in the Palouse.

Yep, but we're also heading up to U of A Anchorage next weekend for a looksee since she has been accepted there as well.  I hear there's some good hunting up there as well.....   

Thanks everyone.  She was getting worried that it might not happen as she just started basketball and their practices are 7-9 pm so she will be staying on Lopez during the week.

She made a decent shot, back a little as it destroyed his liver but did hit the back of both lungs and no stomach.  Had some heart for brunch, yum!

[scoyoc5]

That's awesome!  Congrats young lady

[Skillet]

That's great Ed!  Congrats to the young lady 

[steen]

Congratulations to you all on a nice Blacktail!!!

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats to her

[Boss .300 winmag]

Congrats to your daughter Loki!  Real nice Island deer.  them burgers up.

So is the big buck still out there? I bet it's the one my daughter missed last year.

[lokidog]

As far as I know, the big one is still out there, heard of quite a few bucks dropping this year, but no really big ones.

Looking back through photos, we found two pics of him from this year.  The first was taken on May 7 and the second taken on July 27.  Sorry for the bad second photo, we need to wash those bedroom windows more.   

[ICEMAN]

Good job Maddie!!!

Girl hunters rock!

[Smokepole]

That is so cool, Lokidog.  Congrats on passing down the tradition of hunting to your daughter.  My grandma was a darned good hunter.  She used to make g'paw mad cause she usually got one on opening day.  Women are very observant, methodical hunters.  You should be proud!

[oneshot12]

  looks like  we know who is putting meat on the table this year   congrats young Lady  Nice work

[denali]

Very nice 

[brew]

hey Ed...congrats to her and obviously proud you.my granddaughter just turned 5 and she's already talking about deer hunting with her "poppa"...I can't wait.....

[Hawgdawg]

Conrad's to you and your Daughter, You Island people got it made. Then Island Critters can't swim can they?

[lokidog]

Conrad's to you and your Daughter, You Island people got it made. Then Island Critters can't swim can they?

They swim fairly well, that's how they got here to begin with.     I did find a stinky floater last summer though.

42 pounds of meat off her buck, not the biggest we've gotten, but not the smallest either.     I think we are going to get a shoulder mount done for her for an X-mas present.  Not sure she will hunt again as her asking to hunt this year was somewhat a surprise.  She doesn't like the look of just antlers or euro mounts so... a shoulder mount might be enough to keep her in the game in the future.  If not, she'll at least have a cool story for her grandkids.    

Thanks all.

[billythekidrock]

Nice job Maddie!