Well at 0650 on last Saturday morning my little girl got her first coues buck...... as we walked up to the deer I asked her what she thought of her buck? In the most delicate little girl voice.... I hear her say..."HE IS SO CUTE". Keep in mind...that myself and my hunting partner (cohofishing) had not yet laid our eyes on the deceased buck... other than a quick glance to verify it had horns before she laid the hammer down on it! This story starts long before the pull of the trigger for her though. I can not tell a lie and say that my daughters first love is hunting..(she is a ballerina) and a dang good one to boot! She has been dancing since 3 years of age and is now 10... I can say that hunting is in her blood and she does enjoy being out in the field with me as much as she can...I have tried to instill this family tradition and family values into both my kids... she has a younger brother who also loves to be outside! I told her late last year while we were out quail hunting that if she loved being outside and hunting that she was finally of age to try and get her first deer tag. She seemed very excited and said she couldn't wait! I then preceded to tell her that in order to be able to apply for the youth hunts that she would have to take and pass her Hunter Safety course... I also told her that this is something that she was gonna have take the ball on because I wasn't going to be on her constantly to complete the online portion.. I wanted it to be something she wanted to do and not something that she felt like she was doing for me? It wasn't but a few weeks later... with a little help on a few questions that she passed the ball back to me and said find me a field day! I saw the hunter spirit in her that day! So needless to say i took care of my part ASAP.... booked and passed..it was time to put in for some JR. tags... she successfully drew her first choice..34a.. a unit i know very well only because I have lived in Sahuarita and hunted the Santa Ritas my entire life. It was the perfect tag for her because we knew with her dance schedule that she was gonna be limited on time to be out in the field. So the preparation began, I tried to get her to the range as much as possible. We would go Wednesdays after school because she had early release and didn't dance till 530 in the afternoon.. we also squeezed in a couple of weekends! There was also a bunch of scouting involved..Myself and my daughters Uncle Brent (cohofishing) spent more time in the field for this hunt than we had for any of our own hunts! My plan was just to have a couple spots where a good shot might present itself...I wanted to make this hunt was as fun and enjoyable as I could, just so that she wouldn't get discouraged. So after months of shooting and scouting and pausing the TV while watching hunting shows to ask my daughter would you take this shot and if so have her point out where she would put the cross hairs..lmao... which my wife thought was hilarious! It was time to hunt! Myself and Brent went out on Thursday night and set up camp and did some last minute scouting and range finding... The support and love for my little girl just kept showing up! Another one of my long time great friends and hunting partners showed up to the camp that night to help also! So after the sun went down I headed down the mountain to pick up my little girl from dance because she wanted to camp the night before opening day. Back at camp and got a plan together...Liana was out on the drive up! lol... long week for her already. Up and hiking before daylight, a first for her also.. no complaints though! She beat me to the top of the hill following her Uncle...(her ballerina legs had no problems running up and down them hills!). Opening morning all sitting together on top of the hill sure was something special. And to add to the support system...my best friend from our elementary school days called me about 6 am and said hey buddy just got off work .. where do you want me? WOW! All I could think was these guys sure are something... taking time out of their own busy lives to be here for my little girl only proved to me that my (dot) of friends... not big enough to be a circle....were very well chosen! So shortly after that call we had spotted some bucks to make a move on. We loop around the hill to try and cut them off and we did. Liana gets all set up behind the gun, she picks the bucks up in the scope with very little trouble, we range and wait for them to stop feeding? Well they never did stop...fed right out of range! Liana says sorry dad.. they just wouldn't stop walking! I said (muneca), that's doll in spanish, you did so awesome! And she had just got her first lesson on why we call it hunting and not killing! We relocated back to the glassing spot and got back to work. It was so awesome to see my girl work so hard behind her own set of glass (provided by Uncle Brent... tripod and all)! Well it got hot fast and after a little nap in the shade for her, we all decided to make our way down the mountain and regroup for the afternoon hunt. Relocated to a new spot and the only buck we did see came out without enough shooting light. Just to hot for the bucks to come out any earlier i guess! So four of us head back to camp and my best friend heads home to get some much needed rest! So day two has arrived and we find ourselves sitting on top of the hill waiting for the sun to come up once again. Today we plan on splitting up and covering more ground with the glasses. So not only does my buddy come back to help again.... he brings my godson with him! Which is also Liana's cousin, and he tells her he was hoping she didn't harvest opening morning because he wanted to be there when it happened! lol... so she blamed him for those bucks not stopping for her on day one! (got to love it).... The sun hadn't even crested the mountain and Uncle Brent says got a shooter out of range right now will keep you informed...(definition of shooter for us on this hunt was anything with horns) lmao... Maybe a couple minutes later Liana tells me dad I have a deer with horns... so I ask where? She says right here in front of us... Well I look and I look and I look ....and I cant pick it out! So I get out from behind my glass and move behind hers and sure enough its a deer with horns! In my defense it wasn't exactly right in front of us, but it was definitely in a great spot to make a move on! So I say pack your stuff up and I call Brent and tell him we have a buck and are about to make a move. He comes over the mountain and we head that way! Well on our way of course we spook some doe up towards the buck and they all head over the ridge together. I wasn't to concerned though because they didn't go over in much of a hurry and I knew they had went into a decent sized bowl where if we made the right moves we could have a great chance at seeing them again. Well the plan all came together, as we crept over the top of the hill.. there they were feeding across the bowl...didn't see any doe now though, just bucks! Brent cleared a path for Liana to follow (cleared out cactus and all) talk about going the extra mile! So now here we are...Liana is once again ranged and dialed in and ready to shoot and these darn bucks just aren't stopping long enough for her to get a shot off. We watch three bucks feed off and then we see another buck moving around in the mesquite. I'm now laying right next to Liana telling her to concentrate on the tree that the other bucks had fed out of... she tells me she sees another buck in the tree but doesn't have a shot. I tell her to be ready and patient..this buck is gonna come out and give her a shot, and he does come out and he does give her a shot. Very calmly she says dad he came out but I can only see his butt... I tell her to wait for the right shot..she says I got to let him turn a bit right? I ask her to tell me what the buck is doing and she says he is eating out of the tree..she then says dad I can take a shot now..he is standing perfect.... I said squeeze slow just like you have been practicing...she then proceeds to take the safety off and does her thing! BANG.....WHOP.... I look over at Brent and he says the buck is down! OMG! I give my baby girl one of the best hugs of my life! My buddies on top of the hill said they saw the whole thing play out also! Hugs for everyone! We start to make our way over to recover the buck and I am texting my wife to let her know how awesome her little girl did! While approaching the deer I tell Liana to go ahead of us and take a look at her first coues whitetail buck! Now keep in mind Brent and I never really got to get a great look at this buck because everything had happened so fast and all we were sure of was that is had horns and was the first deer to stand still long enough for Liana to get off a shot. I asked Liana what do think baby girl? Her response was..(HE IS SO CUTE!) If she only knew how "cute" this buck really was! lol ... Thank you to everybody who came out to camp that night to be a part of my daughters first coues buck celebration! The love she felt was over the top.. we must have had 20 or 30 family and of course my "dot" of friends come and camp with us! I'm so proud of her and all the hard work she put into getting this done! Thanks again to Uncle Brent (cohofishing), Mike, Robert and Devin! Also a big Thank You to my wife for letting me put a lot of stuff on hold to try and make this a great experience for our baby girl! I know its a long winded story....but what a great way to remember and share! Here are some pictures to go along with the story!
