Little Girl First Time Kaibab Doe

[1uglydude]

My girl is 10 years old. Although she has said that she wants to go hunting, I have long suspected that she was wanting to hunt because she knows that I want her to go. Not wanting to force anything on her, I have given her every opportunity to change her mind, but each time she insisted that she at least wanted to try it. She does, however, have a very tender heart, so I have worried about what would happen when she actually did take a life.

 

She and I spent pretty much the entire month of May debating which youth hunt she should try. She made the decision that her first choice would be the early 12AW doe hunt because she wanted the best possible chance at filling a tag--she said antlers were not important to her the first time out. As it turns out, her tag number was one of the first offered outside of the bonus pass, so she probably could have drawn any youth hunt she wanted.

 

She's been shooting her 22 for several years and is very very good with it. I figured we'd move up to centerfire a few months before the hunt and try a compact AR15, but when the time came she absolutely hated it. The movement and gas made her nervous. So, I switched her over to a 223 bolt gun, and she shot one inch groups time and time again with 50gr bullets loaded near minimum. But, when I tried a full power load with 69gr bullets she balked again. I went back to the lighter bullets and she calmed down and got her accuracy back, but I had tell her that for her hunt we would use some of the easier recoiling rounds (wink wink).

 

A few nights before the hunt I had her help me load some of her hunting rounds. The rifle she was going to use is rated for 5.56 pressures, and it really sings with the 62gr TTSX loaded over a stiff charge of TAC. She enjoyed going through the process and selected her lucky round.

 

 

 

We headed out for the Kaibab on Thursday at 4am, and took our time heading up. We had camp all set by 1pm and then spent the evening driving through some of my old go-to doe spots, looking at turkeys, and letting her little brother try his hand at squirrel hunting.

 

Friday morning we woke up before dawn, got the kids dressed, fed, and in the warm truck. We tried a new to me area with limited success---too thick and the does kept bunching up--so by about 8am we were on our way to one of my go-to spots hoping that we still had enough prime time left to find the deer out in the open. At about 830 we spooked a single doe off of a tank and she stopped to check us out about 90 yards away.

 

We had spent quite a bit of time discussing shot placement and I had told her that her first choice would be the lungs, but if I told her to shoot the high shoulder shot then that meant I wanted the deer to go down right away. I didn't tell her this, but my biggest worry about the high shoulder was not loss of meat, but the fact that even though they go down hard you often have to finish them in one way or another--and I didn't want her to have to do that. Anyway, she's set and ready for the shot and she says "Dad, there is a bush covering her lungs, but I can see her shoulder. Do you want me to shoot the shoulder?" I told her that was fine and about a second later the gun went off and he deer went down hard.

 

My relief at seeing the doe go down was eclipsed only by the relief of seeing her jump up and down for joy. Up to that point, I wasn't sure how she would handle it. Her little brother had been hanging back about 50 yards with my wife's cousin and he ran up to her yelling "you did it! you did it!" and they hugged each other and spun around. I wish I had a camera rolling. She then said "Dad, this feels amazing!"

 

When we came up on the doe she wasn't quite gone, but her shot had caught enough lung that she only lasted another 30 seconds or so. She seemed okay with that, and her only question was how she could feel "so excited, so happy, and so sad" all at the same time. I told her that it was because she is human, and that it's normal, and that I'm happy that she feels at least a little bit sad.

 

The 62gr Barnes broke both shoulders and exited. I won't post the damage photo on here, but just know that it was extensive. As expected, she didn't notice the recoil one bit when she was firing at something other than paper.

 

We weren't even half way back to camp when she was talking about going again. But now she's not so sure she wants to go for a buck because "the Kaibab is just so much fun."

 

 

[Lucky Draw]

Way to go! That hunt is a great experience for kids (and parents, too)!

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Awsome man, I tried for that tag for my kids but never drew, good deal.

[Heat]

Nice Job!

[cramerhunts]

Great write up and pictures. I love it! Congratulations!

[AzDiamondHeat]

Best. Day. Ever.

 

So far.

[Goldfinger78]

Nice story. Congratulations on a successful hunt.

[CouesPursuit]

I love that she loaded and picked her favorite round. So stinkin' cool. Congratulations to your daughter and well done all around.

[Yoshi]

Great story...Congratulations!!!

[Rock30golf]

Just awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Red Rabbit]

Way cool for her and you

[Zeke-BE]

Yesssss!! I love it Congrats

[Big Browns]

That's awesome! Great job to both of you!!!!

[lancetkenyon]

Awesome job. Good eating in your future too. No testosterone tainted meat.

[Will K]

Awesome...