I don't even know what to say this year, but my daughter has made me so proud and is becoming a very accomplished hunter at the ripe old age of 11! Her skills with a rifle still amaze me and I know she'll surpass anything I've ever dreamed of doing. For the first time she filled all three of her Oklahoma deer tags, she field dressed and skinned her first deer of the day (with a lot of guidance) another first, and she bagged her first buck.
This year I had her put away her trusty Stevens 200 .223 Rem named "Bruiser" (I guess a .223 has a lot of recoil for an 8 year old), and made her use the yet unnamed M700 Classic in .300 Savage. It's been a struggle to get her to shoot this rifle because she doesn't tolerate recoil well, but she understands she can't use a .223 in Colorado next year and wants to hunt elk. She never shot the rifle much at the range just anywhere from 3-6 shots and alwasy with a PAST recoil pad, and the rest of the time was spend shooting "Bruiser" and a .22 LR just to get some range time in. I even had her stretch her shooting out to 300 yards on an occasion just to give her confidence in her abilities as we had to pass on some longer shots last year from the deer blind.
After two days of getting skunked and our buddy's son filling all three of his tags on the first day, things finally came together for my daughter. She shot a small button buck in the morning at 106 yards, one shot high in the front shoulders DRT. Then later that afternoon about 5 p.m. we had a bunch of does and fawns filter into the field. She spotted a little forked horn buck and she kept asking me if she could shoot the "Forky" as she was desperately wanting a buck, and she hadn't been able to connect with one the previous two years. I told her to hold on and let the field fill up, and it wasn't long I said "Hannah there is a buck!" I ranged him at 220 yards and told her the distance and asked you think you can shoot him and she said "Yes", I had my binoculars on him and said "get ready, I'll stop him". I bleated and the buck stopped and turned his head towards us and I said "shoot", my daughter didn't hesitate I heard the report and the bullet smack and saw the deer drop in his tracks. I said "He's down!" and I continued to watch to see if he'd get back up as he fell behind a little rise in the field and we couldnt' see him. After about five minutes we relaxed and then it was all high fives and fist bumps in the blind.
After celebrating I told my daughter to reload and get ready in case another deer stepped out. We didn't have to wait long and a doe and two fawns came out about 10 minutes later. She was acting a little nervous as she kept walking up to what we'd figure out later was the buck and then trot over to the tree line and back out into the field. I ranged her at 240 yards and told my daughter "when she gives you a broadside shot, take it" well it wasn't long and I heard the report of the rifle the smack of the bullet and saw a fat doe drop in my binos. She fell behind the same little hill and I couldn't see her, so we watched the spot where they fell until after legal light. We packed up our stuff and then went looking for deer, we found both laying within 10 yards of each other both had never moved two more DRT shots by my daugher. She shot the buck again high and in the spine but a bit far back as the bullet and bone fragments shredded the liver as well as the lungs, the doe was another classic high shoulder shot.
Anyway enough of the story, time for the Hero pictures!
Her first deer of the day!
Her first buck ever a nice little 8 point, with a big fat doe!
By the way she said she never noticed any kick from her .300 Savage.
This year I had her put away her trusty Stevens 200 .223 Rem named "Bruiser" (I guess a .223 has a lot of recoil for an 8 year old), and made her use the yet unnamed M700 Classic in .300 Savage. It's been a struggle to get her to shoot this rifle because she doesn't tolerate recoil well, but she understands she can't use a .223 in Colorado next year and wants to hunt elk. She never shot the rifle much at the range just anywhere from 3-6 shots and alwasy with a PAST recoil pad, and the rest of the time was spend shooting "Bruiser" and a .22 LR just to get some range time in. I even had her stretch her shooting out to 300 yards on an occasion just to give her confidence in her abilities as we had to pass on some longer shots last year from the deer blind.
After two days of getting skunked and our buddy's son filling all three of his tags on the first day, things finally came together for my daughter. She shot a small button buck in the morning at 106 yards, one shot high in the front shoulders DRT. Then later that afternoon about 5 p.m. we had a bunch of does and fawns filter into the field. She spotted a little forked horn buck and she kept asking me if she could shoot the "Forky" as she was desperately wanting a buck, and she hadn't been able to connect with one the previous two years. I told her to hold on and let the field fill up, and it wasn't long I said "Hannah there is a buck!" I ranged him at 220 yards and told her the distance and asked you think you can shoot him and she said "Yes", I had my binoculars on him and said "get ready, I'll stop him". I bleated and the buck stopped and turned his head towards us and I said "shoot", my daughter didn't hesitate I heard the report and the bullet smack and saw the deer drop in his tracks. I said "He's down!" and I continued to watch to see if he'd get back up as he fell behind a little rise in the field and we couldnt' see him. After about five minutes we relaxed and then it was all high fives and fist bumps in the blind.
After celebrating I told my daughter to reload and get ready in case another deer stepped out. We didn't have to wait long and a doe and two fawns came out about 10 minutes later. She was acting a little nervous as she kept walking up to what we'd figure out later was the buck and then trot over to the tree line and back out into the field. I ranged her at 240 yards and told my daughter "when she gives you a broadside shot, take it" well it wasn't long and I heard the report of the rifle the smack of the bullet and saw a fat doe drop in my binos. She fell behind the same little hill and I couldn't see her, so we watched the spot where they fell until after legal light. We packed up our stuff and then went looking for deer, we found both laying within 10 yards of each other both had never moved two more DRT shots by my daugher. She shot the buck again high and in the spine but a bit far back as the bullet and bone fragments shredded the liver as well as the lungs, the doe was another classic high shoulder shot.
Anyway enough of the story, time for the Hero pictures!
Her first deer of the day!
Her first buck ever a nice little 8 point, with a big fat doe!
By the way she said she never noticed any kick from her .300 Savage.
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