This is my first post. I truly enjoy reading about all of your hunting experiences and now have one to share.
My 10 year old daughter Natalie shot her first deer yesterday. Her friend shot his first buck this year and since then she has been determined to get a deer. She spent many hours bundled up in a sleeping bag at -20 and colder and had several chances at whitetail bucks and does however she was waiting to make sure she could make a quick clean kill. I don't usually hunt from a blind but we had some trouble trying to make quick shots while walking or driving. Yesterday was the last day she was going to be able to hunt this season so we had to go out no matter what. We woke early and left the house during a snow storm. The temp was -25° with the wind chill and the highway was a mess. I almost turned around a couple of time but we carefully made our way to our spot. Getting out of the comfort of the truck proved to be a bit of a challenge so we opened up some hot hands and dropped them into her boots and gloves. It was cold, dark and snowing but the wind was blowing perfectly. We hiked through the timber to the pop up blind and crawled into the sleeping bags. I partially opened the window and we waited for shooting light. Shortly after first light I spotting a buck carefully working through the timber, he was only around 60 yards and was acting nervous. He stopped at 45 yards with his head behind a tree and I raised the rifle to the poplar shooting sticks. The sound of my jacket brushing against the sleeping bag made the buck turn and stare. A couple of minutes later he dropped his head and my daughter moved into position. Once again he heard the brushing noise of the sleeping bags and stared straight at us. Natalie stayed perfectly still until he turned broadside and started walking away......shoot I whispered.....I cant find the trigger she whispered back...she was wearing a thin glove on her trigger hand but was not use to it...the buck took another step and was almost out of sight, all I could see was his shoulder.......she fired and the buck hunched up and bolted. I don't think I've never been that excited or proud while hunting and I have never seen her that excited or nervous. I told her that I was sure he was hit hard and that really got us going, we tried to stay quiet but that wasn't possible. I explained that it wasn't over yet and we still needed to find him. It was snowing hard so we couldn't wait long to start tracking, we gave him 10 minutes and left the blind. I took the rifle and we quietly walked to where he had been standing, one look in the direction he had run and I could clearly see his left antler sticking up out of the snow 10 yards away, I see 5 up I said. Big high fives and maybe some watery eyes. It was so cool to watch her experience walking up to her first deer....lots of difference emotions, I think she learned the value of suffering. I am so proud of her for sticking to it. We took some pictures and I suggested we quarter him to get him back to the truck but she begged me to bring him home in one piece so she could show her friends. We grunted for an hour and a half to pull him to the truck in a little skimmer. I pulled and she wrestled his head and legs out of the trees whenever they got tangled...which was a lot. Once at the truck a nice guy was driving by and stopped to check out the buck, he congratulated Natalie and helped us load him into the truck. That was so awesome of that guy to stop and help us like that and we discussed helping others and how cool it is to be part of the hunting community. Many neighborhood kids stopped by to check out her buck and one even carried his own rack down the street to compare. Pretty cool! Some kids were a bit nervous about it at first but hung around for at least an hour checking him out. Her uncles and cousins also stopped by to congratulate her as we have done with their successes. The kids skinned the deer with minor help from adults when they hit a tough spot. One of the greatest days hunting in my life. Thanks for reading. Ryan
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