maverick2
FNG
My daughter (now 13) has hunted nearly step-for-step with me for each of the last 5 deer seasons, carrying her own rifle beginning last season. We don't really start most years until early Nov, so she's endured some pretty ugly N. Idaho weather and hiking conditions w/o complaint. The payoff came this season on the morning after Thanksgiving. We found a deer in the dark standing in the timber next to the river, but could only really see him when he moved in and out of spots that had river ice as a backdrop. We watched the deer for 30+ minutes waiting for it to get light enough to see if it had antlers, noticing that it was getting more antsy with each minute of increasing light. Had a pretty good idea that is was a buck, but the way he was acting we expected him to drift back into the timber and brush before we had sufficient light. We got one decent look at him to confirm he was a buck when he moved across a 10-ft wide opening as he headed out for a brushy patch, and both of us thought he was probably gone. 20 seconds later a doe materialized in the open just below us, and the buck came dancing out of the brush and trees to introduce himself. He was showing all his best moves to impress the doe, but also making it tough to take a decent shot. The two moved back into the trees, and then he hesitated a moment broadside between two pines leaving a gap about 2 ft wide that exposed his shoulder and chest, and my daughter dropped him in his tracks from 125 yds. Was pretty cool to watch the whole thing unfold over the course of 45 minutes. When the deer was down I asked her what she thought -- I got a high 5 in return and she said her heart was beating so loud she was afraid the deer would hear her. Pretty cool morning and a very excited daughter.
