Any of you who've been following my posts here the last year and a half know that my daughter Crystal (now 14) went deer hunting for the first time last year and got skunked. She didn't see any bucks, and she got somewhat discouraged and thought she was bad luck. It took her a while this year to decide she wanted to go, but yesterday morning finally found us back in the blind together.
Crystal has been very apprehensive about the sound of gunfire, and this made her not like shooting in the off season. I had her practice dry fire to get used to the feel and not worry about the sound. She hadn't done much practicing this year, but still decided to try hunting. We scouted the three blinds available and she liked the blind centered on a fenceline with brush behind and a field in front. It was about 150 yards to each corner of the field. An overgrown pecan orchard bordered the field to the east, and a creek bottom bordered the field to the west. She liked the open shots along both fencelines and in the open field.
There was a full moon still in the western sky in the predawn Sunday morning , and as we hiked in, we saw a deer close to the blind in the field. It was too dark to tell what it was, so we had to let it bound away into the brush. It was still and frosty, temperature around 30 degrees, and no breeze at all. We settled in and waited for daylight. Birds were going nuts foraging in the field as the sun slowly rose and the moon set behind the trees in the creek bottom. I said something about it being neat to watch the cardinals playing around us, and Crystal said, "I'm not watching the cardinals, Dad, I'm watching for a deer!" Okay, so she was serious.
She stayed patient and kept watching her side, which was to the west. I was scouring the middle of the field and to the east. We both figured the deer would most likely come from her direction, which is why she sat on the west side of the blind. About 7:30 I noticed movement along the fenceline to the east, about halfway between us and the orchard. It was a deer. Some limbs sticking through the fence kept me from seeing the head, and at first I thought it was a doe. I told Crystal to get ready, we had deer my way. Then we noticed antlers, and we could tell it was a yearling eight pointer, grazing along toward us.
At first she slid onto my knee and got the gun out the blind window, but that was too high and she couldn't get comfortable. Then I had her try going to her knees in front of me, but that was too low. The only thing to do was for me to move into her chair and let her take mine. The buck was now within 50 yards, and we had to move very quietly and carefully. Crystal did a superb job of that, better than I did, in fact. As I was standing up and trying to slide over into her chair, she told me to "freeze", which we had practiced every time deer raised their heads from feeding. I froze, then she told me "okay" when the buck put his head back down, and I completed the chair swap.
Once she got comfortable in my chair I asked her if she wanted to shoot the buck. She responded with a definite, "Yes!" The buck was now only forty yards away, but was facing us. I told her to keep holding on him, and when he turned broadside, settle the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeeze. He turned broadside a few seconds later, and her sporterized Swedish mauser barked in only a couple of seconds. The buck reared and dashed for the fence, then turned and made for the open field, stumbling more and losing steam with each leap. He only made it about 40 yards before piling up.
We waited about five minutes, organizing our gear and doing a couple of high fives. Crystal was grinning ear to ear. She could hardly wait to go confirm that he was really dead. When we walked out to him, he was stone dead, shot through the heart and lungs right behind the shoulder just like we had practiced. She couldn't have placed the shot any better.
She was thrilled, and of course, so am I. She proudly showed off her first buck to her mom and sisters, my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and anybody else who was around to hear about it. I had to saw off the antlers so she could keep them as a trophy. She has completed that first rite of passage I have been eagerly awaiting now for three years, since she first went out to sit with me in the deer blind. I wasn't sure she would ever get there, or that she even wanted to at times, but there is no doubt she is proud and excited about her achievement. There is no feeling like it, and no real words to describe either her joy or my contentment. I just want to savor this as long as I can. :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:
