I've already posted about our Missouri youth hunt on the Missouri forum but figured I put it on here as well. Th Missouri youth season was this past weekend and on top of having my 7 yr old daughter who wanted to go, we just recently got our niece and nephew living with us semi-permanently and they wanted to go as well. We got the hunter ed certified and I got all 3 of them shooting well. My daughter's accuracy is limited to below 50 yd shots but the 2 older kids are crack shots out to 100yds. I guided my daughter, our oldest boy guided our niece, and a friend guided our nephew. Saturday evening, our nephew shot a young doe. It was a long shot but he took her down.
Sunday evening, I had to guide both my daughter and our niece so we set up in a Yukon ground blind next to a couple of large trees in a winter wheat field. I told them that to be fair, if one of them shot a deer, we would have to wait till dark before retrieving it to give the other hunter a chance at a shot. Well, about 30min before dark, our niece made about a 120yd shot right through the lungs on a 5pt buck. He ran accross the field and piled up in sight. She kept an eye on him with her scope and soon after, a small doe started her way through the field looking like she might give my daughter a shot. She was set and ready and waiting for the deer to come in when suddenly we heard brush crashing adn snorting from behind us. 2 bucks came up out of the river bottom and were standing at about 30yds directly behind her. I waited till both were eating or looking away and carefully got her turned around and positioned to make the shot on one of them. By this time, shooting light is almost gone. She took a shot and both bucks bonded back into the brush from where they came. Long story short, we searched long and hard the next day for her deer but no blood or deer was ever found so we think she missed clean but I am extremely proud of her for being able to get turned around and make that shot without spooking those bucks. So, 2 out of 3 kids got their first deer and our daughter took her first shot at a deer. I'm gonna take her out some more during the regular season if she wants to go and see if she can connect on one this year too. I'll post some pics in a few days.
