Well, she did it... I have to admit, I'm proud of her. I'm also a little amazed. To make a long story longer, we'll go back to the beginning. We have four kids. The older three (12, 12, and 10) are in 4-H. One of their activities is a shooting group. At the February meeting last winter, they found out about a hunter safety course that they could take in June. I forgot all about it, but they made sure that mom had it on her calendar. I work two jobs, so mom took the kids to the course. Amazingly enough, they all passed their test with flying colors. The oldest one then came home and said that she was now ready to go deer hunting with me. I told her that she wasn't quite ready, she would have to qualify first. I wouldn't take her until she could prove that she could at least get her shots on target. Next thing you know, she is bugging the guys at Bass Pro Shops to tell her what guns were good for deer hunting. I had been planning on buying the kids a single shot slug gun to share anyway so I was a little relieved when the salesman agreed with my suggestion to buy the H&R Ultra Slug Hunter in a 20 gauge youth model. My wife surprised me by stopping by a gun store one day and ordering not one, but two of the same gun. It seems like my daughter didn't want to share and decided to spend her own money to buy one for herself!!! Then, she bought a scope for it as well! Not bad for a 12 year old! Well, I put the scopes on both guns and got them sighted in. They both shoot nice little groups of an inch and a half or so at 50 yards off of the bench. Not too shabby for a cheap single shot. So now my kid decided that it was time to qualify. Only trouble was, she had only shot off of the bench with her slug gun. She had shot some with a .22 from field positions but wasn't really comfortable with it at all. She had to qualify from a position that was useable in the field. We cut some shooting sticks and tied them together with a big leather thong. She found an improvised sitting position and used the sticks to support the gun... I gave her four shells. Here in Maryland, you have to get three of four on a pie plate at 40 yards. I was standing behind her with every finger crossed that would cross. She loaded the first round and settled in, wiggling here and there for what seemed like forever. Finally, BOOM... about two inches from center at 2 o'clock. Same thing on second shot... interminable wiggling and fidgeting then BOOM! Same distance out at 3 o'clock. I thought the third shot would take forever! We waited, and waited then she got out of the gun and wiped the sweat from her eyes. Snuggling back into the 20 gauge, the gun roared almost immediately. A nice little hole appeared right next to the other two about an inch out at 2:30. I shuddered a visible sigh of relief as she stood up. The other older guys just kept going on about me having a "little firecracker" there! She was now ready to go hunting with me! She didn't act too excited, but did call everyone in the family when she got home. Then the kicker came... "Dad, can I qualify with your muzzleloader too?" Cool!!! I think she's hooked!!! To finish this story out; she qualified with both shotgun and muzzleloader and made friends with a couple of the older guys out there at the range. Every week they bring different guns for her to try. Every Tuesday we've been going to shoot some informal trap. If we get there early, we can shoot other guns too. So far, she has been shooting Colt .45's, Ruger Bisley .45's, a Ruger Mark II and a Single-Six. She really wants to shoot my Springfield .45 ACP more but has problems with the grip safety because her hand is so small. She is shooting trap with my 11-87 12 gauge and even breaking 4 or 5 per round (she broke 6 last night). I'll do my best to get her into some deer this season. I really want her to get a doe at least! My guess is that I've already got an addict on my hands and probably won't have to worry about her getting into too much trouble over the next few years, what do ya' think?
