Big Doe Down!!!!

KDM

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Well, my little girl and I headed out to Northern MN for her youth hunt and it was a rousing success. On the way up, she said she was going to wait for a buck and I said it was completely up to her as it was her tag and her hunt. The first evening hunt we saw some turkeys, grouse, a few squirrels, and a nice doe and a fawn. The doe ended up standing broadside at about 60 yards for a perfect shot, but......NO GO!! She said she was going to wait, so wait we did. The next morning we saw some more turkeys, grouse, squirrels, and another doe and fawn. The fawn offered a beautiful quartering away shot for about a half hour and the doe provided a good broadside at about 75 yards for about a minute......again.......NO GO!! I was kind of proud of my little huntress for holding out for a buck, however, at the end of the morning hunt, she said, I think I might want to take a big doe if she doesn't have a fawn with her. I said, "Whatever you want to do dead eye!!" We switched stands for the evening hunt which overlooked about 50 acres of unharvested soybeans. Boy did we have deer come out. A full hour before sunset we had a doe and fawn show up at 135 yards. WELL within my girls effective range. She said, I don't want that one, she has a baby. Your call I said. So we watched them. During the next hour or so we watched 23 more does and fawns emerge from the woodlines along with ONE buck. A puny 3X3 that was visibly smaller than about half the does out in the field and he was at 225. That's a bit far for my daughter at this point, but give her another year and I expect that to be a chip shot for her as well. I watched all the deer hoping another buck would show up when we heard the tell tale sound of a deer walking in the dry leaves and beans. She said "Dad.....Big Doe (in a soft whisper)." I said good honey, just enjoy watching her. I continued to scan for a buck when she said, "Dad, give me my rifle." in a HEY STUPID GET WITH THE PROGRAM AND GIVE ME MY BLANKIN" GUN YOU MORON tone of whisper. It was then that I noticed her outstretched arm and open hand towards her rifle. I handed her the rifle and proceeded to pull my head from a place it shouldn't have been and got with the program. I asked her where the deer was and she said "Right in front of the blind" which was behind her head and I couldn't see it. SO......we turned the chair around and got her in position, which wasn't the most graceful of processes, but we got the gun faced in the right direction. She shouldered the rifle and I leaned over to watch the deer. I heard the tiny "Click" of the safety and I waited for the "Outdoor Channel" moment. POW!!! The doe jumped about 3 feet in the air and I said to myself, "There's a good hit". When she came down, her front legs gave out and she hit the dirt at which point I said to myself, "Definitely a good hit!!!" The doe recovered and started to dash away. All the while loosing altitude and getting closer to the ground with every step. She made it around some slough grass and I watched her pile up head over tea kettle just on the other side. My girl looked at me and I said "She just piled up right over there". She said "Oh My Gosh, I can't stop shaking" I gave her a huge hug and told her that was exactly how she was supposed to feel and that I was very proud of how she kept it together until AFTER the shot. After letting her bask in the moment for awhile, we gathered are things and made the "Hunters March" to where her trophy lay. Turns out her 55 gn spitzer took out the onside shoulder, a nice chunk right out of the heart, and is stuck somewhere in the offside shoulder. A shot which I plan on bragging about for at least the next month or so. (Grin) She named her Julie, so we will have packages of "Julie" in our freezer for the next 9 months or so. This makes it two years in a row my little girl has provided some excellent venison for us. I like where this is going!! We don't have any pics at the kill site, but the smile says it all to me. I'd like to send a special "Thank You!!" to the landowner that let us hunt his property and for the NDA member that took time out of his VERY BUSY fall hunting schedule to participate in and make this memory possible.

THANKS PARD!!!

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JMF

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Well done sir! Congrats to your daughter. Oh and I love the hat.
 


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