Came back from mission with only one evening and the last day to take my daughter out for her first ND youth hunt. The first evening she got a shot, but didn't connect. She was pretty bummed out about the miss, but I told her everybody misses and it was just her turn. No excuses, just chalk it up to experience and lets move on. I couldn't take her out this morning, but tonight, the last night, we could make it work. We couldn't go to the same spot as before, so I called a great buddy and asked him if he had any ideas on where we could have a chance at a doe. He mentioned a spot and we were a go. We didn't have a stand to sit in so this was going to be a "Pick a spot and sit" kind of deal. We ended up on a fence line overlooking an oak flat below us and an alfalfa field on top. Not a bad place to be really. We sat for about an hour when we heard a rifle shot about 200 yards to our north, followed by 3 more at a couple of minute intervals. Our hearts sank. I could hear voices and had a thought that we were SOL for tonight with all that commotion. I gave my girl a couple minutes of encouraging talk saying there were lots of deer around and that when these guys leave things will calm down and we might get out chance. Well, about 30 minutes later, a fawn just popped out from behind a large oak tree about 15 yards away from us. I grabbed my daughters jacket as she was looking down fiddling with a stick or something and hissed "Deer......don't move." She looked up and was face to face with a deer at about 5 feet. There was another deer following behind and I realized that both of these were fawns and was looking for the doe. The doe was about 40 yards behind and pegged us as something not right. She peeled off and ended up about 65 yards to our front. Which would have been a GREAT shot, but we had two deer within 20 feet of us and were pinned down. The standoff lasted about a minute with the doe flagging a bit and heading off to our north and taking one of the fawns with her. The other headed out into the alfalfa and I lost sight of her. When the deer had left I asked my daughter "How was that?" She had the shakes and said it was "Awesome!" She had never been that close to a deer before and she loved it. After she calmed down a bit and lost the shakes I mentioned to her that the other fawn was still in the field. We peeked over the grass and the deer was about 50 yards from us and completely clueless. I told my girl that we might not get another chance, but the decision was hers if she wanted to take the shot. She nodded that she wanted to try. She eased the rifle through the fence and settled on the deer. I was watching through the binocs and the deer was quartering toward us a bit and was waiting for the shot. The deer turned her head away from us and opened up her chest just enough and I though to myself "There's your shot baby doll." The rifle cracked and I saw the deer jump and race towards the trees. I could tell right away she'd made a good hit, but just let her enjoy the moment. The shakes again set in and I gave her a big hug. I told her she'd made a great shot and that we'd find her deer. Well I hate to admit it, but I'm getting old and I can't see blood in the fading light like I used to. I found the first drops of blood and after that it was ALL HER!!! She started finding all the blood and I ended up in a supporting roll carrying the equipment. My daughter did all the tracking and was the first one to see her deer. I was extremely proud of her when she exclaimed "There she is!!" We took a few pics and then I got to watch my daughter gut her deer. That in and of itself was WAY COOL!!! Turns out her shot was spot on and she put a hole right through the heart and the deer only went 60 yards. So my little girl has just completed her first "Start to Finish" deer hunt. One for the memory books and there's smiles all around in the house of KDM. On to the pics which are much better than my rantings......
