Proud Dad here ! My 12-year-old daughter Morgan shot her first buck on Tuesday.
On my 2019 Utah archery deer hunt she was in the ground blind with me when I shot a buck. I told her it could be her when she turned 12 if she wanted to, and we started doing the work to get her ready. Hunter Safety class and target practice with the rifle. I chose the AR15 (California compliant fixed mag) because it has low recoil for her, and the collapsible stock could get down to her size. The red dot sight was also kid friendly. I special ordered copper ammo in .223 and waited forever to get it.
I bought a used two-person ladder stand on craigslist and set it up downwind of a trail with a 40 yard shot. Everything was ready but we only had doe and spikes on the trail cameras. I knew a buck would show up as soon as the rut started but there was not any sign of it yet. Opening day we hunted the morning and had a button buck come by and I had her practice aiming with the safety on so she could experience moving the rifle into position and moving slowly to not get busted. Saturday afternoon we hunted too and had the same button buck and then a solo doe. With the weather rolling in we spent the night and hunted Sunday morning too but got rained on. She sat there with me soaking wet and cold but didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to burn her out so we packed it up early and got dry and warm. Her school was canceled on Tuesday because of local brush fires so I took a half day off from work and we drove out to the stand. We had the same button buck walk by and then an hour later we saw two deer at the top of the trail and I turned on the video camera while she got ready. The buck was bumping her and she ran down the trail toward us. They both stopped at 40 yards and he started to pee on his back legs. She took aim and shot him right in the heart. Boom ! He jumped up and then stumbled down the trail directly toward the stand and fell over 12 inches from the bottom of our ladder. Amazing hunt ! She was so excited and proud. We called Mom and her uncles from the stand and lots of hugs and high fives ! I’ll try to get the video edited and up soon.
On my 2019 Utah archery deer hunt she was in the ground blind with me when I shot a buck. I told her it could be her when she turned 12 if she wanted to, and we started doing the work to get her ready. Hunter Safety class and target practice with the rifle. I chose the AR15 (California compliant fixed mag) because it has low recoil for her, and the collapsible stock could get down to her size. The red dot sight was also kid friendly. I special ordered copper ammo in .223 and waited forever to get it.
I bought a used two-person ladder stand on craigslist and set it up downwind of a trail with a 40 yard shot. Everything was ready but we only had doe and spikes on the trail cameras. I knew a buck would show up as soon as the rut started but there was not any sign of it yet. Opening day we hunted the morning and had a button buck come by and I had her practice aiming with the safety on so she could experience moving the rifle into position and moving slowly to not get busted. Saturday afternoon we hunted too and had the same button buck and then a solo doe. With the weather rolling in we spent the night and hunted Sunday morning too but got rained on. She sat there with me soaking wet and cold but didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to burn her out so we packed it up early and got dry and warm. Her school was canceled on Tuesday because of local brush fires so I took a half day off from work and we drove out to the stand. We had the same button buck walk by and then an hour later we saw two deer at the top of the trail and I turned on the video camera while she got ready. The buck was bumping her and she ran down the trail toward us. They both stopped at 40 yards and he started to pee on his back legs. She took aim and shot him right in the heart. Boom ! He jumped up and then stumbled down the trail directly toward the stand and fell over 12 inches from the bottom of our ladder. Amazing hunt ! She was so excited and proud. We called Mom and her uncles from the stand and lots of hugs and high fives ! I’ll try to get the video edited and up soon.
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