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82nd airborne
11-06-2010, 04:28 PM
Hi Fellows,
One of my best friends has a 10year old daughter that has been dying to go deer hunting with her daddy. The only problem with this is that none of his guns were anywhere near short or light enough for her to handle, as she is a small girl. I tried to remedy this by cutting the stock short on a .300 savage for her to use. Still too long and heavy. Scope alignment was also a problem with the stock length. All kids have a hard time getting their eye the right distance from the lens to see through it propperly.
After some thought, I considered using my 10mm Ar-15 with an Aimpoint comp2. The collapsable stock ran all the way down fit her perfectly, while the aimpoint's infinite eye relief proved easy for her to obtain a good sight picture in a timely manner. Its light weight also allowed her to hold the gun without becoming fatigued easily. We quickly saw that, while not traditional, the little AR was the perfect gun for such a small young lady.
With 14 grains of 2400 under a 180gr TC composed of aircooled weel weights from the local tire shop, owned by a friend of ours, the recoil was very very light. In fact it was only a fraction of the felt recoil compared to the 5.56 in a similar weight AR. She was able to fire the gun comfortably, without fearing recoil or muzzle blast.
After sitting in the blind for almost 4 hours, which is very impressive for such a young child, especially in 28 degree weather, two button bucks and thier equal sized mother stepped into the clearing about 30 yards away. She patiently waited as one of the button bucks meandered its way towards the blind. The deer stopped about 20 yards from the blind, quartering to. The young lady placed the red dot of the Aimpont on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The 180gr of wheel weights zipped out of the blind at 1300 fps, striking the deer high on the on-side shoulder, and exited behind the off side shoulder, leaving about a 5 or 6 inch exit wound. The buck dropped in his tracks.
I had no idea a measly 10mm would perform so well, even out of a 16" barrel. She and her father were happier than I have ever seen either. It is still undecided as to which is more elated. Even I was beside myself, and I didnt get to see it first hand. As I type this, two tender loins and a loin are marinating for tonights feast. She is also about to get her first taste of deer heart, which I eat from every deer harvested, for a couple reasons.
She enjoyed it so much that I gave her a hunting knife of her very own and promised to build her a pink M4-style AR in .300 Blackout with her name engraved in the upper. Now shes really excited. She is going again on Sunday after church.
She even helped skin it.
Enjoy the pictures gentlemen, sorry for the length of the write up, I just got a little carried away.
Regards,
Aaron

The other two kiddies are my future hunters. They already go, just not carrying their own firearms. It is ussually only for half an hour or so. But man they love reloading!

Triggerhappy
11-06-2010, 04:43 PM
Wow, that's cool. Kids have to be 12 here to legally shoot big game. Small stuff and birds are legal at 10 after a hunter safety class. Congrats!

Shiloh
11-06-2010, 05:01 PM
Wonderful story. One none of you will forget. Thanks for the pics. The photos MADE the story.

Shiloh

82nd airborne
11-06-2010, 06:04 PM
Thankyou guys, It ran a little longer than I had planned, but I plan on remembering it forever. I cant wait for my two little girls to start slaying some deer.

Springfield
11-06-2010, 06:45 PM
That's what I need, a 300 Blackout upper.

82nd airborne
11-06-2010, 07:04 PM
My blackout bbls are about 3 weeks away.

Blammer
11-06-2010, 07:09 PM
Outstanding! to get that close to a deer is pretty neat! Good shooting on her part and good planning on yours to get a good weapon in her hands to do the job.

home in oz
11-06-2010, 07:54 PM
A really neat story!

MT Gianni
11-06-2010, 08:31 PM
Nice going. No need to apologize for story length.

JJC
11-06-2010, 08:49 PM
Outstanding! Your story led me to put mine up about my son and me, thanks

Dannix
11-06-2010, 09:46 PM
Outstanding really is the word of choice here! I hope she runs for office -- not only is she a hunter, she's a hunter that apprecaites black, wood-less guns with proper mag capactiy aren't evil! It's great to see young kids agape-loved by family and friends, and see them excel. :)

DIRT Farmer
11-06-2010, 09:50 PM
Well written. Most of us read magazine articles much longer that have less info and to me this is much more interesting.Thanks for bringing back memories of days past when my kids were learning.

Doc Highwall
11-06-2010, 10:09 PM
That is what we need as gun owners, more women and girls knowing that guns are nothing to be afraid of but respected and have legitimate uses, and hunting is one of them.

82nd airborne
11-06-2010, 10:47 PM
Thankyou for the compliments gentlemen. While I'm bragging about the women I am blessed to have in my life, I will share this picture of my wonderful wife. It was taken while we were shooting my suppressed .50HP with HotGuns, a member here who built the can. It was a good day, friends, family, shooting, and a beautiful day!
My wife is taking that same girl hunting from my blind in a week when the regular gun season opens. I have pictures of several awsome bucks including one with two drop tines that shows up daily. As much as I want to kill that buck, I find myself secretly hoping she takes him, Just so I can see the grin on their faces!!! I'll post pics and story when it happens.
Aaron

Oh yea, my intentions were not to pat myself on the back, because I didn't really go out of my way, but rather to share her joy.

Old Goat Keeper
11-06-2010, 11:04 PM
Aaron THIS is what it's all about! You gave that young lady a once in a lifetime experience. I envy you that. And you have a lovely wife who hunts and shoots and 2 future hunters coming on too. Be proud of what you have done and will yet do, stand tall and enjoy the success!

Tom

RugerFan
11-06-2010, 11:05 PM
Excellent story and pics!

82nd airborne
11-06-2010, 11:19 PM
Aaron THIS is what it's all about! You gave that young lady a once in a lifetime experience. I envy you that. And you have a lovely wife who hunts and shoots and 2 future hunters coming on too. Be proud of what you have done and will yet do, stand tall and enjoy the success!

Tom

Tom,
There are plenty of young kids around here that could use mentoring. I find the best way is to introduce them to hunting, church, and home cooked meals that are eaten at a dinner table with no television. It is something that I get an immense amount of joy from. You are welcome to come down anytime and share the experiece! I wish I could make it a full time job...

Im not sharing my wife though.

JJC
11-06-2010, 11:55 PM
With parents approval any kid I have taken to the range has had a good time. I remember the first time my step daughter shot my AR 15 and my friends AK. I told her to make sure when you go to school to tell everyone what you shot this weekend. She did and other kids thought it was cool.

EMC45
11-07-2010, 06:48 AM
Aaron, great posts that were well written Sir! Go ahead and brag a little...You've done a good thing!

TCLouis
11-07-2010, 11:22 AM
The young Lady for her fine performance and harvest, and to you for your support of the project.

The story was far from too long, it documented the whole story and that is what we want to read.


Thank you again for creating another hunter/shooter.

dk17hmr
11-07-2010, 02:35 PM
I am a big fan of AR for hunting rifles. If we ever have kids you can bet they will be shooting black rifles. Either in 300 whisper, 6.8 SPC, or 6x45.

I havent read much about the blackout cartridge, but if if performs anything like my 300 whisper using 125gr ballistic tips it will be a medium game slayer. I know the 2 antelope my brother and I shot with the whisper went down hard and fast.

Nice work getting the young lady into hunting. Why not a 10mm Mag though?

82nd airborne
11-07-2010, 03:36 PM
300 BLK will work just like the whisper, because it is. The only difference is that they adjusted a few dimensions to work better with the thicker .223 brass.

We are still developing heavily on the 10mag, and I knew the 10auto would do the job fine so I figured there was no need to give her any extra recoil.

I do plan on filling one of my tags with the 10m3. Ill let you know how that goes. I ussually only bowhunt, but now that I make guns for a living, and have come up with new stuff, I plan on filling all four tags with different cast boolit slinging prototypes. One would be the BLK, one will get smacked down with the 10m3, one with the .358x39 (Still havent got a solid conscensus on a cast boolit exclusive name for it) and one with the .50 HP in an AR.

I may replace one of these with the LRASS in .300wm depending on how it comes along.

82nd airborne
11-07-2010, 05:47 PM
The young lady has decided that she wants me to show her how to cast and reload, so she can kill a deer with her own product. Of course I talked her into it, but she is excited, especially after my wife, who is quite close to her, told her how satisfying it is to harvest supper with a round you load yourself. It looks like her dad may take a back seat on the best friend bus, I might just have to make her my new best friend!

David (the other owner of DCA) is planning on taking a whitetail with the razorback with a 300gr bullet, which will be traveling at 3300fps. This should make some very nice pictures for you guys. I will attemp to video the hunt (kill).

Moonie
11-08-2010, 02:17 PM
I will be going hunting for the first time in 15+ years this season. I used to hunt alot in my 20's but got out of it for some reason that escapes me now.

My sons want me to go hunting with them, they have been hunting for a few years but never with me.

None of them have ever gotten a deer, but perhaps this year will be different for them.

I'm looking forward to the experience with my sons.

Next year will be the 12 year old daughters turn to go for the first time.

82nd airborne
11-08-2010, 03:12 PM
I'm 100% sure you will enjoy it, and I'm sure that 6.8 will fulfill your expectations. I wish we could have had the CastBoolit uppers ready soon enough for ya, but you cant wait forever. I have a feeling that the one youve got will kill a deer just as good.

I dont think I have ever found advice about AR's that youve posted that I disagree with. Keep it up, and good luck on the hunt!