Jeffery8mm
11-25-2009, 11:33 PM
Well, fellows. All the reading, reloading, buying, selling, trading, etc came to fruition for me in my proudest moment Monday evening. It all paid off when at 4:25pm, my 8 year old daughter harvested her first deer!!! What a moment.
She has hunted with me since she was 4. We have several elevated blinds [shoot houses here in Ms!] that are very comfortable for an adult and youngster to hunt in. These overlook green fields. She has been with me on several occasion when I harvested a deer. She expressed that she was ready to shoot one on her on. We started working with a 44 mag Handi for her. I never could get it to shoot where I was comfortable with the grouping. She has been shooting a .22 since she was 6, so she has a good understanding of the fundamentals of shooting. We abandoned the 44 and went with "her" Howa .308 bolt gun. I loaded her up a load of 8gr Unique and a Lee 150g FP GC boolit lubed with lla, This was to be her practice round. For the "serious business" we loaded up same boolit with 12GR Unique. I say 'we' loaded because she helps with several of the reloading task. The ones that are safe for her such as belling. She has a good grasp of the whole reloading process!!
On to the hunt..........
We got in the stand at 3:45. We had our usual crackers and coke refreshments after the "long" walk. We had 15 turkeys in the field at 4.15. At 4.20, out walk 2 deer. She moves from her chair to my lap so she can be high up enough to get her Howa out the window. She picks the one that is broadside at 60yds. We had agreed on 50 yds as max, but we decided this 60 yd shot was ok! I told her to calm down and BREATHE! I told her to stop shaking also, she then informed me that SHE was NOT shaking that it was me that was shaking!!! She lined up on the deer, eased the safety off and squeezed off the shot. I was prepared for the deer to run, so I had marked the spot well in my mind. The deer DROPPED!!! Dead right there!! Then I breathed!!! She looked at me and said, lets go see my deer. Go see we did!! We called Mom from the field and we all celebrated the moment together, so to speak.
I will let the pictures tell the rest!!
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer038.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer044.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer045.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer062.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer074.jpg
She has hunted with me since she was 4. We have several elevated blinds [shoot houses here in Ms!] that are very comfortable for an adult and youngster to hunt in. These overlook green fields. She has been with me on several occasion when I harvested a deer. She expressed that she was ready to shoot one on her on. We started working with a 44 mag Handi for her. I never could get it to shoot where I was comfortable with the grouping. She has been shooting a .22 since she was 6, so she has a good understanding of the fundamentals of shooting. We abandoned the 44 and went with "her" Howa .308 bolt gun. I loaded her up a load of 8gr Unique and a Lee 150g FP GC boolit lubed with lla, This was to be her practice round. For the "serious business" we loaded up same boolit with 12GR Unique. I say 'we' loaded because she helps with several of the reloading task. The ones that are safe for her such as belling. She has a good grasp of the whole reloading process!!
On to the hunt..........
We got in the stand at 3:45. We had our usual crackers and coke refreshments after the "long" walk. We had 15 turkeys in the field at 4.15. At 4.20, out walk 2 deer. She moves from her chair to my lap so she can be high up enough to get her Howa out the window. She picks the one that is broadside at 60yds. We had agreed on 50 yds as max, but we decided this 60 yd shot was ok! I told her to calm down and BREATHE! I told her to stop shaking also, she then informed me that SHE was NOT shaking that it was me that was shaking!!! She lined up on the deer, eased the safety off and squeezed off the shot. I was prepared for the deer to run, so I had marked the spot well in my mind. The deer DROPPED!!! Dead right there!! Then I breathed!!! She looked at me and said, lets go see my deer. Go see we did!! We called Mom from the field and we all celebrated the moment together, so to speak.
I will let the pictures tell the rest!!
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer038.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer044.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer045.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer062.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/Jeffery8mm/Audrey/AudreysDeer074.jpg