I forgot to post this.
In mid-November, my daughter Aubrey asked if I would take her deer hunting, and I said absolutely. Here’s the backstory: She had never really shot a rifle in her life. I had tried to introduce her to shooting when she was younger, but she had no interest in hunting or shooting, and she had not taken a hunter safety class. Her life revolved around basketball.
Luckily, in Idaho, we have the hunting passport program, which allows her to get a tag once and hunt with an adult who has completed a hunter safety class. Next, we headed to the shooting range. She was initially worried about the recoil, but after firing a few shots with the .223, she was all smiles. After about a hundred rounds, we were both confident that she was ready.
Two days later, we woke up early to look for deer. I spotted a buck that was a bit too far away, so we jumped over a ridge to get to 297 yards. I had her dry fire a couple of times at the buck. Aubrey felt ready, loaded a round, and shot the deer behind the shoulder. It spun around and lay down. I instructed her to shoot again, and this time she hit it mid-body, and the deer was dead.
There’s almost no way she would have gained this confidence so quickly without that little piss ant .223 rifle. She has now completed her hunter safety class and has told me we are going elk hunting this year!
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