Saturday evening we ran over to a stand by area, that's covered with acorn heavy oak brush. We heard some movement around us but nothing came into our shooting lanes. With about an hour left we moved over to a large opening to maximize our chances. As soon as we get to our new spot a spike appears. He is inquisitive, as young deer can be, and decides to investigate us.
I ask my daughter if this is the one and she says no I want a little bigger. I say okay, we watch the deer for a while and move up on him for practice. On several different occasions we are presented with a broadside target at less than 100 yards. Each time I ask are you sure you don't want to harvest this deer. Each time she says no. She was so secure in her decision the Thompson Impact doesn't get unslung from her shoulder.
Like a bad burrito, this deer comes back one last time after being out of sight for 10 or so minutes. While the deer is parading in front of us I ask my daughter to unsling her muzzleloader and put the deer in her sights. She does so and watches him for a couple minutes. Then she looks up at me and says dad I want to shoot him.
At this point I am so excited. It is like it is my first deer. The deer again is under 100 yards and is slightly quartering away from us. In just a few moments the gun goes off, the deer drops hard, tries to stand, drops again and is dead. All this happened faster than it took to read about the shot. The shot is a little back and high, but how can you argue with the results. The shot ended up being 70 yards.
My daughters reaction after the shot was the greatest hunting moment I've had so far. She is a reserved ballerina. So for her to yell out "I got him" and do a fist pump actually startled me. I had secretly been preparing for tears and having to comfort her. More heart warming moments happen when her 10 year old brother sincerely congradulates her.
We take photos and send a text out to family and a close friend. Within moments we have one of her uncles and close friend offering assistance. Both of these guys are my hunting buddies and are just coming off the mountains themselves.
I start to cape and butcher using the gutless method. My kids are amazed at how the front shoulders are attched without bone. During the butchering my daughter asks when we are going to measure him. I kinda ignore them, so they take the tape out of my kill kit and do all sorts of measurements.
Prior to this deer I was coming off of a tremendous hunting high. I had drawn a tag for and harvested a huge mountain goat. This goat hunt is one that I had been dreaming of for ten years. In the end what I will remember about this season is the trophy my daughter is and the deer she harvested.
Come on muzzleloader elk season.
