Proud Dad Moment - Daughters first big game animal

[IdahoElk]

Way to go!

 

[Carlisle]

Good job dad!


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[Steve O]

Good job dad.

And daughter

 

[Chad E]

That's awesome. Congrats to you and your daughter.

 

[shedhead]

Congratulations. Kids can tuff. That’s awesome


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[Jmort1754]

This is absolutely outstanding. Congrats Maddy and dad.

 

[butcherboy]

That’s great! Congrats! My son had his first big game hunt last year on a youth muzzie antelope hunt. We didn’t get one but had a blast. He went with me for 4 days on my 10 day archery elk hunt this year and was a trooper. He has his second hunt coming up the day after Christmas for a cow elk.

 

[robby denning]

4 dreadful days of work later, I took off early on Friday evening and headed back to the spot we have been hunting. I started glassing around 4:30 and quickly started turning up deer everywhere except there were no shooter bucks. The weekend before the does were on pins and needles and if you drove within 1/2 mile of them they were on the move. They were very gentle in comparison 4 days later. We spent the night looking over deer and working our way out the bottom of the canyon. Madelynn started spotting deer before me which she was very proud of. We made it out and I reached out to another tag holder to see what he had been seeing. He sent me a picture of a 3.5 year old buck and said there was a canyon where he had been seeing lots of deer. Madelynn was more concerned with filling her tag at this point than killing a mature deer. Which I am more than fine with, its all about her and having a good experience.

We awoke the next morning and started the 2.5 hour drive to the new area. We stopped at the bottom and waited for light and then began our drive in. I spotted a little buck and doe right off the bat 25 yards off the side of the road, I asked her what she wanted and she said not him, at least until tomorrow as Sunday was our last day to hunt. We continued on glassing and driving checking out new areas. I drove to a point, got set up, and quickly turned up a nice 3x4 and we took off after him. We drove to where we were going to start our stalk, got out and he stepped out 300 yards above us skylined. I tried to get her set up in time, but he wandered off. We did a 3 mile loop, seeing lots of does but not him and went back to the truck. I saw another draw we wanted to glass down the road and headed there. There was a truck stopped on the side of the road glassing and I stopped to say hi. They were tag holders as well and we chit chatted for a minute, I told them it was my daughters tag and they asked how big of deer we were looking for, she said just not a dink. They were watching a group of bucks about 350 yards out and said there's a decent on in there that they'd be happy to let Maddy shoot. I got her our and set up (frantically) and we started picking apart the deer herd and located a nice 3x3 that was one of the bigger ones out of the group. There was an absolute rut fest going on there, with does going everywhere, bucks fighting and lip curling, and mayhem. I got maddies rifle dialed, her benched up and set up and hovered over her asking if she had him. He stepped out, I baa'd at him, he stopped and Maddie sent one right over his back. Instead of freaking out, she rolled the bolt and stayed on the rifle. The buck bolted about 50 yards, we balled again and he stopped. I heard the report from maddies rifle and the buck dropped like a sack of stuff.

I've been a part of a dozen animals getting whacked this year and more than I can count, typically its just business as usual but I turned into a complete poop show with this one. I started crying, picked my daughter up into the air, gave her a big hug. I asked Jon if he'd give us a hand dragging the buck to the road. He obliged, his daughter and son in law came up as well. I overshot the landing by a couple hundred yards luckily they walked us back to her dead buck.

Our new friends..

I am so proud of her, she wasn't sure if she wanted to even go this year and gets timid around new things. She over came all of her fears, hiked a lot of big country, and perservered. It was never a question for her if we were going to make it happen.

She also got to learn the value of being outgoing and nice to others you meet in the woods. I have helped many new hunters over the years, but this one will be darned near impossible to top.

Sorry Its so long winded.

Thank you to Kyle, Jason, John, Brian, and Vicky for your help during the hunt and thanks to everyone who gave us pins to start scouting from etc.

This is great. Good job “Dad” and congrats to the little lady.