A successful hunt on my daughter's first time in the stand

[Powerstroke]

I have had many successful and satisfying hunts, but none measure up to this years. I have two beautiful daughters and both share my love of the outdoors with different interests. My older daughter is 11 and loves her bow. She has sat with me several times and hopes for the day she can arrow a deer, however she has little interest for anything involving a gun.

My 9yr old has the instinct of a hunter and cannot get enough. She will shoot at anything I let her. She has been patiently waiting her turn to go with dad and with gun season I found a time when she would not have to compete with her older sister. I had Veteran's Day off of work and my girls had the day off school. I asked my daughter Mady if she would like to hunt with me and she squealed with excitement. I had left the camper at our friend's land the previous weekend and I planned for us to get up there thursday night to try and minimize the loss of sleep. Mom helped us pack for a sleepover and long day in the woods. She had all of the warm clothes needed, more snacks than I brought for the opener and a couple of activities to keep her busy.

We arrived thursday night at 8pm after having to turn around and meet mom halfway back to retrieve the snow pants that I left at home. That would have been a disaster since it was around 30 degrees in the morning. We settled in with sleeping bags and a bedtime snack. After a cup of hot cocoa and me setting the alarms, we had a dance party in the camper before going to bed. The things that dad's with daughters do are different.

In the morning the alarms went off at 5am. Mady bounced up and was bugging me to get up. This is not what I expected. She retrieved the mini-muffins she brought for breakfast and I made my oatmeal. I enjoyed coffee after I made her a cup of cocoa. Mady changed and started to bundle up for a day in the stand. We headed out at 5:45 so that we could reach the double ladder stand in the woods by 6am.

I mean it when I say that Mady has an instinct for hunting. She was hearing the different animals in the darkness and commenting on the different observations. I had shown her my different calls and she was already planning out the calling sequence. Her favorite by far was the rattle bag. The first couple hours were uneventful, but she had her Nintendo DS and I let her play it once it was light enough that it wouldn't spook the animals. She started to get antsy and ended up dropping just about everything she had that wasn't attached, including mittens, heat packs and her DS.

Around 830 I was texting a friend who was hunting a couple hours away when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I noticed a deer walking about 150yds away. By the time I could point it out to Mady, I noticed there were two deer, both does. We had seen these two does travelling together the entire summer and fall on camera. I told her to be quiet as we watched them work towards us. As they fed there way around a swamp edge towards us the deer had to choose a path. One led behind us and the other went in front of us. The deer chose the path that led in front of us. I knelt in the stand to use the rail as a rest as the deer passed behind a large deadfall. I told Mady she could plug her ears, but she had to move slowly and quietly. At 50yds I tried to stop the first deer for a shot, but she continued walking. I moved the scope to the next shooting window and waited for her to enter. I grunted again and she didn't stop, so I picked the spot and fired when her leg moved forward.

She jumped and ran using only three legs. As a aimed for a follow-up shot I saw blood already pumping from the chest. The second deer had panicked and I thought she ran the opposite direction. After a minute or two of celebrating in the stand, the second doe came out in the exact same spot as the first. As I positioned for a shot on her, she turned directly away and proceeded to walk away offering no shot.

We waited a few minutes, but Mady really wanted to get down. I explained we needed to give the deer some time to die, but I told her we could go to the spot where I shot her since I knew there would be blood. As soon as we found the blood trail, I could see the deer piled up just 50yds away. With that bit of knowledge I asked Mady if she wanted to trail the deer and I could video tape her with my phone. She agreed and we started the tracking. It was amazing to see her follow the blood trail and find the deer. The first thing she wanted to do was to call mom. She was so excited!! After that she wanted to call my friend Dan who's land we were hunting on. He was also super excited. This is one of the main reasons he bought this land. It is close to the cities and will provide lots of opportunities for his children and mine to learn the outdoors sports. Then I got some pictures!!

After heading back to the camper to get my gutting gear and the truck we celebrated the kill with a Kitkat!

She watched me clean the deer and asked many great questions. She also took a picture of me with my deer.

After loading up the deer and doing some other chores we hooked up the camper and headed home. We talked about staying all day to try and get another one, but she was too excited and wanted to show mom and her big sister. There we were about to get a proper picture together, albeit in the front yard.

[Andrew Erickson]

awesome! nice deer and great story

[Boar]

awsome great job!

[paceman]

Great story. Congratulations!

[DinnerPail]

Great story, nothing better than seing parents spending time with their kids. She'll tell that story for a long time and you will never forget it.

[DonBo]

Good job Andy! She looks really excited. Won't be long before we see pics of her and her own deer.

[Powerstroke]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm trying to get the video up of her following the blood trail. Its 5mins long so I'm trying to edit it down some. With no disrespect to my older daughter, I think Mady will get the first deer of my daughters. She just has the hunter instinct and a hunter spirit.

[fishtrapgirl]

I love this story and the pics! I just became a mom 8 weeks ago to a beautiful little girl, named Maddie, and we just cannot wait until the day she is old enough to go hunting and fishing with us. We've already had her out in the woods with us checking stands and cameras. I read her Bambi somedays, other days we read Bowhunter Magazine. Thanks for sharing, I wish you many, many wonderful hunts together over the years.