I have been blessed with one incredible summer and fall of outdoor activities with my new fiancé and my two daughters. We have had some awesome fishing trips followed by a trip to WY and now we just finished up the Iowa Early muzzleloader season. In Iowa we have to choose which gun season we want to hunt each year. Last winter the girls got to freeze their tushes off in December. Carlee (16) shot her first doe then. This year they thought they would like to hunt a warmer season in October. We were fortunate to be able to see deer on every sit in our groundblinds and double wide ladder stands. Both girls held out for a buck for their first few sits. Last Wednesday Dawn (fiancé') and I snuck out after work for an evening sit. She had decided that it was time to shoot her first deer, even if it was a doe. So, the first mature deer to come by was going to be in trouble! She connected from 50 yards with my .50 cal Omega on this dandy doe. As you can imagine, she had a wide range of emotions, happy, excited, relieved, a little sad,... it all worked out fine though and I was glad we got to spend some time enjoying the woods together.
This weekend was Carlee's turn. She is 17 now and a Senior in HS. Hopefully she won't go too far next year to college so that we can continue these fun hunts together. She too held out for a buck for a while, several days actually. She had one chance at a nice 8 pt., but dumb dad told her not to take the 125 yard shot because I was sure he would come closer as he was working his way up a creek bottom... Well, he turned and walked away... it just wasn't meant to be. So, Sunday, the last day of the season, Carlee decides that she too will shoot the first mature deer that comes along. We sit for over an hour and half and see nothing,...slow morning. All of a sudden she spots a buck, I look over and there are 3 bucks all in some tall grass 100+ yards away. The biggest buck is facing away from us and walking away. Carlee has the crosshairs on him instantly and watches for him to turn and get to an opening. Finally he turns, but is walking so she waits for him to stop. He stops and begins to make a scrape. As he is pawing the ground she says, "I'm gonna shoot him!" BANG!! Smoke everywhere, the buck runs less than 20 yards toward us, stands in the grass with a goofy look on his face,... we reload, and he slowly lays down in the tall grass... Well, because of the way he acted, I was unsure of the hit. So we wait an extra hour and I sneak in, he is down! Double-lung pass through at 155 yards. This girl can shoot! So here's her pic.
Thanks for letting a proud dad and fiancé brag on his girls again. My youngest daughter still has a youth tag that can be used pretty much the whole month of December until Jan. 10. Now she wants to shoot a bigger one than her sister of course!
Life is good! - no, Life is Great!
Clayton
I also included a picture of Carlee's buck from this summer in velvet, but again, I don't know how to resize pictures, so if anyone wants to edit, have at it.
This weekend was Carlee's turn. She is 17 now and a Senior in HS. Hopefully she won't go too far next year to college so that we can continue these fun hunts together. She too held out for a buck for a while, several days actually. She had one chance at a nice 8 pt., but dumb dad told her not to take the 125 yard shot because I was sure he would come closer as he was working his way up a creek bottom... Well, he turned and walked away... it just wasn't meant to be. So, Sunday, the last day of the season, Carlee decides that she too will shoot the first mature deer that comes along. We sit for over an hour and half and see nothing,...slow morning. All of a sudden she spots a buck, I look over and there are 3 bucks all in some tall grass 100+ yards away. The biggest buck is facing away from us and walking away. Carlee has the crosshairs on him instantly and watches for him to turn and get to an opening. Finally he turns, but is walking so she waits for him to stop. He stops and begins to make a scrape. As he is pawing the ground she says, "I'm gonna shoot him!" BANG!! Smoke everywhere, the buck runs less than 20 yards toward us, stands in the grass with a goofy look on his face,... we reload, and he slowly lays down in the tall grass... Well, because of the way he acted, I was unsure of the hit. So we wait an extra hour and I sneak in, he is down! Double-lung pass through at 155 yards. This girl can shoot! So here's her pic.
Thanks for letting a proud dad and fiancé brag on his girls again. My youngest daughter still has a youth tag that can be used pretty much the whole month of December until Jan. 10. Now she wants to shoot a bigger one than her sister of course!
Life is good! - no, Life is Great!
Clayton
I also included a picture of Carlee's buck from this summer in velvet, but again, I don't know how to resize pictures, so if anyone wants to edit, have at it.
