BullRider115

This past weekend I took my 13 year old daughter out with hopes of her getting her first shot at a deer with her bow. After hunting this new property myself the past few weekends and seeing so many does I figured for sure this would be a very easy thing to do. Then I got to thinking.

I was never taught patience in the woods as a youngster and well now, I am the teacher so, I made the rule that she has to wait for a smaller buck to come in. 4 pt. or less. She's a little mad at me for this but, I assure her she will thank me later.

Friday night, get in the blind and within 15 minutes we have 3 does in front and 2 to the left all within 20 yards. She's chomping at the bit as I am shooting video and laughing at her and making silly comments about, no horns no shot. We watch these does for 45 minutes or so and back behind us we can hear grunting and more grunting getting closer and closer. We have what sounds to be a small buck coming up on her side. I can't get a visual but, I know he is pretty close and she looks at me with her mouth wide open and says "O' my God, He's huge, I'm not shooting that!" I still can not see this deer (we are in a doghouse) and all of a sudden he appears 11 points, drop tine 160-170 class deer at 15 yards out the left side. She says to me "That's your deer". He starts chasing does around and I do get some great video of him, he never offers a shot.

Lesson taught- patience will pay off.

Saturday Evening. Same thing, does out in front of us for an hour or so, I'm video taping and can hear something from the right side the does all leave so I stop recording and we sit and wait for whatever is to our right. I look at her face and it is lit up with excitement. She says her buck is coming she can see horns. I get excited myself as I fumble to get the camera focused on this 3 pt. coming in. He in now 12 yards in front of us and I am coaching my daughter, "wait for his head to go behing the tree, come to full draw, put your pin right where I have taught you, ok, shoot when you are sure......... THWACK. She hit a small branch that runs in front of the window of the blind. She's shaking with excitement and a little disappointed but, still confident in herself. I go to shut off the video camera and realize, I never hit record...... LOL I was overly excited myself for my daughter.

Sunday- I feel bad, tell her, you can take a doe. She looks at me and says "NO WAY" I am waiting for my buck to come back. He never showed and once again we had many does in front of us but, she has already learned that patience will pay off in the deer woods. I couldn't be more proud of her for that.

Sorry this is so long but, a Father's Pride is much longer than that I can type on here...........

BobCo19-65

Personally, I would havetold her shoot the first deer that came by forher first. But that's just me.

goherd1111

X2.... I would have also told her to shoot the slammer if he would have presented the shot. Nonetheless, congrats on getting your daughter interested in the sport we love. Hopefully, she will enjoy it the rest of her life and introduce her kids to the sport we love.

MC Bowhunter

I agree, I would have let her shoot at the first thing that walked out. If you're lucky enough to get her hooked on hunting she will do the passing up herself after she shoots a few. You never know she might miss a lot before she gets one. That could discourage her in the long run.

Great story though. My daughter started bowhunting with me last year. After several misses and close calls she was able to get one as the season was coming to an end. And last weekend she missed her first shot at a spike. Let her fling away! Getting kids excited about hunting and keeping them that way is what's important.

Darrall

Rob/PA Bowyer

That's not a long story, that is a beautiful story. Kudos and keep up the great work. I hope you get that video!

MOTOWNHONKEY

Thats very cool.

PatrickMc

Congrats, and Great Job in getting the kids into hunting. Hope you both get one soon.

I understand the point of trying to teach patience as I do think that that is one of the most important aspects of hunting. However, I do not understand the concept of making kids shoot spikes or button bucks really. A deer is a deer. Shoot a mature doe, let the young ones go, as long as it is a good clean shot. Also, there is something to be said for just getting any deer, it is a huge confidence booster to just have anything hanging in the freezer. My first deer was a 10 pt buck. Only b/c he was the first one to walk right in and stand in front of me. However, since I've already got a big rack hanging up, I don't feel I need to go shoot a huge buck. So I don't rush shots just to fling an arrow at a big buck hoping to get it. For me, that brought me patience.

Patience is very important, some try to teach it by making kids pass up good deer to shoot a spike, and that may work, but I think overall patience is connected to maturity. If the kid is mature then they will know to wait and make a good clean shot.

With that said I'm not the parent, and it's not my place to judge,so YOU teach your kids how you want them to do it.

fun2hunt

Good job dad, can't wait to see her with buck in a picture together!

BullRider115

Thanks everyone......

I wish it were as simple as letting her take a doe to just get her first deer but, that is almost like shooting fish in a barrel. I want to stress patience so this is what I decided last night after watching our video again.

There is a doe on our video that has a white stripe behind her ears and very dominant white rings around her eyes, almost like a raccoon. I am going to ler her try to get this deer. I have promised to have her first deer shoulder mounted and this would be a beautiful doe mount.

We have been spoiled this year in the property we can hunt. It has been a voluntary QDM for over 20 years, there are only 3 people who hunt the area of about 5000 acres. The 17 acres we are on has not been hunted in over 5 years. The way they run their QDM, they shoot no does, and only shoot bucks that have at least 4 points on a side but, they usually hold off for much bigger. They have in past years taken some beautiful deer 150-170 class and a couple that have been close to 200.

My daughter and I have already really got our trophy in just making the video. The people that we know that are hunters and watch this video are in amazement of all the deer and want to know what we are waiting for. LOL. We're sucking up what nature can provide us and thanking God for the beautiful things we are sharing together.............

RDHunter

Way to go BullRider115
You are teaching your daughter well dispite what ohters said , I think your doing the right thing.
Can't wait to see the video and for this up coming weekend.