The fall hunting season was upon us once again. This year was
slightly different, for the first time instead of chasing game for myself I
would be taking my daughter, Audrey, on a deer hunt.
It took a few years of coaxing to get her to go; she always went with me on
my elk, deer, and javelina hunting but didn’t seem interested in taking game
for herself. It wasn’t until she got into her teen years that she felt she
was ready.
So a year ago we took the hunter safety course and applied for the youth
hunts. She went javelina hunting last February and got a couple of shots
with no success but we had a lot of fun.
This fall she would be drawn for the Kaibab doe hunt. Also drawn were Ben
and Sam, Dan’s sons, and Ryan, a son of my friend Mike. So we would have a
full camp with four hunters. Ryan’s grandfather, George, also tagged along
since this was Ryan’s first hunt.
Once we found out that she was drawn for the youth deer hunt we did a little
gun shopping. We finally settled on a Browning A-bolt in the new .243 WSSM
caliber. We spent a couple of weekend days sighting in and practicing on the
e-Deer target with Dan and his son’s Ben and Sam. Dan was gracious enough to
give Audrey, Sam’s old pair of shooting sticks which she felt very comfortable
with.
The week prior to the hunt I made a few phone calls and talked to a game and
fish ranger up on the Kaibab plateau. I wanted to find out if the deer had
started to migrate off the plateau to the lower winter range. He said they
indeed had started to migrate. I have hunted there several times so I had
an idea of where we wanted to start the hunt.
We left Thursday morning so we could get camp set up before it got dark. By
late afternoon we had camp set up and there was still some light left, so Mike
and I took Dan’s Polaris Ranger for a drive to look for deer. We spotted a
herd of about eight does coming out into a meadow about ½ mile from camp and
decided to start our hunt there in the morning.
At dark-thirty I rustled Audrey out of bed and we got dressed for the hunt.
The temps were in the thirty’s so we dressed in cold weather gear. Audrey and
I walked down to the meadow and sat down waiting for the sun to come up. As
the sun was rising we spotted a couple other hunters out walking in front of
us but they didn’t push anything out. We stayed put for about a ½ hour more
to let them pass through then we moved a ridge over to set up in another position.
When we reached the next ridge it started raining with a little sleet so we
quickly put on our rain ponchos to keep ourselves dry. After sitting in the
rain about 15 minutes we spotted a deer about 300 yards away. We studied it
for a while to determine if it was a buck or not. With the rain the visibility
wasn’t great and eventually he put his head down to eat and laid his ears back.
Sure enough he was a little buck with horns shorter than his ears. We watched
him browse and move into the junipers.
A few minutes later we heard a few shots just to the northeast of us in the
trees. I told Audrey to keep a sharp eye out in case something comes through
the trees. Sure enough after a few minutes two does and a fawn came running
out of the trees and were moving along the side of the burned out ridge across
from us. The rain was still coming down and I couldn’t get a range on them with
the rangefinder. I guessed about 150 yards (Dan later ranged it in clear weather
at closer to 200 yards). The gun was zeroed for 200 yards so I told Audrey to
hold on them when she shot.
There were a lot of dead burned out trees on the
ridge side so we waited for the deer to come into one of the clearer openings.
I asked if Audrey if she was ready and she said yes. As they hit the opening I
whistled at them and they stopped to locate the source of the noise. Crack went
the gun. Audrey didn’t hesitate, which was good as she wasn’t going to get a
second chance.
The trailing doe jumped and I knew she was hit. She started
running up the hill so I told Audrey to load another round. As Audrey loaded
another round the doe started to stagger. I knew then she was hit well and there
was no need to fire a second shot. A few seconds later the doe fell over.
Audrey said in a very excited voice “I got a deer” and I congratulated her on a
great shot. Picture one happy daughter and one proud Dad.
As we worked our way to the doe the rain stopped, which made it nice for
picture taking. Audrey hit it right behind the shoulder and punched both
lungs. The practice paid off. We said a little prayer thanking God for a
successful hunt and to the doe for giving us her life so we would have meat
to eat.
Unfortunately no one else in our camp would take a deer. Ryan did get a shot
but was unsuccessful and Grandpa George was glad to have been there to witness
it. Still we all had a great time hunting and sitting around the campfire at
night swapping stories.
