My daughter got her 1st SD deer in September on opening day! She's shot deer in Kansas before but this was her first time hunting South Dakota. We got out to our spot about 30 minutes till shooting light and started hiking out, 200 yards from the truck my son "whispers" almost in a yell right there dad! I wasn't expecting to see anything so quickly but sure enough there was a doe silhouetted against the rising sun about 300 yards away. My 12 year old daughter had won the coin toss of who got to shoot first so we got out of sight behind a cedar and started sneaking closer. We closed to about 200 yards and peeked around the cedar just in time to watch her drop down into the draw. I told her let's just sit tight and make sure she doesn't come back up. After about 5 minutes we started towards the top hoping to catch them feeding in the draw below. As we snuck our way through the short grass 2 fawns came bounding up the hill 120 yards away. Busted! They stopped and stomped and snorted at us until momma came over the hill. She saw us and away they went leaving my daughter disappointed. I told her it was too early to shoot one anyway and we worked our way along the ridge tops glassing. We saw multiple young bucks and does with fawns but she only had a doe tag. I wanted her to take one without any fawns. About 9 we bumped a large herd of does and fawns and sat to watch them. While glassing them I looked to the north and saw a doe come out of the plum thickets. We switched our attention to her and began glassing the thickets for fawns. We didn't see anything else moving around so I got her setup prone on my pack. I ranged the doe at 233 yards and told her to hold dead on as we were sighted at 200. We sat and sat and sat. I asked can you find her in your scope? She said yes but I'm shaking! I told her take your time and a deep breath then pull the trigger when you're ready. BOOM! The deer popped her head up but didn't move. No hit. I said put another round in she doesn't know where we are. She got reloaded and back on the deer. I said you can't wait long she's going to l...BOOM! The doe reared and headed down over a ridge but didn't come out. We had a great big bear hug and gathered our gear to go get it. We got to the spot she was standing and no blood anywhere. It took us about 20 minutes to find her in the thickets but there she was piled up about 25 yards from where we last saw her. As we got to her we saw she was collared! My daughters first question was a panicked, oh no am I gonna be in trouble? I laughed and told her I sure hope not. We got her deboned and had to pack her out about 3 miles to the truck. It was time to call it a morning, my son would have to wait for me to recoup a little before chasing one for him. It was by far one of the most fun hunts I've ever been on. I can't wait for next year!
My daughter’s first SD deer
- Thread starter bigtime9
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JOHNNIE WALKER
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Great post!!!! My little girl is 5, and says she wants to shoot a deer like daddy does. I'm hoping to have experiences like this. What kind of rifle was she using?
I bought her a savage model 11 in 7mm/08 last summer. Before that she had killed deer with a single shot 22-250 and a single shot 243. I highly recommend a NEF single shot 243 for a first deer gun. You can get an ar style 6 position stock for them to grow with. We tried the Rossi to but couldn't find an adjustable stock for it. My son shot his first deer at age 5 with a NEF 243 and light 75 grain handloads.
Deenmetal099
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- Dec 17, 2017
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Thanks for the story congratulations, what bullet loads did you use on your savage
I used a 120 grain hollow point I hand loaded. It worked well but I'm going to try something different. Probably something in the 140 range.
trumperman
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- Feb 1, 2017
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Congratulations! You must be very proud
Great write up my friend. I have priceless memories with my two older kids (11 and 9). I had to take my three year old on a hunt last year with him using his finger as a gun. Several months later he told me he was still angry for not letting him use a real gun.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
