Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game #1 Daughter Bags Her 1st Buck

Took my oldest out this past weekend to chase down a buck.

Both kids and I were out last week for the youth hunt and just couldn't get her in place long enough to let her take a shot. My son lucked out and happened to be with me when we came upon a group of bucks that he shot one out of.

But this weekend it was just the 2 of us.

We headed out onto the gumbo Friday late afternoon. Pulled into the ranch after dark. Got situated with where we were going to try in the morning. She and I drove up to the north end of the ranch and settled in for a little truck camping. Nothing fancy but we had a little air mattress in the bed, a topper and a couple bedrolls.

Got a little cold, but we slept well. Up early in the dark to hike a couple miles to get above some alfalfa fields. Half mile into the hike, a bunch of does busted us and we had to divert out and around to try and get to the fields we wanted to glass at first shooting light. Couple miles of up and down and we couldn't get to where we wanted in time. Found a couple nice bucks. One 4x4 but she just couldn't make the decision and get settled in quick enough to take a shot. Got to watch some small bucks fighting and could hear them rattling pretty well.

We kept finding groups of does, but does are not open to shoot this year. We came upon a young fork buck beating the crap out of a juniper. Tried to get her in place to shoot him from about 80 yards, but didn't get it done in time. He wandered off. We followed him and came upon the 4 bucks we had seen earlier. Before long, they were long gone.

We started circling back to camp in the early afternoon. Took a little break and heated up some soup before heading out to glass. The kid took a nap in the truck while I spent over an hour moving around and glassing.

We decided to try and glass the fields where my son's deer was shot late in the afternoon. Headed down that direction but it was a little early. Could see deer here and there just starting to get moving. Traveled on down to glass the creek where we knew there were whitetails. Got to the old hdqtrs buildings and glassed from there. A nice whitetail, a little buck and some does were across a pond. Had a beautiful rest on the buck at 300 yards. I was hesitant to have her take that shot. So we worked to get closer through a lot of downed branches, twigs and trees. Good challenge for her to try and move quietly. Finally got to about 240 yards and it was time. Had to rush her a little.

Set her up on sticks and she took the shot. Missed the first. Buck didn't know what or where so she shot again and hit him. Shot him again and he was down.

Congrats to you and your daughter. What caliber did she use?

The kids are shooting a basic Howa .223 in a Hogue stck. Simple leupold fixed 6 on it.

That is really special!

Thank you for posting and congratulations to your daughter.

Congratulations

Dandy buck! Congrats to the both of you! Well done.

Excellent that's going to spoil her shooting a trophy first time out!

Thanks for sharing
Mike

Most excellent, and sounds like the both of you exhibited some "stick to ititivness." Keep her at it with other game as well. What memories are made of,

Life is good for both of you, Congrats! Way to go Dad!

Congrats to the young lady!

223 did the job!

Yes, even a 223 that is not AI'd is enough gun.

My daughter has one of those howas she loves shooting it.. What bullet you using?

Factory Winchester 64 grain shoots pretty well out of it.

I tried some 75 grain ammo, but it got a little unpredictable.

Grabbed some 69 grain the other day to sample, and it shot really well. Afraid the bullet might be a bit fragile, so to speak, for a good sized deer. I need to look into the 69 gr bullet some more. Might transition to that especially now we just might shoot a doe or 2.

I need to buy some of the nosler 64gr bonded bullets they make they have a bunch of 2nds for sale. Barnes also makes a 55gr tsx

Congratulations to both of you. Very nice buck and he definitely has a large body, that boy wasn't missing any meals.

#1 wife bought a scale the other day to weigh feed in buckets. I hooked it up after I had removed his front legs, trimmed a bunch of the dried edges up and skinned the rear 2/3s of the buck. The hanging carcass weighed 144 pounds. I think that makes for a pretty good sized whitetail.