I had my doubts at first, but having only daughters has worked out pretty good.


If only the squirrels would cooperate!

You are in the same position I am in with my Lass...I assume you tease the living Christ out of your girls too?

Doc that's awesome! My little gal likes the woods and just went on her first backpack camp out. I hope she takes a liking to hunting as she gets a little older.

That rifle(?)...is that a Browning? I have an OLD Remington Speedmaster from the 1930's that has a Browning stamp also. It loads through the stock. It belonged to a granddad I never knew. My dad gave it to me and it was a tack driver back when my eyes were young.

My little girl is now 25 years old and loves to shoot firearms and deer hunt with me, it's always a great time!

a happy daughter wants to hunt with her dad, and actually gets to... great deal!

Been blessed that mine likes to hunt as well. We are planning on her first elk hunt next year and already planning which rig she wants to shoot and practice with next year. She had some success already and seems to enjoy being in the woods with me. Great time to talk to each other.

Didn't have tree rats to chase here, but both kids got started on bunnies. Those were great times.

I got 4 of them,two have become baby machines,two do the "mud runs" and anything outdoor and they all shoot!

Good for you Doc...the squirrels are toast. Mine have been a blessing to me...

No elk this year but we had fun getting there...

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Absolutely!!!

I've got three myself. I used to figure that I didn't really have any idea how to raise girls not being female and all. I guess you figure it out. They all shoot. We get outdoors a lot, but I'm letting them come to me on the hunting thing. The oldest is eleven, so there is time yet -- if she wants. Here is our latest backpacking trip together.

docdb.....I've got 3 of my own.....looks like you're doing a fine job.

evanhill......great video there.....thanks.

docdb;
Thanks for sharing the great photo with us sir and for beginning a great thread with it.

Before I move on please let me send you a tip of the hat for taking your daughter out afield with you.

To the other fathers here that have done that, a sincere tip of my battered Bailey to you as well.

While it's good to see fathers taking time to pass on our way of life to either boys or girls, as the father of two teenagers myself, I hope I can be forgiven if I show a soft spot for getting girls out hunting.

To any fathers out there who have daughters I'd like to encourage you all in the strongest possible way to take your daughters out hunting, shooting, camping or any outdoor activity.

We've found that the rewards of doing so are definitely well worth the effort and can help shape your life and your children's lives in ways we didn't imagine when we began taking them up the mountains with us.

Oh, we started our girls coming along on family hunts when they were fairly young and they'd be the first to tell you they've grown up spending a lot of our weekend time in the mountains.



Anyway docdb, thanks again for the thread all the best to you and yours in all your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

Great stuff guys... my daughter (now 22) went through hunters and hiked a fair bit with her mom and I. She's not a backpacker now, but she's the apple of my eye that I utterly adore. Girls are a gift from God.

This was a few months back. I almost got to full draw on a little buck with my girl on my back about 20 minutes after this pic was taken. That would have been a good story for the rocking chair down the road.........

My daughters (16 and 12) will shoot a little. Neither has hunted with me (I've always invited them). They have always camped with me. I think my proudest day was when my oldest asked for an Osprey pack for her sweet 16.

cool stuff. i take both mine with me hunting. they are 13 and 10.

Very cool thread. I too have three girls, and they've been tagging along elk hunting since they were knee high. As they have reached the age, I told each that they would be taking hunters ed, and hunting one year so they knew what it was all about, and how to do it. You never know what will happen with this world one day, and I want them to at least have an idea as to how to fend for themselves. I told them after that, the decision was theirs to make. So far the 16 and the 13 year old have taken too it, and are glad to be going. Just got home from filling the eldests cow tag. The 6 year old is also showing promise, and appears to show more interest than the other two did at her age. I know things can change, but she may be a hunting machine when her time comes.

Regardless, boys or girls, take them out, I don't think you'll ever have a more positive experience. There is nothing like sitting on a ridge top as the sun comes up, with a youngster beside you, just taking in the view before starting the work of gutting an elk. A memory that I will never forget.

I'm just getting started with my daughter Asha. This was when she was 3 months old back in July



Here's Shilpa and Asha looking at some big deer on a far ridge



Drummond

No complaints here!

Love hunting with my girls.

Nice!
I'm fortunate that the ole lady enjoys backpacking, and doesn't mind guns. She won't hunt, nor gut anything, but she'll cook and eat it.
Our little one, who is 3 1/2, has been camping with us since she was 6 mo, and we found out that she has to walk herself and skip nap time or she ends up giggling all night long about sleeping in the tent!
We used a kid's backpack that's a little big for her to have her carry her pajamas and a stuffed toy, and she carries it w/o complaint the whole way. So for Xmas she will be getting a pack that fits and has a hydration system as I don't care for slobber all over mine.
I'm hoping to have a little fishing and hunting partner soon. She's certainly hooked on backpacking. At least until she's a teen...

Awesome thread guys. Keep the stories and pics coming. My wife and I just had twin girls back in September and I really hope they turn out to enjoy the outdoors as much as I.

Beautiful daughter and love the Browning for squirrels .

EvanHill,

I thought I recognized that canyon, I was sure when I saw the petroglyph panel.

I always wanted a son. Youngest daughter gave me two grandsons, yet it was not to be. Grandson #1 died in a car accident just before turning three. Grandson #2 didn't make it here. He died of a cord accident in the womb. BUT I have girls. Three daughters that have matured into fine ladies. Aged 52, 50, and 38. They all have shotguns and handguns. I am soon going to hand them each a .22LR and a CF rifle. Eldest and youngest are "ranch girls." Eldest is in real estate and she saw a value in a small ranch (deeded) with a larger (leased) spread adjacent. She and SIL bought it to someday have a quail factory. Youngest married a young man that has about 3000 acres of ranch land plus he farms with his father. Middle daughter and I just visit the ranches and enjoy.

Then there are two grand daughters. Three and eight. The eight year old is beginning to like shooting. She has her eye on the 4H Club shooting program. Gave her a BB gun last Christmas and her grandfather's single shot .22 last week.

Living in a woman's world takes a tough personality. They borrow your truck, and the perfume lingers for weeks. You have to constantly remind your bride that you need stinky guy soap, not some beauty bar. They wear your warm coat and dry cleaning fails to remove the nice odor. I have spent the better part of my seventy five years smelling like a girl. When I do not see them for a few days/weeks, I miss it/them.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to an old friend on the phone,while visiting youngest daughters family. Grand daughter came skipping by, kissed me on the cheek and said, "Dad Dad, I love you," and was gone. My friend commented, "That was worth the trip." To which I wholeheartedly agree.

We hunt and fish together. Daughter #1 and husband are into fly fishing for trout and try to spend a month in the mountains each summer. Last summer, the whole tribe spent a week chasing the trout. Wee shoot trap at the ranch. They have a nice shooting pad overlooking a small canyon. Targets for the kids to hone their skills. Youngest daughter and I have hunted deer and turkey together. Big fun.

God bless the girls in my life. Amen. jack

Amen is right!!!!!

Like most any man, I wanted a boy. God gave me 2 beautiful, intelligent girls who like to hunt and shoot. My brother has 2 boys and a girl. None are really interested yet. As you can see, girls have worked out pretty well for me .

Today we went and watched Skyfall together. Tomorrow we are going to try to fill their mulie doe tags.

I am incredibly blessed!













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[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p292/JimGratrix/IMGP4168.jpg[/img]

There is an old saying attributed to Confusius that claims it is a wish man who wishes for a daughter.
I certainly would agree. Mine is now our top fly fishing guide, as well as the most requested bear and moose hunting guide. She has even informed us that she wants to take over the business when we retire.

She also is one of the top contenders in a national Prois women's hunting contest and if any of you care to vote for her the winner gets a trip to Africa next year . You can find the voting on Proishunting.com/proisaward/ .
Some of your daughters might even wish to compete next year.

I am enjoying the pictures everyone is sharing. Looks like lots of you have great help putting meat on the table!

Our 9 year old daughter Grace has both the "girly" side with gymnastics and dressing up, but also loves to put on the camo and go hunting and fishing, too. Deer season starts in two weeks and she's ready!









This young lady is one of my wife's former students (she's now a nurse) that is like an adopted daughter/big sister in our family and loves the outdoors, too. Here she is getting ready and then celebrating her first deer last year:
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[img]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w8/dkwhis/IMG5F9372.jpg[/img]

Can't wait to get both of them and my wife out for deer season. I've told them I'm not sure how it works that I pull the trigger one time and have to drag four deer, but I consider myself pretty lucky...!

Lovely pics of everyone who got great daughters who love hunting and shooting. I got sons and I was truly thankful that i would have somebody following my footsteps. They also go hunting with me but I can see that they're not as passionate in it as I am. Perhaps, if I could have a daughter, she might be just like all of your girls.

Just bumping this up so that perhaps Dwayne (BC30cal) will post some of his pictures of his daughters -- they are great!

John

John;
Thanks for the kind prompting John, I'd meant to share a few more and neglected to.

Before doing so though I'd like to say a sincere well done to the fathers here who have been getting their daughters out afield. A tip of the hat to you all and very well done!

I can say with a large degree of confidence that girls that hunt and experience the outdoors have a different view of many facets of life - where food comes from for instance - than those that don't. While I'd never say those experiences will make them "better" than those who don't, I've yet to perceive any negatives from them being hunters.

Anyway from a bunch of hunting photos from our family and with apologies as these have been shown here before, here are a few of my favorites.

This is the day of the girls' first deer. Although our eldest had hunted a year previous to this she'd not killed a buck. Sisters being what and how they are, I was praying fervently for us to bump into at least two young dumb bucks then so both of them might score.

Whether it was an answer to prayer or not is indeed personal perspective - but in 30 years of hunting in BC this was the first and only day that 5 bucks fed up an open hillside to within 30 yards of 3 people sitting with nothing more than grass for concealment.

After a space of 10-20 seconds - these two were down within 15yds of each other.



Before going on I'll add that this day topped my first black bear, my first and only California ram, my first and only moose and any - well all of the blacktail, mulie or whitetail bucks that I pulled the trigger on.

So with that understanding of how I "really feel" about hunting with our girls...

A pretty good mulie that our youngest shot one season. It was a longish shot and one 100gr. Hornady from her .250AI was all that was needed.


This little fellow was our eldest's longest shot on deer to date. We don't have a range finder so I can only say that it was a long hike over to where it lay and the truck looked small when we got to it. She'd been shooting her Swede enough that summer and felt confident enough to place a single 130gr TSX.


Our youngest's best whitetail, which we spotted way down in an opening in the timber. He stuck his head up over a downed log and she carefully hit him in the neck - which was the only shot really - with the same combination as before, 100gr. Hornady and .250AI.


Our eldest does her own eviscerating and had me snap this photo as proof for her school friends as she was winding up the job on her first whitetail. The little buck fell to the 130gr TSX and 6.5x55 combination again.


This mulie buck should have kept moving up the mountain in retrospect. He stopped with his body screened by pines, but just had to stick his head out for that one last look that some mulie bucks seem to like to take. This time it was fatal.


Our eldest wanted to get something bigger than a 2 point or spike that year, so we hunted hard, pounded the mountain behind the house flat and burned enough diesel to get a thank you card from the local Husky station - well OK Husky didn't send a card exactly, but man did we pile up the BCAA points buying diesel that season.

So with only 5 days left in the season we headed up after school for a quick hunt Friday night after school. Since it's after the time change and it's dark by 4:30PM or so, we just hit this spot at dusk as this rotund young fellow crossed the skidder road. The photo doesn't really do his body justice as he's kind of bunched up due to the "level terrain" we hunt.. Although the rack isn't that bad we were pretty excited about the potential round steaks this buck would produce and we subsequently found he tasted just great!

[img:center]http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x83/BC30cal/Amd.jpg[/img]

Anyway folks, there's a few of our family hunts that bring grand memories for me. Thanks for looking and again thanks for sharing yours.

All the best to you John and thanks again.

Dwayne

Dwayne, your pictures certainly lived up to my "advance billing"!

If you ever find yourself in northern Sweden, you be sure to let me know in advance so we can have a nice meal together!

John

John;
Thanks so much for the kind invitation and words, I do truly appreciate them.

If you ever find yourself touring the south Okanagan I certainly hope I could do the same for you John.

Hopefully I can be forgiven if I throw this last one in as it's special to me as it both gives me cause to celebrate and yet to be a little sad at the same time.

When our beloved long gun registry was axed this spring, I told our eldest that I'd buy her a .22 to commemorate the event.

She's in Grade 12 this year and will be eligible to take her Canadian Firearm's licence in 2013 - so when she moves out the Swede that I built for her late Granddad and was passed onto her and this 10/22 will be able to go with her. To say I'm emotionally torn about this impending exit from our house would be understatement indeed.

Anyway John she wanted a 10/22 and after a bit of looking we found a very clean 3rd year production model for her. We cruised the Penticton gun show this April and found a bunch of parts for hot rodding it - the rest came from my overstuffed parts bins.

At her insistence she stripped her rifle down and put in all the new parts including the trigger shim kit - which wasn't as simple as the chap on youtube made it appear may I add!

When it was done she ended up shooting it a lot this summer when we were cutting firewood and became quite proficient with it.

Her boyfriend doesn't hunt but really likes game meat and requested a rabbit, so here is the first rabbit taken with her much modified 10/22.



Anyway sorry for the long winded explanation John, but hopefully that explains a bit of what that photo represents to me.

Thanks again and all the best to you this week John.

Dwayne

Hi Dwayne

You have clearly instilled in her the drive to make her own decisions and to do things for herself -- and that is surely one of the best things parents can do.

I imagine that she has already felt a lot of peer pressure from other girls her age, and yet she has made up her own mind and is a hunter -- even hangs out with the old man!

I interact with a lot of university students (some just having left home for the first time, so they would be your daughter's age), and I have no doubt that she will do well in life.

All the best from (very!) northern Sweden -- where sunset is at 1435 h today, and it is pitch black by 3 PM

John

Great pictures, Dwayne. Looks like lots of outdoor fun with your daughters. Thanks for sharing!

I am not sure how it works over there, but here whenever a firearms magazine has an article featuring a Daughter or wife hunting it is avidly read by all....much more so than bloke articles.

Must be a lot of us Dads out there.

Wow, thanks for all the nice responses. This thread has really taken off in a great direction. Great news this weekend, middle daughter got into the University of Georgia, early decision, with scholarship! Booooyaaaa!!!

My 9 year old loves getting out with dad.

My daughter and I have been going on annual camping trips for the last 7 or 8 years. She is 15 now. 3 years ago we started camping with the horses. this year she took her first deer. there is NOTHING like spending time like this with your daughter(s) They are experiences that shape thm into the adult they will become and create memories that last forever.

I also have a son (12) and take him camping and hunting as well. I take the kids on separate trips so they get individual attention. Unfortunately my son is NOT into the horses.

First deer about 5 days ago.


This years camping trip




Getting in some range time


Taking the horses to McDonalds drive thru


And I could go on and on.

Think I am a proud dad???? You bet!!!!

Was blessed with Triplets.. 2 daughters and a son. My Huntress:

First coyote hunt.

She was extremely proud.


Edit to mention, she was not shooting, simply as my new partner.




Later!

More yote hunting with her Papa (grandpa) and I:



Tripping and falling "action shot":



Happy camper:

Smores!





Plus chicken noodle soup on one of our "mini adventures".



Of course Omar the Camel is right by her side. I brought Omar back from the Middle East with me on one of my trips and told her that Omar and I had been traveling together (which we had). She sleeps with Omar and goes everywhere with him. That was back in late 06.

Here is a pic from two weeks ago up at my cabin:

Awesome pics Mackay, my daughter did not develop the interest in shooting until 12, and hunting until 14. Doesn't matter though she's doing it now. Your little one is a lucky girl to have a Dad and Grandpa willing to take her out at such a young age. Your lucky she has the interest and desires to spend the time in the field.

Great pics!

great thread indeed

docdb, I've always enjoyed your pix of your outdoor exploits, but the one you posted of you lil girl with her rifle, hit that soft spot in my heart that every man that has a daughter possesses.

great photos of your family's guys

never been much of a picture guy, but oh what memories, my little girl learned to hold her own bottle at 4 mos. old as momma and I were busy rigging up a cooking tarp in Valdez, took her 42 miles back in from the road system at 4 on snowmachines, the youngest got his first camping trip at 2 weeks old. We've had a remote cabin for a decade now, amazing the diff it makes when you spend time with your kids isn't it? Our cabin is much like our house, not fancy, kinda funky in ways, but both have been warmed by physical activity, wood and copious amounts of love and good times.

really enjoyed this thread, thank you all for sharing what you love with your loved ones and letting us take a peek at it.

Very cool. We need to start a fund to get that lady some proper fitting camo .

just went back and reread this entire thread


yeah it really is THAT good

Me too. When I start getting depressed about our country's future, photos of great kids (in this case girls) really cheers me up. Keep 'em coming.

You are a very lucky man!

There is about as much backpacking in these pictures as there is hunting, but didn't think anyone would mind.


This view was much more enjoyable.

Great Photos and story Mackay! You are raising them right!

Great pics, stories and as a Navajo man I greatly appreciate the video shared by evanhill, thanks. I totally agree with "shi kiis"-(Navajo term for brother/friend) who was speaking in the video. I have two daughters, both have accompanied Mrs. & I on elk or deer hunts, fishing and camping trips throughout the past 20 plus years. I have offered the oppurtunity for them to hunt but neither have expressed that they want to actually hunt and try to harvest game but they will gladly come along. They say, "I dont have the heart to kill an animal but will gladly have it for dinner", lol. My oldest daughter will fish but makes sure and tosses them back in the water, my younger daughter will keep her catch. Both are now in college and have a better sense of appreciation for the life style and rewards that come from being afield and with family. Mrs. is from a home which does not hunt but they do fish so hunting has grown on her, even more so when we are able to harvest Deer. I've recently picked up Elk hunting but have yet to connect, so I'm hoping it will come together for us if I'm drawn next year. All in all, I'm very glad when I'm able to share any time with my family of women.
P.S. I'm usually just a "reader" and don't share much but this was one I could'nt pass up, thanks for starting this thread.

Here's a couple pictures the deer my youngest shot the last week of the season:







Both girls are great kids and we have a ton of fun together.

People always ask, "Don't you wish you had a boy?"

Can't say that I do, I wouldn't trade the two girls for anything.