Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game A 12 Year Old's First Elk

Nice write up and congrats to the kid.

A suggestion, and if I'm all wrong I apologize. Assay your daughter as to which might be her master eye. Best methods without their being conscious of what one is doing is to simply watch and see which eye they use when looking though a camera viewfinder or perhaps a spotting scope. I find in our Hunter Ed classes that many kids that have issues with finding targets through a scope were started off shooting with their off eye. If that's indeed the case, I have them switch shoulders and things usually pop right into place.

I'd guess that about 90% of parents simply sit their kid down to shoot without ever assessing eye dominance. Handedness and eye dominance are not always in agreement. Makes for a difficult start in many instances.

My wife was erroneously started as a right hander even though she is left eye dominant. Muscle memory now is such that she refuses to go to the left shoulder. Such demands that she close her left eye so that only the right is functioning. Often in her hunting situations, mountains can erode, we experience climate change, and my patience expires before she can run down a critter through the scope.

I shoot right-handed and my practice is to point the rifle at the target and then look through the scope. Normally the target is right there. If I switch to the left shoulder and eye, I have serious time-consuming issues getting things lined up.

Again, good write up and envious of the grub.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. Much appreciated. Great memories for sure.

1minute. Thanks for the advice. Will definitely assess that. She is a lefty and shoots left handed. Will check on the eye dominance.

Bailey is a righty but left eye dominate. She won’t even consider shooting left handed but generally shoots well so I haven’t pushed it.

Great report - congrats all around!

AWESOME!!!!!

Good work Medriver Crew! Again and as usual. Thanks for writing up your adventures

That was an awesome write up, pictures were crisp as a professional and nothing like making a lifetime of memories.
Thank you.

Nice pics - Zytel for the win! (missed the chambering / bullet info)

I shoot a Zytel .300 WM. She shoots a Ruger Frontier 7mm-08.

Great write up and great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats to you and your daughter!!

My oldest daughter is 13 now and is begging me to take her elk hunting. Being from MS, that's no small task, but I think next year, I'll begin putting her in for some draws.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your amazing write-ups and pictures. And thanks even more for grooming the next generation of hunters. I hope to get out west one of these days to hunt elk and antelope.

Congrats Kenna and the Med River system of raising kids proper. ...mb

Family making memories to last a few lifetimes.

Those kids will never forget this trip. For as long as they live, your memory will never die.

Terrific adventure for the family! Enjoy reading and seeing the pics?

I really enjoyed the pictures...Very cool... Congrats to all involved.

Great story! In the past my father and I have hosted a number of kids on cow hunts at our high country place. I’ve been along side my son for the first four elk he’s killed. These days I get as big a kick out of “guiding” youngsters as I ever did guiding clients.

Best big game hunting story I have seen in years...good stop laughing or smiling.

NIce job all around!

Thank you for sharing this incredible hunt!

PLEASE........print this and place in a safe place for a look a few years down the road.

Awesome post, Seriously cool.