Girls, Guns, and Good Times!

JTPinTX

Custom Call Maker
I bet I made a lot of you guys look with that thread title! But this thread is not about what you think. It is about the journey my little baby girl has undergone in the last year or so, the one that is rapidly turning her into Daddy’s little hunter. Now, I have raised two boys into fine young men who shoot and enjoy the outdoors. But as most fathers can tell you, little girls are just different. From pink camo to perfume, patience to potty breaks, things just don’t work the same with girls as they do with boys.

My baby has always loved the outdoors, but to be quite honest, she is pretty high maintenance. Inside the house she is like a caged tiger, and can be quite a handful. Put her outside though, and life becomes much simpler, at least sometimes. She has been going with me out to the country filling deer feeders and things like that since she has been 3 years old, but has never had the patience to sit still for hunting. About a year ago I sat her down for the first time with a special little .22 rifle I cut down for her and started her shooting some. The first few times were kind of touch and go following instructions, but from the beginning she impressed me with her ability to hit targets. This was her the very first time she ever shot her .22, barely 5 years old.



We kept working with that .22, and then last fall I took her dove hunting with me. She really had a good time with that, chasing the birds and getting them. By this spring she was 6 years old, and the change from one year earlier was immense. She was acting much more mature, her shooting had improved to the point she was death on 3” spinners at 25 yards, and she was wearing me out to take her coyote calling with me. School had given her a lot more patience and I decided it was time to give it a try.

So one afternoon a few weeks ago we rounded up some of her brothers' old camo from when they were little, added in some of her own (gotta have some pink in there somewhere), and loaded up a fanny pack with all the things she thought she would need. It took a while to get everything lined out to her satisfaction, but finally we were out the door. We went to a spot I hadn’t called yet this year, and finally got walked in and set up. She insisted on taking her purple .22, even though I knew the odds of her actually getting to shoot something with it was long at best.

It turned out to be a really exciting stand. I started out with Lightning Jack wailing out across the pasture. At about 3-4 minutes into the stand, here comes a big male coyote ducking and weaving in through the mesquites, coming from my right side. My daughter can see him coming in and I can tell she is excited. At 60 yards he stops, and I dust him with my CZ .223, dropping him in his tracks. I swap to Coyote Pup Distress #3, and give that a go for a series. Another coyote shows up over on a ridge about 250 yards away, straight out from us. I try and try, but I just can’t get it to come any closer. Finally I decide I have to take the shot. The trigger breaks, and I hear the bullet slap on flesh, but the coyote runs away at full speed, over the hill and away.

As that coyote takes off, I see a flash of fur down in the mesquite flat below me, in the same area where I dropped the first coyote. Aarrrggghhh! I have made the cardinal mistake, allowing myself to become distracted by one coyote to have another sneak in on me! Hasta la vista baby, that one has lit the burners and is making tracks out of there! I swap back to pup distress again, but to no avail, both of the coyotes are gone, not to return.

Still, I am thinking it was a pretty exciting stand for the first time my daughter has gone calling. Then all of a sudden here comes another big male, and this one is charging in from the left, coming hard. As he comes across the front of me at 40 yards I Woof at him, and he slides to a stop. The CZ spits deaths again, and he spins in a circle three times and drops. My daughter is covering her mouth and giggling, and just having a grand old time. We gather up the coyotes, and she insists on having her picture taken with them and her rifle.



We called two more stands that day, but didn’t get anything else to come in. It did light the fire in her to shoot a coyote of her own though, and that made a lot of work for dear old daddy. I worked over my CZ pretty hard, modifying the stock to make it adjustable, adding a co-witness Burris Fastfire to it, and tailoring some “.22 Hornet” loads for it. I made a life-size coyote target for her to practice on, and she got to where she could work it over pretty hard at 40 yards.



On the morning of Good Friday we decide to try it again, and this time she is carrying a real rifle, and she intends to use it!

The first stand is really open country, but is on the way to some other places I want to go, so we stop and call anyways. I call and call, but nothing shows. After 17 minutes I walk down to pick up the machine. I look around real good, still nothing. I pick up the machine and turn it off, and when I look up there is a coyote 100 yards away on a hill, in the wide open. I set down the machine, raise the 25-06, and drop him in his tracks with a 110 yard offhand shot. We go take a picture, and roll on to the next stand.



The second stand we get into some thick country, and I set up close on purpose, trying to get her a chance at a coyote. The mesquite is thick, and so I start off with Adult Cottontail. It seems as though the machine has just started playing when here comes a coyote bouncing over the rise. He is 50 yards and closing fast, way too fast for my baby to get on him. Before you can blink he is on top of the machine and about to skip town. I have no choice but to shoulder the 25 and dump him in the dirt. 30 seconds and 36 yards, and we have 2 coyotes on 2 stands. We didn’t call anything else on that stand so we move on down the road.



By the third stand it has been a long morning and my little girl is starting to get worn out. I know this will be the last stand even though conditions are still great. We make another good set in some more thick mesquites, but this time swap back to Lightning Jack on the machine. 5 minutes in and here comes a young female, coming in hard though the brush. I tell my daughter to get ready, but she is tired and I think things are still moving a little too quick for her. The coyote swings out and stops broadside at 45 yards, and my girl says “You shoot it Daddy!” Once again the old 25 roars, and now we are 3 for 3 stands. It just doesn’t get any better than that. We take the picture, and before we can even get out of the gate, my baby is down for the count. She still hasn't gotten her first song dog yet, but is gaining experience fast. At this point it is only a matter of time!






 
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That's awesome. Keep up the good work and before long she'll be saying "Daddy, you can just leave your gun at home because you won't be needing it." Haha!
 
Way to go daddy-o. I have two girls also and I going through a lot of the things you are. Good for you, and your right about there is something special about having girls. Great post! Thanks for the read.
 

Quote: but from the beginning she impressed me with her ability to hit targets.

I've taught a lot of youngsters how to shoot and, for the most part, I think young girls have better eye-hand coordination than little boys and tend to develop shooting skills quicker.

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Classic picture!
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Savor these times, they pass all too quickly.

Regards,
hm
 
Great post! Thank you for giving us a glimpse at what a geat Dad does for his daughter. I too have a daughter and she has recently showed an interest in the outdoors and hunting.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokeater5That's awesome. Keep up the good work and before long she'll be saying "Daddy, you can just leave your gun at home because you won't be needing it." Haha! Isn't that the truth.
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Very good story. I have no doubt that little girl will grow up to be a very independent young lady who will be able to take care of herself.
 
Great story and pics! Our ONLY hope is our youth.

High maintenance? Ya think?

She's a girl brother! It get's worse before it gets better.

Worth every effort and penny.
 
That is awesome. My little girl is 3 and I tried to take her deer hunting this year and it lasted all of about an hour. Tell her nice boots, my girl is all about pink so you can guess what color her boots are. Love these type of stories they give me hope.
 
This is a good read indeed! I have a 12 yr old daughter that is very similar... Started her out with a 10-22. I bought one of those cheap drugunov stocks that I modified to fit her... They grow up fast...
 
You sir are living my dream! I only hope when I have kids they will show half the interest in hunting and shooting your little girl does! Congrats man...
 
Thanks for all the kind words guys!

A really funny part of the story I forgot about... We were getting ready to go out that first day, just about to leave. We were in the house and I told her to go on out and get in the pickup, I had to get something out of my shop. So I go grab a different set of hand calls out of my shop, and go get in the truck. My baby is already in there, and as soon as I shut the door all I can smell is perfume!!!! I ask her if she just put on perfume, and she looks at me with a look that says "Why wouldn't I put on perfume?" and says "Yes daddy." So then I have to explain to her that we don't wear perfume when we go hunting for coyotes, deer, or hogs because they can smell real good and it makes them run away. So she thinks about that for a minute, and then she says, "So I can wear perfume when we hunt birds?" All I can do at that point is laugh and say "Sure baby, you can wear perfume when we hunt doves."

Needless to say, I had to be extra careful about our stand setups that day, and make it to where it was really hard for a coyote to get downwind of us. Luckily we had about a 10 mph wind that was taking the smell away from our calling area.

I'm telling ya, even though she loves the outdoors (hunting, shooting, gardening, riding 4-wheelers, etc.), in other ways she is as "girl" as it gets. And that is the way I like it. That is how I think it should be. I don't want my girl to be a boy, I want her to be a girl that loves some of the same things I do. I have two boys who are grown now. It was great raising them, I loved it. But I love raising my girl too.

My goal is for her to be confident, in whatever she wants to do. A lot of Fathers talk about cleaning the guns when the boy shows up to pick the daughter up for a date. That's all fine and dandy, but I want the boy to think "Forget her dad, she can shoot better than I can!" She can already shoot better than anyone in her class, and we have just begun. You know, there is NOTHING I would not do for my girl. But I also realize that the way life is, it is impossible for me to always be there. I can't follow her everywhere she goes. At some point all of us die, and I may not be around. But the things I teach her, she will always have. If I do my job right, those things cannot be taken away from her. That is my goal.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokeater5That's awesome. Keep up the good work and before long she'll be saying "Daddy, you can just leave your gun at home because you won't be needing it." Haha!

Oh, and this, I'm laffin'. If you just knew her, I am surprised she isn't saying it already. Me, her, and her brother did a drive by on a dead calf last night. She was wanting to know why her brother got to shoot and she didn't. She had to settle for making distress sounds to distract the coyote.
 
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