This girl holding a 21 point buck... She is my daughter…

Infidel 762

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Saddle up... Lock and load...



As for myself, one thing that tops coyotes on strings is an encounter with a mature whitetail... The encounters elevate even higher when watching them through the eyes of my daughter... Seems as if during those encounters I see life a little less serious yet much more profound... Perhaps those encounters preserve an element from the Dark Ages, before Enlightenment brought about its many changes... Whatever it is, it definitely holds an element that only exists outside the realm of civilization...

My most recent encounter came this last weekend after rattling with the black rack. I finished up a series and bent over to set the antlers down... As soon as I rose up I see this deer at about 200 yards heading straight for us... I nudge my daughter; "Shooter get ready!" The deer was coming in on my side... I leaned back and got the rifle rested on the railing and pointed in the direction of the deer's approach... He was closing the distance fast, did not want to risk movement so I told my daughter that she was going to have to "just shoot over me"...



I looked at him through the binos and recognize him from trail cam pics... "It's Trash!"



It's a name my daughter and I came up with... Trash was one my daughter was hoping to shoot...



He stops at about 150 yards out... I grunt at him a couple times and he starts heading towards us again... I notice my daughter is breathing heavy... I whisper "relax... don't rush the shot". As he continues to close the distance I realize I need to relax as well... She is leaning over me and my jitters could affect her accuracy... I look over at her and think “[beeep] she is calmer than me”... Watching him through the scope she is calm, focused and has not said a single word... I whisper "are you good?" As she exhales she simply replies "yessssss....”.

He is less than 100 yards and his approach has slowed... I feel burning in my lungs… He is zig zagging through the cedars occasionally stopping, looking for the deer he thought he heard fighting... The closer he gets, the more the air around us seemed to grow a life force of its own, one fed by the power of this deer... It's the life force all true hunters know without words and it was filling all available space as I whisper "when he gets in this next opening I am going to stop him... Shoot him then"...

He steps into the shooting lane and I grunt at him... He stops immediately standing broadside, slightly quartering away and looks up at us... Absolute dead calm and silence... At that exact moment I felt like a 3rd wheel... I had set the stage for this faceoff between Trash and my daughter... Now the situation is completely out of my hands and up to her to close the deal... I remember thinking; "I would have shot by now" and then CRACK!!! He ran wobbly with his tail spinning like a cork screw just over a small rise and out of sight... I scanned every opening watching for him to run through and saw nothing...”Did I get him?!?... Did I get him?!?”… I told my daughter; "yes… the way he was running he is not going far". After a few minutes I decided for us to go down to where he was shot and look for blood... I did not see any blood so I walked to where I saw him last and looked just over the rise... There he was, not 30 yards from where he was shot...



This is my daughter's second best deer... That puts it up there with some of my best...



We created a memory that I will carry all the rest of my days...

It is now part of her and she will carry it as well...
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Great hunt. Quite the little deer slayer. Nice buck-looks like maybe his right antler was singed by lightning or something.
 
Infidel, you have a great way with words, and I know exactly the feelings you're talking about. Congratulations, that's a great deer!!
 
Originally Posted By: atdlooks like maybe his right antler was singed by lightning or something.
His antlers are not burned… that is old velvet he was not able to rub off… it is very common to see that on drop tines and antler tips with club endings… a lot of abnormalities in deer antlers occur from injuries or simple genetics… his clubbed tips are without a doubt genetics.. Here is the same deer 2 years ago… he has always had that characteristic;

(kinda messed up the pic trying to enlarge it)

This is an abnormality that is not genetic nor from injury, but due to circumstances… This is one I shot a few years ago with a G2 that looks like the needle off a syringe… this is caused by “Bot” or “Blow Flies” that lay their eggs into their antlers while they are still in velvet… the eggs hatch into a grub that eats into the soft antler… when the antler hardens the grub falls out and hopefully gets stepped on by the deer…

 
Poetry my good man, poetry. Thanks for sharing your daughter's hunt with us. You are truly showing her how to live the good life.
 
Thank you all for your words of encouragement..

Originally Posted By: Smokin250Wow I love the trashy ones! Congrats. Great shooting

Yep this one was very trashy... Had very little class... Cussed like a sailor;)

Originally Posted By: DesertRamYou are truly showing her how to live the good life.

She is showing me how much better life is having her... Kids are blessings... Hopefully I can keep that attitude once she starts bringing around boys... I will make sure to have a gun out cleaning it, whenever she brings one around to meet me;)
 
Awesome! Your daughter is cute as the spots on a speckled pups belly!
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I think you will be showing a lot of young men your "shotgun cleaning technique" in the coming years. Great buck, congrats to both you.
 
Originally Posted By: GCAwesome! Your daughter is cute as the spots on a speckled pups belly!
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I think you will be showing a lot of young men your "shotgun cleaning technique" in the coming years. Great buck, congrats to both you.

My daughter is a twin.. Her sister don't hunt.. Still I better get a double barrel for the "shotgun cleaning technique"
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Thank you everyone else... Saw it was nominated but there are much better stories this month than this one, thank you none the less
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I have a daughter also, she is quite a looker, smart, fit and athletic. She is married now but back in the day I had the cleanest shotguns around - still do and her husband is well aware. I used to love it when I met one of her suitors because with a completely straight face, direct eye contact and a hard grip on the handshake I would say, "Remember young man, I have a shotgun, a shovel and three million acres of national forest to bury you in. Nobody is gonna look that hard for you. Have a good evening, be safe and smart."
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