My daughter turned 12 this year and when it came time to apply for tags she didn't want to put in for antelope or elk, just deer. Draw came and went and she didn't draw first choice and ended up with a general tag. Then volleyball season threw a wrench into the mix when her team went undefeated and went on to a weekend tournament, on opening weekend of deer season, then a few more monkey wrenches got thrown in for fun and she had the second Saturday of deer season to hunt, one day for a first time big game hunter. Decided after she was done with school Friday I'd have the truck packed and we were off. Small pack tent setup, and a few things organized at the truck right before dark, and we were ready to go for the next morning. After about 3 hours of glassing and hiking we turned up one doe. Off to another spot, but nothing, and another with the same results. Headed back to pick up camp about 2 in the afternoon and have a bite, then back to glassing by about 3 which turned up a buck. We got crazy close, but the sage was to high and she just couldn't get a clean shot and in the end happy she could make the tough choice of not shooting. Then the deer just started coming out from everywhere, after glassing several groups in different draws we found a group of 8 that had another buck with them. After we moved around them to get the wind and sun in our favor my daughter heart shot this buck at about 145 yards, and he went straight over backwards. Super happy she had the patience to hold out for the right shot. 4 hours later he was packed out and we were home, wish she would have had an extra day not to feel rushed, but damn glad I didn't just say screw it and not go because we only had one day to hunt. Side story, she used the same .243 to kill her first buck that her grandma used to kill her first buck 41 years ago.


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