Girls Rule!

[ihuntelk]

Paige and I just hit 'camp' for the next few days. We'll see if she can continue her pronghorn luck on her first deer hunt. She has an any deer tag but we'll be looking for a mulie buck. She also has 2 doe tags. Might try and find a whitie doe if we get a mulie buck in the back of the truck.

Here's the note I sent to school today. I'll probably have to get more creative on the next one!




I hope everyone is safe this weekend. Good luck!
-Cade

 

[cur dog]

I love it! Good luck, to Paige and her dad.

 

[EODRay]

I hope the hunt is as awesome as the note. Well done.

 

[1_pointer]

Awesome! Good luck to Paige! Good on the school for allowing an absence for that. At my son's school hunting/vacations are not considered an excused absence...

 

[Festus]

That's awesome! Made me laugh. I'm going to steal that one!
Best of luck, keep us posted...

 

[Muskeez]

Awesome! My father-in-law was an elementary principal for like 100 years,... he always encouraged kids to go on trips with their family. His theory was that the kids will learn more about life than they will in the classroom for those few days. Bonding time with parents = better behaved and respectful kids. They sure don't teach that in school these days. My girls missed a couple days to be "out of town with their dad" - only a few teachers asked where they were going, and when they said antelope hunting in Wyoming it wasn't a problem... but they sure made some of the boys jealous! They love that part! Keep up the good work all you dads out there, quality time spent with your kids can't be bought or done later, cuz later will be too late. Best wishes on a fun hunt Paige!!

 

[JLS]

Love the note!

 

[ElkRx]

The note is very clever. I will have to remember it for when I have kids and need to get them out of school! Good luck, and can't wait to see the pictures!!!

 

[ihuntelk]

Day 1 is in the books. She needs a new guide. I was fully expecting to see over 20 bucks today. We saw 4.
Finally glassed up 2 bucks in their beds about 11 this morn.


Made the stalk to 170 yards across a little canyon. She got set up with the rifle on my pack.



Once she was in position I asked what she was going to do. She decided she was going to pass. I told her I'd killed 4 mulies before I shot a 4x4. She said she wanted to keep looking. Do all women like to shop?


Found a big forkie and a little fork x spike later that afternoon but no bigger bucks. We'll get after it tomorrow and hopefully her guide can find her a bigger buck. We shall see.....

Heres a few scenery pics.





Tomorrow is it for her buck deer tag. Her 2 doe tags go until the end of November.

 

[JLS]

Great photos. Glad to hear she is learning to be an assertive young lady!

 

[sweetnectar]

I love is thread.
What kind of scope are you using? It looks sweet.

 

[big28hunter]

Good luck Paige!

 

[1_pointer]

Super! Hope her patience is rewarded with a monster! Crazy cool looking country.

 

[L. I. Yankee]

Good luck Paige...pull the trigger.....

 

[TOM IN TENNESSEE]

Good luck to Paige and an awesome Dad!

 

[ihuntelk]

I've had this deer tag a couple times and had very high expectations going in. I thought we would see 20+ bucks a day and have to sort through the 22" 4x4's to find a 25 or 26 incher. Boy was I wrong. I had told Paige that we would shoot the first buck that made her happy. I didn't tell her about how many or what type of deer I was 'expecting' to see. Grateful I didn't.

We hiked and glassed and glassed and hiked most of today. She was an awesome trooper. I offered to pack the rifle a couple times. She refused! Made me smile. It was her hunt and dad wasn't packing the stinking rifle for her!

Long story made short: we hiked and glassed.


Turned up a couple does and a forky.




She passed so we hiked and glassed some more.


Turned up another forky.



She passed so we hiked and glassed some more. I find I hike less and glass more since I got a pair of Vortex Kaibab 15x56 binos on my Outdoorsmans tripod. Love this set-up.


Apparently it was the perfect set up to find forkhorns today.



We got back from a hike at about 4:45. She was a little tired and wanted to go look at the rims where she passed the buck on the first day. There is a road on top that gets you pretty close. It also has a good view of lots of country. I told her that we'd run up there for 45 minutes and then we'd head out along the ag fields and see if we couldn't catch a buck coming in from the hills. She agreed so off we went. We couldn't find a buck along some of the rims so off we went to the ag fields.

As we rounded a corner where the ag ended and the BLM began, my heart sank as I saw 20+ deer that had just entered the field. We were too late. Paige had that look in her eye as we glassed several bucks amongst all the does.
We had worked really hard for 2 days and here were a bunch of deer that had just come from public land. Maybe we should have spent more time by the fields as her ol' man couldn't find many bucks out in the hills.
As I stayed on the county road, I got a hair brained idea and stopped about 1/2 mile from the deer. I started to honk the horn to see if they'd go back the way they came from. They all picked up their heads but didn't act too nervous. Normally, once they enter the fields they are there to stay. I parked the truck and got out and started walking down the road yelling at them. They normally run across the fields and head for the river but for some wonderful reason they all turned and ran straight at the BLM. I about fell over when the first one jumped the fence with the rest the herd on her tail!

As soon as we were sure they were out of the fields, I jumped back in the truck. From about 300 yards we watched them go over the first big badland hill. Most of them really lingered before heading over the top. A couple does and a buck even came back and stood on the skyline.


When they finally turned and walked over the top, I told Paige to get ready and we were going to give chase. Hopefully they would hold up on the next ridge and we MIGHT have a chance. As they were going over the top it looked like there were 5 or 6 small forkies, a couple small 3's and a couple bucks that looked like they were 20" wide but I couldn't tell points. She didn't care. She was FINALLY ready to shoot the first buck she could.

As I pulled off the road and threw on my pack, I looked at the sun in the Western sky. It set as Paige grabbed her rifle. SHEESH! Stuff like this never works!

We hauled up the hill as fast as we could. As soon as I crested the top I was greeted by a 3pt that saw me at the same time I saw him. He turned tail and ran. There was a little bench in front of us about 15 yards. I took off my pack as I hurried to that spot. Paige was 1 step behind me. 2 steps from the point I wanted to be on, I looked at the head of the canyon and saw a mob of mulies about 150 yards away. I dropped the pack and Paige was immediately on her knees laying the rifle over the pack. About half the deer had seen us and didn't know what to think. I was glassing the edge of the herd for antlers and a safe shot. The 2 deer on the left were both bucks. Before I had even told Paige, the rifle was in position and she was waiting for my signal. "2 bucks on the left. One on the right is bigger. He's quartering to you so shoot him through the neck and shoulder.............." BOOM! WHACK!
He bucked a couple times with a broken shoulder and then tipped over. Dead within 5 seconds of getting hit.
Paige rolled over and gave me the biggest grin, then hug, then YEEHAW!

After her yeehaw it finally hit her how bad she was shaking. I just grinned as she had kept her composure and made a great shot in some pretty difficult circumstances.

Right after he fell over.


Look at that smile!


Walking up to him.


One happy kid!


One happy dad! I'm glad she passed the buck on day one. Every kid should shoot a forky for their first deer!


Great Great trip. She persevered and hung in there til the very end. She was frustrated a couple times but never gave up. I still can't believe we pulled it off with about 15 minutes of legal shooting light to spare. As we finally got him drug up the hill then down the hill and loaded into the rig, we had a great chance to talk about 'life' as we drove back to 'camp'. Great life lessons learned that she picked up on.

I'm just glad that dad is still 'kinda' cool and they want to hang out!

 

[JLS]

Great story Cade. Give her a fist bump for a job well done.

 

[1_pointer]

Great job Paige!! You too Dad! Big memories there.

 

[mtlion]

That is awesome. Took me back to my early years. Thanks for sharing and congrats to the young lady and pops.

 

[noharleyyet]

Top tier thread...great stuff being paid forward.