My 11 year old daughter and 8 year old son have gone hunting with me a few times, but really began showing an interest in hunting this year. So I started them off on the range this past summer and they appeared to be pretty good snipers with the 22-250.

The week before Christmas, I took my son out hunting while my daughter was away at a friend's ranch. We settled into the blind around 3:30 and I figured we would be covered up in deer before the feeder even went off. Well, waiting an hour until the feeder goes off for a child (my son at least) is tough to do especially when no other animals are moving. I kept telling him to wait until the feeder goes off and we will be covered up in deer. Finally 4:30 comes, the feeder goes off and...nothing. No deer. We keep waiting. My son is getting bored and it is now 5:00. We stick to it and finally around 5:15 a few deer start to trickle out. All of a sudden my son goes from almost sleeping to breathing heavy and glassing the animals. We find a young 5pt buck to take and without hesitation he steadies himself and fires off a round. The deer runs into the woods out of our sight and my son is upset. He thinks he missed, but I told him not to worry because it looked like a solid hit. We give it about as much time as my son will allow (5 minutes) and walk up to the spot where we think he was shot. Then I look to my left and there is the deer laying about 10 yards away. He made a perfect shot right through the heart. The 55 grain bullet made a complete pass through. We high five, hug, take pictures and call Mom to let her know about the adventure. Here is one of the pics...


We get home and my daughter gets back from the ranch with her friend. She isn't too happy that her younger brother got to shoot a deer before her. So she is ready to go out as soon as I am ready. Two days later my daughter and I get into the field.
Now I have a dilemna...my son shot a 5 pt buck. My daughter is older and although she doesn't care if it is a buck, doe, spike, etc... I know that she probably wants something similar or bigger than little brother's deer. But if she shoots something bigger, my son might be a bit upset. Oh well, we will just see what comes out.
We get to the blind, around 4:00 and when the feeder goes off at 4:30...deer begin trickling in right away. We are lining up for a shot on a spike and my daughter is getting very excited. Just when we have everything lined up, a little 5 pt buck walks out. I told her to hold off on the shot on the spike and let's line up for the 5 pointer. This buck must have been the older brother of the buck that my son shot. It too is missing a brow tine, but is much larger in body size and needed to be shot. It was probably a 3.5 or 4.5 year old deer. After waiting for the other deer to clear, my daughter controls her breathing and takes the shot. The deer runs off into the woods and once again there is disappointment in the blind. I am not as confident this time with the shot as the deer didn't react much and I didn't hear or see it hit. But I tell her to give it 20 minutes and then we will go check. We go down there and look off to the right. Once again, the deer is laying about 10 yards away. The shot hit a little bit low, but still clipped the heart. My daughted starts yelling, high fiving, doing cartwheels, you name it... We take pics, call Mom, and I can hear in the background of the phone conversation, "how many points does it have" by my son. Luckily, another 5 pt DRT.


What a thrill for the kids and more of a thrill for me. I was beyond excited and can see why people get more joy out of the children hunting than hunting themselves.

Cool pics congrats to them

That is awesome! Congrats to both of them and to a proud poppa!

Very Nice Congrats

It's a Family Affair! Congrats to all..

That's great, congrats to them!

Congrats!!!

The excitement in a child taking a deer is amazing to me. I shake like a leaf when my kiddos get one in the scope. Great deer congrats to all.

Great job to all.

Awesome! That's what it's all about..

X2

AWESOME...

Congrats to them and u!

Love those smiles.

Congrats!

Thats great, the smiles say everything.

Congrats!

How neat that they both got 5 pointers and have equal bragging rights! Good job!

X2

congrats to both

That is just great to see those smiles!

Congrats, No matter what the adults of the family killed this year memories will be for 2 kids and theis fantastic 5pt buck.

Those smiles say alotm,

Cool.... Way to take the kids

Cool.... Way to take the kids

Awesome! Congrats to both!