A proud moment for Dad and Daughter.

For the last couple of years my daughter, Raley Slone, has wanted to kill a deer. She has taken several rabbits, squirrels and some quail. It was now time for her to move to the bigger game. Our first obstacle was to getting her to shoot a bigger caliber gun. We were battling a stint of her being gun shy. So to get her a gun that would do the job and not scare her away, we got a 30 carbine riffle. It needs to be powerful enough to do the job but not to powerful to scare her off. Raley started to practice with the 30 carbine until she felt comfortable at about 50 yards.

On December the 30th 2006 it was the free youth weekend for deer hunting. This would be our first official deer hunt of many to come. We were hunting a small private farm that had plenty of deer activity on it. Our main goal was to at least see some deer, and if lucky enough, to get a shot at one. We had a blind set up near a feeder at the edge of a field and the wood line. We had seen several deer here before, so we very optimistic we would see some deer. As we set quietly watching the squirrels play at the feeder I had time to reflect what a special time this was for me. Raley set their waiting patiently as the sun was slowly disappearing behind the hill. Darkness was approaching us fast and then I spotted some movement at the top of the hill. There were two deer coming in the woods from the back field. I turned to Raley to if she was ready, and her eyes were as big as pie plates. The deer were coming right to us, but our light was dissipating fast. As we set and waited for the deer to get close enough our daylight just wouldn't stay around long enough. The deer came within 10 yards of our blind. Raley was ecstatic with excitement wanting to shoot the deer, but with little to no light left we decided it was too late to take the shot. This was the last day of the deer season for 2006.

We patiently wait for October 13th 2007 to arrive for the youth only fire arms deer season to come in. We venture back to the same blind we were in the season before hoping for different results this time. Again, as we wait patiently, we talk softly about our strategies for when the deer reappear. This time, when I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye, we have plenty of daylight left. I turn to Raley and tell her to get ready, the deer are coming quickly. In a matter of two to three minutes we have a doe with in 30 yards of us and two more coming. Raley sets nervously waiting for the doe to give her a good shot. At less than fifteen yards the doe stops, Raley puts her pin on the deer's front shoulder and squeezes the trigger. After a loud BOOM and deer running everywhere we see the deer running up the hill in front of us as to be running away and then it falls over into a brush pile. Raley has just taken her first deer at the tender age of 11 years old. As a father and hunting partner I could not have been prouder of the way she handled herself and her firearm. The shot was a perfectly placed on the deer's front shoulder. Something else that impressed me about this young lady, Raley even help field dress the deer. Now that is a total deer hunting story from the scouting to hunting to the cleaning of the deer.

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