He's a grown man now, but I had my first digital camera with me when he was 12 and tagged his first mule deer:
He'd done well in Hunter's Safety, and had tagged along with me while deer hunting for a couple of years. I put my old 6mm Remington 700 in a Remington "youth" stock to fit him better and we sighted the rifle in at 200 yards using Nosler's excellent 95 grain Ballistic Tip & RL-22 for about 3,000 fps. He'd practiced diligently with that rifle and load and had done well. I'd shot that load into just over 1/2" groups at 100 yards and knew it was a good one.
Hunted hard, but got nothing for three days. He could legally take a doe, but it just wasn't happening. Finally on his fourth and final day to hunt we took a quiet walk up a canyon...
There they were! Well up on the ridge above, and a half mile from us, a small herd of mule deer. Excellent. Instantly we moved to the side and got out of sight of the deer, stalking as close as we could. Finally at about 300 yards we were running out of cover. We edged closer, crawling slowly. At about 270 - 280 yards there was simply nothing left to hide behind.
He set the rifle on the bipod. I told him to hold right on the deer's back, not over, but right on it. Bang!
The doe suddenly collapsed and rolled down the hillside, vanishing into a deep draw.
I congratulated my son and deliberately let him walk the low ground, in the draw, while I scouted higher on the ridge, looking. He of course came upon the very dead deer, and was elated!
We dragged it out of the draw, took a few photos, then I went to get the truck. I figured I could get the truck pretty close to where he'd dropped the doe. When I returned with the truck about a half an hour later he'd dragged the deer to the faint two-track road. He helped me field dress the deer and then we headed out, with him grinning from ear to ear.
The little 95 grain Ballistic Tip had gone through the deer's heart. He'd placed it exactly as intended, destroying the heart and lungs. The bullet had then exited, and shattered the off-side leg on it's way out. Excellent performance, as expected.
Not sure who was more proud of his one shot kill... But the memory still makes me grin to this day.
How 'bout posting up photos and stories of your kids first big game animal?
Guy
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