Daddy-Daughter Thanksgiving Hunt Success!!!
I've been looking forward to this hunt all year! My oldest has shot only does during the last two seasons so this year she was upgrading to something with antlers. She is very comfortable shooting her Savage Axis .243, last two kills were both heart shots so I had high hopes as long as the deer cooperated. After Thanksgiving lunch and afternoon with family, we headed to the hill country. The alarm rang Friday morning and we stepped outside to a cold-crisp breeze. It felt like it was going to be a good hunt! We drove out to a new setup for this season that has two feeders, one to the east and the other to the south. The intent is to later put a pen around the east feeder and leave the south feeder as a 'pig feeder'. Day break arrives and we start seeing movement through the brush. On the hour the feeders go off and our binos are up and scanning. A couple of bucks ease in to the south feeder and some does at the east. Looking for a cull, we continue waiting. Two hogs move in to the south feeder and the bucks head over to the east feeder. We start to get her ready for a shot at one of the hogs, but there must have been something they didn't like because they moved into the brush and didn't return. No biggie, still early and plenty of time. I proceed to take pics of the deer at the east feeder. After looking closely, one of the bucks at the east feeder had snuck in while we were looking at the hogs and he was a nice one. Fully mature 11pt with a good spread. One problem though, I had already convinced myself that this was her weekend and she was the one that was going to be doing the shooting 
and we were looking for a cull. The 11 wanders off following a doe and I'm like ooops?! 
What did I do??? Deer move in and out, and a few minutes later he's back and a 7pt with a funky left beam comes in as well! Oh the irony lol, I tell her to get the gun ready as her deer has just shown up. They are on the corn and I'm watching through the binos. I hear the safety click and once he was perfectly broadside....BOOM! The 7 mule-kicks and starts running. I immediately see good blood flowing out of both sides every stride, he doesn't go far and at about 30yards behind the feeder he stops under some cedars and starts the unmistakable backwards wobble. HE'S DOWN I yell!.....hugs and high fives commence. 
She fills out her license while we give him some time to expire. We then go to tag her First Buck! You can see the blind and feeder in the background. He didn't go far at all. We get some good pics to send to the fam and head to camp. She helped with every step of the way, from loading, cleaning/quartering, ect. That evening we made a trip into town to checkout the Christmas lights, good times and perfect hot chocolate weather.
We decided to keep hunting that particular blind to see if the 11 would show up, just to get another good look at him
but unfortunately he did not show. On our last morning hunt, the same two hogs that busted our deer at the south feeder showed up at the east feeder. She knew the drill, and settled in behind the shoulder of an 80lb sow, placing the 100gr Federal through both lungs. The hog kicked, stumbled and took off. She was worried it wasn't a good shot but I told her we'll find it. She looks through the binos and says she could see the blood trail 
I was like, dang! To have young eyes again lol When we went to go look, sure enough there was a dang good blood trail. We followed it up the hill and found her hog piled up under a cedar. Shot was a little further back but it easily did the trick. A weekend double! Super proud of her!
Thanks for reading and happy hunting!
-Proud Dad
and we were looking for a cull. The 11 wanders off following a doe and I'm like ooops?! What did I do??? Deer move in and out, and a few minutes later he's back and a 7pt with a funky left beam comes in as well! Oh the irony lol, I tell her to get the gun ready as her deer has just shown up. They are on the corn and I'm watching through the binos. I hear the safety click and once he was perfectly broadside....BOOM! The 7 mule-kicks and starts running. I immediately see good blood flowing out of both sides every stride, he doesn't go far and at about 30yards behind the feeder he stops under some cedars and starts the unmistakable backwards wobble. HE'S DOWN I yell!.....hugs and high fives commence. She fills out her license while we give him some time to expire. We then go to tag her First Buck! You can see the blind and feeder in the background. He didn't go far at all. We get some good pics to send to the fam and head to camp. She helped with every step of the way, from loading, cleaning/quartering, ect. That evening we made a trip into town to checkout the Christmas lights, good times and perfect hot chocolate weather. We decided to keep hunting that particular blind to see if the 11 would show up, just to get another good look at him
but unfortunately he did not show. On our last morning hunt, the same two hogs that busted our deer at the south feeder showed up at the east feeder. She knew the drill, and settled in behind the shoulder of an 80lb sow, placing the 100gr Federal through both lungs. The hog kicked, stumbled and took off. She was worried it wasn't a good shot but I told her we'll find it. She looks through the binos and says she could see the blood trail I was like, dang! To have young eyes again lol When we went to go look, sure enough there was a dang good blood trail. We followed it up the hill and found her hog piled up under a cedar. Shot was a little further back but it easily did the trick. A weekend double! Super proud of her! Thanks for reading and happy hunting!
-Proud Dad
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