Despite having spent a fair amount of time behind a rifle scope, I wanted to make sure she was as comfortable as possible with her own rifle. We spent a few trips going into the mountains to ensure she was familiar with every aspect of the firearm and how to operate it quickly and under pressure.
We took shots at targets out to 500 yards. Once she was comfortably hitting them with predictability, we added a time crunch. Putting a 10-second time limit to get on the rifle and make a good shot became a fun and useful game. With both rifle and shooter working in harmony, we counted down the days until the deer hunt started.
The Hunt
The first couple of days of the deer hunt were not as exciting as we had hoped. The weather was very uncooperative. The heavy rains turned to snow, making it very hard to see much in the mountains we hunt. If that weren’t enough, the wind was completely out of hand, at times blowing 30 to 40 mph. Due to the wind, snow, and rain, we had to let several bucks walk. So when the weather finally cleared up a bit, we felt confident that our time had come.
With limited time away from work to hunt and children to care for at home, we snuck away to the nearby mountains as frequently as we could. As the sun came up that morning, we sat behind binoculars and a spotting scope looking over the ridge before us. I had seen a few bucks there the night before, and I hoped they were still there.
After locating a group of deer on a shelf above us, we decided to make a move towards them should a shot present itself. But in one of hunting’s most classic blunders, our approach was blown when a young buck spotted us as we moved. Despite giving a few seconds for a shot, my newly minted hunter wasn’t able to connect. Feeling somewhat defeated and depressed, we returned home plotting our next venture into the hills.