I have a 10 year old Daughter with a hunting license for the second time bagging me to let her shoot a deer this year. I have a place that I know she can do it. This kid loves animals. She loves to watch them she loves to draw them and she says she wants to be a vet. When I cook game she eats every bite. At 8 She enjoyed retrieving doves with my lab for me. She has seen plenty of hanging meat but Killing one herself and watching one Die is just something I can't be sure she is ready for. I think if she still wants to do it after watching her brother I may let her try. I just don't want her doing it for me...

So lets hear it.

Sounds like she wants to head out. She knows what it entails and wants get out in the woods.

Definitely take her along and let her watch. I have 3 daughters, and have no idea if they will want to hunt or not. The oldest is 6. I have always made sure that they knew meat was a dead animal, that someone killed, and that animals are not the same as what they watch on the Disney channel.

Last year the butcher truck was in the field by our house. I stopped just in time to let my oldest watch them shoot a cow, and hang it by its feet, slit its throat, and start gutting it. I explained the entire process, and that they were making meat for people to eat. She was fascinated and not bummed out by it (I have to admit that when I was in Jr high and high school I raised cows and occasionally accompanied the butcher in the field, and I was always a little bummed when they killed a cow I raised from a bottle).

Sounds like your daughter is ready for the experience.

I plan on taking my 6 y.o. out to watch a duck hunt this fall. My kids have been around lots of dead ducks. It really weirded out my wife when my daughters got ahold of 2 limits of mallard and teal carcasses, and were playing with them. The mallards were the mommies and daddys and the teal were the kids. Some had on little coats and hats, and even the one who's head got ripped off, was laying on a paper towel "in the hospital".

Sweety, I don't think this one is going to make it but lets let daddy operate on it and see how it goes...

You could always dress the deer up in a clown suit.

My sister used to beg me to let her gut my limits of fish!! She also loves gutting elk!!!! She gets really pissed if you start gutting an animal without her. She grew up doing everything I did with our dad and grandfather, which is the only way to grow up. She is tough as nails, and loves to hunt.

Take her out.

Be ready to be there for her if a kill shot is needed.

Ryan

Absolutely let her get involved in the hunting experience. If she wants to then let her. The world if full of female hunters and at age 10 there isn't much difference between girls and boys (from an excitment and interest standpoint). Either they want to do something or they don't. If you wait til they grow up you may never get a chance to introduce her to the outdoors. Once they get to be a few years older and begin to pay attention to what the other kids of their same gender are doing and thinking, they begin to develope ideals often based on what their peers think and expect and not so much what they think personally. The time to introduce them to new things is when they are excited about it and haven't chosen which side of the fence to stand on yet. Let them make up their own mind whether they enjoy something or not rather than having others tell them how they should behave or act. One thing I would advise after raising a daughter who was much the same and wanted to give hunting a try is to not only introduce her to the "killing" part of hunting but spend a great deal of time teaching them HOW to hunt and about the out doors in general. Get out of the trucks and hike on your hunts and teach them how to read sign and really enjoy the whole experience. I started taking my daughter bow hunting and waterfowl hunting with me several years before she could hunt and rarely would I bother to kill anything when she was along. More importantly we would spend time watching animals and birds and build that excitement of being close to game or following sign and jumping deer out of their beds. One of my most cherished memories will be of sitting up in a double tree stand with my 10 yr old daughter and seeing the look on her face after her first experience of watching a nice whitetail buck walked right under our tree not having a clue we were 16' above his head. She learned to get excited about the hunt and that the kill was the culmination of lots of work and patience paying off. When she turned 13 she was excited to try hunting herself and that first season she took an antelope doe after a 1/2 mile stalk through the sage brush and a 1 shot kill. That was one proud 13yr old girl. The next season when she was 14 she killed an antelope buck in Oct. and then on thanksgiving weekend we went over east to the Missouri breaks and she killed a cow elk with a 125 yd heart shot. I have never been so proud in my life. All the time spent in the field and at the shooting range was just part of the process. The next year she entered high school and everything changed and her interest in hunting was replaced with other life interests. I never did push her to do more hunting but I will bet you anything that someday she will get back into it or at the very least be excited about it with her own children because that seed was planted. Just go easy on them and be patient and keep in mind that these kids don't know how to hunt, its our job to teach them and enjoy the time spent doing it whether a kill is involved or not. My recommendation to you would be that you take your daughter by yourself and leave the boys behind. This will be special time for the both of you and believe me it won't be too many years later when they're growing up and becomming whoever their going to be that you'd give your eye teeth to be able to spend that kind of quality time with her again. My 10 yr old will now be 18 in a Dec. and I am going home tonight to look at senior pictures. It's quite overwhelming some days to think she will be going off to college next fall and becoming a young adult and be out on her own. The best part is when I need a pick me up I'll be able to look back through the hunting album and look at the pics of her napping in the goose blind or holding her first steelhead and it will get me through. You bet take your daughter hunting, the key word being hunting. Don't get to caught up in having to kill something, if the hunt ends in a kill so be it. If it doesn't then terrific..Let her make the choice at the time and support her whether she decides to pull the trigger or not. Enjoy...RJ in Montana

Just wanted to apologize for my previous long winded post!! I didn't realize how much babble was spewing out as I typed. It was just a very special time in my life and its easy to get caught up talking/typing about it and run off at the mouth...

You shouldn't apologize RDJ. It is a good post.

I have 3 daughters, so it kept me interested and bummed me out a little too. I don't want them to grow up.

EXCELLENT post RDJ

Wow. I will do exactly what you recommended.

The boy is a done deal at 13 and I have no doubt he will hunt and fish with or without me the rest of his life.

I have always been jealous of the few lucky guys that I have known that found women like your daughter. I am sure that I would still be married if my X would of hunted or even began to understand what it was about.

Thanks again...Art

RDJ, excellent post! I have a 5yo boy who's been in the boat (offshore and everything) since he was 3 months old. He thinks it's his second home. I won't go on and bore you with his "firsts, etc

He's been shooting a .22 for a year now, and very decent with it (ok...I lied, I am telling about his 1st's..killed 2 groundhogs with head shots this year! LOL) Anyhow, just make it fun! Excellent advice from all above!!! Remember when the kidddo's go out, it's all about them. If it's an hour drive, and they're cold after 30mins, pack it in and try another "spot". You know what I'm saying!

I've jump shot ducks with my kid at 3yo's and he dug it. I took him on his first deer hunt (muzzleloading ) 2 weeks ago. He didn't get to see dad MISS the biggest mulie I've seen during deer season as he was with my partner (that's another strory). But, the next day we saw over a dozen 2 points, and had a bunch of 12 walk within 30yds of us! He had his own bino's up and watched 4 little bucks spar with each other. Once they mosied on, he was JACKED!!! (sorry for another story)

Anyway, if the kids are interested give them the exposure IMO! Just tell it like it is to them, but make it fun!

Excellent post RDJ. That is some advice I will try to remember with my own daughter.

Mission complete. proud pics to fallow. She drilled a doe with a 135yd hart shot.
She dug every minute of it and stayed with it till it was skinned, bagged and in the truck. Big brother connected too.

Oh so true. My little sister in law used to help me clean birds and hold them up for picks. Now she is older and thinks its gross. It was everything I could do to get her to lip a small bass she had caught. She still wants to go out to field or the water but she gets further a further detached from the "icky" part.

Looking forward to the report Achewter.

Very cool! congrats to your daughter and yourself for getting her out there. where are the pictures?

I have a son and daughter who grew up mostly fishing and some hunting. I wish I'd taken them hunting more. My daughter always wanted to disect the fish to see all parts. She thought she'd be a vet but now at age 28 she's in nursing school. My son appreciates the wilderness but married a wonderful woman, city girl who gets seasick, so has choosen a different way of life and is happy. It's my daughter, having married an outdoorsman recently who is the all out fishing/hunting enthusiast.

I used to wonder about gutting an elk since I'd never make a nurse or wanted/could to look at an animal injury with blood. That was many elk and years ago. Bleeding, gutting, butchering are just chores. It's different and simply 'work'. Part of a good harvest. I suggest that your daughter should engage fully in the experience if she wants to. BTW, good Daddy for taking the kids with you.

Thanks fishrlady
to funny. The boy gagged and spitted and covered his nose the whole time while I gutted his second deer. The daughter was glued to the hole deal. For the first time after we hung her deer I put a sharp hunting knife in her hand. She was begging to help so she and I took the hide off together. I hadn't even thought about that part of it until after she had shot. Should be fun to put together a hunting backpack for her this Christmas. Knife, binocs, flashlight, TP, lighter ect. and I'll sneak in some jewelery or some girly girl stuff too just to remind her she is still Daddy's little GIRL.
Cant wait to have her first set of Elk Ivories turned into jewelry for her.
hehehe God I am loving this.

Excellent Art!

Keep her involved full steam ahead.....she just passed a big test.

Looking forward to the pics.

pics






Not my choice for pics but its all I have gotten my nephew to email me so far. My POS camera showed up DOA.
The more i think about the whole thing the more impressed I am with my little girl. At age 10 I new my son wasn't ready and fear he thinks all that it takes to shoot a deer is a long drive to his Uncles house and a hike out to the old blind. He did hold out to the end of the second day for a buck better than last years but just could not turn down the dig doe standing broadside at just under 90yds. He watched her for a few minutes then without saying a word I saw the old thumb come up and take off the safety. 5 seconds later it was all over. I think the thought of little sister taking home meat and having her brag about getting a deer while he hadn't was a bit more than he could handle. Alix had a couple of chances. The first was a walking shot at about 55 yards but she was having trouble getting on it and the safety never came off. A little while later we saw a few does drop down into the creek bed and decided to make a sneak on em. About fifty yards from the blind was a fence row on the crest of a hill above the creek. We had cover for about half the distance and at that point I had spotted one of the deer already. It must have been a hilarious site to see this little girl belly crawling towards the fence fallowed by what must of looked like a florescent orange rhino. When we got to the fence I was relieved we had not spooked the deer and Alix now had a great rest for a shot that was longer than I was expecting her to have to make. She got the gun up and on the deer but didn't have a decent angle for a shot.
The waiting was probably a good thing as I could see she was starting to shake a bit with excitement. Watching yer little girl get buck fever for the first time even if it is over a doe is beyond awesome. Finally the first deer slipped behind a tree and headed down to cross the creek. She turned to look at me and whispered what do we do now. I smiled and pointed back down the hill at another deer. Now she was determined. She readjusted the gun on the fence and pulled down on the deer. It walked up a few yards, came broadside and dropped its head behind some brush. She said she was ready so I told her I was taking the safety off for her. I asked her if the cross hairs were in the rite spot and she says do ya mean the plus thingy. (something we had joked about at the range) I was glad to hear it because I new she was thinking clearly about what she was doing. I told her to relax and shot as soon as she was steady on exactly where she wanted to hit it. BOOM I saw the impact and new it was game over. She looked at me then looked back at the gun and I could see the excitement hit her again. She new she was supposed to do something with the gun but it just wasn't registering with her. I reached over and put the safety back on and she gave me one of those Oh yeas. She asked me If I thought she had hit it so I gave her one back. Then she says I think I might of been a little low so I asked her how low. She held up her fingers spaced apart about an inch. Then I asked her about left to right and she said without battin eye "that was good".
What now she says. Wait I say. I asked her if she could tell me where it was when she shot and she nailed the spot right down to the bush it had dropped its head behind. I then showed her the last place I had seen it and why it was important we remember it. She then asked me how long we should wait. I told her about a half hour and she looked at me like I was nuts. I explained why and that's about as long as I could wait. I fallowed her down to where it had been standing and with about 10 feet to go she yells "look blood". I thought she must have been mistaken but when I walked up to where she was crouched down it looked like someone went nuts with a can of red krylon. She tracked the blood to the creek and could see more on the other side. I threw a hat over to it and we found a place to cross and came back to it. From there it took her about 10 seconds flat to find her prize. That moment when she turned to look at me ranked rite up there with finding out my first kid was going to be a boy and that my second was going to be a girl. Weird on a clear day like that after I got a big hug I had a few drops of rain on my face. I quickly turned to look at the deer to avoid starting a storm when I noticed the shot placement and was able to turn the rain into hi fives. About this time I was starting to worry about the remorse she may have for killing such a pretty animal. She loves just about any little critters she can get her hands on and has said for years she is going to be a vet when she grows up. She wasn't impressed at all with a coyote Drake had shot last year and said she would never do it. The remorse never came and she just kept impressing me with the whole thing. I had a pair of Francis's surgical gloves with me in case this happened and when I gave em to her she asked if I was going to wear some. When I said no she asked why she had to.
I told her it was to keep her shirt clean. After some pics and about 35 picture text messages to all her friends I had her hold a leg while I started to gut . By the time I was done tying off and removing the bladder and rectum she was holding open the belly and watching every thing I was doing and asking what every thing was. We got the deer back across the creek and hung in a tree to skin it out and she was still there asking if she could help. My buddy and I had the back legs skinned out and had pulled it down to the front legs so I told him that she and I would take it from there and we did. It was then that I realized that she had shot a gun many times and seen me clean a hundred salmon but I had never put a sharp knife in her hands before. When I disconnected the head she snatched up the hide and turned it rite side out again. When the head popped out of the neck and my buddy made some comment about circumcision I held my breath and hoped I wouldn't have to explain. Thank god she just let it go.
As much as she impressed me that day it wasn't over.

Before we had even made it back to the truck via one of her picture text messages her mom happened to be at one of her friends house and had found out she had done it. While Alix had shown she was totally ready for the experience my X was not. The freak out show had begun. After an awesome day with both my kids punching their deer tags I was greeted by a screaming banshee on my cell phone telling me that things were never going to be the same again with her and her daughter and I had taken her innocent daughter away from her and I was going to pay for it. After a few more phone calls the next day on the way back to the west side of the state I had gotten no where with her. She would not listen to one word to legitimize what I had supposedly done to her daughter. I had the kids until they went to school on Monday morning and was a bit freaked out about what my daughter was going to have to go through when she got home from school that night. I talked to the x a couple of times before she went home that night and managed to take a bit of the edge off before she saw Alix. In one of those calls I was informed before we had left the banshee had told her it was wrong that she wanted to shoot a deer. We had an agreement that I wouldn't push her into it and she wouldn't push her away from it and I had lived up to it. I even tried to talk Alix into waiting another year but she insisted she wanted to do it. Then I found out when the x told Alix she shouldn't do it my little baby went off on mommy for the first time. No screaming ,no crying, no begging just flat out told her how it was going to be and that dad said if I was sure I wanted to do it I could and I am going to do it.
The x had the kids for the rest of the week and I didn't get them back until this morning. Some how that little girl had everything smoothed out for her dear old dad today and mom agreed to give the old schedule another try if I would show her the respect she deserves for all the extra stuff she thinks she is doing for the kids.
I asked Alix what she had said to her mom to calm her down and she said I just snuggled up to her a lot and told her I loved her a bunch of times.
I am going to have to watch out for my sneaky little hunter or she will have me buying her moose tags in Canada before I realize I have even been played....

Nice pics, and story!

Wow. Just awesome!

Everything about the story was great, even sticking it to your EX.

Great story Art. and cool kids. Treasure the moment; they grow up unbelievably fast.

Sg