Tori’s First Deer

I am very lucky to have 2 kids that are interested in sharing my passion for deer hunting. My son has taken 2 deer with a rifle and my daughter was about to take her turn deer hunting with her bow.

Two years ago Tori decided she wanted to use her Christmas money to purchase her very own bow. Naturally, I jumped at the idea and didn’t waste any time taking her to the nearby archery shop. Thanks to all the guys at Mouldy’s Archery here in Chippewa Falls, we were able to get her set up and ready to go. After countless hours of practice she was now ready to head into the woods for her first time as a “deer hunter”.

Trail cam captures the tracking

The kids had Thursday and Friday off from school so I made plans to take Tori out to the hunting land for the extended weekend. She really enjoys heading out there and playing with her cousin Ashleigh and spending time with dad in the woods. But this year was different for both of us, as I was going as the observer and she as the hunter.

After an uneventful Friday morning and evening sit, we decided that on Saturday we would set up on the bean field since the most recent information we received from my brother Dan was that there was an 8 pointer making himself visible during shooting hours. We headed to the field around 4:00 and quickly got ourselves strapped in the tree and ready to go. Soon we were greeted with a button buck and then a doe and 2 fawns that followed. No sign of the 8 pointer and the deer that did show never made it into bow range. We had decided that on Sunday we would return to the same stand.

Tori’s first harvest

Before heading to the woods Sunday we spent about 30 minutes shooting at the Glendale full rut target in hopes of putting that practice to good use later. This has been our practice since the beginning of the season. At 4:00 we headed back out to the bean field again in hopes of tagging a deer. Well it turned out the wind was blowing harder than the day before and the deer action was very slow. Looking down at Tori in her tree stand I could see the disappointment in her eyes at the lack of deer action but that didn’t last long. Just before dark we spotted the button buck from the night before and our spirits lifted. Five minutes later I spotted a deer directly downwind of us and heading in our direction. Turned out to be another button buck all by himself and he made his way to our mineral site about 20 yards away. As Tori attempted to draw, the deer decided to walk directly under our stands. Once he made it past the stand and to the bean field Tori was able to draw back and make a beautiful double lung shot at 12 yards. It was a short tracking job as her Fred Bear Apprentice Bow let the Easton XX75 Arrow tipped with a 75 grain 3 blade Muzzy do its job. I was concerned about her not getting good enough penetration because she was only pulling 32 lbs. but she got a complete pass through and he only went 60 yards. It’s a great 1st deer for an 11 year old girl and she is already begging me to go after that 8 pointer this weekend. Words cannot describe how excited and proud I am of her. Great job, Baby Girl, and thanks for a memory of a lifetime!