Dad-Daughter Elk Hunting Experience

[mongopino915]

Took my daughter (13 years old) 1st time elk hunting last season using a muzzle loader. I told her that I was gonna call a bull elk into 20 yards for her to shoot.

On opening day before sun down, I decided to do a breeding sequence set up hoping to call in any elk before heading back to the truck. About 15 minutes into the set up, I heard this awful fake sounding bugle about 100 yards up the hill. I looked at my daughter and quietly asked her "did you hear that hunter bugling? I gonna suck him in". No more than 30 seconds later, I saw antlers coming down the hillside fast towards us. Told my girl "turn around and get ready to shoot as there is a bull right behind me". As she turned around, her jaw dropped to the ground with eyes popped wide open. She "dad, the elk is looking right at me." I did not know how far the bull was as I also had my back towards the elk. Slowly turning my head and looking over my shoulder, a beautiful nice 5x5 was no more than 20 yards away steering down on us. I softly whisper to my girl to "slowly raise your gun, put the sight in the chest and squeeze the trigger". She took a deep breath, slowly raise the gun pointing right at the bull. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, the bull buggered up the hill side just as fast as he came in. We just smiled at each other followed by some high-fives.

When we got back to the truck, my girl said "I am glad we did not killed that bull, otherwise we would still be in the wood well after dark".

I am so blessed to have this wonderful experience with my little girl.

Love to hear some other stories with youngsters.

[Fridaythe13th]

Great story. Give me a couple of years my kids are only 4 and 6. I hope they hunt because I bought them both life time hunting in fishing license, thought it would be a great 16th birthday gift.

[ishy]

That's great. Hoping my middle girl (have a 12,9, and 6 year old) is up for some shorter hunts this year. All three shoot bows and love 3D shoots, but the 9 year old is only one pretty pumped to actually go in the woods.

[Indian Summer]

Aiyanascow.jpg (85.46 KiB) Viewed 3063 times

Just don't overdo it. This is one of my favorite pictures. It's my niece Aiyana at age 14. She lives in the Bitterroot in Montana. My brother dragged her all over hell's half acre prior to this day. I told her when I call it will be time to kill your elk. So I paid very close attention to a spot I know where wintering elk move in really early. One day I was driving up to glass and I nearly um... went to heaven. It had been warm during the days so the snow was meting off but the road I was on gets no sun so it refreezes really fast. I was doing ok until I had to stop to move a burnt tree of the road.

Yeah.... this is going in the same direction as my "horse trailer over the hill" story.

After tossing the tree... and noticing that the road was SUPER slick I got back in and put it in drive. I knew it was a really shaky situation do I left the driver's door open which thank God was on the uphill side. I no more than touched the gas pedal and instead of going forward the truck went BACKWARD and sideways to the downhill side. I guess an important detail would be that the downhill side is wide open with barely any trees... and straight down. Certain death. It was so bad that even with the brakes locked up I was picking up speed. So I rammed it into park, mashed the emergency brake and bailed out.

I was already thinking about the insurance claim and the long walk back to the main road when the whole thing came to a stop. My downhill side tires were literally halfway off the side. Holy crap! So I slowly climbed into the bed, opened the tool box, and got out my jack, tire chains, come along, and big long cable and towing chain. The first thing I did was latch on to the tow ball and then run the cable up to the only thing around which was a burnt stump. Great. Then I cranked the come along until the cable was as tight as a banjo string. Now the fun part.

I started on the uphill side. (pretty smart eh?) I jacked up the front tire first and worked a chain underneath eventually getting it on. Then I did the same to the uphill rear. Then I went to the downhill side (gulp) and did the same thing. Once I set the truck back down on all fours I felt better. A whole lot better! Then I unhooked everything... and drove up the sheet of ice with no trouble at all. My chains have the ice cleats on them.

I left out one important thing.... when I got out of the truck the road just ahead was covered in elk tracks. They headed up the road the same direction I was going. When I got to the top there were tracks everywhere and I could see the herd had been feeding all night in the meadow. I busted out the binos and spotting scope and found several more herds dotted along the ridge that ran to the north. THEY'RE HERE!!! The place is no big secret so it's important to be one of the first to know the elk were in the area.I glassed awhile longer because well... who doesn't enjoy watching elk right? Then I drove down the hill and made the call. "This is uncle Joe.... get some sleep tonight hon because in the morning you are going to kill your first elk." "Are you sure" "Yes dear I am sure. I told you when I called it would be time"

The next morning we got started early. Can anyone guess the first thing I did? Put the dang chains on before even starting up death road! As I got to the spot where I was stuck the day before the road was completely covered in tracks. There's a 180 degree bend at the very top before the road stops in a wide area where I park. They were bedded in my parking spot! Some of them got up but others didn't move. I turned the headlights off put it in neutral and backed down to the bend. Eventually they all walked slowly off over the rise at the peak. We had to wait a half hour or 45 minutes until it was light. But I knew the area really well and there was no way those elk would manage to lose me. I was full prepared to drag her like dad did and see to it that she got her elk.

We got out of the truck and pushed the door quietly shut. She loaded the gun that my mother gave her and we crept up to the top which was only 100 yards away. As we looked over the top I couldn't believe my eyes. They had gone nowhere! They were all just standing around feeding in a wife open meadow about 100 yards away AND the wind was perfect. There was some thick fog blowing in and out. Aiyana had done really well at the shooting range. I told her to take her time. She got a rest on a rockpile. As the fogs cleared at one point I said ok honey pick one out and make sure there are no other elk behind here and slowly... BOOM! She didn't even let me finish my sentence. She is only shooting a .243. The herd of about 75 head took off over the hill. But one giant cow just stood there. She didn't take a single step but just stared in our direction. Hmm. After several minutes she walked away and within sight she bedded down. The wind was still good so I said cmon... I'll show you how to do the Sneakin' Mohican. We moved to the left and closed the distance using the fog to our advantage. My brother went back to the truck for something... I can't remember what. After a bit I had her at 60 yards. Sweet! But all we could see was from the neck up. I had her get her gun set up and told her to just wait for a little. After awhile it was obvious that she wasn't getting up but she just sat there in an alert position. So I decided we had to finish her off. I said now listen... we're going to have to make a head shot. You were incredible at the range hon and we have all the time in the world so when you feel BOOM, she cut me off mid sentence again. I didn't actually see the elk go down but I knew she was there. We scooted over there and sure enough there was a bullet hole in the side of the head right at the base of the ear. Dang woman you nailed her clean!

We took care of quartering and pics and a million high fives and then we strapped a from quarter, bone in, to her pack and slung it over her shoulders. Man alive I was on cloud 9! After that day every time she was in elk camp she would always rib my brother and say... is it ok if I hunt with uncle Joe today... he always puts me on elk. I love that!

I'm going to start buying points for her in Wyoming this year. I want her to get a bull. She's pretty tough. She's a sled dog musher and the same year she killed this cow she went to Alaska and placed 3rd behind multi time Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey's son Dallas. Worst snow for the event in 30 years and lots of mushers got lost and didn't even finish. But that's another story.

The next day I marched back up there and out the north ridge.... and killed my bull. What a couple days that was.

[Stick]

Interesting post. My daughter is sixteen and a very accomplished deer hunter. I've been putting in for a muzzleloader tag in Co. For her. She will draw it when she is 18. That is my graduation present to her! Can't wait.

[Kevrod3]

Great story Joe!!! My daughter is 2! So she has about 5 years until she can hunt, but rest assured she'll be in the woods
with me! I started my youngest son at when he just turned 7 and he took two deer his first year! He's hooked for life!

[ElkNut1]

Thanks for the great stories!! Love the innocence of that first one! Been there & done that! (grin)

ElkNut1

[Lefty]

I ve had a lot of great experiences with my daughters.
This was the first year my middle daughter hunted elk with me. Walking in,.. she messed up,.. didn't follow dads advise on a 25 4x4 mulie, she wasn't ready for a 25 yard shot.
An hour later; I gave out a locate bugle bull and his herd came charging up the mountain side . That big 6x6 (300-310?) parked quartering into her at 22 yards nad never gave her a shot for 8 minutes