Deer Hunting Rifle: Emma's First Deer

Emma’s First Deer

First Year Deer Hunting – Emma’s Deer

Emma’s first deer was an exciting time for her, her dad, myself, and would be for any young deer hunter just starting out. Emma is my 15 year old great niece. Her Dad, Todd is my nephew. This was the first year that they have had the opportunity to hunt on our farm and the surrounding area. Todd is a construction worker by trade. He owns his own sheet rock taping business. This last fall Todd volunteered to help me with some work on my farm in Northern Minnesota in exchange for a guided hunt for Emma and himself on, and around my farm. Knowing Todd’s work and my love for both of them, I couldn’t pass this opportunity to share my passion for deer hunting with them. I told Todd that I couldn’t promise a trophy deer, but that I could positively get them in front of some nice whitetail deer that I had been seeing on and around our farm. I got them fired up for deer hunting by telling them of the several nice trophy deer that were in our hunting area. I knew of at least 2 nice 8 – point bucks, and a nice 12 to 14 point trophy deer, that was roaming our farm and hunting area. They got to see a lot of does and small bucks the two weekends they were here, helping me, before the rifle deer hunting season. I told them our hunting area needed help harvesting several of these does as I felt our buck-to-doe ratio was getting out of balance (too many does in respect to the number of bucks, a problem many hunting areas are experiencing these days). They both were excited, and said they would be happy to help if the deer hunting opportunity presented itself. I reassured them it would. Todd wanted some tender venison for his freezer anyway.

Youth Deer Hunting – Women Hunters

I just love helping youth deer hunters. I feel every experienced mature deer hunter should help mentor and educate young deer hunters; especially women hunters. Youth deer hunting is so important to our sport, and so are women hunters. It is so much fun, and so rewarding to mentor such a fine young woman deer hunter such as Emma. She is such a treat.

The Deer Hunt – A Young Woman Deer Hunter

I decided to take Emma out to, what I call – “The First Year Deer Stand”. It is a two person deer stand overlooking one of my clover fields. It is a great stand for a youth deer hunter to harvest their first deer. This stand is very comfortable. It is about 10 feet off the ground; 4 x 8 feet in size with 3 foot walls and roof overhead. Inside there are 2 adjustable fishing boat seats that swivel, and soft carpet on the floor for sound insulation and foot comfort.

Emma and I arrived at the stand a little later that we would have liked to. We were very quiet in our approach. We circled downwind of a bedding area and quietly climbed into the stand. We set up. Emma was using my Winchester, pre-64 model, model 70, deer hunting rifle in a 30-06 caliber. It has a Burris 3x9x40 scope on it that is sited in for 200 yards. She would be shooting Hornady light magnum, 165 grain – SST bullets. This is a great whitetail deer cartridge. It has a muzzle velocity of 3015 feet per second. I was carrying my Remington model 742 carbine, semi-auto, in a 30-06 caliber, with a Bushnell Trophy Red Dot scope on top. I was shooting Remington 150 grain core-lock bullets (please note that the Hornady Light Magnum bullets are only to be used with bolt action rifles. Please read all ammunition warnings before use).

A Long Shot – What A Shot

As we settled down for the hunt I told Emma to watch her front and to the right. I would cover the back swamp area and the woods to our left. We whispered off and on as I talked about women hunters, youth deer hunting, whitetail deer habitat, and gave her tips about deer hunting and shot placement. We had about 30 minutes of legal light left when Emma whispered, “Uncle Steve, there’s a deer.” I turned slowly and sure enough, about a hundred yards out, moving quickly to the middle of the clover field, was a young doe that had just come out of her daytime bedding area. Emma was getting excited now. I told her to stay calm as the deer would soon stop to feed. To my surprise, the deer kept moving towards the other side of the field. I told Emma to get her rifle ready. I was just about to do a grunt call to stop the deer, it stopped on its own and started to feed. I could sense Emma’s uncertainty about shooting this deer. I said “Lets watch this deer for a few moments, it’s not going anywhere soon.” As we watched the doe feed, we waited to see if any other deer were going to join her. Maybe one of those trophy bucks would show up. I told Emma that there was no better decoy, for a trophy deer to come to, then a real life deer; especially if it was the breeding season and the rut was on. We waited about 10 minutes. I told Emma that this deer was all alone, we were losing light, and there was only one day left to hunt. “This would be a great first deer to harvest, your dad will be proud, and you will help my management plan.” She said “OK, I’ll take her.” I said, “Great, let me range her. She is at a 195 yards.” Emma sited on the broad side standing deer. I coached her of where to site, how to breath, and finally the squeezing of the trigger. “BLAM!” The Odd-6 roared, as I watched through my binoculars. I could see she was hit good. She ran in a big circle and stopped again broadside, this time a 175 yards out. I told Emma to take another shot. She was breathing hard now and I could tell the adrenaline was pumping through her veins. “BLAM!” The deer took off running in our direction, heading back towards her bedding area. I told Emma to take my semi-auto rifle and that I would do a grunt when she was in the open about 50 yards away to stop her. That rifle wasn’t needed as the doe dropped and expired about 75 yards from us. “Nice shot!” I said, as we high fived each other. We took a moment to enjoy the moment. I told her of how proud I was of her, and how pleased her dad would be. We talked of the value of harvesting a deer like this doe. I told her that a trophy deer is in the eye of the beholder; and that her deer is a trophy deer. This would be some great eating venison.

Field Dressing – Teaching Young Deer Hunters

I believe that youth deer hunters and women hunters should be taught how to field dress a deer by an experienced deer hunter, at least the first few times. I took the time to show and explain all aspects of removing the entrails. After seeing how it is done, Emma was much more comfortable with that aspect of whitetail deer hunting. I know that Emma, and her dad Todd, had a great time deer hunting our family farm, this past 2007 deer hunting season. Todd harvested a nice doe himself the weekend before. They definitely will need a bigger freezer.

Next Article – Gary’s Trophy Buck