First Deer Hunt: As told by mentor Mark Schneider

Last night we came so close....."A" was lining up the shot on a broadside doe 90 yards down the foodplot, as my phone alarm sounded that legal shooting light was over. At the sound of the alarm, 5 other deer started bounding away, thumbing their collective noses at us with their white flags waving. The target doe stood still for a few moments longer. "A" wanted so badly to be the first person in her family to get a deer, but she knew that we were going to not shoot outside of safe and legal parameters.

Back at the house with the other youth hunters and their mentors, story sharing commenced over some steak chili with homemade chocolate chip cookies. I shared that my most memorable moment happened about an hour before the end of the Saturday hunt when we watching a couple of deer across a cut corn field. The lead doe turned just enough that the waning evening sun caught her white throat patch and she lit up like a Christmas wreath. With a gasp and a WOW, "A" said, and I thought, "what a beautiful sight".

The Outdoors Mentors organization sponsoring this hunt had arranged for a second opportunity to get it done if the youngster wanted to have another crack at it on Sunday morning and "A" said she wanted to give it a go.

We met at O'dark thirty at the base of operations and put our gear into the pickup truck for a lift to the drop off spot for the walk to the blind. Walking down the Kansas prairie under a half moon and fully starred sky, the red light of my headlight was enough for us to find our way towards the "foodplot blind". Stealth mode fully engaged, we made in into the ground blind without hearing any blowing deer announcing predators in the darkness. Setting up our chairs "A" told me that normally she is scared to go out into the dark, but this morning was not a scary time for her.

As legal shooting time slowly ground into nearness, we pulled down the blind shades, just enough to observe the lightening from the east. We had already heard two owl species hooting, coyotes, and spotted far off deer possibly in view of the blind to our west. A part of the winter flock of turkeys had roost-gobbled up and down the watershed. While I had binoculars up and scanning to the cut corn field, I heard "A" say WOAH! A deer had come out of the woods 25 yards downwind from our blind, and bolted down the green foodplot fast enough that I never saw it before it made the far tree line. "A" got a good case of the shakes from seeing this closeup deer.

"A" saw the group of deer down a level from our foodplot. They were tangentially headed our way, and then they cut into the woods. Watching with binoculars, we could see them eating and moving on the other side of the creek, heading up the slightly sloped field. Three deer moved across the far field, and then crossed over into the furthest field, all the while the clock was ticking, and the golden hour had passed.

Hope rose again as I spotted the trio of deer on the other side of the nearest treeline, and I thought that perhaps they were heading back to bed, and might be using the same general path they had previously walked. Five, then ten, then fifteen minutes passed, and still no deer. We had pre-arranged that 9 a.m. would be the end of the hunt, and it was 8:57. Dennis, the program leader on this farm had just texted me asking if we were done hunting. I was in the process of replying that we had had a great morning, but indeed we were finished.

"A" said "there they are!" Two deer had emerged from the trees into the lower field, and were feeding and moving into the cornfield. I asked "A" if she wanted to try, as it was obvious that this was not going to be a 40 yard chip shot. I had taken off my ear protection, and was getting ready to start gathering my gear so we went into scramble mode just a bit. Previously I had seen some classic buck fever shaking and breathing, but this time she was all business. We moved the shooting stick over, and I told her that if the deer were within 150 yards, and she felt rock solid, she should take the shot. I suggested that she should hold an inch or two high and asked her to wait as I ranged the deer. 143 yards.

"Are you steady?

"Yep"

"Squeeze it when you are sure"

I put my fingers into my ears......watching the bigger and easier to see doe......BOOM!

Immediate drop, and twitching hind legs!

"Where did she go?"

"Dropped right there"

I asked her to load another one into the chamber.

"A" asked more than once...."She went straight down?"

"Yes, I replied. Great shot". Double fist bump. As we watched where she had dropped, we saw twitching legs. I reminded her that even mortally wounded deer will often move more than 100 yards before collapsing.

"Are you sure she is dead".

"We need to go make sure, and tag her to be legal"

On our first walk in the previous afternoon "A" told me that she had several goals for her hunt. She wanted to make sure the deer didn't suffer, and she wanted to get a mature deer.

The doe was as big as I had thought she would be when we got there, so I was happy to tell her she had met both of her goals. More fist bumps, and some photos. Quite a prolonged stroking of the deer, and I almost said out loud a la Big Fin...."thank you Mrs deer". I got to help her punch down through the skin over the hock (both bucks and does in Kansas get their tags applied here) and made sure that her carcass tag was properly completed.

The ground was firm enough that the pickup was able to pull right up to her, and Dennis and I grunted a little (ok,ok, I grunted quite a bit!) to get her up onto the tailgate. More fist bumps, and the first of many congratulations texts started coming into this newly minted middle school deer hunter.

Processing took place back at the headquarters of the farm where a hoist was used to field dress this deer while upright. I saw my first ever "Butt-out" in action, used by one of the mentors. It worked as advertised. "A"'s dad wanted to keep the heart and the liver from this very well nourished doe. I had a ziplock baggie for the heart, and a small game bag for the liver. All 3 of the youth hunters gathered around to watch as her entrails were removed, with a fine demonstration and anatomy lesson as well.

I truly enjoyed my time afield with "A". Seeing a serious case of the shakes when we first saw deer, and comparing it to her businesslike approach at shot time showed a lot of courage. Hearing her tell me that the coyotes howling didn't scare her as much as before, and how happy she was that walking in the dark wasn't a big deal meant a lot to me. Hearing her tell her dad that she was happy to be the first person in her family to get a deer was priceless!

PS: Note to self.............308 and 243 cartridges look very very much alike when grabbing a few shells for a hunt with a princess. It behooves one to examine said shells before handing a 308 to a 243 toting princess. (I have switched to an all copper bullet with a nickel case for the 308, but haven't yet run out of cup/core sight-in 308 ammo) Crises averted as it was discovered immediately.

Original content can be found under “KansasDad” on: https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/hunters-connect-a-new-platform-for-new-hunters.291318/page-2#post-2926655