We are now close to our destination, having talked the whole way from home. I kind of thought that the early morning wake up would mean she would sleep during our drive. I was pleasantly surprised as we talked the whole way about anything and everything (Big Smile)! Knowing that it was time to get serious, I explained to her that we still had a little bit of a drive to get to the location where I wanted to hike around and hunt but that the dirt road we had just pulled on to was also in our hunting area and that if she saw any deer, we would stop and take a look at them and decide to hunt one if we thought it was a nice buck. My daughter is very knowledgeable when it comes to the outdoors, I taught her how to spinner fish little streams for trout at the age of 3 ½ and she can identify and spot elk, deer, moose, etc….It wasn’t 5 minutes into driving when she yells out, STOP DAD, STOP….Deer! She had spotted a doe and a fawn and so we waited a few minutes to see if a buck would be in pursuit, the rut was in full swing at that time. No buck “Pumpkin Girl” nickname I gave her, let’s keep going. STOP DAD! Ok, where at Isla? Over there dad…. where honey? THERE DAD, with that smug look, like really you can’t see them old man?! WOW, Isla that is a shooter buck, let’s check it out! The buck was in full pursuit of a doe at over 400 yards away and our heads moved from side to side like watching a tennis match as the chase ensued. They eventually dropped into a deep canyon that I knew wasn’t safe for me to take Isla into so we pushed on.

Moving at a steady speed, heading to the area I had in mind for our hike/hunt, Isla says “Oh that was cool”, I replied what honey? Coyote, she says in ho hum fashion as I begin to hit the brakes, where Isla? Back there dad. Why didn’t you say something sooner honey? You told me to look for deer! She’s good! She knows that I am an avid predator hunter as well and since I am not really hunting this particular area, I have no problem stopping to harvest a coyote. I wish she would have called it out sooner! We are back on the go and not seeing anything, Isla looking intently out of her window says to me, they must be hiding dad. They can be tricky, just keep your eyes open we are almost to the area I want to hunt. Ok dad. When all of a sudden a doe runs across the road in front of us, following closely behind is a buck, I pull over and tell Isla to stay in the truck, I am just going to see if this is the buck we want to hunt, I had been used to spotting and stalking that all I had on me were my binoculars. I am about 30 yards in front of the truck, the buck hits an opening in the Juniper and I see a large “Kicker Tine”, oh ya, this is the buck, realizing the hunt is on I run back to the truck and yell for Isla to get out, he is a big buck! She unbuckles her seatbelt, I grab my rifle, load a round in it and put the safety on and we begin to make our way thru the Juniper. With Isla following right on my heels, talking in a normal conversation voice I say to Isla, when I tell you to cover your ears honey, you cover your ears with your hands so that the gun shot doesn’t hurt your ears, “OK Dad” was her reply.

I see the doe topping the ridge line looking back, trying to locate the buck in the thick Juniper. I see one small opening and the buck appears and stops to look back in a quartering away position. I said, there he is Honey, cover your ears! I look at her and she had both hands over her ears, I look thru my scope and there is nothing but deer hide, I had been so used to field judging and passing on deer that my scope was set at 14 power and the buck was no further than 30 yards away from us! I adjust the scope down to 4.5 power and take aim once again, this time I am able to see my intended target and I think I “squeezed” off a shot but to be honest I probably “hammered” that trigger because I didn’t want to miss this opportunity! The bullet hits its mark and the buck fell over backwards. Isla cheered, you got him dad! I could still see movement on the ground and so Isla and I moved in to take a closer look, the buck slowly stood up and not wanting for any animal to suffer and for my daughter to learn all about the respect I have for these animals, I said Isla cover your ears honey. The buck stood broad side and this shot found its mark again and he went down. We walked up to the downed buck, we hugged and high fived each other and then I said, we say a prayer, Thanking God for giving us this deer to eat and for the opportunity to come out and hunt together. Following our prayer, Isla says to me, “Dad you got a Monster”! “Pumpkin Girl” you are right, a Monster of a Memory!