My daughter has been harping on me to share her recent success with everyone. She loves to get on and see what people have to say about her hunts.
So here we go. In the past she has been shooting a 223 that we built for her. At the end of last year I borrowed a buddies 6mm-Dasher and let her shoot a couple of does with it. Of course she flattened them on the spot and she started relentlessly telling me she wanted a bigger gun so that when she shoots these deer and nilgai they just fall over!
At the end of last season I started accumulating parts for her new gun that I was going to build her. This was intended for a Christmas present this year but, as you will see that didn’t happen. She is a lefty so getting an action was not an easy task. I finally got all the pieces together and her rifle was completed the first week of October. It is a 6mmBR.
Needless to say it’s a hammer!
Well during the summer this year we had multiple people contact us wanting to film Joelie on her hunts. I wasn’t sure how this would work out because she is 6 but, we figured what the heck worse thing that can happen is she won’t like it. So we setup a hunt with some of our good friends down on our ranch.
While all this is going on I was hunting a pretty good buck and my wife was getting ready to have a baby. I killed my buck on 10-10 and we had the baby on 10-13!! Talk about pushing it. Now we have a hunt scheduled for the end of Oct.
Pier pressure from my wife and Dad got to me so I ended up giving Joelie her new rifle a few days before her hunt. They wanted her to shoot it on camera.
This gives us a few days for practicing. I was apprehensive since she was so comfortable with her old rifle but, after her first 3 shots with this rifle I was again confident!
After a few shot getting used to it she saw me use a quarter to show a size comparison of a group she wanted to shoot the quarter. What else can I say except wow! This was 100yards on a front sandbag only!
So we get to the ranch and we are hunting a buck called airplane. He is wide, really wide and she has wanted to shoot this buck for the past 2 seasons but, this year she had the green light. Well as luck would have it we are knee deep in acorns and our pop up locations are not working well.
After some frustrating sits my Dad calls me and tells me he saw airplane crossing a road and to hurry up an make a stalk on him. Well we never saw him but this young bull made the mistake of standing still at about 125yards! Joelie was on him so fast that the camera didn’t catch up and about the time he hit record the bull was in for a dirt nap! Lesson #1 learned! The camera man was pretty impressed that she was able to get on him and drop the hammer so quickly! Not to mention she hammered him!
The next day we started patterning the deer better and made a great stalk on a 6pt (8pt with g1’s too short to measure) but, he never gave us a good tv shot opportunity. She wanted to shoot him in the neck facing us but, that is not allowed on tv so we waited and they eventually busted us.
That evening we set a popup out where these deer had been and low and behold he shows up. About the time we go to unleash her they all bolt away??? Of course you can imagine the drama at this point, she hates the camera, she is frustrated and keeps telling us she could have made the shot already!
Luckily just as it started getting dark they show back up and this time she rocked him. He went about 40 yards.
We kept at it hard the next day without ever seeing airplane. That evening we were headed to a new location and we spotted a bunch of deer movement. So we started a stalk up a jeep trail and we spot a giant 8pt. I decide we need to shoot this bruiser and we get all set up and about to take the shot when he fouses his attention in the brush and storms off. Crap! Luckily it was just a couple of smaller bucks coming out to eat acorns and he had to approve first. Well he gets just right and we tell her to go ahead when he gets broadside and they 2 smaller bucks start sparring and this buck is not going to have that. So he walks up and breaks it up quickly. A couple seconds later one of the smaller bucks decides to try this buck on giving her a perfect broadside shot. So just after they engage in their sparring battle she drops the hammer. It was pretty awesome. The buck took about 10 steps and crashed.
He is right at the 140” mark and her best buck ever.
And we still made it home for trick or treating!
She is dying to get down to the ranch over Thanksgiving so she can keep hunting airplane, I know if she stays at it she will get him.
So here we go. In the past she has been shooting a 223 that we built for her. At the end of last year I borrowed a buddies 6mm-Dasher and let her shoot a couple of does with it. Of course she flattened them on the spot and she started relentlessly telling me she wanted a bigger gun so that when she shoots these deer and nilgai they just fall over!
At the end of last season I started accumulating parts for her new gun that I was going to build her. This was intended for a Christmas present this year but, as you will see that didn’t happen. She is a lefty so getting an action was not an easy task. I finally got all the pieces together and her rifle was completed the first week of October. It is a 6mmBR.
Needless to say it’s a hammer!
Well during the summer this year we had multiple people contact us wanting to film Joelie on her hunts. I wasn’t sure how this would work out because she is 6 but, we figured what the heck worse thing that can happen is she won’t like it. So we setup a hunt with some of our good friends down on our ranch.
While all this is going on I was hunting a pretty good buck and my wife was getting ready to have a baby. I killed my buck on 10-10 and we had the baby on 10-13!! Talk about pushing it. Now we have a hunt scheduled for the end of Oct.
Pier pressure from my wife and Dad got to me so I ended up giving Joelie her new rifle a few days before her hunt. They wanted her to shoot it on camera.
This gives us a few days for practicing. I was apprehensive since she was so comfortable with her old rifle but, after her first 3 shots with this rifle I was again confident!
After a few shot getting used to it she saw me use a quarter to show a size comparison of a group she wanted to shoot the quarter. What else can I say except wow! This was 100yards on a front sandbag only!
So we get to the ranch and we are hunting a buck called airplane. He is wide, really wide and she has wanted to shoot this buck for the past 2 seasons but, this year she had the green light. Well as luck would have it we are knee deep in acorns and our pop up locations are not working well.
After some frustrating sits my Dad calls me and tells me he saw airplane crossing a road and to hurry up an make a stalk on him. Well we never saw him but this young bull made the mistake of standing still at about 125yards! Joelie was on him so fast that the camera didn’t catch up and about the time he hit record the bull was in for a dirt nap! Lesson #1 learned! The camera man was pretty impressed that she was able to get on him and drop the hammer so quickly! Not to mention she hammered him!
The next day we started patterning the deer better and made a great stalk on a 6pt (8pt with g1’s too short to measure) but, he never gave us a good tv shot opportunity. She wanted to shoot him in the neck facing us but, that is not allowed on tv so we waited and they eventually busted us.
That evening we set a popup out where these deer had been and low and behold he shows up. About the time we go to unleash her they all bolt away??? Of course you can imagine the drama at this point, she hates the camera, she is frustrated and keeps telling us she could have made the shot already!
Luckily just as it started getting dark they show back up and this time she rocked him. He went about 40 yards.
We kept at it hard the next day without ever seeing airplane. That evening we were headed to a new location and we spotted a bunch of deer movement. So we started a stalk up a jeep trail and we spot a giant 8pt. I decide we need to shoot this bruiser and we get all set up and about to take the shot when he fouses his attention in the brush and storms off. Crap! Luckily it was just a couple of smaller bucks coming out to eat acorns and he had to approve first. Well he gets just right and we tell her to go ahead when he gets broadside and they 2 smaller bucks start sparring and this buck is not going to have that. So he walks up and breaks it up quickly. A couple seconds later one of the smaller bucks decides to try this buck on giving her a perfect broadside shot. So just after they engage in their sparring battle she drops the hammer. It was pretty awesome. The buck took about 10 steps and crashed.
He is right at the 140” mark and her best buck ever.
And we still made it home for trick or treating!
She is dying to get down to the ranch over Thanksgiving so she can keep hunting airplane, I know if she stays at it she will get him.
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