First of all I need to give a huge thank you and shout out to Tom Manners and the whole Manners team. It was my youngest daughters first year to hunt deer and elk. She is a small framed 12 year old and I wanted a stock that fit her better than what I had. She also has three other siblings so the stock needed to do it all. Tom suggested going with a T5 EH with an adjustable butt block and the lightweight cheek piece. Manners bent over backwards to make this happen for us and I couldn't be happier with the end product. Any of you guys that have kids of different sizes that want to shoot or hunt should really consider this option. What an awesome stock.
The hunt.
So like all dads, time slipped away to fast for me. Before I knew it, we were down to the final weekend of deer season. I saddled up the mules and Olivia and I set out on a perfect late fall morning. It was cold but there wasn't much wind. We glassed up a few does as we worked our way up the mountain but we were having to work for them. We made it to a knob that I like to glass from and hobbled the mules. We had been there for awhile glassing and weren't seeing much for deer. We did see two other groups of hunters and a Grizzly across a canyon feeding on a carcass. Olivia said "it kind of feels like we're wasting our time. I'm guessing there's no bucks left up here." I assured her there was plenty of bucks around and we just needed to be patient and glass them up. I went back to glassing and she went back to her granola bar. I ended up glassing up a buck about a mile and a half away and asked Olivia if she wanted to go after him. She took one look through the spotter and was all for it. We jumped on the mules and headed up and around them. The buck was bedded below some cliffs with seven does. An hour later we were above the cliffs. We tied up the mules and started our stalk. As we stalked down toward the deer we took our time while I pointed out to her the do's and don'ts of a stalk. I was sure we had made it undetected as I crept up to the cliff edge. I peeked over but there was another cliff band thirty yards below us that had the deer blocked from our view. There was nothing to do but keep going. We made it to the lower ledge and I peeked over. The buck and three of the does were bedded in sight at 125 yards and had no idea we were around. Olivia crawled into position and found the buck in her scope. He was bedded at a steep quartering angle with his butt toward us. She asked me where she should aim. We had worked on broadside and quartering shot placement but nothing as steep as this. I asked her if she was rock solid and could she hold the crosshairs dead center in his neck. She assured me she could. She had been shooting the little 6XC very well on steel before hunting season and had done well on her elk hunt also. I told her to hold dead center in his neck and send it whenever she was ready. As the shot rang out the bucks chin hit the ground and that was it. She made a perfect shot and killed him instantly in his bed. After congratulations on a fine shot and her first deer we grabbed the mules and made our way down to him. She was a very happy young girl and I'm a very blessed dad to be able to share these once in a lifetime moments with my kids.
I sent pictures of this hunt and several other hunts along with her elk story to Manners. They were gracious enough to humor me and post them on their Facebook and Instagram accounts. If you want to see pictures you can check them out there.
The hunt.
So like all dads, time slipped away to fast for me. Before I knew it, we were down to the final weekend of deer season. I saddled up the mules and Olivia and I set out on a perfect late fall morning. It was cold but there wasn't much wind. We glassed up a few does as we worked our way up the mountain but we were having to work for them. We made it to a knob that I like to glass from and hobbled the mules. We had been there for awhile glassing and weren't seeing much for deer. We did see two other groups of hunters and a Grizzly across a canyon feeding on a carcass. Olivia said "it kind of feels like we're wasting our time. I'm guessing there's no bucks left up here." I assured her there was plenty of bucks around and we just needed to be patient and glass them up. I went back to glassing and she went back to her granola bar. I ended up glassing up a buck about a mile and a half away and asked Olivia if she wanted to go after him. She took one look through the spotter and was all for it. We jumped on the mules and headed up and around them. The buck was bedded below some cliffs with seven does. An hour later we were above the cliffs. We tied up the mules and started our stalk. As we stalked down toward the deer we took our time while I pointed out to her the do's and don'ts of a stalk. I was sure we had made it undetected as I crept up to the cliff edge. I peeked over but there was another cliff band thirty yards below us that had the deer blocked from our view. There was nothing to do but keep going. We made it to the lower ledge and I peeked over. The buck and three of the does were bedded in sight at 125 yards and had no idea we were around. Olivia crawled into position and found the buck in her scope. He was bedded at a steep quartering angle with his butt toward us. She asked me where she should aim. We had worked on broadside and quartering shot placement but nothing as steep as this. I asked her if she was rock solid and could she hold the crosshairs dead center in his neck. She assured me she could. She had been shooting the little 6XC very well on steel before hunting season and had done well on her elk hunt also. I told her to hold dead center in his neck and send it whenever she was ready. As the shot rang out the bucks chin hit the ground and that was it. She made a perfect shot and killed him instantly in his bed. After congratulations on a fine shot and her first deer we grabbed the mules and made our way down to him. She was a very happy young girl and I'm a very blessed dad to be able to share these once in a lifetime moments with my kids.
I sent pictures of this hunt and several other hunts along with her elk story to Manners. They were gracious enough to humor me and post them on their Facebook and Instagram accounts. If you want to see pictures you can check them out there.
