Which zones are you hunting?
I hunt A zone between Stewarts Point and Healdsburg and another ranch outside of Covelo.
You should be very proud of your daughter that she wants to participate in outdoor activities. So many kids these days are either hung up with video games or into drugs and gangs.
I understand a little of the joy you receive hunting with her. My brother and I hunt most weekends of deer season and Dad comes along sometimes. He is 70 and tough as a boot..
Dad and a buddy got drawn this year for a California Antelope tag. He has been trying for 14 or so years. I have a friend that lives in Alturas so I offered to get Dad and his buddy Rick into some antelope. We went up and did some scouting in areas my friend knows and found a couple of pretty nice bucks for California.
Rick shot a really nice buck opening morning it went 15 1/4". We snuck up on one on Sunday and for Dad and it was quite a ways, 342 yards and he missed him. He was very upset and thought he blew his chance. That evening we talked to a BLM ranger and he told us of a nice one so we went looking. We found the buck in the afternoon out on a flat that was not possible to approach. We decided to wait and come back in the morning and see if he was in a better location.
We found him at first light in the morning and he was a long way out but I figured we could get close enough for a shot. I grabbed my 300 win mag that is set up for long range work. It has a hart barrel, Nightforce NXS 8-32x56 scope, mcmillan stock and Jewel trigger. Dad has shot it a few times and know how well it shoots so was confident in using it.
The buck was at 643 yards when we started crawling through the sage brush and lava rock. That was not fun. We got up to a little berm and I set up the bipod, dialed the NXS for the range and told Dad to crawl up to the gun. I had the scope turned up to 30 power. I told him just put it where you want to hit and squeeze the trigger. It took him forever to get set. He squeezed the trigger and at the bark of the rifle the buck took two steps sideways and fell over dead. Perfect shot. 386 yards.
I have never in my adult life seen him so happy. I am 48 and will remember that moment for the rest of my life.
Bottom line is everyone enjoy the time you spend with your kids in the outdoors. Don't take it for granted.
Steve
