ipscshooter, I forgot on the yardage. How's this for some details....

Chad missed that buck earlier in the day. Not a long shot, but he was a bit excited and no doubt jerked the trigger. We found the same herd that afternoon working up a hillside. There was an irrigation ditch going around the hill where they were at so we went around the side out of site and climbed up to the ditch. Worked back around in the ditch. I spotted a doe all of 50 yards ahead of us on the edge of the ditch and encouraged the 14 yr old to take the shot (the younger sister was watching the little kids at camp that afternoon). She is meticulous and the doe looked about the bolt so I pressured her to take the shot. She missed (no doubt jerked the trigger too). We moved forward in the ditch and saw the buck stand up. The herd hadn't bolted and were clearly confused not knowing where the shot originated. Chad shot the buck at about 60 yards and then my son went ahead and took a doe at about the same distance.He wasn't in a hurry to fill his tag, but thought of how many tags we had to fill and thought she was offering herself, so.... It took us about an hour to get the animals field dressed and back to camp. We then immeadiately skinned and boned them and put the meat on ice. I partially caped Chad's buck out for him (he wanted to have it mounted) and left the skull for the taxidermist to finish.

My son dug out the .22 and took the older girl to do some plinking. Worked with her on squeezing her shots off and follow through.

We went back out that evening and found the same herd bedded next to a road by a hay stack. They were spooky but okay as long as the truck didnt' slow down. We parked out of sight and I the older girl and I worked in from the back side. The wind was in our faces and the sun was low and to our backs, so it was ideal. We worked within 150 yards or so and crawled in another 50. She was having a hard time seeing over the sage. She found an opening and the animals were starting to mill about and feed. There was a decent buck in the herd, but I encouraged her to take what she was comfortable taking. She really thought the fawn was a doe (pretty tough to tell unless they are next to each other) and took it. The kids, like me at this point, aren't all that into horns. We are still meat hunters at this point. The herd bolted and I confess to taking a running shot at the buck. If I were a wing shooter I probably would have had him, but noted that I lacked follow through with the barrel and shot behind him. Probably shouldn't have taken the shot anyway, though he looked larger enough in the scope at that distance.

We dressed out the fawn and headed back to camp. It was dark, and has been getting cold at night, so I just propped him on his back with a stick to open up the chest and left him for daylight. Chad headed home to work, and the daughter to her social life and school.

The next morning I skinned and boned the fawn out and put it on ice. Took the 12 yr old out and tried to get onto a bachelor herd, but they took off when they saw the truck, when we were probably close to a mile from where they were. We drove up a ridge we had glassed to have a sneak and peak over the other side. Came around a wash to find a really nice buck standing at about 70 yards watching us. I told the girl to get out and take her shot. This was one of the nicer bucks I've seen in the area and would have easily exceeded 16". She was working in slow motion and I rushed her along. Would have been nothing to step out and take the shot. Guess she was afraid of spooking him, but he got tired of waiting for her to get the shot off and took off. We glassed several areas into early afternoon when we saw the buck I would later shoot. She took a shot and missed and he ran over the hill top. I wasn't certain she missed so we went up to be sure. No hair, no blood, and we found him several hundred yards down the other side of the hill. I worked within about 250 yards of him, keeping some scrub oak between us and then set up using a limb as a rest. He saw her coming down behind me and turned to face us. It was outside her comfort zone for shooting, so after an eternity of trying to steady the rifle I shot him. A good, long, up hill drag to a two track to the truck...back to camp to skin and bone.

Went back out after we all caught crawdads for awhile and found the original herd again. Worked on them for a couple of hours, but couldn't get her within range for a shot. Back to camp for a dinner of crawdads and watermelon. Crawdads were good, but a lot of work for what you get!

The next morning we were about and had a hard time--driving and glassing-finding any goats. I was getting concerned, because we needed to think about heading home and I wanted her to get her animal. I was no doubt more stressed about it more than she was, but hey I'm a dad! We finally drove up over a small rise to a new area to glass and there was the herd bedded down about 200 or 300 yards in front of us. Some of them immeadiately got up and start off the other direction and I imeadiately put the beast in reverse and got back out of site. We snuck up and glassed them for awhile as they went over a rise--trying to guess where they will go. Antelope seldom move in straight direction for long.

At this point, as I had been, sending a prayer that she'd get a good opportunity. Its not just about getting an animal, but about how they feel as the meat on everyone's plate was contributed by them, and about them knowing that they can make meat if evernecessary.

We started down and eased over the rise where we'd last seen them and glassed. I found them several hundred yards further out and to the left. We worked in as close as we dared standing bent over, and then proceded to crawl another good 100 yards. They were not aware of us and some were feeding and others bedded. She was beaded on the buck, but couldn't get steady and he fed out of site. I slid the binoculars under the forearm for a rest as the herd bolted. I expect they winded us, but there were alot of eddies in the wind and they clearly weren't sure were we were. They ran about 50 or 60 yards up a hill into the open and stopped. She repositioned herself and they pegged us then. I told her to just pick one, concentrate on the spot, and squeeze off the shot. It was about 150 yard shot and the fawn went right down. Amazingly, considering we'd taken four animals out of this herd in three days, they more or less milled around until we'd walked a good 50 yards in their direction.

It is a privilege to live in a country where we can have such opportunities. It is only excentuated by the blessings of sharing them with family.