This past weekend I took my 13 year old daughter out with hopes of her getting her first shot at a deer with her bow. After hunting this new property myself the past few weekends and seeing so many does I figured for sure this would be a very easy thing to do. Then I got to thinking.

I was never taught patience in the woods as a youngster and well now, I am the teacher so, I made the rule that she has to wait for a smaller buck to come in. 4 pt. or less. She's a little mad at me for this but, I assure her she will thank me later.

Friday night, get in the blind and within 15 minutes we have 3 does in front and 2 to the left all within 20 yards. She's chomping at the bit as I am shooting video and laughing at her and making silly comments about, no horns no shot. We watch these does for 45 minutes or so and back behind us we can hear grunting and more grunting getting closer and closer. We have what sounds to be a small buck coming up on her side. I can't get a visual but, I know he is pretty close and she looks at me with her mouth wide open and says "O' my God, He's huge, I'm not shooting that!" I still can not see this deer (we are in a doghouse) and all of a sudden he appears 11 points, drop tine 160-170 class deer at 15 yards out the left side. She says to me "That's your deer". He starts chasing does around and I do get some great video of him, he never offers a shot.

Lesson taught- patience will pay off.

Saturday Evening. Same thing, does out in front of us for an hour or so, I'm video taping and can hear something from the right side the does all leave so I stop recording and we sit and wait for whatever is to our right. I look at her face and it is lit up with excitement. She says her buck is coming she can see horns. I get excited myself as I fumble to get the camera focused on this 3 pt. coming in. He in now 12 yards in front of us and I am coaching my daughter, "wait for his head to go behing the tree, come to full draw, put your pin right where I have taught you, ok, shoot when you are sure......... THWACK. She hit a small branch that runs in front of the window of the blind. She's shaking with excitement and a little disappointed but, still confident in herself. I go to shut off the video camera and realize, I never hit record...... LOL I was overly excited myself for my daughter.

Sunday- I feel bad, tell her, you can take a doe. She looks at me and says "NO WAY" I am waiting for my buck to come back. He never showed and once again we had many does in front of us but, she has already learned that patience will pay off in the deer woods. I couldn't be more proud of her for that.

Sorry this is so long but, a Father's Pride is much longer than that I can type on here...........