Bonding

I guess just about every guy who has a little girl ends up taking one of those father-daughter trips when they reach their early teens. It's great time to bond before she gets a little older and get too cool to hang with her daddy. My bet is that most of those trips are to the beach, maybe an art gallery, symphony or heaven forbid and extended shopping trip to the Mall of America in Minnesota! Oh yeah, my buddy had to do that and it darn near broke him.

But no, my 14 year old baby girl made me proud when she announced that she would like to go out west on an antelope hunt.... I could handle that. Man, was I glad she didn't want to hunt kudu in Africa!

Our little get away took place last week in Montana with my good friend Jammin Krebs of Western Timberline Outfitters.  To say the least, he and his number one guide, Kyle, treated her like gold. Even though it was a rifle hunt, it was extremely challenging as the terrain was very open and the antelope were herding up in fairly large groups with lots of eyes to catch every movement.

She took her buck late in the second day of the hunt at 243 yards in a 30 mile per hour crosswind. That's a very tough shot even for an experienced hunter but she made a perfect shot on a beautiful mature antelope. I don't know what made me happier, the fact that she made a great shot or the fact that I didn't have to go to Macy's to see her smile!