The Hunting Files: Real Girls Wear Pigtails!!

My name is Jerry Brandon(a.k.a. Mr. T). My daughters names are Candice (9) and Kassidi(6). In late December, my wife Sheila (a.k.a. Lady_taxidermist) and I decided we would book a ram hunt for us and our daughters. When we told the girls the news they we excited. They both have shot a .22 before but now we knew they needed to hone their skills.

We started out practicing, grouping and shooting, through a scope. Once they had gotten good at that we stepped them up to a big gun. I knew my youngest (Kassidi) would need me to hold the gun for her so I was looking for a gun that my oldest (Candice) could handle. I took my .223 in and traded it in on a .243 youth ultralite H&R because of the shorter pull length and a box of 100 gr. shells. I got home and talked to the wife and let her shot it. She said it needed a limbsaver on it. I shouldered it and didn’t think it was too bad. When the oldest got home she was all exited and wanted to shoot it. Against my wife’s better judgment, I let her shoot it. She shouldered it and pulled the trigger……. As tears welled up in her eyes I knew I should have listened to my wife. She had it tight to her but it still hurt her pretty bad. After the fact, I realized that it probably did pack quite a punch, as the rifle weight was only about 4lbs and had a 20” barrel.

The next day I traded it for a regular H&R .243, a box of 75 gr. shells, and a limbsaver recoil pad. Candice got home from school and we went to the range. She slowly pulled the gun to her shoulder and looked through the scope.  After several minutes of trying to convince her that it wouldn’t hurt she still could not pull the trigger. My heart sank. I had made my daughter gun shy.

Meanwhile, I had a friend that I had traded a .25-06 out of for the wife. Candice had got back to shooting the .22 and asked why she couldn’t use it for the ram. I told her she needed to shoot at least a .243 or bigger gun and that I would hold the gun for her if she needed me to. She looked me square in the eye and said I’ll do it by myself thank you. With that, I told her she would have to shoot the gun I bought for her. Sheila said that I should let her shoot her .25-06, so back out to the range we went. Candice and I made a deal, if she would shoot the gun once and didn’t like it we would go on a fishing trip instead.

She prepared herself and shouldered the gun.  After a few minutes and several tears from both of us she pulled the trigger. She looked at me through the tears with a big ole smile and said, “Daddy that didn’t hurt a bit! Give me another bullet”! After several times of me asking her was she sure, I gave her a few more shells to shoot and all was great.

To further prepare them, I made a poster board cutout of a ram and drew a dot on it were the kill shot would be and let them study it for a few days. After getting more .25-06 shells, we went to the range and I set up the cutout. The first thing Candice asked me was were was the dot. I flipped the ram around were the dot was on the backside and told her the rams we would be hunting wouldn’t have dots on them and that she would just have to remember where to shoot it. “OK” she said and put the gun to her shoulder. She took aim at 50 yards and the gun went off. As we walked up to the target Candice asks, “ Did I hit it daddy?” “Sure enough…..right in the ole pump station” I said.

So we were ready. Sheila and Candice would take their trophies with the .25-06 and Kassidi and I would take ours with the .243. Sheila had a little surprise up her sleeve as she had seen how Candice had taken such a like’n to her gun. She bought me and Candice a T/C pro hunter chambered in .25-06.

I said all that to lead you to the point of the hunt. We woke up at 5:30am Friday, March 20, 2009 to pack up and meet our buddy who is a camera man and head out to J.W. Hunting Preserve in Henrietta, OK. The girls were super exited, as well as was dad. We arrived at camp and met the owner, John. He is a super nice guy that made us feel right at home the whole trip.

First up to bat was Candice. She decided she wanted to do a spot and stalk on a painted desert ram. John drove us out to the rifle range to check our guns. Candice fired a shot and said game on, and out through the field we went. We found the rams and set up for the shot. We were in a draw and they were coming around the corner. Just as they were clearing some trees to get a good shot, they turned and headed away from us. We grabbed the homemade bois’d arc shooting sticks and proceeded to stalk some more. We found a good place to set up and held tight. The ram came in and out of some brush and frustrated Candice. We never practiced anything other than a broad side shot so she waited patiently. While waiting for the ram to present her a shot, she began shaking. She said “Daddy I don’t know why I’m shaking. I’m not scared of the gun no more.” I told her, “That’s OK, it’s called buck fever.” After a few more intense moments the goat turned broadside and I pulled the hammer back on the ole T/C. She asked the cameraman if he was on it. When he said, “Yea, shoot it" she squeezed the trigger. The ram dropped right where it was. I turned to my daughter and gave her a big hi-five! As we were walking up to her trophy she asked me why I was shaking so bad to which I replied, “Buck fever baby, buck fever!" I was so proud of my daughter taking her very first animal. As we reached the ram and looked back at where we had been set up I realized she had made that shot from about 90 yards.

Next up was Kassidi. Not to be outdone by her sister, she decided to stalk hers too. After about a 150 yard stalk we set up. The ram presented himself with a perfect broadside shot, but the camera man could not see him because of brush. After a grueling 4-5 minutes, he finally stepped out and presented a clear shot for both her and the camera man. I shouldered the T/C and she squeezed the trigger at about 65-70 yards. The ram took a few steps and down he went down! The big smile on her face said it all, and I was shaking again! When we got back to camp, Mr. John caped their trophies and Sheila helped them get the skulls out.

The next day Sheila and I took our trophies (Catalina goats) and the camera man also took a painted desert that day. The girls wet a pole at the big pond in camp and caught several perch and crappie. As it got dark, we lit the camp fire using hickory and grilled some beef steaks.   The day ended with a late night, swapping fish tales and ‘the buck’s that got away’ stories around the campfire while listening to the coyotes yelping in the canyon.

Another hunter in camp took a small hog that day. Candice seemed interested in the pig, which the camera-man took notice of, so he asked us if we thought she would like to shoot one. Of course we thought she would, so he mentioned for us to stop by his house on the way home (he is a seasoned hog hunter that runs dogs).

So, Sunday morning we paid up and thanked Mr. John for a wonderful experience and headed off to Rock Bottom Ranch in Boswell, OK for a day of hog hunting. As we were on the way to the ranch, he called his hands and had the hunt set up. They had put a wild hog in the creek bottom, bayed it up with some dogs, and headed back to the lodge. Candice had no idea. When we pulled up, the ranch hands where out front roping and acting as if nothing was going on. We got out of the truck and went to meet the hands. After a few minutes, they asked her if she was ready to go on a hunt. Out came the trusty T/C and into the Kubota buggy we went to ‘search’ for a hog. The hands loaded up their truck with dogs and went out to “locate” one while we were loading up.

After ½ mile or so, we stopped the buggy to listen for the dogs. We couldn’t hear them, so we started it up and drove for another ½ mile or so. We stopped again to listen, and sure enough Candice heard the dogs hollering up a storm. We followed the sound of the dogs and found the ranch truck. They were pointing over the edge of a cliff into the creek bottom shouting “there it is…..are ya ready?”

Candice looked down into the cliff with wide eyes. You see, she had never even seen a hog in the wild much less seen all the excitement that was going on in that creek bottom. She pulled her gun up, but could never get a clear shot because of the dogs. So after chasing the hog down the creek half a mile, and several attempts of trying to get a clear shot, the hog finally backed into a hole in the embankment. The dogs kept it bayed into the hole, while Candice shouldered the gun again (after crossing the creek and running through a briar thicket) and everybody was hollering SHOOT IT!  She couldn’t get a clear shot because of all the brush over the hog. She took aim, and squeezed the trigger. All went quiet. Then all of a sudden…out came the hog! She missed it slicker than owl poop.

As the hog exited the embankment, one crazy ranch hand plowed on top of, and tackled the mighty beast. To make things a little easier for her, he grabbed a rope and tied the rear leg of the pig to a tree and cleared out all of the dogs. The hog backed to the end of the rope and presented a clear broadside shot. BOOM! The hog went down upon impact. The boar weighed in at 168 lbs.

After an exhausting and exciting weekend of hunting, we arrived home only to let Candice in on a little secret…..the work was just beginning. After being instructed on proper skinning methods, she grabbed a pair of gloves and a knife and got after it. She had wanted a full body hog mount, until we explained to her how many months of allowance it would take her to buy the form…..so she settled on a ½ lifesize. But she was disappointed that she would not have the pig’s tail (her second favorite part of the pig…beside the nose of course). So her and daddy came up with a plan…. Tan the tail and sew it to the back of her hunting hat, so she could wear it as a trophy. She was excited about the plan, and giggled as little girls do when daddy told her she could wear it around and tell people…..

REAL GIRLS WEAR PIGTAILS!!!