Skylar is 9 for 9 and sad tonight

Went hunting with Skylar today. Didn't see anything this morning, but this evening we went to a stand we named "the meat stand". About 4pm Skylar saw a big doe working down to our left. She thought she could get a shot, but I told her that the farmer was on his tractor across the road and I didn't want her to shoot in that direction. She was fine with that. So about 5:00 we saw a couple of does coming down the hill to the feeder, and then more does, and more deer. Soon there was 10 deer under the feeder eating, probably close to a thousand pounds of deer meat there. Skylar picked her out one and touched off the 7mm while I put my hand between the gun and her shoulder first. The deer never moved, we went and got the four wheeler and came back to punch her tag. She went to the deer and started crying, when she felt the buttons on its head. I told her that this time of year the buttons are hard to tell from does. I looked at it with binoculars before she shot and I couldn't tell it. She is torn up about killing a button head. Just when I think she is tough as nails the little girl comes out in her and she cries. She helped skin it, and that helped her a lot. No pictures as she didn't want to post a picture of a button head.

At least now she that sometimes things just happen. She still has that I can't miss streak going on.

Even if the mistake happened and she dropped a button just tell her it isnt the end of the world. This might help in the future...tell her to look at the heads of the deer before taking a shot. A grown deer will have a much longer nose than a yearling. Sometimes it's hard to judge when a single deer walks out but I learned along time ago this is almost foolproof to keep from shooting a small deer.

Every hunter will make that mistake once in while. I know just how she feels. Gabowman is right, look for a long nose. The older deer will have a pointy nose, the youngin's nose looks stubby and round.

I prefer not to shoot buttonheads but it's almost impossible to tell until its too late. All that really matters is....meat in the freezer!

She is a caring Hunter and i think that is a good quality in her. most would be to excited over the kill to even care. I wish more people in this world was like her.