We follow a new hunter from her initial training and preparation to taking her first deer.
Recently, I had the chance to train up the marketing assistant at Fieldcraft Survival, Rikki, for her first big-game hunt. While she grew up in a family who hunted, she never pulled the trigger on anything. Rikki and I have worked together before to participate in a 72-hour survival challenge with just the contents of a single Ziploc bag.
I was deliberately pulled from the competition after only 48 hours, leaving Rikki to fend for herself. In those final 24 hours, she really excelled and demonstrated serious heart. I knew when the opportunity presented itself to take her on her first deer hunt, I’d have a student who could get it done. Still, like any newcomer, heart or not, there’s a lot to teach someone who has never hunted before.
First-Timer’s Gear
Rikki’s first hunt was scheduled for late October in Northeastern, West Virgina, with Four Horse Outfitters. Our guide, Fonzy Haskell, spoke to Rikki about specific gear. As Fonzy rattled off some particulars like good socks, warm gloves, clothing for all conditions, and so on, Rikki’s mind raced. With so many newcomers, there’s always an element of the unknown, and what she was most concerned about was whether she’d be warm enough.
Since our hunt would be largely spot and stalk, we didn’t have to worry about much more than a daypack’s worth of gear. We did have to worry about footwear and ample layers of Sitka clothing. I carried most of the gear so my “Ziploc-bag buddy” could focus on putting her bullet where it mattered. Rikki carried a basic loadout you’d expect to see any hunter pack along, including a knife, headlamp, water bottle, Fieldcraft Survival med kit, snacks, and a set of binos she borrowed from our guide.
Rifle Training
In the weeks before the hunt, Rikki participated in a mostly online hunter’s safety course in Utah. She was required to use a .22 rifle in her final in-person “field test” under the watchful eye of the field testing staff. To ensure she’d pass, we practiced some fundamentals of marksmanship on some local public lands.
She was a quick study and adopted the basic firearm safety rules quickly. Around the same time, Rikki also purchased her first pistol, a Glock 48, and began carrying it. There was no doubt Rikki wasn’t shying away from firearms, but she had never shot a larger centerfire rifle before, and it was time to see how her rimfire skills would translate over to the Barrett 6.5 Creedmoor rifle (featured in Carnivore Issue 1) we’d take on the hunt.
Starting with standard B8-style targets at 100 yards, we established a baseline of her marksmanship. She dropped the tailgate of her Tacoma, loaded the rifle, rested the forend on a wooden fence, and took aim at her target. The ocular lens of the riflescope impacted her baseball cap brim from the recoil when she fired her first shot, impacting about 2 inches low and to the 7 o’clock of the bull’s-eye.
We adjusted her hat to give it more clearance, and she fired again and again. When we examined the target, the group at 100 yards was slightly low despite the rifle being zeroed about 1.5 inches high. After some pointers like “be consistent with your breathing and when you break the shot” and “think of compressing your fingerprint,” she started getting tighter groups that would set her up for an easy vital area shot anywhere out to 300 yards.
The Hunt
If you’re familiar with the classic story arc of any superhero movie origin story, you’ll find some similarities with this hunt. We meet our hero, we see them built up, they suffer some setbacks, and then they rise to the occasion triumphantly in the final act. After a long 8-hour drive out to Wyoming to Four Horse Outfitters, Rikki, Nick (our camera guy), and I didn’t expect to hunt that afternoon. When we were told we had a few hours and we could potentially get lucky, we quickly changed into our camo and loaded up the truck.
Four Horse Outfitters is on 180,000 acres plus more land on lease from neighbors. We drove around until we spotted the unmistakable waving of white tails at a distance. After just a short stalk to a suitable rise, I was in position to take the first two does to show Rikki how easy it would be. Within minutes, I had shot one at 160 yards and one at 310 yards. Rikki watched how I set up, took my time for a broadside shot, and put the bullet where it needed to go. She also was right there when we approached the deer, field dressed them, and let the distinct smell of deer blood escape into the evening air. After night one, we were convinced it would be a record day in the morning with so many deer present on the property.
The following day, we packed up the truck and drove out to the property. We spotted many mule deer and antelope, but the whitetails were few and far between. On one occasion, we had an easy 150-yard shot lined up for Rikki, but the way she had mounted the rifle gave her a terrible sight picture and before she could adjust her eye relief, the deer had run off. On another occasion, we set up on a small knoll and spotted a deer feeding on some brush about 200 yards away. The deer was mostly concealed by the brush, and it slowly crept out of the picture, leaving Rikki frustrated.
About this time, everyone in the truck started “impatiently snacking” as Fonzy called it, as we were getting tired of not following through. Perhaps the greatest setback was dealt later that afternoon when we pursued deer at the far end of the property hours from the cabin. The truck ended up stuck in a waterlogged bowl with mud the consistency of chocolate pudding just under the surface of the Wyoming sod. We worked for hours to free the vehicle, only to have to abandon it, walk to the support vehicle coming to rescue us, and then begin the long drive back to the cabin, empty-handed. Not only did Rikki fail to fill her tags that day, she experienced the emotional lows of watching deer run away out of ethical hunting range countless times.
On the second full day of the hunt, the guides returned from pulling the vehicles out with one of their farm tractors. We loaded up yet again and this time, the same guides who assisted with the vehicle recovery joined in the effort to help glass deer for Rikki. As we made our way into the property again, we spotted immature bucks holding court for smaller does through mixed cover. We spotted deer just outside the border of the legal hunting zones. We also startled a few deer that bound away.
It was starting to look like this day would be reminiscent of the day before. Finally, one of the guides, Lee Gilmore, spotted a small group of does along the Bellefourche River. Rikki would have to shoot from a slightly elevated position 260 yards away, in drizzling 36-degree conditions with a strong quarter value wind. Since we didn’t stand a chance of spooking these deer, we assembled everything we could to maximize her success. I put out a shooting mat, and Fonzy broke out a small tripod Rikki could rest the front of the rifle on, giving her the steadiest shot possible.
Rikki moved into the prone position and shouldered the rifle. Fonzy had Rikki dry-fire a few times to make sure she wouldn’t jerk the trigger. Even though the 6.5 Creedmoor round is known to defy wind, this shot wouldn’t be easy, and we didn’t want Rikki to make a bad shot resulting in the animal suffering. As the guides provided range and wind updates, Rikki settled in and when she was ready, she broke the shot. Through my binoculars, I watched the bullet impact and the deer bound straight up and then out of site. She hit her target, but was it wounded or down?
As we made our way down to the river, we prepared Rikki for the possibility the deer might not be down. She’d have to put another round in it up close. Our coaching wasn’t necessary, as we discovered the shot placement was excellent. Where we lost sight of the deer from our elevated vantage point was exactly where we found it. Rikki was ecstatic, and we all took turns high fiving her and being excited for her. As is tradition with so many new deer hunters, Rikki had to do the dressing of the deer, and she gladly got her hands in it.
Fonzy guided her through the process and “bloodied” her face. Since we didn’t train Rikki on how to handle her new Montana Knife Company blade, she accidentally cut too deeply into the stomach and punctured it, releasing that stench all seasoned hunters try to avoid. After removing the gut pile, Fonzy showed Rikki what happened to both lungs and the heart, as her shot penetrated all three.
The Celebration
One of the most important elements of any shared hunt is breaking bread together. After Rikki and I filled our tags, our camera guy spent a day with Fonzy and filled a tag of his own too. We all took turns butchering our deer and getting them ready for transport back to Utah. We ate well each night at Four Horse Outfitters, but there’s something about sharing success stories over dinner that makes the meal that much more enjoyable. Fonzy provided us a few of his secret recipes to make jerky marinades, chili, and bacon-wrapped backstraps.
Rikki, a Florida State Seminole, didn’t shy away from drinking whiskey with the local cowboys. Having worked with Rikki for months, I noticed subtle differences with the way she acted before and after the hunt. After she shot, dressed, dragged, and butchered her deer, she carried herself with more confidence. Not only did she learn what it takes to put food on the plate from field to table, she developed a new appreciation and interest for hunting. As I mentioned before, this story reads like a superhero storyline, and like so many of those movies, Rikki is planning on making a sequel, as she now wants to go after a mature buck. We weren’t sure how Rikki was going to react to killing a doe, but now we know she doesn’t want to stop there. This first hunt lit a fire in her we’re all sure will continue to burn from one season to the next.
Field Notes: 6.5 Creedmoor, the Perfect Starter Caliber
The 6.5 Creedmoor has received just as much praise as it has criticism in recent years. There are purists who believe .243, .30-30, .308, 7mm-08, and .30-06 are the only rounds that should be used for deer, but ballistics don’t lie. When it came time to choose the rifle and ammunition for Rikki to hunt with, we had a number of rifles to choose from. However, after considering Rikki’s stature, the does to be pursued, and the ranges they would be encountered, 6.5 Creedmoor was the top choice.
6.5 Creedmoor doesn’t produce shoulder-breaking recoil, and this helped Rikki avoid flinching like she would’ve with some of the larger calibers out there. Additionally, the rifle was zeroed 1.5 inches high at 100 yards, making shots at 200 yards only about an inch off and not much more at 300 yards.
This meant Rikki would most likely just have to hold on target, not focus on holding over or under, and the flat trajectory would do the rest. For a beginner, the round offers great wind-cheating ballistics that help make shots possible in high winds like the one Rikki took without guesswork. While a newcomer can get started with any round, we like the idea of stacking the odds in their favor and providing them with a round that does it all really well.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Carnivore Magazine Issue 7.
