Local Sports
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The buck stops hereSPORTS EDITOR
Very early on a cold recent Sunday morning, Madison Reinhard wasn't so sure about this hunting idea.
But the 14-year-old Fostoria girl had told her grandfather, Nolan Reinhard, that she'd accompany him on one of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' youth hunting sessions, so she kept her word.
"I was really tired and at first I was a little cranky," she said.
Within hours, her mood brightened considerably as she and her grandpa tracked down an eight-point buck she had killed with the very first shot of her hunting career.
That's right: One shot, one buck.
"Pretty unique," Nolan Reinhard said.
Grandpa Nolan would know. The 62-year-old is a veteran among a family of hunters, and he's an avid enough outdoorsman to be a big advocate of the ODNR"s youth hunting days. This time he got to experience two days of deer gun hunting with his oldest grandchild.
"It's a time set aside in Ohio for adults to take (youngsters) out and have them experience what hunting's all about," he said. "They're (age 17 and under) and they are the only ones who are allowed to hunt. The adult cannot hunt. The adult cannot leave and you are to help them appreciate what hunting's all about.
"That's one of the reasons this was important. I didn't care if she shot or not. I told her that up front."
But with plenty of adult guidance and mindfulness of gun safety, Madison had been shooting guns for years and developed a keen marksmanship. And in preparation for her first hunting excursion, she practiced for two weeks with a .50-caliber muzzleloader owned by her great-grandfather, 86-year-old Fostorian Miles Ingram, who dropped an eight-point buck at age 80.
Madison, a freshman at Elmwood High School, acknowledged that she would have conscience trouble in shooting a doe. But when a big buck stopped in its tracks not far away and presented a stationary target, she was ready.
"I really just wanted the challenge," she said. "I like to be challenged and do things people don't think I can do. My dad said since I shot a deer I can pretty much do anything now and that made me feel really good about myself."
Madison and Nolan saw no deer on the first day they went to the private property north of Fostoria in Wood County, though Madison thought seeing a variety of other animals, including a coyote, and hearing even the slightest sounds in the almost complete silence was "actually kind of cool."
The first few hours the next day brought much of the same for the pair in their tree stand before a pair of bucks came into clear sight. Both then ducked into a weeded area before the larger of the two emerged alone.
"It started walking toward us and ... got to between 75 and 85 yards away," Nolan said. "When she was aiming for it for a long period of time, she was successful in getting the deer in the scope, in the crosshairs. I asked her, 'Can you see that?' She said, 'Yeah.' When we cocked it to fire, I said, 'Just put (the sight) behind the shoulder and squeeze.' She did all of that perfectly. She did all of that calmly. Then she was excited after the shot."
Madison said she's not a naturally calm person, but she forced herself to be under the circumstances.
"I thought I might miss if I got too excited," she said. "I didn't want to shake or anything. I tried to stay calm and breathe and focus on where I wanted to shoot it."
Her shot was true.
"It was a perfect shot," Nolan said. "She double-lunged it. It went in so there wasn't a whole lot of suffering or other things that go with it. The deer didn't go all that far and expired quickly. It was a pretty unique experience for her."
Madison's father, Max, and 9-year-old brother, Brock, were hunting deer about a quarter of a mile away but didn't have the same luck.
Max thought his daughter's feat was "phenomenal."
"It's a bigger buck then I've ever shot and I've been hunting awhile," Max, 34, said.
"He was happy for me, though," Madison said with a smile.
Nolan said it was "remarkable" that the deer had stopped to seemingly ponder its next destination while Madison had it in her crosshairs.
But the experience went beyond dropping a deer.
"The way it unfolded, it was like this was her chance to see if she wanted to do it," he said. "If she didn't do it, that was her call. She could have said, 'I don't think I'll shoot,' and that would have been fine, too. She experienced the whole thing."
Both grandfather and granddaughter enjoyed the experience together, and while Madison acknowledged that she'd like to try crossbow hunting sometime -- again, it's a challenge -- she's not sure about making hunting a lifetime pursuit.
And she's certainly not looking forward to that next 5:30 a.m. wake-up call, she said.
"She's just being honest," Nolan said with a grin.
Just like her first shot as a hunter -- true.
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Ph: (419) 435-6641 • Fax: (419) 435-9073
113 E. Center St. • P.O. Box 947
Fostoria, OH 44830
The Findlay Publishing Company
P.O. Box 609
Findlay, OH 45839-0609
Phone: (419) 422-5151
www.findlaypublishing.com
Please read our privacy guidelines
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