Rod Yaksich shares with us these photos of his daughter, Kayla, and he with her first buck.

Rod writes, "She asked if she could go hunting with me at age 8. I said sure no problem, she further explained that she did not want to go for the ride she wanted to hunt. I explained to her that she had to complete a mandatory hunter safety program, which she did shortly after her 9th birthday. I put her in for every quality youth hunt NM had to offer. As is often the case, she had no luck in the draw. Plan B was to ask a friend of mine if she could hunt on his place located in NE New Mexico. He gladly agreed and said we would see some deer, just not sure how big. We practiced all summer with her new Marlin .243 youth rifle and on opening day we were ready. On the evening of the opening day, this bruiser came out with a much smaller buck. As she began to look at them through her scope she quickly informed me that she wanted the big one! I let her know he was 150 yards and broadside, so go ahead and shoot when ready. At the sound of the gun the old buck took two steps and dropped. All the practice paid off and she put one right behind his shoulder. He green scored 165". I do think that my mission of getting her hooked on hunting was accomplished, because the next day on the drive home she asked me why she only gets to do this one time a year. What a great day!"