A toddler in Wyoming was all smiles as she rested on the large carcass of a buck mule deer after her bowhunting father killed the beast with the child still napping on his back.
Ryder Seely, an Albany County Sheriff’s Office deputy, went out on Tuesday for some bowhunting – hoping he would get lucky and bag a deer early in the season.
Toward the end of legal hunting light, he saw a big buck with nice antlers and took the shot – almost positive it was a kill.
However, the deer ran off and it was getting dark. He called it a night and decided to track down the wounded big mule deer buck early the next morning.
The only problem was his daughter’s daycare was closed the next day and he was on dad-duty.
One-year-old Lainey had the field trip of a lifetime Wednesday when she experienced deer season in the great outdoors of Wyoming with her dad – and her first kill shot
However, that didn’t stop the eager hunter. Seely put Lainey in her kiddie pack, secured her on his back and head back out to one of his favorite hunting spots – not too far from his home in Wheatland, Wyoming.
To his surprise, the deer was still alive. He hiked three miles back to his truck to grab his bow and prepared to finally put an end to the wounded buck’s misery.
All the walking was tiring out his daughter who was still securely strapped on his back. By the time he relocated the buck and started to plan a stalking route, Lainey had drifted off to sleep.
‘I knew I had about 10-15 minutes to pull the stalk off before she woke up and was cranky,’ Seely told Cowboy State Daily.
With pristine skill and patience, he crawled until he was within 40 yards of the target and directly in line to take a clear shot – all without jolting his sleeping one-year-old on his back awake.
Ryder Seely was on dad-duty, but that didn’t stop him from strapping his daughter on his back and heading out for bowhunting
‘There wasn’t much cover between the deer and us,’ he added. ‘I had to position her so she wouldn’t fall out of the pack when I crawled.’
Like a true hunter’s daughter, Lainey woke up just in time for the kill. Her usual post-nap crankiness quickly morphed into excitement.
And Lainey learned a new word.
‘She was tickled,’ Seely added. ‘I could see she was trying to say «deer».’
The father-daughter duo approached the fallen deer – celebrating a successful hunt.
Seely has already taken his 5-year-old daughter, Lyla, hunting previously and hopes that both his girls learn to love hunting as they grow – maybe even as much as he does
‘She was really happy about it. She kept touching the antlers,’ he added.
Daddy’s little girl snuggled up next to the buck who still had the arrow lodged into the side of its head, a true picture-perfect moment for the hunting duo.
Being able to take his youngest daughter hunting and show her the thrill of a kill was overall a fantastic experience for the outdoorsman. He had already taken Lyla, his 5-year-old daughter, hunting.
‘She was really excited that she got to go,’ he added.
Seely said he hopes that his daughters learn to love and appreciate hunting as they continue to get older – maybe even as much as he does.
But Lainey’s reaction to her first hunting experience with her Pops is telling enough – she very well may be on her way to becoming the youngest huntress in Wyoming.
