By Myleigh Benham

December 27, 2018

I was excited to see that my Daughter had drawn 1 of 5 Youth Cow Elk tags for Unit 113 in Washington state this year. We hunted hard the whole week looking for a cow and unfortunately I hurt my back and wasn't going to be able to hike any more that season. I thought for sure with only two days left of the season she wasn't going to get to fill her tag.

I was driving home from work Friday evening and a saw a large herd of cow elk in a ranchers field and stopped to see if maybe I could get my daughter permission to hunt there that weekend. Being the middle of the season and not talking to him prior to season opening, I figured there would be no chance and getting my daughter an elk.

At first he said unfortunately, he was all booked up with hunters on his property. I told him thank you of speaking with me and started to walk away. At that point he stopped me and said you know what let me get your phone number and see if I can make things work. I didn't have high hopes for a call back, but about an hour and half later he called and offer my daughter a spot on his land the following morning.

I was so excited I came and told my wife and daughter that we had a place to hunt the next morning and my wife reminded me she had already had an event she was going to for her business and our babysitter had cancelled. So I'd have to stay home with the kids that day. I reluctantly called the land owner back and told him we would have to past and thanked him again for the opportunity. He said well I really want you daughter to get her first elk! He said can you be here at 3 PM today?

Made some arrangement and got her there at 3 PM. Setup our ground blind and the elk came out into the field about a hour later. We waited for about 45 minutes for the elk to feed to under 200 yards but they were starting to work their way back into the trees. I asked my daughter if she wanted to try and take the shot and she said yes.

She steadied herself for about 15 minutes waiting to fully calm down and make the best shot possible. One shot at just shy of 300 yards and she made a perfect shoot right in the shoulder. So proud of my daughter she is my hunting partner for life.