Eighth grader Hallie Graves is ready for her hunting season this year. Graves has been hunting since she was eight years old, and she hunts with her dad and grandpa.
“I’ve killed one turkey, around 15 squirrels, three frogs, nine rabbits and a ton of fish, and this is my first year killing a deer, my first doe,” said Graves.
Although Graves herself has only killed one doe, both her dad and grandpa each have killed bucks.
“After my dad or my grandpa shoots and kills a deer, they take it to Lindell’s Taxidermy, there they can either make meat, a mount, have it skinned or a lot of different stuff,” said Graves.
Graves has taken plenty of shots at deer, but none were ever accurate enough to kill one, until this year.
“When you miss a deer, you just kind of replay in your head what you could have done differently and just basically saying over and over to yourself, ‘dang it,’” said Graves.
When Graves goes hunting, she brings all of her essentials and some extras.
“When I go hunting, of course I bring what I need: my gun, bullets and I have my camouflage clothing on. I also bring beef jerky, crackers and water, just because once I ate oatmeal before I went and puked everywhere while hunting. I just get so excited I throw up, and I have to have something to settle my stomach afterwards,” said Graves.
Graves’ goal for this hunting season was to kill a buck.
“At least I met my halfway mark and killed a doe,” said Graves.

Story by Gracie Walls