Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Twist of fate aids new archer

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2000 | 11:45 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at DesertDenizens@aol.com

Most everyone takes up archery hunting with a particular purpose in mind. They might want to practice shooting at targets. Or maybe they want to begin hunting with a bow. Rarely, though, does someone take up archery hunting because his or her father had accidentally filled in the wrong hunt number on an archery application. And rarely does that person turn that quirk of fate into a handsome trophy within three weeks time.

To make the story more unbelievable, make that person a busy, athletic, vivacious 14-year-old female hunter who has enough self-confidence to fill two trophy cases. Now we've got a story.

The hunter is Keri Tanner, a freshman at Pahranagat Valley High School. Keri tagged along on duck hunts with her dad Bart, manager at the Key Pittman Wildlife Management Area, for a couple of years before she began her own hunting. She took a hunter safety education course, passed it, and thought it would be fun to put in for her first junior hunt. She hunted deer for two years in the junior hunt with a rifle.

This season was a little bit different than the past two.

"I was quite surprised because my dad took my tag out to me; I had just gotten home from volleyball," Tanner said. "He was really excited that I got an antelope tag and I was really excited. Then I looked down and saw 'archery' -- he hadn't even seen it yet. I asked him why he had put me in for archery."

With only three weeks to go before the beginning of the antelope season, Keri decided to take on the formidable task of learning to shoot a bow well enough to hunt with it. Dan Peterson helped her learn to shoot. She spent time in Las Vegas with her grandparents, Noel and Dorothy Smithers, who took her to Pacific Archery every morning before the shop opened to practice her shooting.

While the Hoyt bow she bought to hunt with had to be ordered, Keri used a bow from the shop's stock to practice. So officially, she had only two weeks to practice with her own bow -- the one she would use on her hunt.

"At the start I was really nervous. I just really didn't understand how to shoot even though they had taught me over and over," Tanner said. "So I would sit down for maybe 15 minutes while I was there and just watch the professional shooters shoot. Then I would get up and mimic them."

When the opening day of archery antelope season arrived, Keri was ready. They had built two blinds in her hunt area -- one to be used as a backup. Within 30 minutes on opening morning, they were surrounded by antelope. After a few minutes of watching immature animals frolic in the waterhole, Keri and her dad settled back down. While taking a peek out the small shot window, he saw Keri's buck run into the waterhole and start drinking.

"My bow was on the side of me and Dad picked it up and handed it to me," Tanner said. "He said, 'Your buck's out there. You need to shoot it. It's a nice one.' So I drew back, sight unseen, I didn't know where it was. I raised up and caught a couple of does in my sight, then I got my sights on the right buck. I shot and he went not more than 30 to 40 yards away and fell over.

"My dad told me to sit there and wait for awhile, so we sat for about five minutes. I finally conned him into getting out of the blind and going to see it."

They should have waited him out, as Keri points out, because when they got close he got up and ran off. She hit him in a good spot but it wasn't immediately fatal.

The next time he lay down, Keri and her father took their time in waiting him out. It took three hours.

"It was quite a thrill. I'm still so happy about it. My first antelope hunt. I would have been happy with anything but I'm just so glad it turned out so perfect."

He was, indeed, a pretty nice buck. When scored for the Pope and Young archery record book, he scored 67 6/8 points.

Following her budding success with her bow on antelope, Keri decided to continue practicing so she could hunt with it during her deer season. Keri had been scouting a buck for an entire year. She found him again this season and decided that was the buck she'd wait for.

After seeing him but not in a spot where she could get a clear shot on the opening evening of the season, Keri and her dad decided to set up in a little better spot where the brush wouldn't obscure her shot. The next morning, he came out of the brush enough for her to get a clean shot. It wasn't more than 10 minutes when the first deer came in. Then the big buck followed.

"I pulled up on him, but my arrow fell off," Tanner admitted. "Then he went into the brush and I thought I wouldn't get a shot at him. But suddenly he came out just to where I could see enough to get a shot at him. He was angling away from me. It's a good thing I messed up on the antelope, so I knew what I was doing on the deer."

The first shot she let go missed its mark. So she pulled up another arrow and let go of the shot. This time they could see that the shot was good.

It was the same 4x4 buck Keri had been looking at from the year before, so she was extremely happy. He scored 161 Pope and Young points.

After her success with her bow, Keri is a confirmed archery hunter. She talks confidently about applying for and hunting elk with her bow next year.

With confident, competent, enthusiastic young people participating in the sport of hunting, the future of the sport looks excellent.