13-year-old gets family off to good start this deer season

Josie Hill

COSHOCTON – For the Hill family, deer hunting is about more than bagging a big buck. It’s about spending time together as a family, but getting a nice rack to put on the wall is definitely an added bonus.

Josie Hill, the 13-year-old daughter of Laurie and Steve Hill, got the family off to a great start this year. On Sept. 27, opening day of bow season, she shot an 11 point buck that scored 135 when its antlers were measured, which Laurie said is above average.

Josie and Steve left at 5 a.m. and were only out a short while when she knocked down the biggest buck of her young hunting career with her crossbow.

“She called me after she shot him and when the phone rang that early I knew it was because she got him,” Laurie said. “I had them come back and get me so I could see.”

Josie still gets excited when she talks about seeing her big buck.

“I just kept thinking oh my goodness,” she said.

Steve and Josie have been studying the deer in the area they were hunting and she knew which one she was after.

“We knew what time he was coming in for breakfast and she made the perfect shot,” Steve said.

Josie plans to get her buck mounted and still do a little more hunting with her family this season.

“We try to space it out and enjoy the whole season,” Steve said. “Josie has wanted to go with me since the first time I asked her. We can be out together and not harvest anything and still have a good time.”

Josie started hunting when she was 9, but has been exposed to the great outdoors since she was a toddler. She also has grown up going to work with her dad at Woodbury Outfitters.

“I got to learn how to do different stuff while I was here like sight my bow and technical terms,” she said.

The Hill family enjoys more than just deer hunting and Steve hopes that when Josie is 16 she will join him on a gator hunting trip and maybe even someday go bear hunting with him.

“Hunting is the most relaxing thing you can do until you see the big one and then you feel like you are going to have a stroke,” Steve said.

Josie would encourage other girls to give hunting a “shot.”

“Don’t let being a girl stop you,” she said. “I’d rather go deer hunting than play video games.”

It’s also a great way to spend time with your family.

“It’s good quality family time that seems to get lost these days,” Laurie said.

josie@coshoctonbeacontoday.com

Category: People & Places