Very few people possess the chutzpah to pick up a rifle for the first time and centerpunch a target, especially a living, breathing one. But that’s exactly what 18-year-old Madelyn Calvert did in 2019.
The Warrensburg, Missouri, teen had never hunted before last season. And she’d never shot a gun prior to Nov. 20, the day she ridded Chariton County of one of the Show Me State’s most impressive whitetails.
She was hunting with her husband, Luke, on a 160-acre farm owned by a friend of her father-in-law’s. The piney property is two hours from the couple’s home.
Neither she nor he was happy when the alarm clock sounded that morning. It had been a very slow season to that point.
“All we packed were cell phones and rifles,” she told Gita Smith, who’s writing the story for Rack magazine. “We were late, and it was close to shooting light, so I had no time to eat breakfast. I was starving.
“I even commented, ‘I hope we don’t shoot anything so I can go get something to eat,’” she added.
The Calverts’ destination was a large, elevated wooden blind that has been in place for a long time. The windows on all sides have Plexiglas that must be propped open.
Madelyn was straddling a bench and watching one side, while her husband monitored the other.
“Luke saw the big buck about 7:30. We watched it for an hour before it stepped into shooting range,” she said. “I completely forgot I was starving.”
Madelyn offered to give Luke his .270 so he could take the shot, but he declined. He was much more interested in her shooting it.
“Right before I squeezed the trigger, my husband was all excited and whispering instructions like, ‘Take a breath ... Just squeeze the trigger ... Aim behind the shoulder blade,’” she said.
After the boom, Madelyn pulled the rifle back inside the blind and rested it across her knees. Tears soon followed.
The deer she wasn’t sure she’d hit didn’t go far. When it fell, she stood and jumped up and down, so hard that a pants pocket burst open, spilling the only contents: her phone.
The impressive whitetail has not been taped for the BTR, but it’ll no doubt fare extremely well.
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