Peyton Hansen, 10, had never fired the 30-30 rifle before she killed her bear on youth hunt day Aug. 26.
She knew how to shoot. She had practiced with a .22-caliber in different styles of guns, but had never used the 30-30 before shooting the bear from about 25 yards. The bear ran 12 feet and fell over, her father Michael Hansen said.
Hansen, who operates a guide service out of his family’s homestead in Roxbury, said all three of his children — Peyton’s sister Caydn, 12, and brother Liam, 7, and Peyton — learned to shoot using the .22s.
The idea is for them to learn the basics of lifting the gun, sighting in the target and squeezing the trigger. The repetition creates muscle memory that can be used when shooting with any gun, he said.
The bear, weighing in at 135 pounds, kicked off Peyton’s journey to her hunting grand slam, which also includes a turkey, a deer and a moose. This was Peyton’s first hunting season.
Peyton used a 7mm-08 to shoot her doe on the second day of youth hunt in October. That fact was special to Hansen because he had bought it for himself when he was 12 years old. Other family members have used it too at various times over the years, he said.
The deer was shot in New Sharon on a friend’s property where the Hansens had helped put in food plots that would attract deer. Peyton and her dad sat in a ground blind, from which they saw deer about 82 yards away on the first youth day, but she didn’t have a shot.
They returned to the blind on the second day and the deer came out in the same place. Peyton shot from 98 yards, hitting both lungs. The doe, which dressed out at 136 pounds, dropped where she shot it, Hansen said.
Two other deer hung around, but Liam didn’t feel confident to take a shot and Caydn was holding out for a buck, he said.
Hansen got a moose permit in Zone 1 in the state’s lottery, and had made Peyton his subpermittee for the week of Oct. 23. They decided to stay in a guide tent in the woods, and brought their English setter Bodi to do a little bird hunting as well.
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They saw a few moose on the first day but had no opportunity to shoot one. The second day would be the one. They saw a cow about 40 yards off the logging road, which gave them time to set up shooting sticks for Peyton.
Peyton shot the cow moose with the 7mm-08 she had used to shoot her deer. The moose dropped a few yards from where she was shot. The cow weighed about 350 pounds. Peyton’s grandfather Stephen Hansen was among those who helped them drag the moose out to the truck.
Michael Hansen said they had been grouse hunting in an area near their home later that week when they saw a couple of jakes or immature male turkeys. They got out of the truck and stayed out of sight. Peyton shot one of them from 30 yards with a Rossi .410 turkey gun. The jake had a 5-inch beard.
Peyton also trapped a bear weighing 187 pounds and her sister got a bear weighing 287 pounds. The hide from Peyton’s big bear will become a rug.
Hansen said this was the first year Peyton had shown any interest in hunting. She loves the animals they have on the homestead, including lambs, goats, rabbits, turkeys, cows, pigs, ducks and chickens, he said.
The family calls her a “chicken whisperer” because she is the only one who can pick them up, Hansen said.
But the rest of the family hunts, and this year Peyton decided she would too. She also wants to get a bobcat this year and make her grand slam a royal grand slam, he said.
Hansen said he hopes one of his kids will take over his guide service someday.
“I enjoy hunting with the kids because I get to spend time with them. I don’t have to spend time in a mill away from them. Plus they learn to take care of themselves,” Hansen said.
