Gunnar Miller/FacebookAn eight-year-old girl has set a Michigan record for being the youngest person ever to hunt an elk, after she downed a female elk with a rifle from more than 200 yards.
The animal reportedly weighed 400lb, almost five times the size of the child, which 8-year-old Braeleigh Miller and dad, Gunnar, located the night before the shooting, which took place on December 14.
Apparently, the youngster is the first one in her family to break a record and is often the only girl in her family to go hunting.
Took us 15 minutes the first morning and bird dropped her cow at 202 yards with one shot. Words cant express our exitment this morning!!! Braeleigh is officially the youngest person in Michigan to kill a elk!!
Posted by Gunnar Miller on Saturday, December 14, 2019
Dad Gunnar said:
They were all still in the field when it got daylight, and we waited for legal shooting hours, and we snuck across the field and they were in a perfect position in the field, I mean it couldn’t have unfolded any better.
Her dad went on to tell news channel Fox 17 how Braeleigh’s achievement brought tears to his eyes as it was the 8-year-old’s longest shot yet.
Braeleigh said:
It’s cool for me because I’ve never set a record before, my Dad hasn’t set a record before, and my grandpa hasn’t set a record before, so I’m like to them ‘ha-ha’.
Posted by Gunnar Miller on Monday, December 16, 2019
Sharing the news on Facebook, along with photos of the pair posing with the dead animal, the duo received messages of support and congratulations from family and friends. One person said it was ‘unreal’ and congratulated Gunnar on passing down the hunting tradition to his daughter, while another said they had ‘chills of excitement’ for them.
Following his daughter’s successful shot, Gunnar is encouraging other children in their area to take up hunting too.
He said:
Youth hunting in Michigan is a dying sport, and that’s why Michigan actually opened the mentor youth program after studies that have proven in Michigan is that the younger a kid is when they actually get into hunting, the more likely they are to continue it throughout their life.
So doing that study and everything obviously I would have gotten my kids into hunting at a young age no matter what, but to have the opportunity to have them be the one that’s pulling the trigger and actually harvesting the animal at a young age is a huge opportunity for them that we didn’t have when we were younger.
Posted by Gunnar Miller on Monday, December 16, 2019
Apparently Braeleigh wants to pass on the hunting tradition to her kids one day as well.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.