Karl Dagel, with children Bo and Karlissa, shows off a Montana pronghorn antelope taken in October.
The pronghorn antelope wasn’t the finest kill of Karl Dagel’s hunting career, but he was nevertheless proud of it. So he left it where it fell in the hills of eastern Montana early this October and went to get his daughter, waiting back in the pickup with his wife Becky.
He brought 4-year-old Karlissa to the antelope, and she walked around the buck, slowly taking it all in. She nodded slowly.
“That’s a really fine buck,” she concluded.
Karl, 37, grinned the biggest grin he could grin, thinking all the while, “Just like she knew everything she was looking at.”
“Thank you,” he said to his daughter, and he told her how he had found the antelope, stalked it and shot it. She listened intently to every word, still thoughtfully assessing the buck with her blue eyes. Karl stood by her side, his 22-month old son Bo in a carry-pack on his back.
But Karlissa is by no means inexperienced. A year ago she went bow hunting with her father. Crouching next to him behind a log, they watched a spike bull come to their cow call and cow decoy. The bull circled closer until he was only 20 yards away. Karl drew his bow, and with Karlissa almost bumping his elbow, a slightly confused Dagel fired. Karlissa gently poked her father: “You got him, Daddy.”
