Another thing to think about - most young female hunters don't have a very high tolerance level for wounded animals, half dead critters, forced follow ups and the blood and gore that goes with these situations. Like I said in the last post - I mentored three girls from very young to adult hunters - they all had different levels of tolerance, when it came to the killing and how the animals reacted. Two of them had a very good understanding of how nature works, death and killing isn't always pretty - the third couldn't stand to see animals suffer, she wanted to see everything drop on the spot.
My wife, Debbie drew a very coveted Mule Deer tag for a zone that had a super opportunity for a top notch trophy buck. She shoots a 7mm-08, and she shoots it well. To make a long story shorter, we got in on a dandy buck - a legitimate 30 incher, big mature buck, well over 300 lbs. The rut was in full swing, we watched this buck run of another big buck, then he was back snortin' around after a hot doe. He was pretty revved up and full of adrenaline. We worked in to about 175, set up and when he came broadside, she punched him perfect, you couldn't have shot him any better. He hunched, moved off, obviously hit, and ended up in a depression with thick brush - all we could see was his head, horns and a bit of his backline. He staggered around for a bit, propped himself up, head up and down, swinging sideways. Couldn't get a follow up in to him where he was, and moving would have meant giving up elevation, and being able to cover the entire area and loosing sight of him so decided to wait him out. It took a long while, but finally he went down, but still struggling, flailing about and head swinging around (all we could see now were antlers) It took incredibly long - but finally he gave up the ghost - needless to say my wife didn't enjoy it a bit and it was a long time before she considered hunting again. Debbie did everything as well as she could have - she just didn't have enough gun to kill that deer the way she wanted to, that short barrelled 7mm-08 just didn't have the energy to take care of situation at hand.
My youngest daughter shot a big mature kudu, she shot it well with a 30-06, mind you it was a frontal quartering shot, but it leaped and kicked, obviously lung shot. It went into a ravine, and I couldn't believe it when it came running out on the far slope. Kelsey led him a hair too much, but took off another front corner, slowed him down and then two more good solid hits before he expired. It was a bit of a rodeo, but when it was done, Kelsey turned and smiled at me and said - "I can't believe how tough those animals are"
If my middle daughter, Heather had been the hunter in either of those situations - she would have been bawling and crying and I guarantee that it would have been the end of her hunting career - like forever ... Basically what I'm trying to say, is use or take as much gun as she can handle and shoot well . If your daughter happens to be a bit on the softer side (like Heather) do what ever it takes to shield her from those kind of situations. In my opinion that means leaving all the 6.5's and 7mm-08's at home when you go to Africa - they just don't cut it on those tougher African critters - hopefully she is comfortable shooting something a notch more powerful.
Good luck, enjoy and let us know what you decide to do in the end - really like hearing how things like this turn out
.
