She’s waited a long time for this wall-hanger

Layla Knighton sat in the truck with her cousin as minutes that seemed like hours passed.

Suddenly, the call on the radio startled the boredom.

“They jumped one,” her father, Chris, said. “Get ready, they’re heading your way.”

The 15-year-old from Bumpass, headed up a small hill and passed a creek when her cousin shouted: “deer to your right.”

“I couldn’t see anything from where I was but then I saw the horns running through the woods,” the Louisa County High School 10th-grader said. “When I could see the shot I took it and he dropped right there.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was in awe.

“I got the big one, I got the big one was all I could say.”

Layla’s buck was an 8-pointer and a “right big one” her dad said.

What matters most to Layla is that the deer was the size she’d been hoping for since she started hunting five years ago.

“My dad was so happy for me because he knows how bad I’ve been wanting one that I could have mounted,” Layla said. “He’s always supported me with everything and with me wanting to hunt.”

Layla knocked down the big deer with buckshot from about 35 yards, despite the fact that the animal was running at full speed.

“I couldn’t believe that I did it,” she said. “Dropped him right where I hit him. It was amazing.”

Chris said his daughter’s big buck is much more than something to hang on the wall and brag about – more even than all the meals it will provide for family and friends.

It is, he said, about the future.

“Young girls and women are getting more and more involved with our sport,” he said. “It’s important because they are going to keep our tradition alive.”

Chris runs his five dogs with the Oak Hill Hunt Club, a small group of mostly family members and a handful of youngsters.

Layla says her female friends in school don’t really understand her obsession with deer, turkey and dove hunting.

“They think it’s yucky,” she said. “They think it’s weird and nasty. The boys in school think it’s really cool.

“I was raised in the woods and was going with my dad ever since I can remember.”

She shares her dad’s hopes that more youngsters will find themselves outdoors – enjoying hunting, fishing or a multitude of other opportunities.

“I think it would be so amazing for more young girls to get into hunting. I would love that,” she said. “They would probably love it if they would give it a try. It’s so interesting and you learn a lot.

“But that’s just me and it’s who I am.”

Layla helps take care of her dad’s dogs and often is a part of the cleaning and dressing out of the day’s harvest.

But not this time.

“I wanted my dad to dress this one out because I am going to get this deer mounted. It’s my first big buck and I didn’t want to make a mistake,” she said. “This deer is very special to me.”