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'We're just proficient at killing animals'

by BILL BULEY
Staff Writer | September 16, 2010 9:00 PM

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<p>On her first legal day to hunt big game, Megan Bruyette was picked up from school at 2:30 p.m. and had her first buck at 3:10 p.m., according to her father David Bruyette.</p>

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<p>Megan Bruyette went on hunting and fishing trips with her father beginning at 14 months and now has a number of photographs documenting her successes on the water and in the woods.</p>

COEUR d'ALENE - When Megan Bruyette turned 12 in November, she didn't celebrate by shopping with her mom or hanging out with friends.

Nothing close to that.

Instead, on her first legal day to hunt big game in Idaho, she set out for the woods with her dad, David Bruyette.

Soon, she took aim with a lever-action .30-30 nicknamed "Mary Lou" - the first gun her dad bought himself - and pulled the trigger.

"I bought her a license at 2, picked her up from school at 2:30 and we went out to Arrow Point on some private property," the proud father said. "At 3:10, she had her buck dead on the ground. One shot, one kill. I gutted it for her, but she dragged it out of the woods."

A moment later, he added, "That's the way I raise my kids."

The Coeur d'Alene man is an avid outdoorsman. He's shared his zeal with his friends and family, especially his two daughters, Brittany, who is 22 today, and Megan. Dad brought both along on hunting and fishing trips from the time they were toddlers, and both mastered the ways of the wilderness, whether it be muzzleloading, bow hunting or casting a line.

"I'm trying to create some memories and experiences with my kids nobody will ever be able to take away," Bruyette said.

The Arkansas native who moved with his family to Coeur d'Alene in 2000 says his youngest daughter is "a proficient game whacker."

"Megan had been waiting to turn 12 and go out and harvest some game," he said.

Last spring, she got a turkey on the first morning of the hunt. First shot.

"Boom, busted a gobbler with a 12-gauge," her dad said.

On Aug. 31, they set out bear bait and returned the next day. At 6 p.m., at a range of about 25 yards, she got a black bear, which later measured over 6 feet tall.

"The bear ran within 12 yards of us and died 15 yards away," Bruyette said.

"Through the scope, they look a lot bigger than they are," Megan said of bears.

Megan loves fishing, too.

Her father proudly recounts a trip to the Dworshak Dam on the North Fork of the Clearwater River when she caught a large steelhead. It was a long day on the road and in the boat.

"No griping, no belly aching, no complaining," Bruyette said. "I told her, 'Honey, I have men that don't make trips like this.'"

Megan said she loves being outdoors with her dad.

"It's pretty exciting when you get to shoot something," she said.

The blue-eyed, blond-haired girl is quiet and polite and seems like any other 12-year-old girl - except she's good with a gun.

The seventh-grader at Canfield Middle School said her classmates like to hear about her adventures.

"I have lots of pictures of kills on my binders," she said. "It's pretty interesting. I get to tell them all the stories."

If she loves anything more than hunting, it's fishing, especially come winter when she gets to journey out on a frozen lake, cut a hole in the ice and drop in a line.

"I love ice fishing. That's fun," she said.

Next in Megan's sights is a moose.

She drew a moose tag in her first year, unit 1-4, and the season opens Sept. 15.

Already, she and her dad have been doing "recon," research, and watching moose hunting videos on YouTube. They even built their own moose call out of a milk jug and string.

"We're planning on a close encounter of 40 yards or less," her dad said, laughing.

Bruyette, who is the pastor at Mountain Lakes Bible Church in Coeur d'Alene and an all-around handyman, said people ask if he isn't worried about his daughter being scared while hunting, or of her being hurt.

He shakes his head.

"If you don't allow your child to be scared, they don't know to be afraid," he said.

Megan quickly agreed while she isn't easily frightened, she does get nervous.

"Oh yeah. It's pretty exciting," she said.

David Bruyette said hunting has been in his blood since he got his first deer at age 10.

"It's been an onslaught ever since," he said, grinning. "My mother said, 'If they make a license for it, he's killed it with a ballpoint pen.' You either have it or you don't and I got it."

He said his family doesn't hunt for trophies.

"We eat everything we kill," he said.

"I'm not trying to sound arrogant," he added. "We're just proficient at killing animals."

As good as David Bruyette is in the outdoors, he said his daughter is better.

And that brings out a big smile from dad.

"She still beats me at the shooting range at Cabela's," he said.