11-Year-Old Girl Shoots 140+ Buck On Camera

A daddy-daughter bond is an extraordinary thing, especially when that bondage takes place through hunting and the outdoors.

Hadleigh Bruce, 11, of Newborn, had a moment with her daddy William on Sept. 15 that will indeed thicken their bond as she killed her biggest buck to date with him—a 142-inch Jasper County 14-pointer—with a crossbow. The entire hunt was captured on video and appears below.

Hunting since she was 6 years old, Hadleigh picked up a crossbow for the first time last year. She said the reason she wanted to start hunting with a crossbow was because she always watches Drury Outdoors and The Crush with Lee and Tiffany, and they always shoot deer with their bows and crossbows.

Last year she was able to hit a buck with her crossbow bolt that they called The Big 9, but they were unable to find the deer. He later showed back up.

“I’ve already killed 10 deer with my gun, so I wanted to try with my crossbow,” said Hadleigh.

In the future, she plans to upgrade to a compound bow and hopes to get one for Christmas. It seems that Hadleigh is definitely the type of girl who is always up for a challenge.

This deer season, Hadleigh said her sights were set on three different bucks: The Big 9, Pinky and Drop. It was Drop that she ended up connecting with on Sept. 15.

Drop was a 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-year-old buck that got the nickname from a 3-inch drop tine that he had on a past set of antlers. The first pictures she ever had of Drop was at a feeder right behind her house. Hadleigh saw the drop tine and knew she wanted to take that buck.

As her buck fever intensified, she and her dad planted food plots, apple trees and persimmon trees trying to do everything they could to draw and keep him on the property. Last year while gun hunting, Hadleigh’s dad and grandad both saw Drop on separate occasions roughly four or five times. Both men decided to pass on him to give Hadleigh the chance to whack Drop with her crossbow.

She knows how to kill big bucks and she is impressive on camera, too. Meet Hadleigh Bruce and her big buck she called Drop.

Last year, Hadleigh did have a close encounter with Drop.

“He came out and was 20 yards away but would never give us a shot—he just stood there staring at us,” said Hadleigh. “We kept waiting and it kept getting darker. Then the Big 9 came out of the woods, came over and ran Drop off, (giving us) a perfect shot, so I shot The Big 9 in the shoulder.”

When photos started rolling in this summer, Drop no longer had a drop tine. However they still knew it was Drop because he had a distinctive brow tine that was split on the left side.

By opening day, the stage was set with a beautiful clover field from Whitetail Institute, some ATTRAX feed and corn mix, some crush sugar beet attractant and persimmons on the ground.

After hunting for three days straight, it becomes clear that Hadleigh was patient and determined. You can see in the video she passed on two good bucks, one being a nice 10 that many archery hunters would have shot. She knew by letting him go that he’s one day going to be a shooter.

On the fourth day, Hadleigh and William had to take a pause from heading into the woods because William had to work at the fire station. On this fourth day, Pinky and Drop were both caught snacking on camera in front of their blind from 5-8 p.m.

On the fifth day, Hadleigh and William started hunting earlier in the day so that there wouldn’t be a chance of spooking either of these bucks. When sitting in the pouring rain for close to an hour and not seeing anything move, Drop showed up for his dinner.

On Sept. 15 around 7 p.m., Hadleigh was finally able to connect with Drop at 24 yards. As you see in the video, he ran off but was hit hard. After the shot, Hadleigh and William went to see if they could find any blood where she shot him. Once they found the arrow and blood, it started raining really bad, so they decided to wait about an hour and a half.

Once they headed back to continue the search, they found him quickly. Not only was Drop Hadleigh’s biggest buck to date, it was also her first harvest with her crossbow.

“Don’t give up because it’s raining,” Hadleigh said.

The hard work, patience and ambition all paid off for this 11-year-old girl. Hadleigh’s plans are to mount her monster buck and move on to the next big thing.

“Hunting for Pinky,” she said.