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‘She can shoot’: Teen fires rifle 7 times, brings home 7 deer

PICTURE ROCKS — Fifteen-year-old Kaylie Klepper may have been teasing her dad when she told him that it couldn’t be that hard to get a deer when hunting, but in the last four years she has proven that maybe it really isn’t that hard.

“When my dad went hunting, I picked on him when he didn’t come home with a deer,” she said. “I told him I could prove that it was easy.”

Kaylie, a Hughesville High School freshman, has fired her rifle seven times while hunting — and brought down seven deer. That 7-0 record is hard to beat.

“She can shoot,” her dad, Marc Klepper, said proudly. “She has bragging rights.”

Kaylie began hunting with her dad when she was 12.

“I was happy to take her out,” Klepper said.

“It’s a good way for them to spend time together,” Kaylie’s mom, Michelle, added.

Although her dad had hunted before, he and Kaylie took the state’s required hunter safety course together.

Hunting for the Kleppers is a family affair with cousins, as well as a family friend, joining Kaylie and her dad to hunt on her great-aunt’s farm. Sometimes Kaylie stays in a treestand while her cousins and her dad’s friend drive the deer out in the open, but other times she is on the ground. So far, she has shot two from a treestand and five while standing on the ground.

“I get comfortable and aim on their body where it would be a kill shot,” Kaylie said.

According to Travis Lau, state Game Commission spokesman, that’s really the way it should be done.

“As for harvesting a deer with a single shot, it doesn’t always happen that way, but it is the way it’s supposed to happen,” Lau said. “In our hunter education classes, we spend a lot of time teaching students about good shot placement and waiting for a good shot to present itself, ensuring a quick and clean harvest.”

Kaylie and her dad practice before the seasons to make sure her bolt-action .243 rifle is working properly.

Although hunting for the Kleppers is a family tradition, going back to her great-grandfather, her dad commented on how many of Kaylie’s friends seem to be taking an interest in the sport.

“I was surprised that so many girls hunt. That’s impressive to me,” he said.

Lau confirmed that there has been an upswing in the number of females hunting in the state and nationwide, and teen girls are a part of that number.

“In the 2009-10 license year, the first year we began using automated license sales, making information like this possible to track, 65,165 females bought licenses. In the 2015-16 license year, 96,555 bought licenses,” he said.

Although he did not have any statistics specific to Lycoming County readily available, Lau said “it is something that seems to be occurring everywhere … nationwide, as well as in Pennsylvania.”

Safety is important for the Klepper family too. Kaylie’s dad joked that when she goes hunting she looks like a pumpkin because of all the orange clothing her parents insist she wear. He said that she’s in orange almost from head to toe, except for her boots.

Kaylie, who doesn’t participate in the small game hunting season, said she plans to continue hunting deer. She also admitted that she likes to be outdoors, as long as it’s not too cold.

For many hunters, the thrill is in bringing down a deer for the sport of it and in keeping the antlers for a trophy, but for the Kleppers it means a source of meat for the family. Again, the whole family gets together to process the meat, making venison hot dogs, sausage and other products.

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