Thirty-five-year-old Jordan Morgan is proud of his hunting heritage, so much so that he’s passing the tradition along to his wife and their children.

The Lydia man, an all-around outdoorsman, revels spending time with his family in a deer stand as much but probably more than the solo days after he began hunting deer at a young age. His pride is contagious from Bethani Morgan, his wife, to three daughters, Rilee, 14, Elli, 8, and Bailey, 6.

It shows in their home, where there are 13 taxidermist mounts of the family’s most meaningful deer kills. Some walls still are waiting to be so graced, particularly those in Elli’s room, where she has a spot picked out for a head and shoulders mount of a deer with an impressive set of horns.

The family hunts on leased land in southwest Arkansas five minutes away from a lease for the family’s close friends the Davises, Milton and his son, Dusty, et al, also of Lydia. Bailey Morgan and Bowen Davis, also 6, attend Caneview Elementary School and both were ecstatic when he killed his first buck, a 9-point, 168-pounder, up there on Nov. 24.

Elli, a third-grader at Caneview Elementary School, has exhibited the patience of Job since her first real deer hunt in 2022-23. Elli has been on an estimated 20-30 actual deer hunting trips since age 6.

All the while, she was steadfast in her desire to down a buck with a nice rack as her first kill, her father said.

Morgan, who calls his daughter a “mini me,” noted some friends and family refer to her as Jordan Jr. Elli embraced the outdoors at an early age, then stuck with it, he said.

“She’s been ‘hunting’ with me since when she was 5, spending time in the stand with me. When she turned 6, I bought her a rifle,” he said.

For one reason or another the enthusiastic outdoors girl was unable to connect on chances at her first deer the past two seasons … too far or spooked or something happened. This season she still wanted to wait for a deer big enough to take to a taxidermist.

But she got antsy a few weeks ago.

“Finally, she said, ‘Dad, I want to shoot a deer (even if it was a doe). I’ll get a big buck later,’ ” he said.

The weekend of Nov. 16-17 found her in the Arkansas woods with another opportunity but, alas, a deer they saw the first day was out of rifle range and the father-daughter returned to the camp empty-handed.

“I said, ‘We’ll go hunting Sunday morning for a little while.’ This deer came out probably an hour into the hunt, walked out and across the lane. She tried to get the gun set up but the deer walked into the woods. The deer came back out two minutes later,” her dad said.

As it stood broadside, its head and horns pointed in the direction of the woods, Elli pulled the trigger on her bolt-action rifle.

The Savage .234 bullet’s impact and placement dropped the approximately 130-pound spike where it stood, instantly. The bullet hit “right in the chest, right in the heart,” Morgan said.

The suddenness of the kill evidently weighed on the young girl who, according to Morgan, is “really a soft-hearted kid.”

Ellie’s dad was concerned when the 8-year-old covered her face with her hands immediately after the shot, then wept for more than a minute. The oilfield inspector for NOV Tuboscope asked her if the scope had hit her forehead and she said no.

“Oh, I was happy she made the shot, roughly about 60 yards. When she shot it she went from scared to excited to nervous. She hit every emotion in about five seconds,” he said.

Morgan said the third-grade student asked if every deer went down as fast as she just witnessed. He told her it was a humane and ethical harvest of a game animal.

“It was a perfect shot, right in the chest, right in the heart. There was no suffering,” he told her.

Mostly, he said, “She was excited. She’s been around it. She did well. I was very impressed. We were both excited.”

So was his wife, who was hunting in a deer stand 500 yards away. After the initial photos were taken of his daughter and the spike buck where it fell, Morgan and Ellie hurried over to get her mother.

Bethani, who has killed an estimated 15 or more deer since she met and started hunting with Morgan, appreciated what she saw right away that morning.

“Oh, I’m so proud of her. For anybody who knows Elli, she is the sweetest and most kind-hearted girl. I’m proud and excited for her,” said the RN who owns Thrive Health and Hydration on Main Street in New Iberia.

“All three of my girls have a very good eye. There’s a split second for a very good shot.”
She proved it later in November when she dropped an 8-point buck weighing approximately 170 pounds on Thanksgiving Day.

“I’ve hunted every single weekend (this season). I was just waiting for a nice buck to pull the trigger on,” she said.

Her middle daughter, true to her word, reiterated she wants to wait to pull the trigger the rest of the season until she has a good shot at “something big,” her father said, a trophy for the wall in her room.