Three generations of the Hilliard family bagged deer together on the first day of rifle season Monday. They are, from left, Dalton Hilliard, 15, Elijah Hilliard, 12, Randy Hilliard, 71, and Eric Hilliard, 47.

PROSPECT — Deer hunting has a long tradition in the Hilliard family.

It started with Randy Hilliard when he was 12. He is now 71.

“My father was killed in an automobile accident when I was 12,” said Hilliard of Prospect. “A close friend of the family started taking me hunting with him shortly thereafter. It’s been a big part of my life ever since.”

Hilliard hunted with his son, Eric, now 47, for nearly 30 years before giving it up for a few years.

“Then my two grandsons came along, hunting has that mentoring program and Eric needed some help with that,” Hilliard said. “So I got back into it.”

“He’s been a big part of my boys learning how to hunt,” Eric Hilliard said about his father. “Having two sons wanting to learn, it would have been hard to do by myself.”

This tradition of hunting hit its high water mark Monday, which was opening day of deer rifle season. That is when the three generations of Hilliard hunters created a forever memory.

All four bagged a doe within a few hours of each other while hunting together in Forward Township.

Elijah, 12, got a doe at 8 a.m., then he got a 3-point buck about 10:15 a.m.

Dalton, 15, got a doe around noon.

His grandfather got one about five minutes later.

Eric Hilliard shot his doe in the early afternoon.

“We were all back at Eric’s house by 3 p.m.,” the grandfather said. “We were hunting in a designated area where you could shoot a doe and a buck.

“I’ve hunted all my life and never saw so many deer in one place before. We had a chance to get a couple of more bucks, but missed.”

His son marveled at the density of deer.

“We saw more deer on that first day than I’ve seen in my past three years of hunting combined,” Eric Hilliard said. “We had to see 40 of them, maybe more.”

He added, “It was a thrill to see my dad get one. It’s the first time he’s gotten a deer in years.”

Randy Hilliard chuckled and said, “I’m not a very good shot.”

The largest deer Eric Hilliard has bagged is an 8-point buck. But if that was his fondest hunting memory, it’s been replaced.

“Eric told me that being part of this was a bigger thrill than if he had bagged the biggest trophy buck in Pennsylvania,” his father said.

His son concurred.

“Just being out there with my two sons and my father, experiencing a day like that and the pictures afterward ... It was special,” he said.