My deer hunt started out about the same as any hunt would, family and friends gather and tell stories (lies) about years past and the BIG one that got away. Have a big dinner the night before the opener, then go out and hunt like crazy. This year seemed different, the air was colder, weather a bit worse. There was fog in the mornings and the deer were out later. It seemed that this was turning out to be the kind of weather that gets the rut started early.

We hunted our favorite spot for the first 3 days, knowing that as the season went on the bucks would be pushed into this area. On day 4, we pushed a ridge but, still no buck. After a quick lunch and while we were refueling our 4-wheelers my mom spotted a buck sneak over the ridge we just hunted down. Not getting a good look at the buck we then, decided that we had to go back up. So plans were made to put a stock on him and get a closer look. After we closed the distance my buddy Bryant decided to harvest the 20 In. 4X4.

Day 5 started out cold with thick fog. As we neared our hunting area the fog cleared. We were early, so we stopped to let it get a little more light. As it was getting light we decided to drive to a vantage point to glass, we had only gone 200 yards when the rear drivers side tire fell completely off. Oh man talk about bad timing. With some work and about an hour lost we finally got back on the road. I didn’t think that we would see much since the sun was already up, but to my surprise as we neared a rocky draw I saw a buck standing in the bottom. I immediatly got buck fever, I shouted there’s my buck! As I tried to get out without putting it in park. My buddy who was with me the day before bailed over to the drivers side and stopped the truck. I got a good rest and kept telling
myself “don’t look at the horns”. When the wind slacked I touched off the shot, down went the buck. I yelled “I got him” and started to head over to see him when up he got. I shot again and down he went for good this time.

What a morning, going from freezing cold and fog to bright beautiful sun, the tire falling off to harvesting this awesome buck.

My buck is 30 in. wide with 6 on one side and four on the other. My thanks goes out to my parents for teaching me to love the outdoors my wife for always being there, and for my buddy Bryant, for killing the twenty inch buck before I could.