There is no greater feeling than when everything comes together all at once. When my father surprised me with a Mule Deer hunt for my birthday, I couldn’t have been more excited, I had harvested many mule deer, but never a buck. I hit the shooting range more in the 2 weeks
leading up to my hunt than I have ever in my life. I spent my days at work and school trying to visualize the shot. The night before the excitement got the better of me and I couldn’t fall asleep until midnight, but getting up the next morning was no problem. We started glassing hillside a little before day break and it didn’t take long for Rob and my father to spot a group of 5 bucks. We spent the next couple of hours watching this assorted group, including a stag, a couple smaller bucks, a great looking 4×4, and of course my beautiful management buck. For a while I was sure that they wouldn’t ever lay down as the sun was rising, but our perserverence paid off and they bedded down in a bowl about 500 yards from us. We spent a few minutes debating how to go about our stalk, and Rob decided that we should come up from the bottom instead of the side. Rob navigated us to about 225yrds out and the bucks stood up right as we got set up. I don’t know if my heart has ever beaten faster or if I have ever breathed harder than those few moments when I found him in my scope. I took one deep breath and squeezed it off and dropped him in his tracks. “DUUUUDE”, thats my best impression of Rob at the time. Walking up on this beautiful buck is tne of the best moments of my young hunting career. I couldn’t have asked for a better first buck. Thanks dad, Rob, and Wes for a great hunt and a memory I’ll have forever.