king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated - October/November 2007 - Index

PHOTO: BRAD GARFIELD
I can
still remember following
my dad as a very young boy,
being his little shadow, on the
deer hunts. Back then, I never even
wondered why he walked where he
walked or how he chose a location
for each hunt. I just thought,
"Wow,? I get to go deer hunting with
my dad! More times than not, the
day would get very exciting when a
big buck showed up. I can still hear
my dad working the lever action of
20 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
MULE DEER
Deer Drives
Are you a sitter or a pusher?
his 30-30-94 as he got ready to shoot.
At the end of the day, my dad would
usually end up killing the biggest buck
or, sometimes, the only buck. I can still
remember my uncles and my grandpas
saying as they were admiring my dad's
big buck, "Well, it looks like Dean was
the lucky one once again.? Back then,
I too thought my dad was the luckiest
hunter alive. He always seemed to be
the one in the spotlight at the end of the
hunt. He just had to be one lucky man!
5MULE DEER5
Dennis Wintch
As the years passed me by,
so did the deer hunts that I spent
with my dad. A lot of that time
was spent one-on-one, just my dad
and me. Here again, I never really
thought too much about why he did
what he did. If he told me to walk
over there, or go sit down and keep
a sharp eye out on that hillside, I
just did it because my dad told me
to do it. The amazing thing about
it all was that quite often a big buck
would show up right before my eyes
and I found myself becoming one of
those lucky hunters also.
By the time I was thirty, I
had a little black book full of "how
to's? on how to kill a big muley buck.
My father had run me through, time
and time again, every gauntlet he
knew on killing a big muley buck.
My dad was one of the best of the
best in his style of hunting big desert
mulies. Now when I look back,
I appreciate even more the great
privilege of being schooled by this
great man. One of my father's key
tactics to killing a big buck was to
always walk or put yourself in a spot
so that if a big buck jumped out, you
would get to see him and get some
shooting. You can't kill what you
never see. Wow, being his shadow
all those years has finally come full
circle.
I have said it time and time
again; there have probably been more
big bucks killed running away from
Joe and running into Fred than any
other way. Being in the right place
at the right time is a very important
point. However, I have also come to
know that most of the time it's your