king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

PHOTOS: BRAD GARFIELD
As I leveled my pin on the
sweet spot I only had one
thought, “Do not punch your
trigger again.” I had missed this
same big buck twelve days earlier
this season.
My season, like most
hunter’s, started with a lot of hope.
This just felt like it was my year. I
had put in as much work before the
season as I could. This included
losing sixty pounds, running fi ve
miles a day fi ve days a week, daily
practice with my bow and lots of
time going through every possible
hunting setup I could think of so
when the time came I would know
exactly what to do.
This year was going to be a
little different for me. I had told my
buddy Mike that if he went with me
this year on opening weekend that he
would see some nice bucks and the
rest would be up to him. He should
have a chance to harvest one.
As dawn broke on opening
morning, Mike, another hunting
buddy, Nate, and I were in my best
spot right where we needed to be.
Nate would hunt low, Mike would hunt
the middle of the ridge, and I would
hunt the high side of the bowl. The plan
was that I would come around the top
and drop off, pushing anything that was
up high down to Nate or Mike.
Within fi fteen minutes of
sunrise, I had two deer working my
way and, as I raised my binos, I could
see that it was two forked horns. They
were feeding toward me, so I hung tight
and, ten minutes later, they were about
twenty yards out. I watched them for
a few minutes and as soon as they got
behind me I continued on with my hunt.
The rest of the day was like a
bad dream as it was fi lled with the pain
of a long hike and not seeing any other
deer in my best area. This was unusual
because there are typically thirty-plus
deer in this area and at least three to six
good bucks in the 150-class. We moved
on for the afternoon hunt and still did
not see anything good. We saw six more
deer; two of them were three-points, but
it was not what we were used to seeing.
So, I had promised a good friend a
chance at a nice buck and it didn’t
happen. Mike had to go home Saturday
night, so Sunday morning it was
Nate and I. I was baffl ed as to where
the big bucks had gone as they were
always in my spot. To say I was
disappointed would have been an
understatement. I had worked hard
and really thought it was going to be
the year.
That afternoon we decided
to scout a new area. We knew the
animals did not just get up and
leave and that they had to be around
somewhere. Not ten minutes into
the new area, we saw a group of fi ve
big bucks. The smallest was a 140
and the biggest was in the mid-160
class. They busted us before we got
in the red zone and we never had a
chance at a shot.
It wasn’t fi ve minutes later
when Nate spotted a nice 4x4. We
made a plan and Nate took off. I sat
back and watched Nate, but I had lost
sight of his buck. Nate put in a great
stalk but came up to the side of the
buck and not behind him. He got
close, but not close enough. As the
buck bounced off it was another one
of those “what if” moments that eat
February/March 43