king' s outdoor world - Index

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

Arms guide and cameraman, Andy
Christiansen, made the trip as well
to capture the hunt on fi lm. With
Jeremy leading, they wound their
way up a gorge and into the neck of a
narrow canyon laden with boulders,
sage brush, and cedar trees. Rand,
like any hunter in his position, was
full of excitement and nervousness
as he listened to the descriptions
from Jeremy and thought about the
sight of this enormous deer in his
crosshairs.
After traversing the canyon,
the silhouettes of Rod and Dillon
came into view with the moon still
casting an eerie glow onto the land
below. After Rand settled in and
located the buck, the only thing
that separated the two from each
other were 420 yards of uneven
Utah terrain and six hours of murky
moon-cast shadows. Being in this
situation, you can imagine that
everyone was hoping for the perfect
scenario. Anything could happen
in the six hours before shooting
light from predators to catching the
hunter’s scent. The patiently waiting
men hoped that the buck would not
spook and run. The hunters knew, at
this point, that their skill level had
taken them as far as it could. They
had done everything in their power
to ensure that Rand had a chance at
a successful shot. As each of them
took turns watching the buck, the
others slept. During this time it
became clear that luck would be the
ultimate decider of their fate.
With the moon setting
about an hour and a half before
sunrise, there was a period of time
where the buck was lost to darkness.
As it turned out, the buck seemed to
take advantage of this and moved
from its original bed unbeknownst to
the hunters below. As dawn fi nally
approached, Rand and the rest of the
hunters were scrambling to locate
his new position. Spotting scopes
that only a short time ago contained
an enormous Utah muley now held
an empty bed and a lone cedar.
After spending just a few
Watch Rand’s hunt for this monster buck unfold on
a future episode of Christensen Outdoors television.
minutes searching, they were relieved
to see that the buck had moved off the
slope it had been on and was lying behind
some low-lying sage below. With the
deer being 402 yards away, Rand made
fi nal preparations. The Sportsman Tag
that had been drawn ten months ago,
the time spent scouting, dreaming, and
getting told by his co-workers not to
screw it all up, came down to this next
couple of seconds. While lying in the
dirt, Rand propped his Christensen Arms
7mm WSM up on his pack, clicked the
safety off, and steadied the crosshairs
just above the buck’s vitals.
A few seconds later the
stillness of the mid-October morning
was replaced by the sound of a Nosler
140-grain Ballistic Tip being hurled
through the silent morning air toward
the prized buck.
The buck was hit hard and
didn’t move from where he lay.
As the group made their way
up the steep, rocky terrain and saw up
close what they had viewed from so far
away over the past several hours, they
were in awe of what they saw. Rand
walked up to the buck and, with friends
and family surrounding him, took hold
of its enormous horns and shook his
head with disbelief. Congratulatory
handshakes and hugs quickly turned
to admiration for the buck. Rand,
along with everyone there, saw their
vocabulary reduced to the same
simple phrases the Taylor’s had fi rst
uttered some seventeen hours ago, “I
don’t believe it.” Admiration quickly
gave way to the excitement of the
harvest with everyone recounting
the events and the people that had
made it all possible.
The only thing wider than
the 42-inch spread on the deer was
Rand’s perma-grin. A buck with
thirteen points on each side will do
that to a man.
The Taylor’s were right.
This buck was defi nitely worth it.
February/March 55