king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

70
Whether it is off to Colorado to hunt mule deer or Kansas for whitetail, Vicki balances
family and the outdoors and mixes them together for many wonderful experiences
obligations for the rest of the week.
No pressure.
It was a chilly November
morning. We set the alarm for
earlier than we normally would
since I had the baby to feed before
we left. Hunter got up to come with
us. Nate, Hunter and I left long
before fi rst light. We hiked to the
top of the mountain and got to where
we could sit and view the canyons
below us before the sun came up
over the horizon. I sat on the east
side of the peak and glassed my side,
while Nate sat on the west side and
glassed in the other direction. As
the pre-dawn light grew brighter, I
could make out a number of deer on
the slope below me. Hunter, sitting
next to me, spotted some others on a
distant slope. No antlers. We were
also beginning to see orange dotting
the canyons below us.
Just as the sun dawned over
the mountains in front of us, Nate
whistled. Hunter and I crept over
the top of the hill, and Nate pointed
to his Geovid binos. He had them
set up on his video tripod, focused in
on a buck. He whispered that it was
a 3x4, but it looked like a nice one. I
took a peek. The buck had his head
down and was eating, but I could see
HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
that he had wide horns that went out
past his ears. He looked great to me, so
when Nate asked if I wanted him I said,
“You bet! Let’s go get him.”
Just as we were getting the
camera set up, some hunters took a shot
north of us in another part of the canyon.
My buck and the does around him
started to trot south toward the thicker
cedar trees. Having spent a lot of time
in this area, Nate knew where the deer
would go when pressured. Amazingly,
he thinks like a mule deer buck.
“He’ll be heading up higher
into the trees. We’ll need to run to stay
ahead of him,” he whispered.
So, we grabbed our stuff
and dropped down on the other side
of the peak. We ran south along the
back side of the ridgeline for a good
half mile. Nate can hike and run on
a mountain like nobody I have ever
seen; so, needless to say, Hunter and
I were quite a distance behind him.
The ridge was steep and Hunter was
having a hard time, so I grabbed his
hand to keep him from sliding down
the soft, loose dirt and shale. By the
time we got to where Nate was, he
was lying prone on the top of the
ridge with his camera already set up
and glassing for the deer. Hunter
and I laid down next to him and I got
my gun ready. Sure enough, Nate
spotted the buck stepping out of the
cedars directly down and in front
of us about 300 yards away (Didn’t
I say that Nate thinks like a mule
deer?). I saw him a few moments
later. He looked magnifi cent! He
was wider than I had fi rst thought
and more massive, and his antlers
seemed to just go straight out and up.
He sure was pretty, glistening in the
early sunlight. I defi nitely wanted to
take that deer!
I got the scope up on him.
Nate had the camera on and ready
and I took a shot. Wham! Got him!
I took another shot to be sure. The
buck ran back into the trees behind
him. I saw some hunters making
their way up the canyon, so Hunter
and I headed down to locate the
buck. We found the blood trail and
saw the buck in a thicket. We waved
to Nate to come down.
This was one of those deer
that grows as you walk up on him.
We lifted his head off the ground
and he was monstrous! Yes, he
was a 3x4, but the three-point side
was cooler than the four-point side!
My buck has long main beams
that curl in and measure 27-inches
long. His G-2 on the three-point
side is bladed and measures a crazy
eighteen inches. However, the most
astounding part was that he had a
full 35-inch wide outside spread!