Epic First Hunt!

[Big Browns]

5 years ago when my wife & I were married neither she nor anyone else in her family was a hunter. Fast forward 5 years and my wife had killed a nice 6 point Bull and has had several Deer tags. During this time Chris (my brother in law) had been watching in the shadows. Several years ago he began to show interest in hunting. He really didn’t like Deer Meat so he was only interested in hunting Elk. I started putting him in for Elk & Antelope and was able to convince him to allow me to put him in for Deer. I promised him I would only put him in for a great Deer hunt so he could enjoy his first Deer hunt.

 

When I put him in for the 2015 Deer draw I never expected him to draw a tag with only 3 points. When I saw cc had been hit for a Deer tag I assumed it was for me. You can imagine my surprise when I checked the website and found out Chris had drawn his first Deer tag. Not only was it his first Deer tag, but it was going to be is first hunt ever! To make it even sweeter, his first hunt ever was going to be a December Unit 22 White Tail hunt. Ya, I know. He’s a lucky S.O. B.!!!!! Everyone in the family was very excited.

 

With the hunt coming closer I was able to take Chris shooting several different times. Every time he did a great job. The last trip to the range Chris shot several different guns at 500 yards. He never missed the gong. I knew if I could find him a Deer, Chris would be able to make the shot.

 

I had intended to spend a lot of time scouting for his hunt. With my own hunt and all the Elk hunts I helped on I wasn’t able to do any scouting for his hunt. I initially wasn’t very concerned, because I had a really good idea where to find some great Buck’s. As the hunt drew closer I became a lot more nervous. I really wanted to ensure his hunt was the best it could be. A few days before the hunt started it was clear the weather wasn’t going to be great for opening weekend. Even though the weather wasn’t going to be good I still needed to stick to our plan.

Thursday night came and we were on the road to the trail head to spend the night. We arrived at the trail head around 10:30pm. We were both very excited and could hardly sleep. We were on the trail before the sun rose and at our first glassing spot.

 

Several hours later and about 30 Deer later we still hadn’t seen any good Buck’s. We had seen 1 decent 80-90 inch Buck, but nothing worth pursuing on the first day. We stayed at our initial spot until 12:30. At that point we decided to move to another one of my honey holes. This proved to be the best decision.

 

We arrived at our next spot about 1400. Initially the weather was really nice. That didn’t last long. About 10 minutes after getting to our glassing spot the wind started HOWLING! 15-25 MPH. It SUCKED! I had enough and took a nap on the other side of the hill out of the wind. Apparently the wind wasn’t strong enough to block out my snoringJ Chris was not impressed at my ability to out snore the windJ I was impressed that Chris never stopped looking for Deer. In fact Chris interrupted a wonderful nap with him saying “Buck”. I was suddenly wide awake! I ran to the binoculars to find 2 does on the side of a hill. Chris got a little excited when he saw them and thought they were Buck’s. I told him welcome to hunting, because we all do that;)

 

Since I was awake now I decided to start glassing again. After 15 minutes I realized this was crazy and we needed to get out of the wind. We moved off the hill and out of the wind. When we got to the bottom of the hill I saw a small hill to our north that looked good and out of the wind. It would give us a great vantage point at the leeward side of some hills. I was hoping the does we saw earlier might have a Buck in the area.

 

10 minutes later we were set up again glassing. I started glassing the hills far away, and Chris glassed the hill close to us. After only a few minutes Chris said “Adam, I’ve got a Buck”. I could tell instantly he had a Buck, because of the confidence in his voice. When he told me where it was and I could get my 15’s on the bedded Buck I was instantly in Kill mode! I slowly slid off my glassing chair and starting getting the gun out of the pack. During this time Chris kept asking me “are you sure it’s a Whitetail, are you sure”. I looked at Chris and said firmly “Yes and don’t take your freaking eyes off that Buck until I tell you to”. Chris was still learning how to get the gun set up so I had to do that for him. After I got everything set up we switched positions.

 

Chris was instantly able to find the Buck in the scope. With a quick range from my BR2 I dialed the turrets and dialed the wind. Chris was able to shoot the Deer while he was still bedded. The first shot looked really good until I saw the bullet hit him in the high neck. The Deer jumped up and stood there for a long time. I told Chris to re-load and shoot again. This time I removed about half the wind I had dialed. I realized my wind value was incorrect, because the hill the Deer was on was blocking more wind than I had originally thought. The second shot looked perfect and the Deer ran down the hill out of sight. We were both very, very excited. I still wasn’t sure about the shot so I tried not getting to excited.

 

We started hiking over to the Deer. As we were hiking I informed Chris that the Deer could still be alive and he would need to be prepared to shoot the Deer if he got up. As we got close I dialed the scope’s power to the lowest level and had Chris load a round. Chris went low and I went high. As we crested a small hill I saw the Buck first. The Deer was standing at the bottom of the draw looking directly at me. I yelled at Chris to look across the draw. At that point the Deer started running up the hill and getting ready to cross over. I made several Deer bleats in attempt to stop the Deer. Amazingly the Deer stopped at the top of the hill. Chris was able to make a perfect shoulder shot. The Deer only ran another 20 yards and fell.

 

When Chris and I made our way to the Deer I had no idea how big this Deer was going to be. I never took the time to evaluate the deer prior to shooting him. I knew he was good, but I had no idea. When we finally laid our hands on this Deer we were both in amazement! I was so happy for Chris! He had just killed his first Deer on his first ever hunt! The ending was a little bit of a rodeo, but that’s how hunting is sometimes.

 

After some pictures, hugs and a few tears we loaded the Deer in the truck and headed home. This was a hunt that myself and Chris will never forget! What an Amazing adventure!!!!!!

 

The next day Chris helped me rough score his Buck. It taped out at 113.50. The bases are almost 6 inches on each side below the eye guard.

[pyle762]

Wow!

[nighthawk]

Amazing buck congrats!!

[HuntHarder]

Freaking Stud buck. I love the mass on that deer. Nice going

[bgshooter]

Nice! Congrats to Chris!!!

[rossislider]

Awesome job Adam! Congratulations to you both!

[DUG]

Nice job! That's a stud!

[Cola Blanca]

Congratulations to both of you on an amazing buck!!!!

[elecshoc]

That's a awesome buck, congrats. Great job fellas

[SO I HUNT]

Just wow!

[218buck]

Awesome buck congrats

[Heat]

Dude, you are on a roll lately! First goose for you, nice buck for you, big deer for Bro in law! Great Season Adam!

[roninflag]

OH MY!!!

[AZ RANGER]

That's a heck of a first hunt. Congrats to you both.

[coueser4]

Awesome buck! Great work staying on him and finishing him off.