Young Bucks

SureShot

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Well, I just got back from 2 weeks in Colorado trying to find a monster buck for the governor?s tag holder. He?s a great guy and deserves the help. While most guys were content to sit back and poke fun or wait to hear news on how his hunt turned out, I put my boots on the ground and binoculars to my eyes to make a difference. I'm sure you'll all be impressed when the pictures finally come out. Oh, and on my way home, I swung by Hyde Park and found the buck everybody?s been panicking over. You just have to know where to look.

Life just keeps getting better and better for me. After years and years of honing my tracking, spotting, shooting and field-judging skills and paying my dues to become arguably the best mule deer hunter in Neola, Utah, my fame and notoriety have spread to the point that I have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. In fact, as I write this, I am on my way over to India right now to train my customer service staff on my newest product: SureShot's Big Buck Trail Cam?. This incredible 16 megapixel digital camera with infrared night-time technology in a bear-proof security box is unique from all of the other trail cams on the market. What sets it apart is that?in addition to taking magazine-cover-quality images?it is integrated directly with PhotoChop 3.0 so it automatically enhances your photos to guarantee every buck you take a picture of scores at least 180 Boone & Crockett points. Then, it automatically uploads your photos to PhotoBuck.com so you can share them with your friends and family and other random people on the Internet.

This is just the latest successful item in my growing dynasty of hunting products. Look for it soon on a website near you.
 
Did you know it takes almost 30 hours to travel to India? That's a long time to eat peanuts and drink apple juice mixed with Sprite (it's really good; you should try it) and watch movies on my own personal entertainment system. Since this airline doesn't offer a very good selection of hunting videos, I decided to take advantage of this time to share with you another exciting summary of my hunting adventures for this past year.

I've already been involved in taking so many monster bucks over the years?either as a guide or the trigger man?that I decided I would save my preference points and focus my efforts this year on turning the dreams of some lucky youth hunters into reality. So, I turned away most of my high-paying clientele and donated my services to some lucky young hunters I know. After all, that's what it's all about and the children are our future so why not give back to a tradition and lifestyle that has made me who I am and be that hero that our rising generation so desperately needs.
 
The first young buck I agreed to help has a passion for hunting that I have rarely seen. He is a really good baseball player and is popular with the ladies, so I figured our chances of success were high. Because of his busy schedule, we decided to focus our efforts on a high-country muzzleloader hunt. I went up a few days before the hunt started and scouted out some fantastic bucks. When he and his dad arrived in camp the night before the season opened, I was already there. You could feel the excitement in the air. A big storm was supposed to be moving in the next day, so we decided to sleep in our sleeping bags.

The next morning came as soon as the night ended and we rolled out of our beds on the mountain and got dressed for the day. Then we gathered our gear and hit the trail so we would be in the perfect position at first light. That morning, we saw a couple of really nice bucks, but no shot opportunities presented themselves. Then, the storm hit. It was a miserable, once-in-a-decade, early-season snow storm that dumped a ton of snow on the ground. While this would eventually make for some really good hunting conditions, at the time, it just made for some really wet and miserable hunting conditions.

Most hunters probably headed back to their camps, but we stuck it out because I wanted to teach this young man that Perseverance and Patience are two key Ps to being a great hunter. Once that lesson was ingrained into the very fibers of his soul, we decided to go back to camp and play Uno. Of course, I totally dominated.

When nighttime came, it was still snowing, so we decided to stay in our tent and go to sleep. Luckily, we had sleeping bags to snuggle into.
 
The next day wasn?t any better, so we decided to move to another area that I know holds some real monsters. As soon as we got to the new area, I knew we had arrived. From the signs in the parking lot, I knew right where we were. We were going to ride our horses about 10 miles in to get away from the crowds, but we didn't have them with us. So, we decided to put on our backpacks and hike up the nastiest looking hill we could find.

We had only gone about 4 or 5 miles, when I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw the buck we had come for standing on the edge of some really thick pine trees about 1,200 yards away. We immediately hunkered down and put together a game plan. The plan was that I would circle above the buck and scare it down towards my hunter where he could get a nice, safe shot with his muzzleloader.

My plan worked to perfection?they always do?and the buck ran right towards the young lad and his dad. When it got to about 90 yards from them, it could sense there was danger nearby, so it slowed down and turned broadside. By turning broadside, it offered a perfect target and, as good as he is at baseball, he knew just what to do. One shot from his muzzleloader and the buck immediately stopped, dropped and rolled down the hill right at their feet.

When I made my way back down the hill, this is what I found.

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This beautiful 4x4 taped out at just under 180 inches and had tons of potential. It was the best buck this young hunter had ever taken and it was the highlight of his hunting career.
 
Riding the wave of success that follows me wherever I go, I moved on to my next hunt with another young buck that lives not far from where I grew up. Although a little young for his age, he is a really good basketball player and is really popular with the ladies, so I figured we wouldn't have any trouble finding him the buck of his dreams. Because of his busy schedule, we only had the opening day of the rifle hunt to make his dream come true.

I wanted to take him hunting on some private property that I know holds some really big bucks, but we didn't have permission to go there. So, we decided to try our chances on public land with the other 65,000 hunters that had tags in this unit.

We arrived at our hunting spot on Mt. Timbucktoo the night before the season opened. There were hunters everywhere trying to scout out the area for bucks and sighting in their guns and riding their 4-wheelers all over the place for the pure enjoyment of feeling the raw power of unharnessed steel and vinyl beneath their feet. With all the commotion going on all around us, I was amazed that nobody noticed the 34 inch non-typical buck scoring 230 or his companion, a huge 5x6 that scored 235 right next to him. We knew just where we wanted to be the next morning.

We knew we would need all of our energy for the next day. So, that night, we went to bed in our sleeping bags and fell right to sleep. That's how the boys stayed until morning, but I had to get up several times to go to the bathroom. Getting old sucks.
 
The sunset the next morning was gorgeous. And we found ourselves in the perfect spot. With as many other hunters as there were, most of the wise old bucks were standing stock still in the deepest, darkest pine trees they could find. Fortunately for us, there were some other young bucks out as well and they had plenty of energy to crawl around in those unhuntable areas. Eventually, one monster lost his cool and decided to try to sneak away from all the pressure. I may not know what the fox says, but I know what to do when I see a buck of this caliber. I immediately pointed him out to my young friend. While he settled in for the shot, I gave him the yardage, wind speed and direction, altitude, latitude and longitude coordinates, UV factor, time, temperature and interest rates and let him do the rest.

He didn't disappoint. Being the excellent basketball player that he is?and popular with the ladies?he drained this monster three from downtown with one well-placed shot right where he was aiming.

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As soon as the buck dropped in his tracks, the celebrating began. I apologize to any other hunters who may not have filled their tags yet if our jubilance disrupted any of their plans, but this young man had just fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams. What else were we supposed to do? Those mountains are just as much for our enjoyment as they are for yours.
 
The last lucky hunter I was able to help this year was extra special?and maybe I should consider myself the lucky one?because he happened to be my own son. He?s only 14 years old and this was first year with a deer tag, but he's already accomplished a lot in his life. He?s arguably the best player on his soccer team, the president of his school choir, a straight A student and an Eagle Scout. Of course, it goes without saying that he's pretty popular with the ladies. And, I probably shouldn't say too much about this, but let's just say that I'm going to have to share some of the royalties on my next big hunting product because it was all his idea.

Because of his busy schedule, we weren't able to make it out into the hills until after the rifle season was essentially over and all of the hunters had gone home. I really like the extra late season because there's a lot less pressure. It makes sense if you don't think about it.

Knowing that it was this late in the season, we got on our horses and rode for three days to get as far away from roads and conservation officers as possible. We didn't want anything to interrupt our carefully laid out plans. On our way in to camp, we saw a really big buck. He was easily over 30? wide with 11 points on one side and 14 on the other. If you do the math (30+11x14?remember to multiply before adding), that comes to a score of at least 184; definitely a great buck, but I encouraged him to hold off because this was his first year hunting and every hunter should start with a 2 point buck and then work their way up from there. It's kind of a rite of passage. Plus, we were still close to some roads and somebody might see or hear us.
 
We finally made it to our designated hunting area and, after passing up several more mature bucks and countless does, we found the perfect 2 point for my son. He was high, wide and deep with a thick layer of fat between his hide and muscles. We watched this buck all summer long, but he was living in a cemetery so we couldn't hunt him. Finally, after several hours, he ventured out onto public land and we had him. My son was a little excited and quickly fired a couple of warning shots that rolled off the buck like water off a duck?s back. But, because he's such a good soccer player and popular with the ladies, he eventually settled down and put one right between his eyes so we wouldn't waste any meat.

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After congratulating him and taking some carefully composed photos to hide the blown-out brains and record this momentous occasion for his posterity, we boned out and caped out the buck and headed back to town for a celebratory dinner at Boudreaux?s Bistro?the finest Cajun food you'll find west of the Mississippi.
 
And, so ends another exciting year in the amazing life I live. I want to congratulate these fine young bucks on their fine young bucks and hope they continue to build on that success in the years to come. I hope everybody on MonsterMuleys had a Merry Christmas?yeah, I'm not afraid to say Christmas?and has a Happy New Year. Shalom.
 
Great job of getting to real reason we write our hunting tails! Today MM tomorrow?

"The fine line between bravery and stupidity is
endlessly debated--the difference really doesn't
matter." WW II Air force pilot
 
Thanks SureShot! 2013 is now complete!

Eel

P.S. Is there a Blacktail version of your SureShot's Big Buck Trail Cam?? If every buck turns out to be 180, some people might not believe me.
 
"You had me at hello"!
"You make me want to be a better man"!
Thanks for sharing your GREAT success with us.
"You complete me" or at least tickled my funny bone.
Zeke

Nice bucks for the boys, by the way!
 
Sleeping bags? Ya whimps! I'm gonna hide this thread from my beautiful granddaughters. I wouldn't want to take the chance of becoming inlaws with ya'll, ya big money spending hard core trophy hunter! :)
 

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