My wife and I left home at 3:30am to start our hike on opening morning of Utah's general season muzzleloader hunt. We were heading to the top to locate a buck we had found a few days prior. After a few hour hike, we were sitting right in the saddle at first light. At 7:15am we spotted her buck, along with two smaller bucks feeding 200 yards down below us. The wind was just right, and loud enough to cover our scent and sound as we took the next 30 minutes to sneak through the pines and get at least 50 yards closer. We got 130 yards straight above the buck. My wife got set up with the shooting sticks, and just then the buck turned perfectly broadside. I sat waiting for the sound of the muzzleloader to go off. When suddenly my wife looked back at me and whispered. "I can't do it." What do you mean you can't do it? I asked. I said, "It's a solid 4 point! Hurry and pull the hammer back and slowly squeeze the trigger." She looked back down at the buck.. a few seconds past and she looked back at me again and said. "but babe, I feel sad.. I don't want to shoot it." I patiently told her "babe, you got to shoot this deer." She then positioned herself again and dropped the hammer on him! He went only a few feet and expired. Words cannot even explain how proud I was in that moment! I was jumping up and down all over the mountain! I think my wife thought I was crazy. But she now realizes how much I love what I do.
We made our way down and around the cliffs and my wife was then way excited! She said she was so scarred to shoot it because she has never done anything like that before. She said after the shot, she was loving every minute of it.
The cliff above is where she took the shot from.
The pack out
She was such a trooper!
My wife comes from a family where hunting is a very foreign thing. So this was her very first mule deer hunt. She said she can't explain the emotions she had in that moment. But that she loved the memories that we can share together forever. My wife says she is so happy now that she can proudly call herself "a hunter."
I Live For This
We made our way down and around the cliffs and my wife was then way excited! She said she was so scarred to shoot it because she has never done anything like that before. She said after the shot, she was loving every minute of it.
The cliff above is where she took the shot from.
The pack out
She was such a trooper!
My wife comes from a family where hunting is a very foreign thing. So this was her very first mule deer hunt. She said she can't explain the emotions she had in that moment. But that she loved the memories that we can share together forever. My wife says she is so happy now that she can proudly call herself "a hunter."
I Live For This