One thing she couldn’t practice was patience and
persistence, at least she couldn’t practice them until her hunt started. She got on bucks day after day, but time
after time she was unable to get a shot.
The buck would disappear before she could get into range, other hunters
would bump the deer and spook them before she could get into range, elk would
be jumped during the stock and the deer would leave with them, other deer would
spot them before she could get into position, the buck wouldn’t give her a good
shot, so on and so forth. But Kylie did
show she had the patience and the persistence to keep it up. She was the first to be ready, and she was
the most willing to go again after a blown stalk.
Just after lunch one day, a group of bucks was glassed up a
couple miles away, feeding along a ridge.
The hike took about an hour when the group finally was getting into
position, but the bucks were nowhere to be found. Suddenly a small buck raised his head revealing
himself just a few yards from the hunters on the same ridge they had hiked onto! The deer had fed around a bowl and ended up
on the same side the hunters had planned on shooting from! The small buck finally spooked and took off
toward the bottom of the draw. Luckily,
even though the rest of the bucks spooked with him, they had no idea why the
small buck had run off. The bucks
scattered in all directions, with the biggest of the four heading in the general
direction of the small buck. He crossed
the drainage below and came up on the slope opposite of the hunters before he
stopped to have a look at what was going on.
Kylie set up on her bi pod and calmed herself down for the shot.
The shot looked to be around 250 yards and Kylie squeezed
the trigger. The buck jumped and ran at
the sound of the shot with the dull “whump” returning to the hunters. The buck topped the ridge and out of sight. Knowing the buck was hit the celebration
began. Eventually everyone made their
way to where the buck stood during the shot and found a blood trail Stevie
Wonder could follow! The buck had made
it just over a hundred yards before collapsing and rolling a short distance
down the hill!
Kylie had her first buck!
A nice 3X4! Wish I could have
started off with a buck that big!
You can watch this hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting Volume 1" found at:
Amazon.com
