Daniel’ s First Buck!
Daniel’ s First Buck!
By Daniel Cantrell
This year I went on a hunt of a life time with
my family. It was a youth only controlled hunt for any mule deer. I got blessed and harvested an amazing 4x4 buck.
Last year I got this same hunt and shot a very nice doe. This year I wasn’ t sure if I would draw it again because of recent changes in available tags. This year there were only 50 either sex and 50 doe only tags. Last year, there were 100 either buck or doe tags. Thankfully, me and my sister drew tags. When it came time to go on the hunt we planned it to be a family affair. One of the ways I got ready for the hunt was fixing up my rifle. I chose to use our bull barreled DPMS 308. It has a Leupold CDS scope with a turret designed specifically for the Hornady 165 grain SST ammunition we planned to use. After a lot of practice shooting at various ranges we were finally ready for this hunt.
When we finally made it to the location we set up our camp and got ready to go scout out the area. When we were scouting we saw five doe and one spike, but it was a day before the hunt was open so we couldn’ t shoot them.
The next morning, while it was still dark, we went up to a location we had scouted the year before. It was a little hide about 300 yards away from a rocky canyon area. We sat there for about two hours glassing and did not see anything. Next, my dad looked over at the other hill side to see if anything was bedded down.
Surprise, he saw two bucks and one doe lying under some Sage brush on another hill side. When I first saw them, I saw a very nice 3x3 buck standing broad side to us. Suddenly, my dad said look a little to the left. That is the one you want because it is the biggest. I got my sights on him, and slowed down my heart beat. My dad ranged him and I dialed in my great Leupold CDS scope to 450 yards. We waited for the buck to stand up and when he did, I slowly pulled the trigger and saw the bullet contact the buck. It was a solid and well placed hit. Dad said that it was a double long shot. The buck started running; when it stopped I pulled off another great shot at 475 yards away. That shot dropped him and he died right there. The previous year, when I shot my first Muley doe, my dad gave me a Buck knife. It made short order of field dressing this fine buck!
It turned out to be a wonderful hunt. The good Lord blessed me to make a couple of great shots and harvest a wonderful Muley. It was even more fun to have my family there to help me out. I couldn’ t have done it without them.
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