The First Hunt

I’ve been doing these hunt recaps for a few years now, I have been told they are wildly popular. So here we go. The first hunt was with a cool guy named Keith. Keith is a guy I met while fishing on the Mighty Missouri River. Keith and his friends actually lease a large ranch in Eastern Montana but have never really killed any big bucks.

His hunt was early in our season, well before the rut. Keith was in good shape and able to keep up with his trusty guide Aaron. The early season has its advantages. One great thing about early season is the deer are laid back and still in bachelor groups. they usually hang around summer food sources. Aaron usually finds they deer quickly and then keys in on the older bucks.

As the time ticked by the boys were seeing some nice bucks but Aaron is very careful about what bucks get shot. He likes the old ones only! The boys came down to the last days and still didn’t have a buck killed. As they kept passing on deer and bumping a few, time was running out.

They spotted a couple of bucks from a distance and decided to take a closer look. Aaron was being maybe over cautious of what kind of buck to shoot, not a bad thing but time was ticking. As they approached the spot where the bucks could be, they peeked over the edge and Aaron reluctantly told Keith he could shoot the one on the right. Aaron didn’t make it sound to great but Keith seized the moment and through down. After a couple of shots at a deer that was starting to move out, it was over.

As the boys approached the deer, Aaron braced himself for the sinking feeling of tiny buck syndrome. Keith didn’t really know what to think because Aaron was not really sure about the deal. As the guys walked up on him Aaron was happy to experience the opposite of ground shrinkage. The buck had long mains and double eye guards decent mass. Wow, what a buck! The party ensued.