Deer Hunting Stories
"Worth the Wait"
Nathan's Buck Grosses 184 2/8 and nets 181 7/8!
I looked forward to the opening of the 2003 Utah general rifle deer hunt with more than a
little enthusiasm. It had been almost four years, since the 1999 Utah archery deer season
that I have waited to hunt deer in any state.
In 2000, we moved from Utah to Colorado where I accepted a term position with the US
Forest Service as a Wildlife Biologist. Of course, I had to sit out the fall hunts in
Colorado because I had not established residency yet and could not get back to Utah to
hunt because of work conflicts. I participated in the hunts that year by going out on
hunter compliance patrols and getting to know the area better.
The next year, I put in for a permanent Wildlife Biologist position on the Lewis and Clark
National Forest in Montana and was fortunate to be offered the position. I was only able
to hunt three days during the ensuing 2001 Colorado archery deer season before having to
pack up and move my family for the second time in two years. The fall hunting season in
Montana brought yet more hunter compliance patrols and no hunting.
The following year we experienced yet another job change and more lost hunting
opportunities. I put in for and accepted a journey level Wildlife Biologist position on
the Dixie National Forest back in my home state of Utah. I was offered this position and
moved my family down to Cedar City in August of 2002. The only hunting I was able to do in
Montana was the 2002 spring bear and turkey hunts. If there was anything I regretted about
moving again, it would have to be not spending more time in that state and taking
advantage of the many and varied hunting opportunities and getting to know Montana better.
Of course, during the fall hunting season in Utah, I again found myself behind the wheel
of a Forest Service rig performing hunter compliance patrols.
It is easy to see why anticipation of the 2003 Utah hunting seasons brought a little bit
of excitement and enthusiasm my way. After establishing residency and not accepting any
forms of employment in any other state, I decided to increase my hunting opportunities by
joining the dedicated hunter program. With 2003 being my first year in the program, I told
myself that any deer I looked at harvesting would have to be pretty large.
I scouted off and on during the summer and saw some good deer, but none that I was really
excited about. I located a good spring source for a treestand, where I planned on spending
opening morning and evening during the archery hunt. I had seen two fairly nice bucks on
Alfalfa fields just down off the hill from this spring and hoped that they might come into
this water source. Unfortunately, Mothernature took a role during the archery hunt and it
rained off and on for almost the entire archery season. Of course, no deer came into the
spring.
When rifle season rolled around in mid-October, I decided to spend my time out west near
Enterprise. I did not hunt opening weekend due to work conflicts, but Monday morning I was
out before dawn in the area around Pilot peak and flat Top Mountain.
I saw a lot of deer and a lot of hunters, but no bucks at all. This trend continued
through Tuesday morning and it was getting obvious to me that buck-to-doe ratios were
pretty low in this area.
Wednesday morning, I hooked up with two friends, Bryan Carter and his Father-in-law Bob
Tobler. We hunted around Pole Hollow and Little Valleys and did not see any bucks. That
evening, we hunted around Cottonwood Creek, just north of Paragonah, and still no bucks.
By this time some of my enthusiasm had begun to waver as you can imagine.
Thursday morning, we decided to go out west again and hunt the area north of Modena and
the railroad tracks, since the enterprise unit had closed the day prior. The area we went
to has historically produced big bucks. Anticipation was high that we would be able to
find something, even though I had not personally been out there to scout. At first light,
we jumped a group of 8 deer off of a spring and this group included two small bucks. This
was better than the previous 3 days, so things were looking up. We decided to split up and
work along three ridge lines and then circle around and meet in this large bowl where
Bryan had seen good deer in the past.
My route was the furthest north of the 3 and it led me up under some impressive rock
outcroppings just under the ridgeline. As I was huffing up this ridge, and was just about
to turn on a more southerly course to bring me around to the large bowl, I decided to hike
up to the top of the ridge and glass the other side to see if I might have jumped anything
in front of me. Just as my head crested the ridge, I found myself looking at a large buck
standing broadside about 100 yards away, just below the opposite ridge top. One look told
me that this buck was respectable enough to take during any year, let alone on the first
year of my dedicated hunter program. However, I was breathing pretty hard from the
exertion of climbing the ridge and thought it would be a good idea to move ten more feet
where I could get in a prone position on the ridgeline. The buck was looking at me, but
did not appear to be alarmed.
I began slowly moving up the slope, placing a small juniper between the buck and myself to
hide my movement. I had not taken three steps before I decided I had better keep an eye
out to make sure the buck was still there. I peeked around the juniper and saw that the
buck was starting to trot off and was just about to crest the ridge and disappear over the
other side. I quickly stood up and put my scope on the deer. The only part I could see was
his head and neck, so I placed the cross-hairs on his neck and squeezed off a shot. I
instantly saw that I had scored a hit because he dropped like a rock. I sat there for a
while to catch my breath and take visual bearings on where the buck was and then set off
to go see what I had shot.
When I walked up to him and saw antlers poking up above the brush I knew that I had shot a
nice deer. What impressed me most about this buck was his symmetry. Aside from an inch or
two difference in the G3 points, I could see that there were very few deductions. He was
about 28.5 inches wide and was still a relatively young deer and had not developed much
mass. I had him scored by an official Boone and Crockett scorer and he officially grossed
184 2/8ths and netted 181 7/8ths. He just made the three-year Boone and Crockett Awards
book and was definitely worth the wait of the past few year's hunting frustrations.
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