A tag drawn, an eventful season, and a successful harvest. After applying and dreaming of a late whitetail tag, 2017 finally granted me a tag for my local unit. From the day the results were posted, scouting began and miles were logged on the old danner antelope, but this was going to be my year to finally harvest a whitetail.
Opening day came, and it was filled with highs and lows. The lows were mainly because of the lack of mature bucks I found leading up to that day, but the highs drastically outweighed the lows. As light faded on opening day, I spotted what was surely the buck I had been hoping for, chasing a doe right in my direction. This put me on the highest high only to be dropped down when he took a left turn and chased his doe right onto private ground, never to be seen again.
I moved areas, and day after day, I put boots on the ground to try and locate another buck to fill my tag. As the days passed, I tried not to think of the season's end. Finally, It came down to the last day when I was given an amazing gift. A local landowner saw me every day putting in work to find a buck and my dedication moved him to the point where he granted me permission to hunt the section that the buck of my dreams disappeared onto. By this time, I only had the evening hunt, but I was quick to get out and start searching. I spent the rest of that day hiking to reach a meadow that the landowner said the buck would be in. I finally made it there 30 minutes before dark. As I sat atop a rock outcropping, counting the seconds left before my tag was over and light was gone, he finally stepped out. Checking the clock, I still had time and quickly ranged the buck. The trusty G7 said 350 yards, and with the twist of a turret and the smooth pull of the trigger, the buck took his final breath and my dream buck lay dead on my final night's hunt.
The pack out was long, and it was a true workout packing the whole deer into the KUIU Icon Pro attached to my back. However, the ear to ear smile never left my face the entire way because the buck of my dreams was coming home with me.
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