We were hunting an area a friend had hunted and seen bucks in every morning during bow season. After the sun came up over the ridges we moved down the mountain a little and I saw four does. One had spotted us but wasn't sure and went back to feeding. After about 20 minutes and not seeing any other deer, the biggest doe locked on us again.

I think the sun must have been shining on us by then. After what seemed like 10 minutes I was just about to tell Nick that we should go on because there were seeing only does. As I was about to say that, two other hunters came up the ridge from below.

You know what happened next… The does busted and the big boy came running right toward us from out of our line of sight. It stopped about 30 yards away and after determining the other hunters were out of the line of fire, I told Nick to shoot the buck in the neck. At this point all I knew was the deer had heavy horns and was at least a three-point.

Well, Nick could see the shoulder from his angle so he shot and then the buck ran right at us. It passed us about 12 feet away. I told Nick to shoot again because I didn't want to chase it all over the mountain. He did and it only went about 20 yards farther before collapsing.

Nick was happy but I don't think as happy as I was. It was the first buck he had ever seen while hunting and the butcher told us that it was the heaviest he's had out of 49 deer this season. I'm also having it mounted for him.

Submitted by Monty Owens,
California