I sent her to Texas last year on an NRA-sponsored women's only hunt on which she harvested a nice 7-point (Texas count) whitetail buck and a doe. She enjoyed the hunt, but... hunting in a blind over a feeder was not her style of hunting.

After a day and a half on the road from Northern California, we arrived in western Colorado for the first day of the third combined rifle season. My wife, Trealisa, and I dropped off our friend Brian at the bottom of the canyon before daylight and we continued to drive another mile and a half to get to the head of the canyon. We left the truck and climbed into the canyon about 300 yards from the rim.

With Brian coming up the canyon and it now becoming light, we started to see deer. A nice spike-fork with a couple of does came by us at 75 yards. It was so incredibly dry that when we tried to shift positions on the ground, it sounded like gravel being poured into the back of a truck bed!!! The deer bolted and went to the bottom of the canyon and up the other side. I had my rangefinder and they were about 250 yards out. I looked at my wife and she was breathing hard. I asked if she needed to take this buck and get the fever out of her system? "No, I want a bigger buck than I took in Texas," she said.

I persisted and asked her repeatedly if she would like to take this buck. She looked through her scope and said OK, she would. Shooting off a collapsible Snipe Pod with her 7mm-08 and hand-loaded 140-grain Nosler CTX bullets, she was good out to 300 yards on the range.

After about 20 seconds or so she said, "OK, I'm ready." I looked over at her to give a few calming words when over her shoulder I saw antlers coming over the rise. I said, "I think you should wait," but she said that she was right on the buck and was going to take the shot. Again, I said, "No dear, there are more deer coming up the hillside and one looks like a good buck."

Disgusted, she put her gun down and looked over her shoulder. Well, I love my wife to death, but in the next 5 minutes I really had to test my self-control.

The buck and five does came walking toward us,125, 100, 75, 60 yards... and again, when we tried to move, BUSTED!!! Back across the hill and down the canyon, except the buck! He stopped at 88 yards with his head and neck exposed, looking at us. My wife was on her stomach in a prone position, but had the scope on 9-power from looking at the buck across the canyon and could not find him in the scope!

After a long minute, the buck sprinted down the hill and disappeared. Deer started up the other side and I said, "Be ready, the last one is the buck." 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,... 6, that's him! My wife said it was a doe. I started looking and he was the first one in line, last in... first out! I knew he was at least a 4-point on one side and I started tapping... OK... punching her on the shoulder to shoot.

"Quit hitting me or I won't shoot!" So sitting two feet from my wife, watching through 10x50 binos, I watched her "punch" her buck through the heart at 262 yards! Before we got over to the buck, she asked how big he was, and I said, "Bigger than Texas," and that he was a nice 3-point. The closer she got, she said, "No, a big forkie... no, a 3-point... no, a 4x4!" Then she lifted his head and screamed, "NO, a 4x5 with eye guards!"

He was 22-inch wide and 20-inch high with 2-inch eye guards, her first muley, and her best buck to date.

Of course she had to kill a buck with a cheater... I don't have a buck with a cheater... or a whitetail...

Eric & Trealisa Brimmer
Susanville, California