Utah General Season Success!!

This past week I helped my father-in-law bag his first buck in over 20 years. We had a great time and made some good and lasting memories. Until last year, my father in law had not been hunting since his dad passed away in the early 80's. He has known of my passion for hunting, but had never really expressed interest in it to me. When I got my good bull a couple of years ago, we started to talk more about hunting. I learned that his lack of interest was not a lack of interest at all, he simply did not want to impose on me in anyway. About the same time, my next door neighbor asked me for some help in getting back into hunting. It had been several years since he had been and was looking for some direction.

In 2010, I told both my FIL and neighbor to put in for a general rifle tag. They both drew and we made plans to go hunting. We hunted hard last year for 3 days. My FIL missed a small buck and my neighbor was able to get this little buck on our last day.

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Well, that hooked him for life and lit a fire in my FIL. We planned to do the same thing again in 2011. Fast forward to this year.

This year proved to be a VERY difficult hunt. I was dissapointed on the opener to only have seen a handful of does and fawns. We hit almost all of my honey holes and came up empty. I was ready to try a new area on Monday morning. After thinking about it on Sunday, we decided to continue to go with what we know.

Monday we pulled out all the stops and headed deep into the honey hole. Since I was not hunting, I was the bird dog. I positioned my two hunters in the place I thought would give them the best chance and then I tried to get the deer moving. They were holding tight to the timber. After a very long morning, we decided to hit one more draw before making the long hike back to the truck.

My FIL took the down hill side of the timber, my neighbor went in just above him, and I took up high hoping to push something down to them. After an hour of working through the timber, I heard a shot ring out from below me. I buzzed my FIL on the radio and asked if that was him that shot. He simply said "Tally Ho!!" I made my way down to him. I was so happy for him. He made a perfect shot on this buck and anchored him. He killed this deer with his dad's old '06 and with a bullet loaded by his late father. It was a special experience.

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We worked our tails off for this buck. We had a 2 mile hike back to the road and had to cross a couple of deep canyons. We quartered it and between the three of us got it out in one trip.

I had been out of town the previous week on business. I got home on Friday at 2 and left to go hunting at 5. I had planned to hunt through Tuesday, but would love to get home earlier if possible. My wife has been a trooper. I missed her and the kids. I committed to my neighbor that I would help him on Tuesday until 12:00. If he had not got his buck by then, I would need to head home to be with my family. We hit it hard this morning, giving it everything we had. When we finished our last drive, it was 12:30. The storm clouds were moving in. We wished him luck and then my FIL and I headed off the mountain for home.

My Neighbor decided to check a couple of locations on his way off the mountain. Twenty minutes after we left him, he went to check on the draw we sat on opening morning. It was starting to snow, so hopefully the deer would be moving. Well, it worked out well for him. Where there were no deer 3 days earlier, this fine buck showed up. He anchored him right there. What a great general season buck!

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I am so happy for both of these guys. It is just as much fun watching others work hard and have success as it is to harvest one myself. Congrats to all of you who have been successful so far, and good luck to those of you still trying to fill your tag!