30" Two-point!

by Scott Holden

My dad and I had one week to hunt muleys before our elk area was due to open. We were fortunate to draw Ferris Mountain for elk. Deer was really the least of our worries. Although I am typically a bigger fan of trophy mulies, this particular year I was excited about the up coming elk hunt. The year we drew for elk allows only about 15 to 20 bull tags a year and has been known to produce some big elk. However, my dad and I had ten days to concentrate on deer.

We decided to check out a canyon that has produced some big deer for us in the past on opening morning. Usually in this canyon we see very little pressure from other hunters, if any at all, due to the roughness of the country. However, this year we were upset to see someone had beaten us to our sitting point. Understand that we generally like to arrive at least one hour early to beat the pressure. So to our dismay we moved to another point that is as good, but is harder to make a move on a deer if one is present that meets our standards.

For five days these two hunters pressed us each and every morning, earlier and earlier we would try to arrive at our vantage point. The other two hunters would do the same. By the fifth day we were arriving by three in the morning just to beat these two guys. It was amazing; the good thing is that if a guy is going to hunt this hard and pressure my dad and I each morning this much I am glad. I like to see other hunters do what is necessary to tag a truly trophy deer. I like the competition. I should tell you that after this was going on for seven days my dad and I had not seen a deer to meet our standards but we just knew that these other guys must have seen something or why would they continue to pressure us like this. So one evening we actually went off the ridge and talked to these two hunters. They were from Saratoga Wyoming and said that they just liked the country and thought if a big deer was present out here then this would be the perfect place. Although we agreed with them we still knew that they were not telling us everything that they knew. Which was fine with us. They also informed us that this would be there final hunt as one of them had to return to work. The next night found us in exactly the same spot as where we had the past six days. We arrived early about two in the afternoon and since this was the sixth day of the hunt and sleepiness was beginning to set in my dad and I both elected to take a much-earned nap.

After about an hour my dad rolled over just to see if anything had come out to begin feeding. He nudged me and told me to wake up because the hunt was on. There were deer feeding everywhere we looked. This was amazing because for six days we sat pretty much in the same exact spot and noticed a few deer, but never this many. That was when my dad made the announcement that I was waiting to hear. There is a buck and he is at least 30 inches wide. That was all I needed to hear. We were off!!!! The deer was about 1500 yards across the canyon feeding on an open slope but with plenty of cover, we figured we could make an effective stalk. We covered the ground at an incredible speed and after only 20 minutes we were sitting where we had last seen the deer, but he was gone. Then every hunter's nightmare, a shot rang out!!! But it was not us and no one could have possibly been in shooting range of this deer without us seeing him or her. We noticed that we actually heard the bullet hit before we heard the repeat of the rifle. So we knew however it was shooting from a long ways away and risking a shot at this distance was ridiculous. After waiting about one or two minutes shots rang out again. We could tell that whatever they were shooting at was moving towards us so my dad and I sat down and waited. Just about the time I sat down I looked up in the trees and sure enough here came the deer and man he was a shooter. I checked him out and made sure that the other hunters had not hit him already. When I found that they had not a shot the big deer. After walking up to the animal I did experience some ground shrinkage. He was the 30 incher we had spotted earlier, but I thought for sure he was at least a four point. But to my surprise he has only two points. This I have got to say is the biggest two point I have ever seen. And was a worthy trophy. The deer was absolutely beautiful and my most respect is given to these animals.