Curtis's Account

My whitetail hunt was what I'd been awaiting all year. The first day of the hunt had finally arrived, my guide and I were on our way to the spot he had scouted before my arrival. When we got there, the wind was not cooperating, so we drove around looking for a chance. We only saw a few small bucks. For the next few days, it snowed on and off. We did not see any mature whitetails.

On the third day I walked up on a bedded, big bull moose. I took many pictures from about 10 yards. He never ran until I tried changing my roll of film. I saw a 3X3 deer in the early hours, but during the rest of the day we didn't see anything resembling a whitetail deer. I was kind of getting tired, thinking that maybe I wouldn't see anything else. That changed when I got back to camp and saw a massive whitetail buck which scored 188 3/8 gross. Without guessing, I knew my dad, Steve had tagged out. I was happy for him. I thought to myself, tomorrow will be my day.

My guide, Al Gates, took me to a new hunting area and told me I was going in alone. I liked that, I felt my changes would be better with less people crowding the woods. Al told me how to get in the right spot. I quickly went through the woods, across a dammed up beaver pond, and back up the other side about 1000 yards to an open field. Positioning myself, I waited. Soon I saw a doe coming directly towards me. I heard a loud grunt and there behind her was a mature buck. I just watched, and when I realized I should shoot, the buck disappeared. I was so amazed at how big he was that I didn't react in time. The day came to an end. I felt I'd had my chance and blown it.

The next day I was ready. Al took me to the same spot. It was snowing and a perfect hunting day. I felt good about it for some reason. Maybe because it was Friday the thirteenth. I got to the open field, but the wind wasn't right. I repositioned myself on the other side and waited. I was there for about 20 minutes. Then I saw a mature whitetail coming directly toward me at about 80 yards. I quickly put my 300 Browning Magnum cross-hairs on the deer and pulled the trigger. The first shot missed, the buck stood still, I reloaded and put a good shot into the deer. When I approached the buck, I was really thrilled because he was bigger than what I had thought.