In His Own Words

Scott was finally drawn to hunt deer here in Utah. This is from an email he sent and I thought I would post it here.

"Well, I saw several dead male deer and many live female deer. I didn't get one, but was with others that did. I'll try to make a long story short. Opening morning I was in the wrong places at the wrong time. One time I was talking to two hunters, walked around a hillside to hunt a draw and not 30 minutes later heard shooting from where I just was, went back, and one of the hunters I was just talking to shot a big 4 point. Later, I had been watching a bowl area, hadn't seen anything, thought I would hike a little, left where I was at, came back about an hour later and two hunters said they saw two large bucks walk right up through the area where I had just come from. That was opening morning. The next day was Sunday, hung out with Deacons at church. Monday...I go back to the same spot where there had been deer everywhere on opening morning, with Leslie, Aaron and two neighbor friends. Didn't see one deer. Went back Tuesday afternoon with a friend of mine...hiked my bum off all over the hills, saw tons of deer tracks and poop, but no live deer. I had to leave early to get back to Brinlie's first dance concert of the year. So, as I am driving down the mountain I glance to my left down an old road and two deer are standing in the middle of the road about 300 yards away...they have no idea that I have just seen them. I thrust my truck into Park, cycle a round into the chamber of my gun, jump out of the truck to the side of the road and look through my scope to see if either deer has antlers. Sure enough, one of them is a 3 point buck. I place my cross hairs behind the shoulder and begin the action of pulling the trigger and then hesitate at the thought of, "If I shoot this deer, I am going to miss Brinlie's dance concert," and then I think, "If I shoot this deer now, I will be gutting it in the dark," and then I think, "There are homes somewhere behind the deer. What if I miss? Where will the bullet go?", and then I think, "I still have one more day to hunt. I will see another one." That all happened in about 10 seconds, I eased off the trigger, watched the deer go into the trees and barely made it to Brinlie's dance concert. Went back to the same area Wednesday afternoon, the last day of the hunt. Driving into the same area, we come up over this hill and see 3 deer just 50 yards off the road and I think I see antlers on one of them. I bail out of my truck and bring my scope to bear and sure enough, one of them is a 2 point. I place my cross hairs behind the shoulder, squeeze the trigger and nothing happens. I had not yet put a bullet in the chamber. I cycle a bullet out of the magazine into the chamber, bring my scope to bear again and see only fur and hooves flying through the trees...the opportunity is gone. So, I didn't successfully bag a deer, but the hunt did successfully create a lot of stories to tell my kids. "