Colton and Megan Bracken's Utah bucks

I had a great time when I took my sister Megan and her husband Colton on the general hunt here in Utah. Colton had been diagnosed with the swine flu the day before the hunt and wasn’t even going to go. I’ll bet he is glad now that he suffered through opening morning. They were lucky enough to have their pictures and story published in the MuleyCrazy magazine. It was really cool that a husband and wife team got such nice bucks on the same hunt during the same year. Colton’s buck was an old regressing 4x4 buck that was 32" wide and Megan’s was an awesome 4x5 with a broken cheater that would have made him 30" wide. The story below is the one they had published in the magazine.

The Swine Flu and Déjà Vu

There is something to be said about commitment and persistence. These two things helped my wife Megan and I both take prize bucks in the hills of southern Utah in October 2009. We were fortunate enough to have Megan’s brother Trevor Hunt helping us. He taught us a lot about a commitment to hunting and the persistence it takes to do it well. With just a few days left before opening day Megan and I had everything ready and prepared for the long awaited rifle hunt in our home town. Our guns were sighted in and we had our plan all ready. However, the unexpected happened when Friday morning the Doctor diagnosed me with the swine flu. I was crushed. No hunt, no deer, no fun! I stayed in bed all day depressed that I was going to miss Megan’s first deer. Even though hunting runs deep in both of our families and we had both been hunting many times, Megan had not yet had the opportunity to shoot a deer. We were hoping this was her year.
When we woke up Saturday morning, I was feeling a little better, and was determined to go. So I decided to tag along, and at least sit in the truck so I could be there when she got one. After driving what seemed like forever to me, we arrived at our spot. No sooner had we hiked up to the little canyon we would be glassing, than Trevor immediately whispered those fateful words, ”There he is!” We quickly ran to the edge of the ridge to check out this buck. Unfortunately it was just a doe. Five minutes later, out walked a monster buck. It was only 8:06 AM opening morning, and we were already about 250 yards away from the biggest buck I had ever put my scope on. We waited cautiously as he weaved in and out of trees, and through his herd of does. Finally, after about 5 minutes of wandering to the top of the ridge he was out to about 340 yards, and was heading over the top. My wife couldn’t find him in her scope, and time was running out. I quickly whipped off a shot at him and just missed. This got him trotting and I fired a second shot. Again a miss! At this point he was at the top of the ridge just about to run over the edge. I took a deep breath, found him in the scope, and sqeezed off one more round. Thud! I had hit him.
After a few minutes we made the 367 yard trek over the hill to find the 32” 4 X 4 lying under a tree. Looking at the biggest buck I have ever shot I had some mixed emotions. I was pretty worn out from the flu, and sad that Megan wasn’t able to take him, but with a deer like that you can’t feel that bad. We excitedly took pictures and finished taking care of him. The best part was that the deer I had taken was not the deer we were going after. So we knew that there was still one left out there for Megan.
This is where the persistence came in. We went back out there that night, and didn’t see anything. We returned to that spot every single day for the next week never seeing a single deer. It was very tempting to give up and try another spot, but Trevor was wise enough to tell us to be patient and that the persistence would pay off. Boy did it ever! Exactly one week after I had shot my deer, we returned again to the appropriately named “swine flu canyon”. It was Saturday October 24^th. At 7:56 AM we went up to the same spot we had taken mine, and almost in the exact same spot stood a lone doe. I couldn’t believe it. We quickly ran to the same spot we had shot from earlier and set up. Again, out walked another monster buck. He walked across the top of the ridge and finally stopped. Megan fired her first shot at a live deer and just barely missed under its neck. She quickly reloaded and shot again. This time it just missed under its stomach. “A little higher”, Trevor whispered. After a few seconds, she fired off one more shot. This one landed perfectly in the kill zone. After a few minutes of stumbling around he finally collapsed behind some oak. I glanced at my watch, 8:06 AM. I couldn’t believe it. Trevor checked the range and it was 375 yards. I struggled to comprehend what had just happened. My wife had just shot a buck that was at least as big as mine, not even 50 yards from where I had taken mine, almost exactly one week to the minute from when I had shot mine, and she hit it on the third shot. It was Déjà vu. We hiked over to the spot where he had collapsed, and sure enough there lie the 26 inch 4 x 5 in all his glory. Not bad for a first deer.
Needless to say, I was a lot more excited this time. The flu wasn’t holding back my emotions anymore. I gave my wife a big hug, and thought about how awesome this moment was. It’s not every year that you get to hunt with your wife, let alone get a monster mule deer with her. The story that we just lived will be one we’ll tell our kids for years to come. This was truly a year to remember. And to think, I almost didn’t even go hunting because of a little sickness. We must thank Trevor for teaching us the value of commitment and persistence and for helping us have one of the best memories of our marriage.