The Deer Hunt

Seth has wanted to hunt deer the last few years.  While I am not a hunter, we have gone for some "Face time"  the last three years.  Last year he shot a Mule Deer in unit 30 B.  This year, we knew he would be leaving for a mission so we did not apply in the draw and waited.  When we found out when he would be leaving, we bought leftover tags in 30 B for Whitetail.  (Technically Coues Whitetail and properly pronounced like 'Cows' but usually pronounced 'Coos.')

Coues are smaller than the Whitetails found elsewhere in the Americas.  They are elusive and are much harder to harvest than Mule Deer.  While we were camping last year during the Mule Deer hunt, we saw a very nice Whitetail most evenings near our camp and he was on our list this year.  Because of all the goings--on with the last few days before the mission, we didn't go until Monday afternoon after the first weekend was over.

We got set up about 2:00 PM in a blind and settled in to wait for a couple of hours.  As we waited we visited a little and then, out of nowhere, this really nice buck walked down the fenceline about 150 yards away.  I saw it and told Seth to take him but he said, "I got one last year- you shoot it."  I did.  Turns out it is a record book deer.  Not "The biggest in the book" but big enough to go in the book.

Double click to see full--sized images

The next day, we got out before daylight and hoped for a repeat.  I glassed from above and Seth sat in the blind and tried to stay warm.  Nothing but does.  About 10:30 AM, we decided to go get something to eat.  As we drove out by some fields, I saw another nice buck in the neighbor, Mitch's,  field.  I told Seth to go ahead and line up a shot.  There was a good levee backstop and an empty field below.  He took the shot from K-7  (Grampa's ranch) Road.  (Privately owned by the family.)  Unfortunately, the shot turns out to have been 120 feet less that 1/4 mile from the house of a different neighbor who complained to the Sheriff.  The female deputy who pulled us over on our way to the processor thought that the Whitetail that Seth shot was a Mule Deer so she called the Game and Fish.  That fish cop wanna' be stated it was, in fact, a trophy Whitetail and then proceeded to throw the book at Seth.  Worst yet, he took the deer saying since it was shot (Remember the 120 feet) too close to a building, it was "Illegally possessed" by Seth and was, therefore, state property and we could pay the fines or Seth would have a warrant for his arrest issued.  We could "Buy back" the skull and antlers at an auction later if we wanted but we could not have it to mount as a memory of our hunt.

The problem was, Seth was to be on a plane in four days to Provo for his mission.  We called the court and got the date moved up and the judge, prosecuting attorney, and the officer in the court all laughed that it got that far.  The officer told Seth he was famous and that he wished he had been the responding officer and it would never have gotten that far.  Yah, too bad.  The whole court said the fish cops are always horrible about that: they pile on charges over nothing and love to confiscate game taken.  The fish cop wouldn't budge on the 1/4 mile charge and so the judge reduced the fine to the minimum and Seth got on the plane the next day.  Follow his mission at eldersethindr@blogspot.com

In the end, the tragedy is the memory of that last time together will not be what we had hoped but will still make for a great story.

Ironically, the fish cop had written an article in the Tombstone Epitaph (A local paper) about how he wanted to make his daughter's hunt a positive experience and memory.  I can't help thinking that I hope her experience at the dentist is better than my son's experience with him.  Look at the smile on Seth's face then imagine how he felt when the fish cop announced at the very end that he was taking the deer.  Coward!