The third Saturday of October is practically a religious holiday in the state of Utah. It marks the start of the mule deer rifle hunt. Gone are the days when you could just walk in to the store and buy a tag and hunt anywhere in the state with it. This year Danny was the only one in the family that drew out.
The boys checking out a bunch of does. When they are standing under or behind the trees it's sometimes hard to make out if they have antlers or not. We did this several times on Saturday but eventually returned home empty-handed.
We went out again on Wednesday. Andy went with Dan in the morning, but again they saw only does. I went with him in the afternoon and after hunting for a couple of hours spotted a doe so we stopped the Nissan and watched as 6 or 7 does came out from behind some trees, and after a pause, came a buck. it stopped for just a second and Danny took advantage of the three-point"s hesitation and shot.
One thing about road hunting is you don't have to drag the deer very far! After cleaning it out it was a short 150 feet or so back to the Nissan.
Once the shot is fired and the deer goes down, the work begins. By the time we got back home, Andy cleared a space in the shed to hand the deer and begin to skin it. This is the first time I have ever hung one head first and it will be the last. We ended up flipping the deer to make the job easier.
Whatever you think about hunting it does bring a family together for an annual tradition. I don't know how many deer camps we passed but there were a lot of people out there enjoying family and the wonderful area we get to call home. It was especially good to go Saturday with all the boys (but Matt, who thought he'd rather be in Disneyland!) .
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