By Joy

My first hunting trip was Jan. 29th 2001, which happened to be my birthday. My husband Jimmie and I went to Big Sandy Hunt Club in Tuscaloosa, Al. He took me to the stand we call the Honey Hole. Since this was my first time to hunt, Jimmie instructed me on what to expect and what to do. It was about 8:15 that morning when a doe came out into the greenfield. I decided I would take the shot to harvest my first deer. I steadied my borrowed gun and pulled the trigger. Click. It did not fire. The gun was an automatic Browning and the bolt was not pushed all the way forward. The doe heard the unnatural noise and bolted. Our season was over so I had to wait until November to try again.

Since our season does not open until November we decided to go to Buck Ridge Plantation in South Carolina. While we were there I shot my first deer, a doe. I was really excited.

Our season finally opened. The first weekend I shot a 7-point. It took us a while to find him but thank God we found my first buck. Throughout the next few weeks I saw a few more bucks but none of them were shooters.

Once again for my birthday we decided to end the season with one last hunting trip. We went to Great Southern Outdoors in Union Springs, AL where I shot a nice 8-point.

This is my 2nd year to hunt whitetail deer with outfitter Gene Nixon in Eldorado, Tx. I was sitting in a two-person tripod the second afternoon when I saw many nice bucks. However I saw two larger bucks and was undecided which one to harvest. The largest buck didn't seem to be the dominant one, so I let them walk. The guide picked me up and we went back to camp and I told my husband, Jimmie what had happened. Jimmie had tagged out with a nice 10 pointer of his own and agreed to sit with me to help me decide.

Early in the hunt the next afternoon we hadn't seen any action. Jim decided to try his rattle bag and grunt call. Approximately 20 minutes later, from the right side of the field, we saw this trophy 10 pointer running in to investigate the noise. It happened so quickly he caught me off guard. I was still looking through my binoculars when Jimmie told me to put them down and get my gun ready. I was still unsure if he was a shooter. Jimmie told me it was nice 10 pointer and to get my gun ready. I steadied my 7mm-08 Steyr and took the shot from 60 yards. Perfect shot placement caused the buck to go about 20 yards. I am thankful my husband helped me make the decision to harvest my best buck yet. As you might have concluded we will be going back to Eldorado, Tx. to hunt with Desert Mountain Guide Service.

Thanks to my husband and the guides I have had great success and a lot of fun the last 2 seasons. We could not have had this much success without Marks Outdoors. Thanks Mark and crew for supplying us with all of our supplies. Joy