No Shaking in “The Zone”

I shot my largest buck to date, during opening morning of ‘any buck’ season, 2024, in central BC. Ever since I was a kid, I had dreamed of a buck like this; however, I have never chased antlers. If I see a legal buck that presents me with a good shot, I’ll take him for the freezer. My first buck was a little spike that I shot with dad’s rifle as a teenager. That little buck gave me the same excitement that I felt with this one! It seems deer are increasing in population where we usually deer hunt. Although, I haven’t seen a buck quite this size in our area during the fall since I was a kid!

This hunt seemed surreal. It happened really fast. There was no stalking up to him. In fact, he probably saw me first, and I had to take a quick off-hand shot. I decided to walk an old, deactivated logging road that I had seen good tracks on the previous fall. I had already checked out a couple other deer spots that morning. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bit of white behind an alder. It was his rump. I looked through my binoculars and just saw a huge, wide rack. I raised up my rifle, flicked off the safety and shot. I wasn’t shaking when I saw the buck, but after he was down, I was shaking. I always tell my mom, “I get ‘in the zone’ when I’m shooting.” I called my parents right after I shot him, and they came to help drag and load him up! It still blows my mind that I got such a nice buck that fall! – Amanda Rose Starnes