Just Once – For Bragging Rights
DeeAndra Rohr was raised around hunting, but it wasn’t until she met her husband that she discovered a deep love for the outdoors. Their first date was a scouting trip for elk. “His love for the outdoors quickly became mine,” she says. Over the next 25 years, DeeAndra hunted a number of what she calls “respectable” animals but says her husband always came home with the bigger one. When he brought home a particularly large mule deer from the famous Arizona “Strip,” she set a personal goal to harvest a bigger buck than his. Just once – for bragging rights.
In 2024, DeeAndra applied to draw a hunting tag for mule deer in that same area. The Strip is a very remote, rugged unit renowned for producing some of the largest free-ranging mule deer in the country. Some hunters apply for 20 years or more, hoping to randomly draw a tag from the annual lottery with Arizona Fish & Game. DeeAndra received a tag on her first try.
On the opening day of the season, the temperature was 13 degrees. DeeAndra’s son and brother-in-law accompanied her and her husband. They split up to locate a buck. Her son and brother-in-law went one way and she and her husband went another. With no cell service available, they relied on InReach satellite messages to stay in touch.
After 45 minutes, she received a message from her son. “GET HERE NOW.” They had spotted a good buck. DeeAndra and her husband found them about an hour later watching the buck through their binoculars. They had not taken their eyes off him the entire time, and her brother-in-law had frozen tears on his face from staring through the binoculars in the bitter cold.
They stalked closer, looping around the top of a canyon, as the buck was over 600 yards away from where they had been watching him. DeeAndra set up on the edge of a canyon beside a large boulder to take her shot. From her vantage point, she could only see part of the antlers. It was not until after the shot when she walked up to the deer that she realized how big he was.
“I was in shock,” she says. “I turned to my husband and said, ‘Well, I guess your buck is coming off the mantel!’ He told me I had killed the biggest deer in the woods on opening morning!”
DeeAndra’s mule deer buck has been listed as the new world record free-range mule deer in the SCI Record Book. Indeed, she has earned bragging rights!
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity, for the land, and above all, for the overwhelming respect that comes with harvesting such a magnificent animal,” she says.
While DeeAndra has reached a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment among hunters, her encouragement to other women has nothing to do with the size of a trophy. She says, “The things you’ll learn out there aren’t just about hunting. They’re about yourself. Your grit. Your patience. Your ability to push through discomfort and stay present in the moment. And those memories? They’ll stay with you for the rest of your life. Go hunting!”