Lance Pitcher writes, "This is my wifes first deer. It was harvested during Colorado's 3rd season. We ran into him early on the opener after brushing through some dead fall. We decided to sit down and have a little snack. While we was sitting there I heard something below us. I stood up and walked out on a high spot so I could see, and there he was, standing there looking at me. I ran as fast as I could back up to my wife, ripped the shooting sticks out of my pack, and we booked it down the ridge to get a shot. Frantically, I tried to find him with no avail. As I sat there in disgust, I looked across the canyon and saw him moving through the aspens. I got her setup, and he came to a clearing on the ridge at 396 yards. I told her to touch of a round out of her .300 WSM as soon as he turned. That didn't take long for that and the shot hit low about 6 inches. He bolted out of the canyon and we spent most of the day tracking him in dry aspen patches and ended up jumping him again later that day. My wife being behind me about 30 yards had no clue he was there until I yelled at her. He didn’t really allow much time for us to get 2nd chance and he skipped out of the canyon.

We hiked into several different canyons the next day trying to find another buck to shoot at, but nothing ever presented itself. That night we got a good cold rain storm and it softened the ground pretty good for some still hunting. Two days later, we were back in the same canyon looking for him. About 9 that morning, I started into a small patch of aspens on a flat spot on the big mountain we had been hunting. Just as I made it into them I noticed something odd in front of me, it looked like horns and just about the time I pulled my binos up he jumped up and turned and looked at me. My wife close behind didn’t want to miss her 3rd chance and she was ready for the shot. Two does bound past the buck and he headed out with them. I grunted a few times (that didn’t even sound like a buck, more like an old man in the outhouse), but it worked and he stopped broadside at 65 yards and she didn’t waste no time on this one. A clean lung shot put him down within a few seconds and we spent the next hour caping and butchering him. By 3 that afternoon and 4 miles later, we were at the truck."