John Erhard writes, "My son, Jace, and I were hunting in the Missouri River Breaks of central Montana when he bagged his 1st big buck. We had to get up early and drive 145 miles from our home in Great Falls, Montana to get to the ranch of a close friend of mine. I was rather excited to go on this hunt for several reasons. I had been hunting in this area a week earlier and missed a big trophy muley in the 30-inch area. This was to be my last hunt with my son for at least several seasons as he has joined the Army and would be gone for the next several years.

We were excited to try and get on the big one I had seen the week before, but didn't get another chance to see him. We passed up several nice bucks through the day, not wanting to use our tags in case we seen the big monster. The last hour of hunting light we really started seeing the deer come out and decided to get the first good one we could find as this was to be our last day together for the season.

After spotting several good shooters a long way out, we decided to try and get closer to a very nice one. As we were doing our stalk, this nice 5x4 presented himself, my son asked me if he should shoot it. I didn't have a good view of the buck from my angle. Shoot if you think he's a good one I said. After his first shot, I seen him walk out in the open and I said he's a good one and you got him, he's going down.

After field dressing him and dragging him to where we could get a truck to him, the sun was setting over the Montana big sky and we started taking photos. This is one hunting trip I will treasure the rest of my life and I never fired a single shot. I thank God for my son, this trip together, and allowing me to live in such a beautiful place."