"Big Buck for Lori"
Written by Keith Bawden

It was the second day of the rifle hunt in Southern Utah. My wife Lori and I woke early as usual and headed out hunting. We made several small pushes. As the weather started to warm up, by about 1:00 in the afternoon we were both hot and sweaty. Lori, over dressed as usual, decided she needed to shed her underarmor. As she was changing I was on point glassing. She yelled out 'There's one!' I put my glasses on him and saw that he was a nice heavy 4 point. As I turned to look at Lori, her rifle leaning on a bush, pants half on, one sock on.... I hollered for her to get her rifle. I ranged the buck at 500 yards and decided he was too far.

We decided go back to camp, get a sandwich, rest and go back that evening. On the way back to camp, we stopped and talked to our friends, Wes Atkin, Tom Bradshaw and Dan Curtis. We told them about the buck and decided we would all hunt him that evening.

Lori and I hiked up the canyon to about where we had seen the buck. We were glassing looking for him when Wes called on the radio to say he could see the big buck about 150 yards away from where we were standing. Lori and I frantically looked for the buck, but couldn't see him. Wes tried to guide us calmly on the radio and I was ready to take off to get a better look. But Lori said stay calm, let's just look for him. Just then he stood up and I said, "There he is!!" He was standing about 100 yards on our same ridge. Lori fired and shot over him with her first shot. She shot again and missed and the third shot hit him right in the motor.

Wes called on the radio to see what happened, we told him we got him! Wes and Tom ran over several ridges about 1,000 yards away at break neck speed to see the big buck and help us out. The buck is a heavy 27-inch 4x4. My wife couldn't get the smile off her face and neither could I.
After high 5's, hugs and pictures we got down to business and quartered and caped him. By then it was well after dark. We had to trudge thru the darkness like miners with our flashlights to meet Dan for a ride back to our 4-wheelers.

We want to thank Wes, Tom & Dan for all their help, because we couldn't have done it without them!