Chris Elegante (aka nvguy2) shared in the forum....

"Son's 1st Mule Deer - What a year my son and I had. He was with me on my Summer Utah LE Bear hunt. I tagged out opening day. Then my NV Antelope that I also tagged out on opening day with an 84" goat (pics in NV forum). Then his turn in September with a NV youth mule deer/cow elk combo tag. First day out on muzzleloader season found us on a super long stalk on 3 bedded bucks. It wasn't an easy one for a 12 year old's first stalk. Once in position, I had to teach him the waiting game. First buck to get up was the second biggest buck, one we would later name Dum Dum. As he fed at 95 yards, my son decided he'd shoot, but he laid back down. Awhile later the big buck we knew was in there decided to feed. I decided to let my son shoot as I felt he had a great rest and the range was within muzzleloader range. As the shot sounded I see the buck hit the ground and as soon as excitement and some shockment sunk in, the buck stands up and struggles into a 30 yard by 30 yard baby aspen patch. As I reloaded watching Aspen patch as frequent as possible and telling my son to watch those trees, we head over fully expecting to find wounded or dead deer, our excitement goes to complete discouragement when we see no deer,no blood,no drag marks. Nothing. I was dumbfounded. My son out of the blue names him Houdini. Weekend 2 we go back with my brother, sister in law and nephew to hunt and look for Houdini. Saturday we locate some cows one canyon from the weekend before. As my son and I set up for a flush from my sister in law and nephew, my brother sees a buck spook into canyon behind us. The cow flush worked perfectly as my son shot his first big game animal with the smokepole. As we quarter my elk, my brother shows up and asks me to describe Houdini. To our surprise and excitement, the buck my brother seen was indeed Houdini and he was alive and appearing to be fine. My son also missed Dum Dum that weekend on 2 different occasions, hence the nickname. It was that or Lucky. Thank God he did. Weekend 3, the last of muzzleloader season, we had other obligations and took a break. The following Saturday finds us in the same canyon Houdini was last seen. It was raining and trying to snow and foggy. As we sit glassing a bit, I find a buck bedded out in the draw under some tall sage and buck brush. As we both watch trying to tell what he is with the poor antler angle, my son decides to pass as we think he is a 3x4. We watch for 15 minutes before buck finally turns and holy crap, it's Houdini. A long stalk down the adjacent draw in the rain and up the hill finds us setup at 310 yards with Houdini still in his bed. Trying to get my son to shoot his first shot with a scope was an absolute chore. Dad, "I'm not comfortable. I can't find him. Can you wipe the rain off the scope (like 3 times)? I can say I'm pretty proud. He made sure to get comfortable and calm before shooting. Anyways, the .243 bullet finally delivers a lethal vital shot to Houdini. Quite the adventure. The muzzleloader hit was back and just below the backbone. Surprised it didn't paralyze him from the start. We were very happy we accomplished what we did and put Houdini down. We felt alot of highs and lows during our hunts. Mostly highs. I rough taped Houdini at 177" gross score."