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nateNAU

CHAMP 7/9 hunt

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Was fortunate to help my father in law take a good buck on his unit 7/9 champ hunt. About the time I met him 20 years ago, he was diagnosed with MS. For quite a while,  he had minimal symptoms, but these last few years it has gotten a lot worse. He has taken a number big animals with a bow in the past but with the progression of his symptoms, archery is no longer an option for him. He did draw a 7e bull tag a few years back but even with a crossbow it was still a struggle and we never even got close to tagging out. When he drew this tag he was really motivated to not just shoot a deer but shoot a really good deer. I had been scouting religiously before his hunt, primarily in 7e but really struggled to turn anything in an older age class up. Opening morning we decided to try 7w and right at first light found one of the widest bucks I have ever seen. He lacked height and had shallow forks so we decided to pass on him. We came back to the spot we found him at 10am and found him again bedded. We decided to sleep on the decision to shoot him, being opening day. It was a decision we regretted as we never saw him again. We hunted all over 7e and 7w but would return quite frequently to that spot looking for him. We did find a number of smaller 4x4s but nothing that came close to the wide buck. On day 4 we did find a better 4x4 in 7e but it was out of range and in some country my father in law could not traverse. This morning we were starting to contemplate lowering our standards a bit when we glassed up this nice buck in a new area. He was at 500 yards from the road we were on so we decided to get set up for a shot. I brought a shooting bench out for him to help with his shooting. As soon as we got set up the buck bedded behind a rock in a field. We waited an hour until the buck finally stood up and my father in law made a perfect shot at 500 yards with my 6.5 prc. He was beyond happy with the buck and it was great to see the joy he had getting out and hunting again.

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  • Great Buck! 2

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