The “Keene” BuckFor years I have always wanted to harvest a nice mule deer. My husband, Gary, is a taxidermist, and together we own a retail store on the Wind River Indian Reservation. He is often told many stories of a “big one” being seen somewhere so with some possible information stuck in our mind, I put my name in for a late season trophy deer tag. If unsuccessful my name would go into the drawing for a first season any deer tag. When the list came out from the Tribal Game and Fish, my name was not there. I later found out that my name was left out of the drawing. After inquiring about the oversight I was fortunate enough to end up with the last “any deer” tag for the Owl Creek Mountain area.

Gary and I decided to follow up on one of many tips and see what our luck might bring. We decided to make it a family outing, so we loaded up our six year old daughter Kali, and headed out. The morning was overcast and cold with a misty rain falling. We began by picking the hillsides apart using the same techniques from our years of hunting bighorn sheep. Initially five bucks were seen and soon deer became visible almost everywhere. I had never seen this many bucks in an area before. After moving our position several times, I suddenly noticed movement in my binoculars a mile out. I could tell there were several deer, but that was about it. Gary used the spotting scope to take a better look. After a few seconds, he looked at me with his hands in the air indicating one was huge.

We planned our stalk and after tackling a difficult canyon we came as close as we were going to get. Kali was comfortable bundled up in our coats, sitting next to a huge boulder while we crept forward. I was now over 400 yards away but found a comfortable place to rest myself. Last year I dropped my bighorn sheep at 415 yards so I told Gary, “I can make this shot.” Gary kept saying, “Just like shooting at a target, don’t look at his antlers, it is just a target.” I could easily pick out the huge buck in my scope. Just then we heard some noise and looked behind us to see our daughter standing up in view of the deer. Gary indicated for her to get down as I concentrated on the shot. The deer stood up, I pulled the trigger, heard the “throp” and both Gary and I said, “Got him!” I started to stand and Gary said, “You better get another bullet in because he’s coming right at us!” That’s when “buck fever” set in. I pulled up my gun and saw black. I couldn’t hold the gun steady and had a sick feeling in my stomach. Gary consistently whispered, “Wait till he stops and shoot again.” He had closed the gap to 250 yards and was not alone as there were nine bucks in total running towards us. They had no idea where we were and finally the huge buck stopped. I tried to steady myself and pulled a second shot only to realize I shot over him. Then I tried to lead him, and shot in front of him. He was now running further away so I hurriedly pulled for the fourth time. I often joke with Gary about how my many kills have been with one shot. But now, I stood there in disbelief that I didn’t make a connection on the biggest deer I have ever seen.

Gary said the buck was at least 40 inches wide and the biggest buck he has ever seen. He told me he needed mental therapy knowing that I had just missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Gary went to check for blood and I proceeded to follow in the direction of the buck. The terrain was such that tracks and blood were difficult to follow, and the rain that had begun to drizzle didn’t help either. I topped the next ridge with no clue as to where he could have gone. Gary couldn’t find any blood, so I accepted I must have missed on that first shot. We decided the best thing to do was to leave. The rest of the day, all we could think about was the missed opportunity. Gary kept reminding me that he was serious about needing therapy. We both dreamt about the deer that night and got up early the next morning but failed to find the giant buck, or any other deer that was in the group.

On the morning of the third day, Gary and I headed out again. Right away, Gary spotted a few deer that he knew were part of the group with the big buck. We decided to stalk from the opposite side as the wind was not in our favor. The stalk ended up being over three miles and it was hard pinpointing which draw the deer were in, but we found him. Suddenly, we noticed two buck antelope that were chasing a doe. We continued inching our way to the edge of the draw but could see no deer. Then Gary saw a two point browsing at the opposite end of the draw and soon we saw deer lying all over the hillside. Lying on the top of the ridge, we were exposed in direct sight of at least four or five bucks lying in the shade of some big boulders. They were actually paying attention to the antelope and did not move from their beds. Gary broke the silence and said, “There he is, you got another chance.” I crawled into a comfortable position, turned my hat around and put my sights on him. Gary said “261 yards,” and the buck was almost broadside when I pulled the trigger. He bolted into the bottom of the draw and didn’t come out. I was ready this time with another bullet in the chamber and waited. I was not going to make the mistake I did a couple of days before….he was going to stay down.

After the shot and the craziness of not knowing what to expect we shared an experience to be remembered. We witnessed the amazing sight of all the deer in the group, nine bucks ranging in age and size, running directly across the ridge from us. They stood around waiting for their leader who never came out from the bottom. We watched for several minutes until the bucks decided to bed again. We couldn’t believe it! When Gary stood up to go back and retrieve his pack they began their accent over the ridge and out of sight. I can probably say that I didn’t understand the size of my buck until we walked down to the bottom of the draw and saw the beautiful deer laying there. That’s when I truly began to appreciate what I just accomplished, a buck of a lifetime. 

Kathy Keene---------giant 290 inch Wyoming buck