January 04, 2011
By Josh Henrion
Two Saskatchewan stare downs were what this hunter needed to punch the tag on a buck of a lifetime. Here's his story...
By Josh Henrion, As told to Aaron Decker
My name is Joshua Henrion, I'm from Storthoaks Saskatchewan, Canada, and this is my story about the trophy buck I shot in 2010.
It was the third day of our hunting season and I was out for my morning scout looking for a spot to hunt for the day. I saw a few small bucks, a lot of spikes and does but nothing worth pursuing. As I headed home to feed the pigs on my farm and do the other chores that were waiting for me, I saw a small group of does hanging around a large willow slough in one of our fields not far from home. I figured with the rut being on, there must be a buck near by. I parked my truck at the far end of the field and slowly made my way towards the slough.
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It didn't take long for the does to spot me and run off and I noticed that nothing followed. When I made it to the slough, I realized that it was bigger and thicker than I had expected and I stopped at the edge, glassing through the trees, when something suddenly caught my attention.
About 30 yards into the slough, there was a buck, bedded down, looking straight at me. I could tell he had two front drop tines and that it was a shooter for sure. He didn't move. He just laid there, staring me down.
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I raised my gun and got ready to shoot but lost focus as a result of all the thick brush. I simply couldn't see him anymore. I knew he was still there -- he hadn't run off or moved at all -- I just couldn't find him.
I stood there and frantically tried to find sight of him again, but by the time I did he had finally had enough of me and bolted off into the thicket.
I thought it was over. There was no way he was going to give me another shot like that again.
Not ready to give up completely, I slowly crept around the far side of the slough and a white flag caught my eye. I turned and spotted a young buck running through the trees. As I watched it disappear something else got my attention, it was the big buck!
He was about 20 yards in the trees quartering away from me staring me down again! This time I didn't waste any time and quickly raised my Ruger .300 Win Mag,, put the crosshairs right behind his shoulder blade and squeezed the trigger. He buckled and ran off. He was hit hard and I knew it.
He disappeared in the slough and instead of running the risk of pushing him too far into the slough, I walked back to the truck to call for help.
When dad and grandpa finally arrived 20 minutes later (seemed like hours) we made our way back to where I had shot him and picked up the blood trail. It was thick and easy to track, and I spotted the huge rack sticking up above the long grass. He was down and hadn't run more than 30 yards from where I shot him.
We celebrated and took a lot of pictures. He was heavy and it took all three of us to load him into the back of the truck. We brought him home and took even more pictures with my 8-month-old son.
He was officially scored at 207 6/8 non typical. He has an inside spread of 18 5/8-inches, 23 5/8 and 24 6/8-inches for his main beams, 11 points on his right side and 9 points on the left. There were 37 1/8-inches of abnormal points with the longest drop tine being 8 3/8-inches. It was a great day...and to have shared it with my father, grandfather and son made it all the more memorable. I can't wait for my son to be old enough to go hunting and make some more memories.
