Two days later Jim Millis got into a shooting match with the desert mule deer. Right at daybreak we spotted a 30" plus buck that disappeared over a rise. The guide and Jim climbed a little knob and Jim had the misfortune of missing this buck. After checking for blood and finding none they followed the buck to the top of another ridge where they jumped two more bucks, the best one being a 30 incher. Jim tried his luck with this buck with the same result. As they were working their way back to the rig they saw the buck in this picture with two does, Jim made a great offhand shot and has a very nice trophy for his efforts. The buck is over 26" wide and scores in the mid 170’s. This being according to Jim the smallest of the four bucks that he shot at. On this hunt we had five hunters, they all killed a buck with everyone except Bill having an opportunity at a 30 incher, Bill passed up a 28" buck that we believe would have scored between 180 and 190 on the first day. Then we moved to another ranch for our next three hunters. Pete from Alaska missed at least a 30" buck that was laying down under 100 yards and he had a rest, we are still baffled how this happened. Pete has hunted with us in the past and is an excellent shot and has certainly killed his share of worldwide trophys. Pete was dissatisfied with our ex partners guiding methods and we have offered Pete an at cost hunt some time in the future. The only person who didn’t have a chance to shoot a trophy buck of course was Lance Stapleton the outdoor writer, on Lance’s last day of hunting he did pass up a Coues deer that we estimated to be between 105 and 110. Alan came in the same day Lance left and that evening about a half hour before Lance boarded his plane Alan shot the buck of his lifetime. A typical 4x4 with kickers on either side, the buck was 33 inches wide on the 4x4 frame and right at 36 from kicker to kicker and grossed 200.

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