Miss Twyla and I had been hunting all morning. We had hiked down into the canyons before sunrise, looking for Mule Deer. We had covered 4 or 5 miles, much of it up and down and it was beginning to get warm. While we had not seen any deer there was plenty of sign so I figured it was just a matter of time.
The country was extremely rough. We were on the north-western edge of the Catalina Mountains outside of Tucson, AZ. The canyons were very steep, strewn with boulders and rocks from pea-sized to fist-sized. Walking through it all was not easy. In some of the canyon bottoms were little riparian areas where water was flowing up out of the canyon bottom. There was grass and vegetation and the game liked those areas. But getting from one are to the other was hard work.
We had been in one area and had seen nothing so I led the way out, going up and over the mountain and down into the canyon bottom on the other side. I was heading for a spot up and over the next mountain but the climb was steep. As I said, it was getting warm and as we climbed the ridge I could tell Twyla was having a hard time of it.
Reaching a spot where we could rest and glass the country around us we stopped for a breather. I looked at Twyla and her face was flushed and she was nearly hyper-ventilating she was breathing so hard. She sat next to me, catching her breath and I began looking over the country. Suddenly across the canyon I saw a deer walking down the slope of the hillside toward the water trickling in the canyon bottom.
The deer was far enough away that I could not make out with the unaided eye whether it was a buck or a doe. I was hunting with an open-sighted .45 Colt sixgun but Twyla had her Model 600 Remington in .243 that had a 4 power Weaver on it.
I grabbed her rifle and looked through the scope. As I watched I saw the sun glint off the antlers and just pushed the crosshairs past the nose of the walking deer and touched it off.
At the shot several things happened all at once. I lost the deer in the scope because of the recoil. At the same time Twyla said "Oh my God! You got him!" and then she went limp and fell off the rock unconscious! I had immediately jacked another shell into the chamber, not knowing exactly where I hit the buck.... hoping he would not get up.
While trying to watch through the scope for any movement I also attempted to see if my wife was OK! I was patting her with one hand, kind of shaking her gently and saying "Twyla! Twyla!" while at the same time not wanting to lose the deer if he happened to get up.
It was a perplexing time, trying to take care of my wife and watch for the deer all at once.
Eventually .. probably just a matter of a few seconds but it seemed like forever .. she came to and sat up. We figured that because of being out of breath that the excitement had caused her to pass out. Later we found she was hypoglycemic and her blood sugar tended to run low quickly. At the time we did not know it so I figured it was because of my shooting skill!
The shot was quite far. I had to have Twyla stand on the hillside and direct me to where the deer was. When I found him I discovered the shot had broken his neck. The 95 gr. Nosler Partition bullet had been aimed in front of his nose but by the time it got to him at 3100 fps he had moved a foot and a half.
We had a long ways to go so I cleaned him and made a pack out of him. I slit the front legs and tucked the back legs through the slits, folding him up so he fit on my back like a pack, his head under my right arm. I could not pick him up and had to have Twyla help me put him on. While hiking back to the road I fell down and was pinned by his weight. I would have really had to work to get free if she was not with me.
Eventually we got him out and he made great meat! His head hangs on the wall of my office, a reminder of a great hunt with my best friend, my wife.
Great story.
