Back at the end of the 2024 season, after filling another OTC elk tag and not getting the chance to chase mule deer, I had 13 points burning a hole in my pocket. I knew I was still a few years out from drawing the tag I really wanted, but I had my eye on a buck that had a habit of showing up out of nowhere during the first part of December. I first saw him back in 2023, and sure enough, he popped up again in 2024, same spot, same time. I watched him all winter and finally decided I was going to burn my LE deer points to chase him.

When the draw results came back, and I saw I had pulled a late season muzzy tag, it was game on. The tough part was, I couldn’t really scout because I had no idea where this buck was coming from. With the general rifle hunt going on, I figured I just had to wait it out and trust my gut.

From opening day last Wednesday, I started covering ground. I had a few buddies helping me try to turn up a solid backup plan, but every deer we turned up just didn’t feel right. I kept getting that feeling that something better was out there. Sunday night rolled around, everyone packed up and headed home, and I was left alone in camp. What I didn’t realize then was that something was quietly working in my favor.

One of my buddies had a Henry Mountains tag, he killed the day after I left. Another had an Oak Creek tag, same thing, he killed the day after I left. As they drove out Sunday night, they told me, “You know we’ve got a trend going, you’re up next.” I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that stuck with me.

This whole hunt I’d been wishing for cold weather and snow, but it just wasn’t happening. Monday evening came, and I was glassing a hillside where that buck had been in years past. Laying there in the scrub oak with his head turned to the side, I caught sight of a deer that looked all too familiar. Deep forks, that was the giveaway. My heart jumped. I thought it might be the buck I’d named “Mine.”

When he finally turned and faced me, my excitement didn’t fade, but I could tell he wasn’t the same deer. He was missing the kicker and was a little more narrow than I remembered, but still, he was a great buck, and I couldn’t let him walk.

He was bedded in some thick oak, thinking he was safe. What he didn’t realize was that about 200 yards below him there was a little roll in the hill that gave me the perfect setup with the wind right in my favor. I stalked in, got to 170 yards, went prone, settled behind the red dot, and squeezed the trigger.

When the smoke cleared, I could still see him, head down, in the same spot. A perfectly executed shot and a punched tag.

After spending years on the other end of hunts, helping buddies fill tags and soaking in every second of it, I realized being the one holding the tag isn’t quite as fun, but it’s something special. Having my family be part of it and sharing it with some of my best friends made it all worth it.

The time had finally come. Earlier in the year I had received notice that I had drawn a Tag for the 2025 Manti General Season Rifle tag for Mule Deer. I had switched up Units this year to hunt an area where I grew up. I had always heard stories from my uncles of big bucks harvested years prior in the high country surrounded by tall pines and thick quacky patches. Ever since I was young I had dreamed of hunting in the high mountains chasing dark antlered Muleys. Well my time to chase the muleys of my dreams finally came as I woke up Saturday morning October 18th, 2025. Me and my dad started the first few days off by glassing over deep canyons. We found a good buck that we then chased for a few days until my dad was fortunate enough to harvest. We were excited and thought there was no way this trip could get any better. That thought would later change on Wednesday October 22nd. I woke up tired and a bit sore after spending a day packing out the buck my dad harvested the day before. After going over our options and making a game plan we decided to hunt a new canyon that we were yet to explore. This was an area my father had killed one of his biggest bucks years before I was able to hunt for myself. We traveled up the canyon to get to this spot before light, and as the light dawned there wasn’t much to be seen. A few does and a smaller buck slowly fed in the morning light across the canyon. A little disappointed, we regrouped and decided to check a new area only a few minutes away that neither of us had ever seen before. As we drove I was optimistic about this new area and what it might hold. We stopped a couple hundred yards from the glassing point and hiked down. As we looked across the canyon there was not much to see at first until suddenly my dad whispered to me, “There is a huge buck walking in the clearing straight across the canyon from us.” I quickly laid my back down and tried to get into position as my dad set up the spotting scope to get a better look at this buck we found. Things didn’t immediately go as planned. I could not get steady enough to take a shot at the buck due to excitement and a small portion of panic. I watched as the buck slowly fed into a thick set of pine trees and out of sight. I was mildly disappointed at first thinking I had just missed my chance on a big mature mule deer. I sat up to watch the quick video my dad had been able to capture of the buck on his spotting scope phone adapter. When we replayed the footage we realised just how big this buck actually was. We decided to wait patiently hoping this buck would once again step out of the tree line giving us one more opportunity. About 2 hours later I looked across the canyon after again watching the video of the buck for what seemed like the hundredth time only to see a buck walking in a small opening in the aspens just below the treeline we watched the big buck disappear into. This wasn’t the buck we were after but we watched him anyway. Slowly a second smaller buck stepped out of the pine trees and to our excitement the big buck we had been waiting for slowly stepped out of the pine trees just barely visible. I got back on my gun and patiently waited for him to fully step into the clearing. While waiting I ranged a small section in which I thought he would step out into. The range was 730 yards away. Even though this was a far shot the conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. There wasn’t a hint of breeze in the air. It was dead calm and I had practiced for months for a shot like this. Finally the big buck moved again. He walked slowly up the clearing still obstructed by thin aspens before finally stopping for a brief second in a tiny break of the tree line. My dad clicked a record on his phone and I slowly pulled the trigger until the gun fired. The bullet raced out of my barrel and I felt confident that I had made a good shot. As I was reloading in case I needed to shoot again I heard my dad excitedly say, “I think you got him!” We replayed the video to see my bullet had hit true, a perfect shot placement. The buck had run down into the aspens below and never came out the bottom. So we were positive I had made a great shot. We quickly drove the truck to the other side of the canyon and hiked down to the place we had marked where we last saw the buck. For a few minutes I panicked. There was no blood to be found and my heart sank into my chest thinking I had missed a buck of a lifetime. We decided to keep walking lower to see if we could find any other signs. Discouraged, I walked down a few more yards and looked up to see the buck piled up in the aspens only 50 yards in front of me. I quickly ran down the hill to check if it was him. As I approached I was dumbstuck at the size of the deer I had just shot. After checking to make sure he was dead, me and my dad just stared at the beauty of such an incredible animal we were fortunate enough to harvest. At the moment it almost didn’t seem real. After what felt like an eternity I finally laid hands on this buck for the first time. What started out as a life long dream of chasing big mule deer in the city where I was born and the mountains I grew up in finally came true. I was not only able to harvest a mature mule deer, I was able to harvest a buck of a lifetime. I turned around to see my dad brimming with excitement and asked, “No way this just happened!” His reply to me was, “Believe it, the proof is right in front of you. You successfully just harvested the biggest buck I have ever laid eyes on.” Then the celebrating and crazy amount of pictures began. When we got off the mountain we had him scored, to my excitement he scored 200 inches exactly as a typical. When you include his two cheaters off his left side he scored 205 inches. Truly a General Season, Public Land Giant and a lifelong dream come true!

Here is my limited entry big bull. Week before my hunt started my boy and I set out across the unit to find the biggest bull we could,we looked over 35+ bulls and this one being the biggest and we found this bull mid week prior to my hunt so we spent most of our time watching this bull and figuring out his pattern. My boy told me I couldn’t shoot any other bull than him cause he was “GIANT”! This bull provided me a perfect opportunity opening morning after @dastrup_121 turned him up in the glass we made a quick game plan and got @slade2506, Jon, @jackson_burrows54, and @braygan_marq22  on the glass and Justin met up with me, my boy and wife and we took off to go make a move. We got to where we’d figured we needed to be and proceeded our few hundred foot climb elevation. Once we got to where I figured we’d see the bull as I crested the ridge there he lay 300 yds broadside, I got myself set up for a perfect rest and made 3 beautiful shots and the rest is history. Beyond blessed to have such great people in my life to be apart of my hunt and make memories. And thanks to everyone else who helped out. Having my wife and my boy and best friend by my side to watch it all go down was awesome And everyone else from a distance to watch it all go down. So stoked to have killed my #1 target bull, Solid core memory that will never be forgotten.

I’m at a loss of words to describe this experience I had with my husband Braden. It has been his dream to kill a 200” deer ever since he started hunting as a little boy. We both had tags in our pocket this year and on the drive over he kept telling me that I was going to tag out first no questions asked. I kept saying “spotter shooter” because that’s what’s fair! He glassed up this giant on the second day of the  hunt. Without a shred of hesitation he said “you’re shooting that thing”. I tried to pretend like I didn’t want to so he would…but Braden saw right through that. The stalk was on! We had to loop around 2.5 miles and lose 1,300 ft of elevation. The buck showed himself at the last 20 minutes of shooting light. He popped over a ridge rutting a doe so hard that I couldn’t get a shot at him holding still. I ended up shooting him on the run at 220 yards. When I walked up on him and realized what we had just shot I was overwhelmed with emotion, mostly admiration and love for Braden. Here’s a man that has been hunting since he was old enough to walk, and he so happily passed his dream buck onto me. Like who does that?! Throughout this whole trip Braden was constantly going out of his way to take care of me. From sneaking water out of my pack to his so he could carry it, to packing out my rifle, to putting jackets on me while I was taking a nap in the dirt. Any need he saw I had he filled it without thinking twice about himself. But that’s just everyday life with him! Shooting a giant deer will always be one highlight of my life, but having him as my hunting partner for life is the greatest blessing. He’s the one who taught me to hunt and gave me such a passion for it, now he’s just got to keep up!