First just a bit of history of the huntress

I have known her in some capacity since 1982 and 24 years ago we were married and started a family with two boys. Since then she has given her life to the raising of those two and taking pretty good care of me to boot!

In those years she has supported all of my hobbies but had not shown much interest until just recently. I started shooting with her this past spring and after several thousand rounds I took her to Colorado with me to be an observer of the annual antelope hunt on the Taylor's ranch near Karval Colorado. She was great at glassing antelope and after us men all filled our tags she pounded prairie dogs for a couple days and proved to be a darn good shot killing a wheel barrel full of sod poodles.

The Missouri rifle season came along and she wasn't lucky enough to notch her tag during the November portion so I made plans for the alternative weapons portion in late December. I have a friend in north Missouri who has a big piece of property so I asked him if I could bring Tricia up and try to kill her first deer.....Rodger said heck yeah! so we set a weekend and planned on a weekend hunt for her.

The alternative weapons hunt allows almost anything except a center fire rifle so we opted to use my Knight front loader and started her shooting it out to about 100 yards until she got automatic with it

Day one was cold! 16 degrees and 6" of snow covered or North facing hill side we hunted. We spotted many deer at nearly 1/2 mile feeding on grass on a south bearing hillside and decided that was a better plan but stayed tight in our blind all day with no deer inside of her comfortable range

Day two is even colder! 14 degrees and still no deer on the north facing hill but we did see several deer feed on the same south hill side as we did the day before but today a keeper buck was also seen....but still zero deer for her to kill so we made a move.

Rodger put us on a diferent part of his property with a south bearing view of some grass and a bunch of cedar draws that usually hold deer.

We set up in this new area and sit it out the rest of day two till nearly dark when a small buck fed out of a cedar draw about 80 yards to our left. Tricia set up for a shot but the buck gave us three problems.....
1st was I couldn't count his points and the law requires he has 4 on at least one side
2nd was he wouldn't feed away from the cedar good enough to give Tricia a good shot
3rd we were loosing shooting light fast!!

After about 10 very long minutes the buck took a walk up and out of the cedar and I bleated loudly to stop him. As he stood and looked toward us my wife hammered him with a 200 grn Hornady SST and as the smoke filled the air she was horribly worried she missed because she couldn't see what happened through the smoke. I calmed her down and reloaded her rifle and said as calmly as I could muster "let's go get your buck" she found blood in no time in the snow and less than 100 yards later found her prize and the celebration was on!!!

We shared laughter, hugs and tears for her first deer we took some pictures and I gave my second field dressing exabition of the season and away we go back home.

Through all the years of marriage there are many ups and downs but it takes time to make a good lifetime friend and Tricia is my wife true but my best friend for sure. I am more than proud and very happy to have been a "fly on the wall" and hunt with her this past weekend and see her kill her first deer!

She gave me a hug and a kiss and told me thanks for taking her but it's her that I should be thanking!

A couple Colorado pics of here first hunting trip






Cheers to my lovely bride of 24 years and her first deer!

Our blind and view for the first day and a half...note the very far hillside dead center....there is a good buck bedded there




This is him at about a half file


This is the huntress in sub freezing temps waiting


These pics were taken just after we found her buck he is a 8/9 pointer with a cool rack




This pics were taken on Christmas day after we got home and weren't as cold and freezing!

Tell her congratulations He is better than my first.


Cal30

CONGRATULATIONS Sir. Having your life partner as your hunting partner makes life special. I enjoy helping Lora get a deer or any other game a lot more than doing the shooting myself.

Great story and pictures.

Congrats you two!! Gotta be the red fingernail polish!! I'll try that trick the next time I'm having poor luck!!!

Congrats again!

Very nice! Tell her great job!

Way to go Trish and Ted!
I was very happy to hear the news that Trish got her Buck, congratulations to Trish and to you Ted for helping it happen.
This year has been great for my friends and I, what a great year in the field.

Congratulations to both of you!!! And a great story to boot. Looks like this is just the beginning.

God Bless, Louis

Well done.

Nice buck, pass on my congratulations.

Congratulations Trish! You toughed it out in the snow and cold - good for you.
Merry Christmas to you both!
Brittman

14 degrees is COLD!!! She is a trooper! Congratulations on a successful hunt, and a successful marriage. Both take a lot of work, and you both have done well.

Congratulations! I would have had a propane heater in the blind! lol

I'd say she is tough!

She raised two boys that are both now in their early twenties and put up with my antics without breaking

Congrats all around!!

.....better than my first too!

Bob

Ted,

Congrats to you and your wife.

Mark

Nice buck....Lot of character in them antlers.
Larger than my first as well.

Congrats to the Nimrod!!!!

We have another deer hunt in two weeks together!

We both drew out on a special doe reduction hunt on the Lamine River Conservation Area and can take three doe each with a center fire.

I printed off maps of the nearly 6K area and we will drive up next weekend to scout a couple spots for a portable blind so we can hunt together

I'm personally not interested in killing any more deer this season but would love for Tricia to be able to get another one.....or maybe two.....who knows?

Thanks for all the kind words as Tricia has been following this and it really is a confidence booster to see she has a great support group

Remember: shoot the doe first, then you can shoot the fawns!!!

Good for her and a big Congrats!!!

Congrats. A most unusual rack.

That's very nice!

nice doe!