One Day Wonder

One Day Wonder
Vicki Jacobsen

I have a great life. I very much enjoy being a stay-at-home mom to our two busy boys Hunter and Hatch and our sweet, baby girl Sierra. I also very much enjoy being wife to my husband, Nate, who owns and operates five separate businesses - not the least of which is Alpine Antlers. Alpine Antlers takes Nate all over the world filming wildlife and his clients’ hunts. He works long, hard hours so that I can be at home for my kids. So, when he gets a chance to go on a film shoot or a hunt for himself, I miss him, but I don’t mind that he gets to go do something he loves.

The last couple of years as our kids have gotten older, Nate has taken all of us with him on a few of his film shoots. We went to beautiful Alberta with him last year where he got a 205-inch archery buck that is featured in Burly Bucks 2. This year, we have spent a number of weeks out in the field with him as he filmed various hunts.

I like to hunt and fish myself. I grew up in a family where my dad and brother hunted, and it felt very natural for me to hunt as well. I apply for premium tags, and have drawn Utah and Colorado general deer tags in the past. I’ve hunted the weekends on occasion but, as other female hunters will attest to, it’s hard to get out to hunt when you have young kids at home and your mule deer expert hubby is already out hunting with his Dedicated Hunter tag that he didn’t fill during the archery or muzzleloader seasons. Not that that is a bad thing - I am happy that he gets to do what he loves. However, 2007 was a little different. I was very excited for the Colorado hunt. Nate had a spot where he had seen some really big deer, and we were both excited about this area. I called my dad who graciously agreed to watch the kids in our camping trailer during opening day of the late season rifle hunt. I had one day to hunt. The kids had already been gone from school for a week during September and would be missing another week in early December for our Kansas whitetail hunt. We didn’t want to be gone for very long. In addition, that Saturday was the only day my dad could watch the kids, as he had other obligations for the rest of the week. No pressure.

It was a chilly November morning. We set the alarm for earlier than we normally would since I had the baby to feed before we left. Hunter got up to come with us. Nate, Hunter and I left long before first light. We hiked to the top of the mountain and got to where we could sit and view the canyons below us before the sun came up over the horizon. I sat on the east side of the peak and glassed my side, while Nate sat on the west side and glassed in the other direction. As the pre-dawn light grew brighter, I could make out a number of deer on the slope below me. Hunter, sitting next to me, spotted some others on a distant slope. No antlers. We were also beginning to see orange dotting the canyons below us.

Just as the sun dawned over the mountains in front of us, Nate whistled. Hunter and I crept over the top of the hill, and Nate pointed to his Geovid binos. He had them set up on his video tripod, focused in on a buck. He whispered that it was a 3×4, but it looked like a nice one. I took a peek. The buck had his head down and was eating, but I could see that he had wide horns that went out past his ears. He looked great to me, so when Nate asked if I wanted him I said, “You bet! Let’s go get him.”

Just as we were getting the camera set up, some hunters took a shot north of us in another part of the canyon. My buck and the does around him started to trot south toward the thicker cedar trees. Having spent a lot of time in this area, Nate knew where the deer would go when pressured. Amazingly, he thinks like a mule deer buck.

“He’ll be heading up higher into the trees. We’ll need to run to stay ahead of him,” he whispered.

So, we grabbed our stuff and dropped down on the other side of the peak. We ran south along the back side of the ridgeline for a good half mile. Nate can hike and run on a mountain like nobody I have ever seen; so, needless to say, Hunter and I were quite a distance behind him. The ridge was steep and Hunter was having a hard time, so I grabbed his hand to keep him from sliding down the soft, loose dirt and shale. By the time we got to where Nate was, he was lying prone on the top of the ridge with his camera already set up and glassing for the deer. Hunter and I laid down next to him and I got my gun ready. Sure enough, Nate spotted the buck stepping out of the cedars directly down and in front of us about 300 yards away (Didn’t I say that Nate thinks like a mule deer?). I saw him a few moments later. He looked magnificent! He was wider than I had first thought and more massive, and his antlers seemed to just go straight out and up. He sure was pretty, glistening in the early sunlight. I definitely wanted to take that deer!

I got the scope up on him. Nate had the camera on and ready and I took a shot. Wham! Got him! I took another shot to be sure. The buck ran back into the trees behind him. I saw some hunters making their way up the canyon, so Hunter and I headed down to locate the buck. We found the blood trail and saw the buck in a thicket. We waved to Nate to come down.

This was one of those deer that grows as you walk up on him. We lifted his head off the ground and he was monstrous! Yes, he was a 3×4, but the three-point side was cooler than the four-point side! My buck has long main beams that curl in and measure 27-inches long. His G-2 on the three-point side is bladed and measures a crazy eighteen inches. However, the most astounding part was that he had a full 35-inch wide outside spread! We - that is - I would never have thought he was that wide. Nate, on the other hand, had suspected he was wider than we originally thought and was giddy with excitement. Hunter thought he was pretty cool, too.

We were a long way from the truck and ended up spending most of the day packing the buck out. My dad and Hatch were excited to find out that I had gotten a deer, but really surprised when we showed them how big the buck was. Sierra was just happy to see her momma.

With one day to hunt, we made great use of it. Granted, it did help to have one of the top mule deer men in the hunting industry “guiding” me. But, even if we hadn’t gotten such a nice deer, it would have been a fun, memorable hunt anyway because I was able to experience it with my wonderful husband, my dad and my kids close by.

Watch for Vicki’s exciting Colorado mule deer hunt in the soon-to-be released Burly Bucks 3 by Nate Jacobson and Alpine Antlers Enterprises.

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