My hunting companion, Kirk Musgrove, and I did it again. No, we did not shoot another white tail doe. This time we killed a white tail buck. You may recognize the skinner rack in the below photo from the January 2024 Successful Whitetail Doe Hunt post or the more recent Another White Tail Doe post from November 2024. This time, Kirk and I both were able to be included in the skinner rack picture because our sons went on this hunt with us.

The Royal Men’s First Hunts

It has been a little over a year ago that I went hunting for the first time as a totally blind man. On that hunt, I was armed only with my finger. You can see a picture of me standing in front of the YO Ranch gate in the Pow – Pow – Pow post. Since this was my son’s first hunting trip, it seemed only appropriate that Eric and his lifelong friend Kolton would be featured in this hunt’s gate picture.  

Eric and Kolton, and subsequently the Royal and Musgrove families, met each other at the neighborhood pool when the boys were around 4-years old. The game on The Musgrove Family Ranch should feel fortunate that it was 14 years later before Kirk and I started hunting together.

Once again, I want to extend a huge thank you to Kirk for sharing the Musgrove Family ranch and for your invaluable contributions to make this another successful hunt. I further want to express my gratitude for introducing Eric to hunting.

Preparing For The Hunt

About 3:00 p.m., before we leave camp, I power on the Pulsar Digex C50 scope and have my son Eric turn on the scope’s wi-fi. Eric is very familiar with the scope as he spent time at the range helping zero it. You can go to the Pulsar Digex C50 Zeroing post to watch a video.

After departing camp, first we drop our sons off at the stand they will be hunting. Next, Kirk and I climb into the deer stand that we will be hunting. In the stand, I securely mount my Winchester XPR rifle to a BOG Death Grip tripod, while Kirk launches the Stream Vision 2 application on an iPad to remotely connect to my scope. Lastly, I work the bolt to chamber a Remington Core-Lokt 300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain Centerfire cartridge.

Staring Contest

About 5:00 p.m., Kirk started whispering, “We have several white tail deer coming towards us. There is a nice eight point coming in-and-out of the clearing. I am not sure it is a shooter,, but if it is old enough I will try and get you a shot.”

For the next 15 minutes or so, Kirk keeps glassing the buck to estimate the deer’s age, and to determine if it is a shooter.

Kirk tells me to “Shoulder up”. As soon as I start to slowly adjust my seating position, Kirk immediately grabs my leg. I instantly freeze holding a seated squat with my hands locked in a dip position on the arms of the chair. I remain in this position for several minutes while the buck and I are locked into a staring contest. Of course, I cannot see the buck so I can only hope he does not see me either.

The Shot

Fortunately, the buck blinked first and stopped eyeballing us. Kirk releases the grip on my leg. Finally, I was able to move into shooting position and then things started coming into place extremely fast.

Kirk tells me to “move to the left”. We are instantly on target, so I thumb off the safety. We only must make a few small adjustments “down, left, up, right”, while waiting on the buck to turn. The buck turns broadside to us. Kirk says, “hold, hold, fire”.

The Crash

Kirk whispers, “I am sure we made a good shot’. He reassures me, “it is not uncommon for a deer to sometimes bolt, even when a good shot is made”.

We hear the buck crash into some trees about 10 yards from where we made the shot. We hear a second crash near the same location and believe the deer had fallen to the ground but Kirk cannot see the deer.

Another Wait  

Back in April 2024, in a No Turkeys No Problem post, I explained how I was concerned my blindness might add a variable to hunting that would result in a poor placed shot. At that time, Kirk and I had made three shots and ethically killed three animals. During our prior hunts, Kirk had never lost sight of the two white tail doe or the black buck doe after we shot.

This buck represented the second deer in a row where Kirk could not see the deer immediately after we made the shot. In November 2024, we made a good shot on a doe, but lost sight of her because she fell behind some bushes.

After making the shot on the buck, instead of exchanging a celebratory high five and Kirk loudly exclaiming, “We smoked another one.” Kirk had to keep repeatedly reminding me that hearing the crash was a good sign.

The Recovery

Fortunately, after our 30 minute wait, we were able to go verify that we made a good shot. We located the buck in the trees where we had heard the crash. Once again, Kirk could congratulate me on another great shot.

All that was left to do was to get Eric and Kolton to help us drag the buck out of the trees and pack it back to the skinner rack. Thank you boys for all your help.

You can read the hunting page to learn about my limited success as an early childhood low vision hunter or check out all the hunting post to learn how I now hunt totally blind with the assistance from my hunting companion, Kirk Musgrove.