No ground shrinkage here, far from it. If anything, the buck had grown. I normally don't like to produce a tape at the kill, but there would be no disappointments in this case. Franklin ran it over the long tines, around the heavy bases. A point had been lost to love's battles, but still we came up with 187 gross inches. He was my best mulie with a bow.

The wind gained momentum. More snow cascaded from the low-hung, woolly clouds. But right at the moment, I could care less. All of my worries and apprehensions drifted away with the gusts as Franklin and I talked and admired my awesome buck.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION
To book a Colorado Eastern Plains deer hunt of your own, contact Aaron Neilson, Adventures Wild, Dept. RMGF, P.O. Box 620459, Littleton, CO 80162. Call (303) 972-9545, visit www.advwild.com or e-mail him at aaron@advwild.com.

Adventures Wild's areas are predominately private land, so most bowhunters draw a tag without preference points, while a single preference point is normally required to draw a rifle tag.