By Candace Knudsen
My fiancé, Travis Weber, and I had spent our whole year, as we always do, looking forward to hunting season.
Hunting is what we live for!
The excitement of that early morning crisp air and that bit of fog that comes with fall, along with the anticipation of that chance to spot a dream buck. I get excited even writing about it.
Last year, we had gone hunting every free second we had, and if we didn’t have any spare time, we would sacrifice what we determined to be less important tasks in our life for at least hunting season. However, it was getting late in the fall and the freezer was slowly getting sparse, a bit of worry set in. We eat every bit of meat that we harvest, that’s why we hunt.
Amongst loving the outdoors, we need to feed ourselves and our family, with steroid free, organic meat.
With no hesitation after a night shift and a three-hour sleep, we were on our way back out into the wild. After a few unsuccessful hours, I spotted a huge buck! Just as quickly as I saw it, it disappeared behind some brush.
I told Travis what a nice buck it was, (well I think I said something along the lines of ‘Holy crap there's a huge buck!') as I had seen the left side of antlers, which gave away its massive size.
We quickly, but quietly, set up in a spot we thought we would be able to see it if the buck walked out again.
Within minutes, I noticed a small flicker of movement around 80 yards in front of us. I saw the tips of the antlers and then he walked out. It was pretty easy to see that this buck was beyond massive. I counted four points on his left side, and with my heart pounding, I lined up and was able to make a great clean shot, dropping the buck in his tracks.
I was ecstatic that I had the opportunity to not only see, but also make a clean shot on such a beautiful buck. We were thrilled to say the least.
We got up to him and that's when I saw the massive seven-inch drop tine on the right side of his antlers. This was my dream buck I have been praying to see since I began hunting!
I will never forget how it felt walking up to that buck. I will always remember this buck, this hunt and the feeling of excitement and accomplishment I was able to experience alongside my fiancé. This year’s hunting season is going to be a tough one to beat!
This buck was about 6.5 years old and ended up dressing out at 177 pounds, giving us a sense of ease knowing that the meat would feed us for quite some time.
Votes needed
Since this hunt, as most of the Cariboo and Chilcotin residents have heard I was chosen as one of the top 6 women around the world who applied to be part of the Extreme Huntress competition at 777 Ranch in Hondo, Texas.
I cannot say how the competition went yet, as the episodes are still coming out and I'm sworn by contract.
However, a few episodes have aired and show that I won the first shooting competition and went on my first hunt for a Rusa deer. (Which was quite a learning experience, due to the heat, terrain and the fact that I had never seen the animal before.)
The episodes get very exciting and I encourage everyone to go check them out. They air every Monday until January at www.getzone.com. January is also when the winner of Extreme Huntress is announced.
To win, along with my scores in Texas (which I can't say yet) and the judges scores (which I don’t know yet), I need votes. Votes count for 20 per cent of our final score.
The judges have said this year’s competition is the closest scores they have ever had on Extreme Huntress, so every vote helps and goes a long way.
Please help me make it to number 1 in something that I am so passionate about!
You can vote for me at www.extremehuntress.com. Just go to "Voting;" enter your e-mail address; go to your e-mail and confirm your vote in the e-mail from polldaddy.com.
(More than 1,000 votes have not yet been confirmed in e-mail, so if you have already voted, please make sure you confirmed your polldaddy e-mail).
Thank you all so much for your time and support!
Happy hunting!