Hunter: Mark Drury
Animal: 136" Velvet Buck
Location: Wyoming
Weapon: PSE X-Force

Mark always has high anticipation of the first hunt of the year. Each year Mark tries to take advantage of early September and take a trip out West to try and harvest a buck while he is still in velvet. It's a race with time because historically most of the deer are shed by the end of the first week of September. So when Rick and Julie Kreuter invited Mark to Wyoming he couldn't pass up the chance to hunt with good friends and possibly harvest a velvet buck with his bow.

This is the same area were Rick grew up and has owned and operated RK Outfitters since 1992. The idea was to try and double because there were so many deer. They were hoping to lay down some great early season footage for Whitetail Madness 12 and get the season off to a great start! Mark knew it was going to be a good trip when the first night they saw 20 bucks, 3 shooters...and Rick thought they had a slow evening!

It was rainy that first night and all everyone got was wet and cold! So the next day the storm broke and NW winds blew in with a high of 50 degrees....and everyone knows what that means, great deer hunting weather! They decided to go to one of Rick's historically best trees and at about 5:45 Mark was looking down at a text message from his daughter Taylor wishing him luck when Rick excitedly says "Mark, big shooter coming off the hill!".

The buck came in to 25 yards and gave Mark a perfectly broadside shot and he made his shot count. After a quick recovery they elected to climb back up because there was plenty of light left in the day and Rick had his bow and tag in hand. Their confidence was high, which was quickly shattered time and again over the next 36 hours, as Murphy's Law would win out. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong! They weren't able to achieve the double that they had hoped for, but it was a great start to the season anyway! Rick estimated Mark's deer to be a 4 1/2 year old Wyoming whitetail.

Now Mark and Jared are off to Alberta on Sunday for their annual hunt with Corey Jarvis and 3 Rivers Adventures!

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