Colorado Bucks

A First-Timer Takes a 190+ Muley

- Trent Swanson

I fell into his trap. Like a master chess player, Matt identified my weakness and preyed on it. He set me up then took me down. I don’t feel too bad though – he does it to a lot of people. You might wonder what type of vile gangster I’m describing, but in actuality, Matt is one of my best friends!

Matt Sheterom took a vacation from Ohio to Colorado during the summer of 2002. He and a friend traveled cross-country to fish and learn about elk and mule deer country. I happened to be working at a sporting clays range, and Matt started a conversation with me. Before long, we were talking mule deer and glassing bedded bucks from the clubhouse. That led to meeting the two of them for supper that night with Nichole, the lady who later became my wife. For the next few years, we kept in touch periodically via email and phone calls. Each time I talked to him, I told Nichole about it and always described him as “Matt, you know, Matt from Ohio.” After a couple of years, Nichole politely told me I had no other friends named Matt, so I didn’t need to qualify him as Matt from Ohio, but the name stuck. To this day, I can barely talk about him without adding the additional words.

We often talked about hunting together, and our first opportunity came over Thanksgiving, when I was at my in-law’s home in western Kansas, and he was with a friend in eastern Kansas. We met near Great Bend for a day of chasing pheasants in the snow. My Labrador, Lacey, was on fire that day; the birds held tight, and we quickly got our limits. It also fueled our desire to spend more time in the field together.