They Rise Up From the Ground

first took up mule deer hunting back in 2020 when A.J., his dad (Art), and I all drew tags for east central Wyoming.

- JUSTIN TOWNSEND

 Art shot a nice buck the second day at a spot dubbed "The Pizza Oven," while A.J. and I struggled to fill our own tags. On the last day, I shot a mature buck which I pursued for over a mile and then blood tracked it another half mile. This whole evolution involved meeting the local game warden in town to get permission to go on private property to continue tracking the buck. Needless to say, all I found was one last dried pool of blood and a grass bed void of a mule deer.

That feeling of hitting the deer and never recovering it wore on me pretty hard as I pushed through the next hunting trips. I analyzed the shot placement over and over in my head, like a bad repeating reel on Instagram. The loss would come back and haunt me as I put sights on animals. The following spring, I passed on a bear that was just outside of my comfort zone and then, in the fall, I hesitated pulling the trigger on a doe and missed my chance. My freezer stayed pretty light in 2021. I stretched that meat through the year and successfully drew a mule deer tag for Wyoming this year along with AJ. and Art.