By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
The family of Overton resident Ken Staton had a bright outlook on the hunt this season. Ken, along with his sons Chad and Brandon, had tags in Area 23.
The group went out opening weekend north of Eagle Valley Reservoir in hopes to fill their tags. They focused mainly on finding Chad a buck that weekend since it was the only weekend he had to hunt.
Brandon said they saw a lot of deer that first weekend but mostly does and small bucks out in the lower areas and fields. Toward the end of their weekend Chad decided to go after a 3 point and was able to harvest the buck.
The weekend of October 20-21, Brandon and Ken head out again for Area 23. Brandon explained that he also has a bull elk tag in the area and was using this deer hunt as an opportunity to do some scouting for the bull hunt.
Staton said that all the deer that were in the area two weeks prior were no longer anywhere to be seen. The two hiked around all day Friday and saw elk and horses, but no deer.
On Saturday morning the men headed to a spring. “We think we will see something for sure in this area, it was the perfect day and location for it,” said Brandon.
The two split up and hiked a wide area without any luck. By mid-morning they decided to head back to camp, get some breakfast and make a new game plan. They got back on the road and passed the place they hunted that morning.
“A half mile from where we were parked we jumped 2 deer,” Brandon said.
Ken told Brandon to go ahead and shoot the first one since it was bigger. Brandon fired back that his dad can shoot the larger buck and he will take the smaller. In the end dad won out and Brandon took his shot at the bigger buck which was then trotting up a hill about 150 yards away. The buck took off up the mountain but didn’t stay on its feet for long.
Brandon urged his dad to take the second buck, a 3×4. But now Ken doesn’t want anything smaller than what his son just shot. So they let the smaller buck continue on.
Brandon hiked up to where he shot the deer. His dad stayed on flat ground guiding him to the spot. Brandon found the blood trail and had his dad hike up to him. The two started up the hill following the trail and found the buck dead at the top.
Brandon recalled his dad saying, “That is bigger than I thought it was, I should have shot that big one!”
The father and son team continued to hunt and fill the last tag that weekend. But Ken wouldn’t shoot anything smaller than his son’s 4×5 and 27 inch wide buck. They never did find that bigger deer so Ken went home without filling his tag.
