Well team Muscha got on the board Sunday night as Paul and Miranda spent a little quality husband / wife time chasing Big Bucks at their farm in Kindred, ND. 
This is Miranda’s second year of seriously chasing whitetails with her bow and was rewarded in a big way with her first deer ever on Sunday night. To top it off, her first deer harvest will land her into the P&Y record book. Paul and Miranda are both long time friends and hunting partners of Stacie and I. They both share the same passion for the outdoors as Stacie and I do and we are PUMPED to see Miranda harvest her first deer.
In conversations with Paul the woods were alive that early evening as they got settled into their double set up along the river. There is a ladder stand along with a hang on stand, located just off the river and is a good set up morning or night as long as their is a westerly wind. According to Paul it did not take long to figure out they had chosen the right stand that evening as bucks were chasing does all around them the entire afternoon.
Paul first located this bruiser off up towards the food source. After a 20 minute stand off with this buck not wanting to commit after having a doe snorting in their vicinity. Paul grabbed his grunt tube and let out a few soft grunts that grabbed this bucks attention. Paul was filming this buck coming in and everything was going as planned. Until, the buck started to circle down wind of their set up. HE then realized that Miranda would not have a shot to the back side of the stand because of his bow hanging in the way. 
So Paul slowly put the camera down as this buck was closing the distance fast. He then grabbed his bow off the hook as the buck was now under 30 yards and circling them. With Paul’s bow in his hand and the camera still running sitting on the seat, the buck was still charging in. Miranda got turned around and drew back just as the buck was clearing some brush on the back side of them. Paul let out a grunt to stop the buck and shortly after that Miranda zeroed in on the buck as it stood motionless wondering where the other buck was. Soon Miranda touched her trigger off on this beauty 4×4 and with the camera still running sitting on the seat not capturing the actual hit visually, but it captured the whole thing on audio. Clean as day you can hear her Carbon Express “THWACK” this P&Y buck and you can see him scurry away in a panic. Paul and Miranda watched this buck run off 80 yards and tip over. 
With Miranda jumping up and down on her ladder and Paul locking himself into his tree stand in fear of falling out. They celebrated a moment that will probably never be forgotten by either. Miranda shot this buck right around 6 pm on Sunday and I got the call 7:15pm that evening and I can pretty much guarantee that Paul was just as excited if not more then Miranda. 
Later Paul and I joked that Miranda just does not realize what she has just harvested. Many people go their whole life in search of a P&Y animal with their bow. She just did it with her first deer harvest ever. 
Some might be quick to say lucky, but i know better. Paul has been hunting this piece of land that he now owns longer then I have known him and I have known him since about 92. He LIVES hunting whitetails 365 days a year. I’m a whitetail freak, but some of my time gets spread out with fishing and chasing ringnecks, not with Paul. Not to mention the time and practice Miranda has put in the last few years shooting her bow and sitting in the stand.
The QDM Paul, myself and others have implemented up on this piece of property is another reason why this piece has gotten so good and seems to get better every year. I can not tell you how many decent 4×4’s were on this property last year. We let all those go last year and now those 110-125″ 4×4 are all grown up and there are now multiple 130-145″ 4×4’s running this property. Not to mention the big 5×5 I have been eyeing up the last 2 years. 
Next Wednesday morning can not come soon enough 
as I will be up there chasing rutting bucks with Paul trying to match the bar Miranda has set this year. Congrats on a awesome buck Miranda but even truly a better first buck harvest. I shot my very first Whitetail with a bow about 75 yards from that very spot and I thought I had shot a nice 9 pointer, it does not even compare to yours. Congrats Miranda, from both members of team Stenger. 
Ready or not I will be up there late Tuesday night!
down on yours!
that has some good tine length!
