I’ve only been rifle hunting for 3 years. I took up bow hunting about 5 years ago and developed a desire to put down a big buck back then. Over the years I’ve had encounters with numerous deer, both does and bucks. I’ve arrowed several does and also taken a few with a rifle, but have never been able to close the deal on a buck with any size. After losing access to some great private ground I had permission to bow hunt I really slowed down my bow hunting. My brother and I decided to take up hunting the rifle season a couple years ago and have been making it an annual outing ever since. We hunt public land in central Nebraska. The spot we were hunting the first 2 years was a very busy area. There were plenty of deer around but we never had any encounters with bucks of any size. We would see a few on scouting trips but they were always on the other side of the fence. After we left last year with a truck load of does we decided it was time to think about a new place to go.
After some talking with other hunters from across the state we finally decided where we would go. The new region has several areas open to the public, including one of the largest puplic hunting areas in Nebraska. Our first day and a half of the season was more or less a scouting mission. The spots we picked out were not seeing any deer traffic. Although the signs of deer were present we never seen any while we were there. We had a lot of hunters in the area but we never felt like it was too crowded. Finally on Sunday evening my brother dropped the first deer of our trip. With thoughts of jerky and strap steaks on his mind he took a small 2.5 year old 3×4 buck. The next morning we headed to another new area where my brother’s friend John, took a buck nearly identical to my brother’s. I made a long hike to my spot that day and decided to sit it out for a while. I was seeing a few muley does here and there but none had any bucks in pursuit of them. Finally I spotted a shooter buck headed my way. I got ready for him to come my way and just before he got to some thick cedar trees he stopped. I took a shot and he continued to stand there. I seen the dirt fly in front of him and it was obivious I had misjudged the yardage. 
As I moved to cycle another shell into the chamber he bolted back in the direction he had just came from. 
I was so disappointed in myself that I was ready to get in the truck and find the nearest store to buy a range finder.
After a couple more days of seeing nothing but does I finally spotted another shooter buck. Only problem was that he was hot on the trail of 2 does. I watched them head my way until they changed directions while behind some cedar trees. They headed away from me only giving me enough of a glimpse to see what I missed out on.
On Wed. I found myself alone at deer camp. My brother and his friend John headed back home with their deer to go back to work. I decided to give it a couple more days to try to get myself a decent buck. I spent most of Wed. on the road driving to a few small public tracks of CRP land. I seen several deer on these areas but they were small bucks and does. I finally realized that my time for the afternoon was running out and I headed back toward deer camp. I knew I was only going to have 45 minutes or so to hunt so I had to pick a spot that wasn’t too far off the road. I quickly remembered a spot that would catch my eye every time we drove past it. There was never anyone hunting the area when we drove by and it just looked like perfect whitetail land. There was plenty of cedar trees and a couple of good thickets in the canyon bottom. The canyon walls were very steap and I hated to think what it would be like dragging a deer out of there. I found a place to park and headed to a spot I could sit and have a good vantage point of the entire canyon. I no more than took my backpack off to sit down and I saw some movement behind some cedars across the canyon. I watched for a minute and knew that I had not been spotted. It was right at sundown and I knew I had 30 minutes to see if this was the right buck. Well it didn’t take long for him to take a couple more steps into the open and I realized this was a buck that I wanted to shoot. He was standing close to 150 yards away, broadside and was watching what I believed to be a doe out in front of him. I got myself ready and took the shot. Panic set in as I thought I missed. I knew he reacted to the shot and headed out of my sight behind some cedars. After only a few seconds a deer came out the other side of the trees and it turned out to be a doe that he was with. Soon after seeing the doe I could hear some crahing in the trees at the canyon bottom. I sat down to collect myself as this all happend so fast. I just kept telling myself “I knew this was a good spot”. As the last bit of light faded I headed back to the truck to shed a layer of clothes and call and see if a friend of mine was at his cabin and able to come help me. I knew it was going to be impossible to get this deer out of the canyon by myself. Mike arrived a short time later and we headed off so I could get my hands on this buck. On the way in I told Mike that he was decent but I didn’t know how good. Once we got to the area I last seen him we spotted blood and started looking. Just as my stomach was starting to do flips my buddy says “THERE HE IS, HOLY COW!”. He was burried under a ton of cedar trees. We made the crawl under the trees and proceded to drag him out. This being the first buck I have shot with any size I was extremely excited. I feared having a “ground shrinkage” expierence and I actually had a “ground growage” expierence. I started counting…. 6 on one side and 5 on the other pluse 3 nice sticker points on the 5 side. His body size was incredible, if I had to guess he was over 250#s. Wow, I finally got my buck and he was going on the wall!!! 
The drag out of the canyon was no walk in the park, but I had MY trophy and couldn’t have been happier.
Sorry for the lack of pics. My good camera got left in my brothers truck and my phone camera was all I had. With the warm weather frocasted for the following day I decided to cape him out that night. Looking back now I wished I would have waited and taken more pics early the next morning. Oh well, this was a great season for me. I feel I learned a lot more about deer and if and when I get something bigger I’ll do a better photo shoot then. The pic in the cedars was taken moments after we found him. The others were taken after dragging him out.
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But…that is not what it is made for! Stick in in a rod holder, and you have one he!! of an outside line! It would make a great rod for Mille Lacs trolling as well if you have mutliple people in your boat. 
