Fastest Trigger in the West

This post from the blog, From the Stand gave me some amusement. If my dad were here instead of scouting for a mountain goat, he’d have jumped all over this story. Since he’s not here, I will take it upon myself to tell on myself. As a fellow videographer, I can understand the tension and panic when it seems the person you’re filming is not going to take the shot and the animal is getting away.

That’s never been a problem for me as a hunter. My dad has two stories he likes to tell about me and my ability to find the trigger. The first occurrence was during my second year of hunting. Dad took me out behind the house on some neighbor’s property to see if we could get my first buck. Sure enough, after a while of hiking in the hills behind our place, dad spotted a herd of deer. We glassed them for a while and then I made the announcement that there were no bucks in the herd. I put my binoculars down and began thinking about where we would hike to next, but Dad was intently glassing that herd. I started to get restless when Dad’s voice cut through my plans.

“That back one’s a buck,” he said calmly. That snapped me back to the present in a hurry. Up went my rifle.

“Really?” I asked. I sure wasn’t seeing any horns. Finally, though, I thought I saw a sticker of horn and I asked Dad, “The last one - quartering away and feeding?”

“Yeah,” he answered. He started to turn away from me. “Hold on, let me get my….”

BOOM!!

I jacked another shell in. BOOM!! Two misses. I looked over at Dad and his glasses were cockeyed on his face and he was looking pretty well startled.

As it turns out, Dad, who wears eye glasses, was turning to put them back on as this was before the days when they made binoculars that can be used while wearing glasses. He had just started to say that he wanted to get his rifle to back me up.

Oh. Well, I wonder why he didn’t say so in the first place! The next time my trigger finger was on display was a few years later. I was now the proud veteran hunter - I’d bagged two deer and one elk at this point. I was elk hunting with Dad and my oldest brother, Benji. We had hunted all day without seeing hide or hair and we were hoofing it back to the pickup. Well, Benji and I were, anyways. Dad was a hundred yards or so behind me and Benji was even further ahead than I was. I was trying to catch up to Benji when Dad hissed from behind me, “Psst!! Tom!”

I stopped. When I looked back, Dad had his binoculars up and he was looking across the draw. I then hissed at Benji: “Psst!! Benji!”

Now we were all on the same page after having received the same message. We made it back to Dad and he said, “There’s a bull over there with some cows.”

I asked, “How far is that?”

Dad answered, “400 yards.”

I told Benji, reluctantly, “Well, since I’ve already shot an elk, you can go ahead and take the first shot.”

I got settled in and put my cross hairs on the bull. Then I waited. And waited. Waited some more. And waited a little more.

“Where should I hold?” I heard Benji ask.

Where should you….! I couldn’t believe it! I was screaming on the inside, “Just shoot already!” Dad gave him an answer and I settled back in and waited some more. Everything became quiet. I tensed up anticipating the shot.

“You sure that’s 400 yards, Dad? Looks further.”

My thoughts were screaming, “Are you kidding me, Benji? I mean, there’s an elk - shoot, for cryin’ out loud!” I was getting pretty keyed up, now.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Dad said.

I waited some more. Finally - BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I kept my word and let Benji have the first shot, but I sure wasn’t giving him a second or third. Or fourth. Or fifth. As the bull ran away unharmed, I looked over at Benji and Dad who stood there with their mouths agape. “Why didn’t you shoot again, Benji?”

I’m guessing his thoughts were something like: “Why didn’t I …..?!! Are you kidding me?!”

Well, no, I wasn’t kidding - I thought I’d left a brief pause in there to allow him a few shots as I reloaded the magazine for the third round. Or was it the forth round? Oh well, I guess that’s his loss if he didn’t want to take advantage.