Jenna Gregg's first-buck story will be hard to top, in print and on screen.
While hunting with her husband, Floyd, on Dec. 14, she fulfilled her longtime goal of shooting her first buck, and he filmed her doing it. And, somehow, considering both were vibrating like the noisy end of a rattlesnake, her aim was true and the footage isn't "Blair Witchified."
When muzzleloader season, 8 inches of snow and the rare north wind arrived in Indiana, husband and wife went to a place they'd been saving for that time of year and that particular breeze. Nobody else had hunted that bean field to that point.
"We knew this property held at least one really big buck," Jenna said. "It had been seen twice in 2012. Its rack was taller then, but it didn't have as many points. In 2013, someone got footage of it during bow season from 150 yards."
But the Greggs never dreamed they'd actually see it.
They were hunting from the snow-covered ground, beside a tree that afternoon, and deer started filtering into the bean field within an hour of their arrival.
About 4:45, the bull of the woods came to the chow line.
"He's definitely a shooter ... the biggest deer I've ever seen," Floyd told Jenna. And then both began shaking - he so violently that the binoculars were bouncing off his nose and brow, she so rattled that she forgot to cock her muzzleloader's hammer, at first.
"I took one last, deep breath and slowly tightened my trigger finger," she said. "I have a history of jerking the gun up when pulling the trigger, so I was very cautious to not do that."
The deer was at 85 yards when the trigger broke, and it kicked after the shot and ran back into the woods, along with all the rest of the deer. The red trail to it was wide and practically glowing in the snow.
The 26-pointer's BTR composite score is 226 1/8 inches.
The full story, in Jenna's own words, will appear this fall in Rack magazine. The hunt also will eventually air on the "Licensed to Kill Outdoors" TV show, now in production. Meanwhile, you can find them at www.facebook.com/LicensedToKillOutdoors.