By: Jennifer Rook
With the wide open flat lands of Wyoming's high mountain desert stretched out before her on a beautiful September morning in 2009, RaShea Simmons wasn't really in a hunting mindset as she set out to take her kids to the bus stop on the first day of school. She took her archery equipment along anyway, just in case. She had drawn an antelope tag and had been keeping her eye on a particularly large buck all summer, but hadn't ever been able to get close to him. Little did she know that just yards from her house she was about to get that opportunity.
The buck had been running with a harem of about 150 does all summer and RaShea, four months pregnant, had been stalking him. With not much cover in the wide open expanse of land, she had been crawling through the tall grass hoping to get close enough to put an arrow in him. Just as she was nearing the bus stop, her sons, Hayden and Stetson, spotted the buck just yards off the road. Hayden ranged the buck at 43 yards as Stetson grabbed her bow. From the roadside, RaShea let her arrow fly. The arrow struck the antelope in the front shoulder, just missing the vital organs that would have dropped him in an instant, and the buck ran off.
This is when RaShea's real hunt began. Getting close to the buck for a second shot would prove to be most difficult given the terrain, but RaShea was determined to get her buck. After several blown stalks, searching for him on horseback, and an encounter in a pasture with an curious mule while trying to sneak up on him, Rashea finally got her chance at a second shot as she snuck up on him again. This time her aim was deadly and the arrow found its mark, dropping the mighty buck instantly.
RaShea's buck was indeed a big one. His antlers scored 77 6/8ths, plenty large enough to make the Pope & Young book (coming out in March 2011. A minimum score of 68 is required to even make the book). Rashea, the daughter of Rod and Kathie Harrison of Duchesne, will be entered in the books with a record Wyoming antelope buck for women archery hunters.
RaShea is also a great example for other women interested in hunting. When kids come along and life gets in the way, it's sometimes tough for women to find time to enjoy hunting as much as men get to. Yet, somewhere between the laundry, cooking, cleaning, taking kids to school and activities, not to mention incubating a new life herself, RaShea found the time and the determination to track her buck down and harvest the trophy of a life time. Shea credits her husband, Jason Simmons, for inspiring her and teaching her how to hunt with archery equipment. She has definitely found a love for archery hunting and loves being able to spend more time with her husband doing something he enjoys too.
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