Congrats to Jeff Amaral on having a successful 2010 hunting season.  He is pictured here (Left) with his buddy that was able to harvest this big bodied Oregon Buck, estimated at over 200 lbs. field dressed.  Nice job guys.  Jeff had an exciting season that was filled with a spot and stalk that got spoiled by a low flying helicopter, a 516 yard shot on a coyote, a sucessful hunting camp that was able to harvest 8 animals.  Jeff was sucessful in harvesting a 2x3 mule deer of his own, a 3x4 California blacktail and nice forky while teamed up with his father. 

DiggsOutdoors was fortunate to be able to supply Jeff with a Badlands Diablo Pack in time to use during his 2010 season and was kind enough to send us some feedback about the performance of the pack.  Please read more to see Jeff in action with his pack and see his comments on the performance of this product.   

FIVE MORE MINUTES

It was the hustle and bustle of a typical Minnesota slug hunting morning at the Brockhouse’s.  Six a.m. came early, but we were getting ready for what my husband said would be a busy morning in the woods.  We grabbed our gear and headed out the door for what became a historical day that I know our family will never forget!  About fifteen feet up, I sat in a tree stand named Shorty and surveyed a city of nature that was waking up around me.  My husband, Brad, was in another tree stand maybe two hundred yards to my left and just a little behind me.  It was November 6^th, 2010.  It was a brisk and breezy morning and the woods were coming to life.  Just before dawn the traffic began, a few does here and a few there…a couple fork horns to follow and the story begins.  Sitting in my stand I was saying a prayer, I didn’t get time for my devotions that morning as we had already been up early to get ready for our big day.  I was thanking God for what surrounded me.  My husband to my left and my boys in stands to my right, along with our good friend Gene, and the beauty of nature that I had the privilege to be hunting in.  As I was talking to God that November morning, I asked for an opportunity to shoot a big buck.  He heard me…and He answered!!  Time was ticking by and I was mouthing to Brad how much longer we needed to be sitting.  He motioned “five” with his hand for five more minutes, but what he was really thinking is at least twenty.  What he won’t do to please me!!  The conditions were perfect and Brad knew it.  Off to my left on the ridge by the railroad tracks stood a nice little four point that was standing broad side just begging for me to shoot.  And behind me another small buck in the same position, ready, aim, fire and he was mine.  A doe in heat was lurking around and had a frenzy of bucks that were licking their lips with their noses to the ground ready for some romance!  As my eyes were roaming from left to right, I was about to experience a hunt of a lifetime.  To my right coming in about forty yards down below me is exactly what my husband has dreamed about for over twenty years.  My heart started thumping into my throat as my eyes kept moving from one, two, three, four bucks…and then, nose to the ground, the largest buck I had ever seen in my life!  I was about to have an anxiety attack fifteen feet in the air with a loaded gun!  As I pulled the gun to my shoulder I cannot explain the emotions that flooded my soul.  Every limb had turned to jello, my heart had now been skipping beats and my eyes were going blurry.  For the life of me, I could not get this monster in my scope, I was praying and panicking as this massive deer was ever so slowly walking below.  I would look into my scope, seeing nothing but black or the bark of trees, and then pull my eyes back and see him with the naked eye.  I can’t tell you the number of times I did this.  I finally shot!  I can’t remember if I even had him in my sights but I knew I needed to pull the trigger.