Double-the-Fun in the Yucatán Peninsula

Ten minutes later, the first miracle of my trip happened. Slowly bringing his hand to my shooting arm, Tigre pointed and whispered the prearranged command – “Tenazate Gris (Gray Brocket) Shoot!” I looked at the vegetation in front of the stand, but no animal appeared. Again, more emphasis in his whisper, Tigre pointed and commanded, this time using the Mayan word for Brocket, “Yuk, Shoot!” I looked at him with what must have been the stupidest gaze ever and shrugged. “¿Donde?!” (“Where?!). “Alli!” (“There!”) he whispered and pointed. It was at this juncture in our ‘conversation’ I looked further out, some 25 yards or so, and there stood a beautiful Gray-brown buck in an opening in the undergrowth. I’d been looking too close, into the dense growth near the base of the Machan. Slowly raising the shotgun to my shoulder, I held the sight low on the buck’s shoulder and pulled the trigger. The muzzle came down from the recoil, and there was the buck, dropped in his tracks. Tigre pounded me on the back, and yelled “Muy, muy bien!!, probably not saying what he wanted to, which would have been something akin to “Javier stuck me with a blind Gringo!”

Excerpt from “THE RAREST OF LUCK - Hunting Exotic Deer in Yucatán’s Tropical Forest”, Sports Afield, November/December 2022