Editors Note: Roger Raglin is the Host of “Roger Raglin Outdoors” shown on the Outdoor channel. Roger heads out every fall in search of “ Creating memories that money just can’t buy”. Today Rogers wife Darlene tells us about a Whitetail she shot in Wheeler, Texas using a CVA Apex.
I’m not a professional hunter or writer.  I am married to one and have been for over 25 years.  That counts for something.   Roger Raglin and I met and married in the early 80’s.  Roger turned professional hunter shortly thereafter.  He went hunting and left me with a house full of kids to raise.  Just like a man. 
I have done some hunting with my husband over the years but on a limited basis.  We raised 5 kids and now am raising 5 small grandkids.  It was a little over three years ago Roger and I were in a serious boat accident that has taken it’s toll on both of us.  Roger had double cervical surgery and has two titanium plates in his upper spine and I had multiple fractures including having my cheek bone crushed causing serious nerve damage to the right side of my face.  We’re both thankful to be alive but still wonder why this happened to us.  Because of this I haven’t been seen on Roger’s TV show since.  My face just isn’t the same and it never will be. 
In November this year Roger was out of town as he usually is in the fall when my cell phone rang and it was my loving husband.  He informed me that he was heading home from South Carolina and would be getting in some time the next morning.  I wasn’t expecting him for several weeks.   Roger said there was a mix up in the schedule and he was going to have to be in north Texas on Sunday.   I may be a blonde but even I knew that him calling me on Friday meant he was driving straight back 20 some hours and then having to leave the next day for Texas.  The catch was he wanted me to go with him.  I told him there was no way I could leave on that short a notice and to forget it.  But this time he was very persistent and said it would only be for a couple of days and it would give me a break from all the grandkids.  For once that actually didn’t sound too bad of a plan even if it was his idea.  So I agreed.
What my scheming husband didn’t tell me was he wanted me to be the hunter.  I found this out about three hours into the drive.  What had happened was CVA gun CEO, Dudley McGarity nor CVA president, Nate Treadaway could make the hunt and I suddenly was the replacement.  It all sounded a little bit fishy to me but I went along with it and agreed on one condition – that Roger stay in town and let me go on the hunt totally by myself – in other words let me have a good time for a change.  Let me explain. Roger’s hunting is his business and I know he’s good at it.  It may sound like fun to do some of the things he does but when you’re married to him it’s always a different story.  He’s bossy.  He’s short tempered.  He’s never happy with what you do or how you do it and he makes you do things over and over again that totally don’t make any sense.  In other words it’s work. I work 7 days a week raising 5 grandkids.   This hunt was going to be mine and even though we were filming it I didn’t want him breathing down my neck for a change.  This hunt was going to be just me, the camera man and the outfitter and that’s it or I told Rog he might as well stop the truck and I’d walk back to Tulsa.  I still can’t believe he agreed to those terms.
We arrived in Wheeler, Texas around 11 p.m.  We were both tired so we slept in and decided to wait until the afternoon on Monday for my first hunt.  The outfitter was Mark Hamilton (Huselby Creek Outfitters)  whose been over to the house a couple of times.  So I knew Mark.  He’s really nice.  The cameraman was Charger Wiley who was Roger’s full time camera guy for three years.  So I knew Charger real well.  It was really exciting heading out to the ranch to hunt.  It was exciting because there was no Roger to be found.  This was really and truly my hunt all the way right from the start.  It really didn’t take too long to get to the ranch.  I’d say about 15 minutes.  We went through a few gates and did the typical stopping to glass here and there.  What surprised me was the terrain.  It looked more like antelope country than deer country.  My last hunt in fact had been an antelope hunt in South Dakota about 5 years earlier.  I really liked that because you could see them.  I was shocked to actually see some deer running around out there on the prarrie.  There were pockets of timber here and there and it didn’t take long that we stopped and walked to a blind that set up on a hill.  You could see a long ways in every direction.  It was great.   It was just me and Charger.  Mark went to another blind to sit. 
Charger and I gabbed a bit and really it only took about 30 minutes and out in front of us walked a monster buck.  He was a long ways off but you could see his rack even without binoculars.  My heart started pounding something terrible.  I couldn’t believe there was a shooter buck out there.  Charger said it was at least 400 yards off and I knew that was too far for me to shoot. 
I didn’t have my personal gun with me so I was shooting Roger’s CVA (Apex .270).  Charger said that we should just wait and see what the buck would do.  Do you know that silly deer laid down right out there in the grass!  I’ve never seen one do that.  I was so mad I could spit.  I shouldn’t say that should I.  It really upset me.  I just picked up my binocs (Vanguard binoculars)  and I refused to put them down until that deer got up.  Charger wanted me to relax but I couldn’t.  I didn’t want this one to get away.  He laid there for nearly two hours.  I never took my eyes off of him. Then out of the wild blue another buck came walking into the picture.  He was even bigger. I don’t have any idea where he came from.  This buck looked like his rack was two feet wide.  Charger said it probably was.  That buck walked over to my buck, picked up a tree limb in his rack and threw it at him.  He also puffed up his hair – it’s like he swoll up all of a sudden – and charged at my buck getting him up.  We’ve got all this on video to prove it.  I’d never seen anything like this in my life.  It was awesome!   It scared me at first because I was afraid my buck was going to run off but what happened was perfect.  My buck starting walking our direction.  I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared and shook up in my life and I gave birth to 5 kids.  The trouble is the buck never stopped walking.  He walked right towards us and at about 100 yards stepped into the timber and disappeared.  My heart broke into.  What a disappointment!  We grunted at him and tried everything to get him to stop but he didn’t.  And it was beginning to get dark by now.  I wanted to cry. 
Right before 6 p.m. we were thinking about getting out of the stand when Charger grabbed me by the arm and said,  “There’s your buck!”
Apparently my buck had made his way through the timber and had come out right down below the stand where Mark had put some food bars (C’Mere Deer)  or something out for the deer.  I didn’t care.  It was him and I knew it.  I got that gun (CVA) up in the window of the blind in a hurry because it was getting low light.  Charger said I needed to shoot now or never.  I pulled the trigger and down he went.  I hit him perfect.  He dropped right in his tracks.  I totally had a come apart!
It was the biggest buck I’d ever seen and for sure ever shot. 
We pulled a good one on Roger too.  We didn’t call him or anything but waited until we got back into to town to pick him up for supper.  I went inside and acted like I was sad because we’d seen a big one but didn’t get a shot.  I really felt bad afterwards because Roger was so sweet.  He hugged me and said that was OK and that maybe I’d get another chance on Tuesday.  When he walked out and saw my buck in Mark’s truck he just about flipped.  I had a come apart all over again. 
My buck was a basic 9 point with several kickers.  You also could see where two tines had been broken off but I didn’t care he was perfect to me.  Mark said he would score in the 150’s or something and maybe 160’s if he wasn’t broken up.  We weighed him on cattle scales (not field dressed) and he was 268 pounds.  Roger said for a wild free ranging Texas buck that was incredible.  Of course it was incredible.  It was my buck.  Everything about him was incredible.  Oh, and by the way, my husband is incredible too.  He knew this would cheer me up and I don’t care what happens to me after this I’ll never forget this hunt and how exciting it was from start to finish.  I guess I should really thank Dudley McGarity and Nate Treadoway from CVA too for not being able to come on the hunt.  Or that might just have been a story Roger told me to get me back into hunting.  At any rate I’ve named my buck the Dudley/Nate buck in their honor.  Thanks guys.  And as my loving husband would say, “Jiminey Xmas.  I had a pretty good day.”

Editor’s Note: Tony Smotherman known as the Travelin’ Hunter is the Editor & publisher of Tennessee Outdoor News . Tony tells us about the success of his son Alex using a CVA Wolf.

I spent the week before Thanksgiving spot and stalk hunting whitetails in Oklahoma with my CVA APEX chambered in 300 Win. The hunt ended the evening before T-Day which put me in my Tennessee driveway at 6am after an all nighter behind the steering wheel. As I drug myself and my gear into my home I could smell the Thanksgiving smells that we are all familiar with, but instead of checking out the dinner menu and as bad as I hated to do it. I really needed some sleep.

Since September I have been on the road either hunting or speaking about hunting and I had previously told my boys and my wife that I would take a few days off my hunting tour for Moultrie’s The Hit List to take them hunting. As the turkey was finishing up, my boys felt the need to roust me out of the warm bed to help them with their gear for “their” hunt. Needless to say, they were very eager about the road trip to High Cotton Hunting in West Tennessee to try their hand at what I had been doing for months..hunting with a CVA. 

My youngest son, Alex, and I had, prior to the Oklahoma hunt, set up a new CVA WOLF for him for this trip and he was bound and determined to get his first deer with his very own muzzleloader. With this on his “to – do -list”, our agreement was that he spend time behind the gun on our range until he could show me a good 100 yard 3 shot group. This did not take very long once I got the WOLF bore sighted and on paper for him. His load of choice was 80 grains of Blackhorn 209 and a 270 grain PowerBelt Platinum. His last group was an inch and a quarter group off my Lead Sled. Not bad for his first time behind his own gun!

His first day on stand was the day after Thanksgiving. The movement was pretty good, but the food plot we were posted on was rather large and he did not have anything come within his 100 yard mark. Somewhat disappointed with not getting a deer on his first trip out, but nevertheless, ready to roll the next morning when the alarm went off. This time the wind was right for a much smaller standing corn field that was always good for deer traffic especially since a good frost had fell over night.

As we walked into the field in the black dark we ran deer from the plot. This had him pumped and anxious to put the crosshairs on his first whitetail. Fortunately for me, his time was coming quickly as does started pouring into the field as soon as the sun crested over the pine trees that were to our east. Camera rolling on the 1.5 year old doe that was closing in on our blind, Alex eased his .50 caliber WOLF up onto the window ledge and slowly pulled the hammer back. I’m not sure who was more nervous at that point, but he took a deep breath and so did I when she walked into the 50 yard “danger zone”. Semi-quartering towards us, he leveled the crosshairs on the does shoulder and touched off the muzzleloader. When the smoke cleared there was a doe laying 40 yards from us and a smile on his face that Ajax would not wash off.

Sometimes it is not always the big bucks that leaves you with the most memories!