Vivian Leopold didn’t give much thought when she purchased several $10 Buck Hunt raffle tickets at the LSON Foundation Wild Game Night to help support the foundation. She had no idea her name would be pulled several weeks later on the opening day of deer season as the winner of a trip to the Three Amigos Ranch near Breckenridge.
Despite an impressive hunting resume that included two trips to Africa, she did not have a white-tailed buck for her wall. She set out to change that in late December.
“I was battling a bad cough. I came armed with DayQuil and cough drops hoping I wouldn’t cough in the stand and scare the animals off,” Leopold said. “I hadn’t shot my rifle, a .300 Weatherby Win Mag, since 2013. I’d been on a few elk hunts in Colorado since the last Africa trip but saw nothing to shoot at. I was grateful my aim was still intact for this deer hunt.”
She shot the gun when she got to the ranch on the first day and it was still dead on after all this time. Frank Marino at Three Amigos Ranch met and hosted Leopold. The first day conditions were very windy and warm, and they didn’t see many deer. They saw one nice buck but thought they could do a little bit better.
“Frank Marino, one of the Three Amigos, was my guide and he was very patient with me,” Leopold said. “I passed on the first nice buck that appeared so I would have some basis of comparison.”
The next morning, the group rolled out of the Polaris to a 67-degree morning and clear light winds. The group saw fallow deer, scimitar-horned oryx and whitetails around the blind called “Honey Hole.” A mid-morning drive around the ranch told the hunters many of the deer were bedded in the higher temps, although several big bucks were seen — too big for she to shoot on this hunt. The $10 Buck Hunt raffle was for an 8-point management buck, but Leopold had actually upgraded to the next class of deer.
She practiced getting steady on the sticks and looking through the scope at the giant buck, which contributed to her success later in the hunt. The evening hunt proved to be the successful one. A nice buck appeared in the last 30 minutes of shooting light, and with less than 15 minutes before sunset, Leopold made a perfect shot, downing a great 10-point buck.
“Wow — such hospitality! My hunt was a warm and welcoming experience, from the comfortable ranch house, the fabulous meals to the beauty of the 800-plus acre property with whitetail deer and exotics,” she said. “I was the only hunter at the ranch for my deer hunt mid-December.”
Leopold expressed her gratitude and good fortune making the trip to Dallas for the LSON Foundation event.
“I was very fortunate to win this whitetail hunt at Three Amigos Ranch (and a separate duck hunt at Port Bay Club in Rockport) by attending Lone Star Outdoor News Foundation’s fundraiser and purchasing raffle tickets,” she said. “The event is a chance to mingle with like-minded sportsmen, eat wild game appetizers and have a drink. Whether you win a prize or not, it helps support the Foundation’s mission to provide hunting and fishing opportunities to youth and people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to experience the outdoors. And we need continued generations of outdoorsmen (and women) to ensure our 2nd Amendment rights.”
