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South Texas Buck Down

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    South Texas Buck Down

    Back in October 2015 my good friend called and invited me on a hunt his Dad had won at a charity auction. The hunt was to take place in South Texas on a 2000 acre High Fence ranch that was only hunted by a family and their friends. My buddy was after a Hit List Trophy buck and I was after a mature cull. Young doe, javelina, and hogs were also on the menu. I was extremely excited but I also had my reservations about hunting a HF place. I remember thinking, well this is going to be an easy hunt and I’d just go because I need the meat. Deer numbers at our place are terrible and I hadn’t seen a mature deer to shoot in two years. Well the hunt got pushed back to this season because my buddy’s wife was expecting a baby and we didn’t want to risk being out of town if she went into labor. All season we were talking with the Lease manager and determined that we would come down in January. After watching the weather we determined that the hunt would start Friday Jan. 5 and end after the evening hunt on Monday the 9th.

    We hit the road on Thursday afternoon with excitement and enthusiasm running high. An extremely frustrating deer season at our place in the Hill Country and a close encounter with a monster while on a different S. Texas hunt back in December had me foaming at the mouth to get a deer. Once we met the Lease Manager and his wife I knew immediately this was going to be a hunt I would never forget. First off, the LM and his wife were AMAZING people and they lived and breathed bow hunting. I thought I was a fanatic….. These people take the cake! They actually move to and live at the property all hunting season! They are fortunate enough to be able to run their business out of Deer Camp. (How cool is that!!) All of my preconceived notions that this was going to be an easy hunt flew out the window after 5 minutes of talking. Our “target’ bucks had all disappeared and we were left combing through trail camera pictures looking for alternatives. This was not a commercially hunted ranch and it had both native deer as well as young breeder deer. Don’t get me wrong, we did see a lot of Monster 2 and 3 year old deer that acted just like all 2 and 3 year old deer do, they just happened to have 160 – 220 inches of antlers on top of their head. As for 5 year old or older deer – they were ghosts just like all 5 year old deer are. They were we extremely spooky, mostly nocturnal, and just as hard to kill as deer I’ve hunted at my own place. The deer I killed as well as the deer my buddy got had been hunted hard all season by countless other hunters but neither had given other hunters shot opportunities and sightings had been few and far between. One of the deer I was hunting was an 8 year old doe with a red tag in her ear. The property owner had released her 8 years ago as a one year old. The lease manager had never seen her before and he has leased the place for 5 full years. Not once had she been seen in person or on camera in the last 5 years, he had no clue she was even on the property. They run 20 + cameras 365 days a year, do helicopter surveys, etc etc etc, you’d think it was impossible but it’s not. I’m not looking to debate how small is too small or how big a place has to be so that shooting a deer has the same difficulty as at a low fence place. All I do know is this was not an easy hunt and 2000 acres is plenty big enough to where hunting a mature deer is just as hard as trying to shoot a mature on a Low fence place. (I consider a deer mature at 5 years old +) One thing I would say is I think killing a mature deer in South Texas is slightly easier than shooting a mature deer in the Hill Country only because of the topography. That is the only difference in my opinion. Playing the wind is easier where the land is flat. The canyons I hunt in the Hill Country never have a consistent wind. You have to be on the highest ridge to have any consistent wind and by the time you get there you’ve already scared everything off because of all the noise you made clanging and tripping over rocks trying to get there. Not to mention God seemed to have built all the bedding areas on the northern side of every canyon. LOL

    Friday’s hunts were relatively slow with only young bucks, mature doe, and nubbin bucks being seen. We hunted numerous blinds but nothing we were after showed themselves. Saturday morning I was moved to an elevated Krivoman blind on the edge of a low area with a small creek. I had brought a very short chair with me and my 58in limbs so that limb clearance would be less of an issue. Luckily the plan paid off and I was able to hunt without any worry of clearance issues. No one had ever trad hunted the place so blind height was never an issue. I had been practicing from my short chair all week so my confidence was high. Saturday morning was cold and movement again was slow, I only saw 2 young deer.

    Saturday afternoon I climbed into the same Krivoman blind and the hunt started extremely slow, it wasn’t until 5pm that I saw my first deer, a young 2 yr old 7 point the LM said I should pass. Come 5:30 things really started turning on. A young 10 filtered in as well as a 3 yr old doe. I was starting to get excited. At about 5:45 one of my target bucks appeared from my left, it’s the broken brow 8! (the biggest deer on my Hit List!) Now starts the shaking and fumbling around to get ready for a shot. Before the buck ever gets within range I’m totally ready to go and the camera is recording. Then the pain starts. For 22 minutes I sit and wait for the buck to give me a broadside shot that wasn’t obstructed by something. I had half drawn my bow 3 different times anticipating a shot opportunity but he would turn or move and something was always in the way!!! All this time it’s getting darker, and darker, and I’m getting scared this opportunity is slipping away. Now it’s just after 6 o’clock and a new 4.5 yr old 12pt comes walking in and my 8 point starts to walk away….. my heart drops and hits the bottom of the blind. Then all of a sudden he turns back and comes back in from the left side. At this point I have the young 7, a young 10, a doe, and the 12 all around the feeder. Light is fading fast and I’ve got maybe 5 minutes to make a shot. The 8 keeps moving forward…… he’s broadside!!!!!!!!!! Deer are behind him, deer are beside him…….AHHHHHHHHHHHH……… I Can’t shoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 12 clears……… the doe clears…… the 7 clears…… I draw I shoot and watch as my arrow absolutely SMOKES the biggest deer I had ever shot at with any weapon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m freaking out, it’s getting pretty dark, did it hit where I thought???? Then I hear that sound, the only sound that can calm a bowhunter……….the CRASH! Not 8 seconds after impact I hear the deer crash about 70 yards from the hit. I’m shaking, I’m freaking out, I grab the camera to review the shot. It’s perfect!!! I aced him!!

    I scramble to pack everything up and start coming up with a sob story to tell my buddy and the LM, how I messed up and made a bad shot. They pull up and I start flashing my light so they would cut off the truck, making them think I had a wounded deer close by and the noise would spook it. I toss the camera to my buddy and tell them we need to call a dog guy. They start watching the video and I fast forward to the shot. I keep telling them to watch the hind quarter. The shot comes and they look at me….. “That’s a good shot …That’s a great Shot”…. I look back and say “I know I heard him crash”. Total pandemonium breaks out and we are all celebrating. We quickly and easily track the deer all the while laughing about how I had “got” them so good. I knew the buck was a good one before I made the shot but I was still amazed at how good he was when I finally put my hands on him. A true mature Trophy regardless if he is technically a Cull.

    The best thing about being the only Trad hunter in camp is everyone is rooting for you. Everyone wanted to see the “Trad guy” get something and I did! And I ACED the shot!! It was an unbelievable hunt filled with everything you want in a hunt! I love this game!

    Palmer Trad Slam Recurve 50lbs at 27"
    Easton Axis 400 spine arrows with Palmer Extreme Cut Broadheads 160 grains

    Video: https://youtu.be/9I_BqwFLzNY
    Attached Files
    Last edited by ballgame; 01-11-2017, 03:47 PM.

    #2
    Heck of a buck and good story! Congrats! Nice mass!

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      #3
      Good on you, Bob. You put it right in the pump room.

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        #4
        Great story and writeup Bob!Congrats!

        Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

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          #5
          Super. Thanks for the story

          Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

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            #6
            Nice one. COngrats!!!!!


            Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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              #7
              Congrats!

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                #8
                Thats a great story and great buck!
                And way to go to get the shot on video..........that aint easy!
                Last edited by Hunter Todd; 01-11-2017, 04:53 PM.

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                  #9
                  Congrats!

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                    #10
                    Beautiful buck. Congrats

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                      #11
                      Great story and a FINE deer!!

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                        #12
                        Good Stuff Bobby! Congrats

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                          #13
                          Awesome video BTW. They always say that 2 minutes seems like half an hour to the hunter

                          Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by SwampRabbit View Post
                            Awesome video BTW. They always say that 2 minutes seems like half an hour to the hunter

                            Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
                            Totally agree, I trimmed exactly 20 minutes of footage before the start of the video I posted. In that 20 minutes I had zero ethical shot opportunities.

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                              #15
                              Heck of a nice deer. Congratulations on a great shot.

                              Gary

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