Bruce (Archery1st) and I headed to the lease early Friday morning after spending a great Thanksgiving with our families. Bruce was hunting a management deer and I still had a trophy available. The weather forecast called for a wind change early Saturday morning, so I took advantage of some extra time before Friday evening’s hunt to bury a popup blind in the thick brush at the south end of my feed pen.
Friday evening and Saturday morning’s hunts brought plenty of deer sightings but no shooters. The cold front blew in with a vengeance Saturday morning and dictated the new popup for the afternoon hunt. I snuck in and hand corned the popup and waited to see what would happen.
The wind gusts made the deer very spooky but they didn’t seem to pay any attention to the new brush blob at the other end of the pen. Slowly, all the deer worked their way to my hand corn. The coming rut was confirmed by a nice four year old, eleven point chasing a doe in circles inside the pen. As I watched the young bucks and lone doe hit the hand corn, light began to fade and I had about given up on any mature deer showing up. I noticed movement behind the feeding deer and brought the binoculars up to check out the newcomer. I saw big brows and a mature face on a ten point that I did not have on game camera this year. I didn’t have a camera tripod in the new popup but took some quick freehand video as the deer walked toward the hand corn and postured for the other bucks.
Once he turned broadside, I prepared for the shot and drew. I released the Bloodrunner tipped Beman and watched the lighted nock as the arrow hit the deer. He kicked and bolted out of the pen with the arrow sticking out of both sides of his body. The hit looked an inch or two back to me, as I replayed the shot in my mind.
I waited until it was completely dark and snuck out of the popup. I looped away from his direction of flight and slowly made my way back to the truck through the brush. I got Bruce on the phone and we decided to give the deer some time. After dinner, we headed back out and began the track. We picked up the blood trail where the deer left the pen but were discouraged when the blood showed up mixed with guts. At that point we made the decision to back out and try again at first light. Neither one of us liked the looks of the sign and it was plenty cold enough to keep the meat safe.
After a sleepless night for me, we headed back out and picked up the trail. The deer was headed right for the spot where I parked my truck. We found another 125 yards of blood and watery green fluid and then nothing. We searched every hiding place we could find in the direction he was headed. Then we circled back to check for sign other directions. After several hours, we came up empty. With a knot in my stomach, we headed back to camp with little hope.
The ranch owner, David, showed up and told us he thought the deer might be heading to a water trough that I didn’t know about and my hope was renewed. He drove us back out to the water trough and we fanned out and did a grid search around it. Once again we came up empty. I was pretty down as we drove back to the house. David and Bruce tried to cheer me up with a comedy tag team about my shooting skills.
I felt like I owed it to the deer and myself to try everything I could. My buddy, Chance Love, keeps up with the best tracking dogs around central and South Texas. I gave Chance a call and he gave me the names of three trackers that he highly recommended. One of them ended up being too far and after talking to the other two, I decided to bring in Robbie Hurt from Dilley. I was worried the dogs would have trouble since it had been about twenty hours with low humidity and strong north winds.
It took him a little over two hours to get to the ranch and Bruce and I met Robbie and his brother, Richard, at the gate. It was a long ride back to my stand over the rocky terrain. Bruce and I traded stories with the Hurt brothers and quickly realized they were great guys and knew their business.
Once we got back to the stand, Robbie let his two dogs out and they quickly hit the trail. We had last blood marked and they were to the spot in a flash. We stopped there and waited as the dogs sorted things out. Bruce and I watched the two handheld GPS units that tracked to dog's movements. The smaller dog took a strange double back path and Robbie went to check it out. He whistled to us and as we got up to him, he pointed at blood on a rock. The deer had done a near 180 and we were back in business. We followed blood for a hundred yards more and the dogs found the buck. I was ecstatic. The roller coaster stopped. I stepped off and laid hands on my buck.
The Bloodrunner had done its job. It cut big holes on both sides of the deer’s chest. Unfortunately, the shot was an inch low and an inch back passing just behind the heart and just below the lungs. In hindsight, we think the buck may have been standing or lying near where we found last blood and took the crazy new trail when it heard my truck start.
I want to thank Bruce for staying with me all day Sunday, when I know he was sacrificing family time to be there. Also, I would like to strongly recommend Robbie Hurt (830-965-3290) to anyone needing tracking help in the south Texas area. I feel like I just put a valuable new tool in the archery tackle box and made two new friends at the same time.
The deer surprised us. As we watched the short video I had taken before the shot, we put him in the low forties. Most of our mature bucks weigh between 180 and 200 pounds. Oddly, at five and a half years old, he only weighed 120 pounds on the hoof. His size made his rack hard to score in the field. He scored 131.
Friday evening and Saturday morning’s hunts brought plenty of deer sightings but no shooters. The cold front blew in with a vengeance Saturday morning and dictated the new popup for the afternoon hunt. I snuck in and hand corned the popup and waited to see what would happen.
The wind gusts made the deer very spooky but they didn’t seem to pay any attention to the new brush blob at the other end of the pen. Slowly, all the deer worked their way to my hand corn. The coming rut was confirmed by a nice four year old, eleven point chasing a doe in circles inside the pen. As I watched the young bucks and lone doe hit the hand corn, light began to fade and I had about given up on any mature deer showing up. I noticed movement behind the feeding deer and brought the binoculars up to check out the newcomer. I saw big brows and a mature face on a ten point that I did not have on game camera this year. I didn’t have a camera tripod in the new popup but took some quick freehand video as the deer walked toward the hand corn and postured for the other bucks.
Once he turned broadside, I prepared for the shot and drew. I released the Bloodrunner tipped Beman and watched the lighted nock as the arrow hit the deer. He kicked and bolted out of the pen with the arrow sticking out of both sides of his body. The hit looked an inch or two back to me, as I replayed the shot in my mind.
I waited until it was completely dark and snuck out of the popup. I looped away from his direction of flight and slowly made my way back to the truck through the brush. I got Bruce on the phone and we decided to give the deer some time. After dinner, we headed back out and began the track. We picked up the blood trail where the deer left the pen but were discouraged when the blood showed up mixed with guts. At that point we made the decision to back out and try again at first light. Neither one of us liked the looks of the sign and it was plenty cold enough to keep the meat safe.
After a sleepless night for me, we headed back out and picked up the trail. The deer was headed right for the spot where I parked my truck. We found another 125 yards of blood and watery green fluid and then nothing. We searched every hiding place we could find in the direction he was headed. Then we circled back to check for sign other directions. After several hours, we came up empty. With a knot in my stomach, we headed back to camp with little hope.
The ranch owner, David, showed up and told us he thought the deer might be heading to a water trough that I didn’t know about and my hope was renewed. He drove us back out to the water trough and we fanned out and did a grid search around it. Once again we came up empty. I was pretty down as we drove back to the house. David and Bruce tried to cheer me up with a comedy tag team about my shooting skills.
I felt like I owed it to the deer and myself to try everything I could. My buddy, Chance Love, keeps up with the best tracking dogs around central and South Texas. I gave Chance a call and he gave me the names of three trackers that he highly recommended. One of them ended up being too far and after talking to the other two, I decided to bring in Robbie Hurt from Dilley. I was worried the dogs would have trouble since it had been about twenty hours with low humidity and strong north winds.
It took him a little over two hours to get to the ranch and Bruce and I met Robbie and his brother, Richard, at the gate. It was a long ride back to my stand over the rocky terrain. Bruce and I traded stories with the Hurt brothers and quickly realized they were great guys and knew their business.
Once we got back to the stand, Robbie let his two dogs out and they quickly hit the trail. We had last blood marked and they were to the spot in a flash. We stopped there and waited as the dogs sorted things out. Bruce and I watched the two handheld GPS units that tracked to dog's movements. The smaller dog took a strange double back path and Robbie went to check it out. He whistled to us and as we got up to him, he pointed at blood on a rock. The deer had done a near 180 and we were back in business. We followed blood for a hundred yards more and the dogs found the buck. I was ecstatic. The roller coaster stopped. I stepped off and laid hands on my buck.
The Bloodrunner had done its job. It cut big holes on both sides of the deer’s chest. Unfortunately, the shot was an inch low and an inch back passing just behind the heart and just below the lungs. In hindsight, we think the buck may have been standing or lying near where we found last blood and took the crazy new trail when it heard my truck start.
I want to thank Bruce for staying with me all day Sunday, when I know he was sacrificing family time to be there. Also, I would like to strongly recommend Robbie Hurt (830-965-3290) to anyone needing tracking help in the south Texas area. I feel like I just put a valuable new tool in the archery tackle box and made two new friends at the same time.
The deer surprised us. As we watched the short video I had taken before the shot, we put him in the low forties. Most of our mature bucks weigh between 180 and 200 pounds. Oddly, at five and a half years old, he only weighed 120 pounds on the hoof. His size made his rack hard to score in the field. He scored 131.
You guys have all had one heck of a year on your lease. Good job, fellas.
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