This past weekend I had the pleasure of heading south to the western part of McMullen Cnty to Splitarrows families ranch for a weekend of incredible hospitality and unreal whitetails. The plan was to hunt Friday evening, Saturday, and then head home Sunday morning. After showing up on Friday afternoon we spent a little time getting caught up and visiting while looking over and discussing the "hitlist" that Robs parents had put together for the deer that they were wanting killed. About 4:00 we headed out to the blinds. I sat on a small foodplot near a feeder in a Double Bull blind. Although I had every hope of seeing some game for the evening, I never expected to see the number of giant 1,2,&3yr old bucks as I did in Friday afternoons sit. First rattle out of the box (4:45-4:50) and I had two REALLY nice 2yr old bucks go after eachother in the foodplot. They were not 5-6 seconds into the fight when one of their beams broke smooth off. If you have never seen this happen it is pretty amazing. When his beam broke it literally sounded like a .22 rifle going off across the field from me. I watched as the antler flew up into the air and landed a few feet away from the bucks. It scared the bucks more than it scared me as they bolted into the South Texas brush and didn't show their faces again Friday evening. The first picture is the busted up antler as we found it in the field after the hunt was over and the second picture is the antler with all the peices stuck back together as they were pre-fight:
Saturday was spent again in the blind and one of the management bucks and myself played cat and mouse all morning long. Every time he would turn broadside he would have another buck either right behind him or at a slight angle behind him and an injured 2nd buck on a pass through was not something I was willing to take a chance on. Saturday evening hunt rolled around and the buck I had played cat and mouse with all morning was the first one to show himself. I hit record on the camera as I saw him strolling towards me from across the foodplot and he came right in on a string and began feeding. After about 10 minutes he finally turned his attention to another buck coming in across the field giving me the opportunity to get drawn. At 11 yards I put the pin right behind the shoulder and watched the arrow zip through him like he wasn't even there. He jumped into the air and bolted out across the foodplot only to make it about 75 yards before toppling over. He was a 3yr old buck - only had 8 points and was 18" inside. His body was much larger than I expected making his rack look a lot smaller than what I thought he was on the hoof. He must have been a lazy one because he still had dried velvet all over his rack that he had not rubbed off.
Another HUGE thanks to Rob (Splitarrow) and his parents for their hospitality, incredible food, and sharing their top notch Brush Country ranch with me for the weekend.
Saturday was spent again in the blind and one of the management bucks and myself played cat and mouse all morning long. Every time he would turn broadside he would have another buck either right behind him or at a slight angle behind him and an injured 2nd buck on a pass through was not something I was willing to take a chance on. Saturday evening hunt rolled around and the buck I had played cat and mouse with all morning was the first one to show himself. I hit record on the camera as I saw him strolling towards me from across the foodplot and he came right in on a string and began feeding. After about 10 minutes he finally turned his attention to another buck coming in across the field giving me the opportunity to get drawn. At 11 yards I put the pin right behind the shoulder and watched the arrow zip through him like he wasn't even there. He jumped into the air and bolted out across the foodplot only to make it about 75 yards before toppling over. He was a 3yr old buck - only had 8 points and was 18" inside. His body was much larger than I expected making his rack look a lot smaller than what I thought he was on the hoof. He must have been a lazy one because he still had dried velvet all over his rack that he had not rubbed off.
Another HUGE thanks to Rob (Splitarrow) and his parents for their hospitality, incredible food, and sharing their top notch Brush Country ranch with me for the weekend.
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