In the fall of 2015 I was a second-year member of a low fence lease made up of roughly 22 member units which included 44 blind locations dispersed across 14,500 acres of Webb County brush country, yes that comes out to one blind per roughly 330 acres...the same setup in Maverick County would include half the member units and half the blinds but the price was reasonable and the country had the history and genetics so I gave it a shot.
I had read countless stories about the deer potential of the Golden Triangle of South Texas and the Boone and Crockett records supported the myth that if you wanted a giant in Texas your best odds were in the Golden Triangle. My first year was slow, I picked up two blind locations in what you would definitely call "New Guy" spots. One was next to a massive pump transfer station with flaring gas, high-pressure valves releasing at random, and 5 massive compressors, nonetheless it had a wet weather creek and an adjacent tank so I rolled with it. Picture of this blind area- https://ibb.co/hC7P5w The other spot was in the corner of the ranch that bordered two different pastures, both under the same biologist as ours, made up of a different ranch and a different camp from our same ranch. I called this area the pear flat, and the name said it, low brush mixed with open areas of alkaline stricken soil with exposed rocks and harsh weeds and prickly pear cactus. Picture of pear flat blind area- https://ibb.co/dnKyXb The members helping me get settled were the infamous Hammond brothers, Matt and Jimmie Hammond now members of the Holden Pasture, who to their credit told me that as ugly as the pear flat area looked compared to the lush bull mesquites of the adjacent areas the ranch biologist was adamant that it held deer. Essentially every year the ranch biologist would fly it and jump up not only deer but big deer, that was enough for me to give it a shot.
The first year there it yielded nothing of age or size to call a trophy, and I focused on establishing a solid feed program and aggressively harvesting culls. The second year in the summer of 2015 I first noticed a 5yo buck that looked like he had potential, as he was developing he was a fairly normal mainframe 10pt, however, I first remember thinking he had better than average brow tines and what stood out the most were kickers or hooks that came off of each of his G2s. I named the deer Ganchos which in English translates to Hooks and immediately submitted him to the no shoot list. Pic of 5yo Ganchos https://ibb.co/dq695w In communicating with adjacent blinds I was able to get a feel for the range of the deer and that December my brother in law captured video of him during the rut. Video- https://youtu.be/oaiemJLq8bI That was the only encounter we had with the deer that year. In fairness, I had given the blind limited action because it was part of the range of a large typical 11pt, 177" that I killed in early December that year, so I logged few sits until it was time to pursue trophy deer then basically moved my focus to other areas. Fast forward now to Spring of 2016 its March and deer are starting to drop sheds, and low and behold Ganchos drops one of his sheds in the protein pen. I snag it up and measure it out, pull some pics, and to my surprise, he actually scored roughly 155" at 5yo, I knew he was a nice buck but that amplified the effect.
Fast forward into summer and fall 2016, I have a deer on camera that is growing some incredible horns but in the early stages of velvet I have no idea who this deer is, honestly the rack was so bizarre that it wasn't until just before he went hard horned that I connected the dots and realized it was Ganchos. He had 14 points of the main frame and kickers and a huge browtine. By my estimates, he was now somewhere between 180 and 190 inches. Pic of Ganchos at 6yo https://ibb.co/ipsXQw In the transition from 2015 to the 2016 season, the adjacent 4000-acre pasture came up available, having some friction in my large camp I sought to get the lease on the land and was aggressively trying to lock it down when some personal friends of the ranch owner spoke up and were given preference. I was able to meet the new hunters and they literally were all that you could ever hope or ask for in a shared fence neighbor, they wanted to grow big deer, they were open to communication, they only had four hunters, and they fed well. The flipside is they were salty hunters who understood deer and had killed big deer so they represented real but respectable competition. Well to amplify this situation they kicked up Ganchos on the edge of their pasture during their early fall helicopter survey, pic https://ibb.co/eXyBJG along with another deer that was my target 7.5yo for that season. Pic https://ibb.co/fzH5dG The pics were passed onto me from the lease manager and I immediately responded to the ranch biologist the ages of the deer and specified to please convey that I wanted Ganchos no shoot listed for another season. It was a tough pill to swallow, the adjacent pasture that I wasn't able to lease now has this deer ranging on it...this only made me want this deer even more. Fast forward to December of that year and I am sitting in the pear flat in the rut and out walks Ganchos, I put my scope on him and take a few slow breaths, he is a sight to behold but I no shoot listed him, this didn't mean I couldn't kill him, it just meant killing him was the end of my time on the ranch. I soaked it in and pulled the gun down, he was incredible but i wasn't prepared to kill a deer that clearly wasn't older than 6 and had real potential to hit 200". Now in the background of my mind are the many many folks who have done what I just did only to have another member shoot it, or the deer die, or they shoot it and it's underaged and underscores...I couldn't live with shooting him too young especially given he wasn't done. So that would be my only encounter with him at 6yo. He would in the following weeks make several appearances across the fence but ultimately survived the season.
Now the final chapter summer 2017 I pull my cards and there hs is, except he is throwing a more typical frame than the last year, this year 12 primary points but then about midway through the growing period he starts throwing junk, I mean like good junk. Pic- https://ibb.co/muiHsb His proportions have changed and his body now showing the graceful aging of an Alpha South Texas buck, pot belly and stiffening stride in his step, all the same, he is the king of the feed pen at all times and for obvious reasons. In the interim of the 2016 and 2017 season, I notice my adjacent neighbors have moved not 1 but 2 blinds to the area immediately across the fence from me and another one 1000 yards down from it, in total giving them 3 blind locations all along the same fence in the range of Ganchos. Now I will say that given the opportunity I may have done the same but it all served as fuel for the fire for me, keeping the pens secure from hogs, cows, and raccoons, making sure I always had a protein source available be it pellets or cottonseed, I never let the site go without at least one of those knowing that feed kills. With the season fast approaching its obvious Ganchos has reached some new magnificent level, pic https://ibb.co/ioPqCb (so much so that to keep myself calm I only estimated him around 190, simply assuming conservative numbers. Again the neighbors jump him on the helicopter survey again on the fence, this is disheartening, a sharp reminder that we are hunting low fence deer. To further this misery Ganchos shows up in the summer on camera two full pastures away which I discover on a thread on TBH.
The last step in this journey is hunting season 2017, my pasture per ranch rules must kill 48 does and 14 culls before we can hunt trophies, the adjacent pasture needs to kill 4 culls and 12 does...this was rough news I just knew they would get the jump on me so to combat this I went full jihad on the does and culls killing 20+ deer in the sweltering heat of early October. On Sunday, October 29th we completed the quota, the adjacent pasture had not completed theirs, it was a miracle, and within 48 hours of starting our trophy season on the tail of a rogue front that triggered a one-day north wind I saw and shot Ganchos. I had rested the stand location leading up to this and like clockwork, he came out at 125 yards and I was able to place the 100 grain .257 Weatherby in the high shoulder spine region resulting in an immediate kill. I was in shock, I had seen this deer with my own eyes one time in 3 years he had been on camera non-stop but almost always on a random timing schedule and usually at night. As I approached the deer I had many apprehensions, was he going to be broken up? Was he going to less than I imagined? In reality, he was bigger in every category that I had estimated and it started to sink in that he could hit 200". Pic from field https://ibb.co/meQSQw I get him to camp, I score him and I purposely score him very conservatively and to my disbelief, I get 205 5/8'...It had been surreal up until that moment but when I inked the score he sunk in hard, the years of hard work, the stress of hunters who were not even there in the beginning getting a swing at him, the few of him getting busted up, having him at 190 in my scope the year before being by far the biggest whitetail I have ever had in my scope and to pass him gambling that he would go 200" and it all came true. I put him in the cooler, get some field pics then head for Los Cazadores to get him scored for the contest, the owner of the store graciously lets me arrive after they have closed and proceeds to score him, he takes his time, he isn't fudging anything I watch and discuss every measure. At the end he inputs the numbers into a spreadsheet and then asks me what I had him at, I cautiously tell him over 200" he squints and says he is only getting 189', my heart sinks, not that I wouldn't be proud but how could I have botched this, then he chuckles, "I forgot to link the cells, hold on" he types a few strokes making sure to include all the non-typical points he then double checks it and says "208 4/8th"...I went from feeling like an idiot who botched his own score to overwhelmed because, in reality, it was bigger than I had scored. I thank him and leave humbled and grateful, the buck has less than 5" of deductions B&C off the mainframe, it is very likely going to make All time B&C Book Certification for Non-Typical. it is the deer of my dreams the deer of a lifetime and I respectfully share it with you.
I had read countless stories about the deer potential of the Golden Triangle of South Texas and the Boone and Crockett records supported the myth that if you wanted a giant in Texas your best odds were in the Golden Triangle. My first year was slow, I picked up two blind locations in what you would definitely call "New Guy" spots. One was next to a massive pump transfer station with flaring gas, high-pressure valves releasing at random, and 5 massive compressors, nonetheless it had a wet weather creek and an adjacent tank so I rolled with it. Picture of this blind area- https://ibb.co/hC7P5w The other spot was in the corner of the ranch that bordered two different pastures, both under the same biologist as ours, made up of a different ranch and a different camp from our same ranch. I called this area the pear flat, and the name said it, low brush mixed with open areas of alkaline stricken soil with exposed rocks and harsh weeds and prickly pear cactus. Picture of pear flat blind area- https://ibb.co/dnKyXb The members helping me get settled were the infamous Hammond brothers, Matt and Jimmie Hammond now members of the Holden Pasture, who to their credit told me that as ugly as the pear flat area looked compared to the lush bull mesquites of the adjacent areas the ranch biologist was adamant that it held deer. Essentially every year the ranch biologist would fly it and jump up not only deer but big deer, that was enough for me to give it a shot.
The first year there it yielded nothing of age or size to call a trophy, and I focused on establishing a solid feed program and aggressively harvesting culls. The second year in the summer of 2015 I first noticed a 5yo buck that looked like he had potential, as he was developing he was a fairly normal mainframe 10pt, however, I first remember thinking he had better than average brow tines and what stood out the most were kickers or hooks that came off of each of his G2s. I named the deer Ganchos which in English translates to Hooks and immediately submitted him to the no shoot list. Pic of 5yo Ganchos https://ibb.co/dq695w In communicating with adjacent blinds I was able to get a feel for the range of the deer and that December my brother in law captured video of him during the rut. Video- https://youtu.be/oaiemJLq8bI That was the only encounter we had with the deer that year. In fairness, I had given the blind limited action because it was part of the range of a large typical 11pt, 177" that I killed in early December that year, so I logged few sits until it was time to pursue trophy deer then basically moved my focus to other areas. Fast forward now to Spring of 2016 its March and deer are starting to drop sheds, and low and behold Ganchos drops one of his sheds in the protein pen. I snag it up and measure it out, pull some pics, and to my surprise, he actually scored roughly 155" at 5yo, I knew he was a nice buck but that amplified the effect.
Fast forward into summer and fall 2016, I have a deer on camera that is growing some incredible horns but in the early stages of velvet I have no idea who this deer is, honestly the rack was so bizarre that it wasn't until just before he went hard horned that I connected the dots and realized it was Ganchos. He had 14 points of the main frame and kickers and a huge browtine. By my estimates, he was now somewhere between 180 and 190 inches. Pic of Ganchos at 6yo https://ibb.co/ipsXQw In the transition from 2015 to the 2016 season, the adjacent 4000-acre pasture came up available, having some friction in my large camp I sought to get the lease on the land and was aggressively trying to lock it down when some personal friends of the ranch owner spoke up and were given preference. I was able to meet the new hunters and they literally were all that you could ever hope or ask for in a shared fence neighbor, they wanted to grow big deer, they were open to communication, they only had four hunters, and they fed well. The flipside is they were salty hunters who understood deer and had killed big deer so they represented real but respectable competition. Well to amplify this situation they kicked up Ganchos on the edge of their pasture during their early fall helicopter survey, pic https://ibb.co/eXyBJG along with another deer that was my target 7.5yo for that season. Pic https://ibb.co/fzH5dG The pics were passed onto me from the lease manager and I immediately responded to the ranch biologist the ages of the deer and specified to please convey that I wanted Ganchos no shoot listed for another season. It was a tough pill to swallow, the adjacent pasture that I wasn't able to lease now has this deer ranging on it...this only made me want this deer even more. Fast forward to December of that year and I am sitting in the pear flat in the rut and out walks Ganchos, I put my scope on him and take a few slow breaths, he is a sight to behold but I no shoot listed him, this didn't mean I couldn't kill him, it just meant killing him was the end of my time on the ranch. I soaked it in and pulled the gun down, he was incredible but i wasn't prepared to kill a deer that clearly wasn't older than 6 and had real potential to hit 200". Now in the background of my mind are the many many folks who have done what I just did only to have another member shoot it, or the deer die, or they shoot it and it's underaged and underscores...I couldn't live with shooting him too young especially given he wasn't done. So that would be my only encounter with him at 6yo. He would in the following weeks make several appearances across the fence but ultimately survived the season.
Now the final chapter summer 2017 I pull my cards and there hs is, except he is throwing a more typical frame than the last year, this year 12 primary points but then about midway through the growing period he starts throwing junk, I mean like good junk. Pic- https://ibb.co/muiHsb His proportions have changed and his body now showing the graceful aging of an Alpha South Texas buck, pot belly and stiffening stride in his step, all the same, he is the king of the feed pen at all times and for obvious reasons. In the interim of the 2016 and 2017 season, I notice my adjacent neighbors have moved not 1 but 2 blinds to the area immediately across the fence from me and another one 1000 yards down from it, in total giving them 3 blind locations all along the same fence in the range of Ganchos. Now I will say that given the opportunity I may have done the same but it all served as fuel for the fire for me, keeping the pens secure from hogs, cows, and raccoons, making sure I always had a protein source available be it pellets or cottonseed, I never let the site go without at least one of those knowing that feed kills. With the season fast approaching its obvious Ganchos has reached some new magnificent level, pic https://ibb.co/ioPqCb (so much so that to keep myself calm I only estimated him around 190, simply assuming conservative numbers. Again the neighbors jump him on the helicopter survey again on the fence, this is disheartening, a sharp reminder that we are hunting low fence deer. To further this misery Ganchos shows up in the summer on camera two full pastures away which I discover on a thread on TBH.
The last step in this journey is hunting season 2017, my pasture per ranch rules must kill 48 does and 14 culls before we can hunt trophies, the adjacent pasture needs to kill 4 culls and 12 does...this was rough news I just knew they would get the jump on me so to combat this I went full jihad on the does and culls killing 20+ deer in the sweltering heat of early October. On Sunday, October 29th we completed the quota, the adjacent pasture had not completed theirs, it was a miracle, and within 48 hours of starting our trophy season on the tail of a rogue front that triggered a one-day north wind I saw and shot Ganchos. I had rested the stand location leading up to this and like clockwork, he came out at 125 yards and I was able to place the 100 grain .257 Weatherby in the high shoulder spine region resulting in an immediate kill. I was in shock, I had seen this deer with my own eyes one time in 3 years he had been on camera non-stop but almost always on a random timing schedule and usually at night. As I approached the deer I had many apprehensions, was he going to be broken up? Was he going to less than I imagined? In reality, he was bigger in every category that I had estimated and it started to sink in that he could hit 200". Pic from field https://ibb.co/meQSQw I get him to camp, I score him and I purposely score him very conservatively and to my disbelief, I get 205 5/8'...It had been surreal up until that moment but when I inked the score he sunk in hard, the years of hard work, the stress of hunters who were not even there in the beginning getting a swing at him, the few of him getting busted up, having him at 190 in my scope the year before being by far the biggest whitetail I have ever had in my scope and to pass him gambling that he would go 200" and it all came true. I put him in the cooler, get some field pics then head for Los Cazadores to get him scored for the contest, the owner of the store graciously lets me arrive after they have closed and proceeds to score him, he takes his time, he isn't fudging anything I watch and discuss every measure. At the end he inputs the numbers into a spreadsheet and then asks me what I had him at, I cautiously tell him over 200" he squints and says he is only getting 189', my heart sinks, not that I wouldn't be proud but how could I have botched this, then he chuckles, "I forgot to link the cells, hold on" he types a few strokes making sure to include all the non-typical points he then double checks it and says "208 4/8th"...I went from feeling like an idiot who botched his own score to overwhelmed because, in reality, it was bigger than I had scored. I thank him and leave humbled and grateful, the buck has less than 5" of deductions B&C off the mainframe, it is very likely going to make All time B&C Book Certification for Non-Typical. it is the deer of my dreams the deer of a lifetime and I respectfully share it with you.
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