This past year I was lucky to find a great lease in Clay county near Bellevue thanks to Keep. Our own very special moderator, Devin and Muley 4 X 4 joined me on thes nice little piece of Texas real estate. After getting things sorted out...camp, feeders, blinds and stands, and enduring a very painful drought, things were looking pretty good on the place with plenty of deer, turkeys and an occasional group of pigs coming through. I started feeding in May and soon realized we had a very healthy coon population that enjoyed our setups. This summer was spent thinning it out a bit with my AR. On one sit this summer, I heard a grunt behind me and a few minutes later I had this big boy on the gorund....
Fast forward to this past weekend. I got in the popup I had put up a few weeks before the season (I built a 7 ft platform and placed my Double Bull Matrix on top). It was a little warm at 4:30, but thanks to some cool beverages and an Amerstep battery powered fan, it was not too bad.
I had a small fork horn show up right before the feeder went off at 5:30. At 5:30 when the feeder went off, he scattered before the first piece of corn hit the ground . A few minutes after 6pm, I had two does work into the pen. They were a little skittish and kept looking back into the woods. They ate, looked up, ate, looked up and then ate some more for a good 20 minutes. Around 6:30, I saw movement on the far side of the pen and quickly grabbed my binos for a better look. Between the trees and bushes I could make out a decent size body and then....Tines...Yes...we have a buck. After about 5 minutes of just standing there, he walked to the left side of the pen. He stopped again, looked around for a few minutes and then walked back to the far side of the pen and stopped. This deer is really testing my patience! He then walked over to the right side of the pen and milled around for another couple of minutes, but would not commit to jumping into the pen with the does.
Finally, he edges to the pen and makes the jump. This is the trail cam pic of the deer right after hitting the inside of the pen and just before the shot.
I grab my Mathews DXT and got ready. He starts feeding...I'm waiting for that front leg to move and then....he gives me the shot....draw....thwack! The ACC lite with a slick trick does the job! This is a pic right about the time he got carbon poisoning
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He does the high kick and is off. I see him stop about 30 yards outside the pen and then walk off. I wait a few mintues but start to worry since its starting to get dark. I give it all of five minutes and get out of the blind. I walk over to where I last saw him, but can't seem to find any blood. I walk a little further in the direction I thought he had gone...still no blood.
I then take a breath and go back to the feeder pen and find a nice bit of red on the ground and my arrow (completly covered in blood). YIPPEE!
From there, I follow a very nice blood trail for about 50-60 yards and there he is.
After some quick texting to Keep & Devin, I had him loaded in my mini truck and it was off to camp for the offical LDP's and a nice adult beverage
Fast forward to this past weekend. I got in the popup I had put up a few weeks before the season (I built a 7 ft platform and placed my Double Bull Matrix on top). It was a little warm at 4:30, but thanks to some cool beverages and an Amerstep battery powered fan, it was not too bad.
I had a small fork horn show up right before the feeder went off at 5:30. At 5:30 when the feeder went off, he scattered before the first piece of corn hit the ground . A few minutes after 6pm, I had two does work into the pen. They were a little skittish and kept looking back into the woods. They ate, looked up, ate, looked up and then ate some more for a good 20 minutes. Around 6:30, I saw movement on the far side of the pen and quickly grabbed my binos for a better look. Between the trees and bushes I could make out a decent size body and then....Tines...Yes...we have a buck. After about 5 minutes of just standing there, he walked to the left side of the pen. He stopped again, looked around for a few minutes and then walked back to the far side of the pen and stopped. This deer is really testing my patience! He then walked over to the right side of the pen and milled around for another couple of minutes, but would not commit to jumping into the pen with the does.
Finally, he edges to the pen and makes the jump. This is the trail cam pic of the deer right after hitting the inside of the pen and just before the shot.
I grab my Mathews DXT and got ready. He starts feeding...I'm waiting for that front leg to move and then....he gives me the shot....draw....thwack! The ACC lite with a slick trick does the job! This is a pic right about the time he got carbon poisoning
. He does the high kick and is off. I see him stop about 30 yards outside the pen and then walk off. I wait a few mintues but start to worry since its starting to get dark. I give it all of five minutes and get out of the blind. I walk over to where I last saw him, but can't seem to find any blood. I walk a little further in the direction I thought he had gone...still no blood.
I then take a breath and go back to the feeder pen and find a nice bit of red on the ground and my arrow (completly covered in blood). YIPPEE!
From there, I follow a very nice blood trail for about 50-60 yards and there he is. After some quick texting to Keep & Devin, I had him loaded in my mini truck and it was off to camp for the offical LDP's and a nice adult beverage
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