This year's season has been a wild and uncharacteristically productive hunting season. I opened up the season with my first mature etx bow buck which has eluded me my entire hunting career. The feeling of achievement to get this buck down exceeds anything I've experience in my hunting career. I walked around with a permagrin for hours which was caught on Covert cam by a lease member 
Then I was invited out for a hunt not knowing what type of deer I was going to be able to shoot. I just knew it was a top notch ranch. This hunt far exceeded my expectations and I was lucky enough to land my biggest buck to date, 147" even. He was a monster of a buck weighing over 235# and dressed weight of 206#. I was completely over the moon with shooting this deer. He was big framed 9pt that was an absolute bruiser. I hunted hard for 4 days straight with not much action and then the deer just started pouring in the last morning. I might have been in the stand a full 30min. Absolute awesome hunt with some great people. Kudos to my bil for that opportunity. I cant wait to see how he turns out from the taxi.
Now finally the main course. For back story, a group of good friends all decided that we would take on a new hunting challenge in Mexico. Only one of us had any experience south of the border, but what is life without challenges and potential life threatening scenarios. Count me in. Well the first season was absolutely terrible. It's honestly hard to explain type terrible. We had a lot of fun but the hunting was again, TERRIBLE.
That season ended and we got a new ranch to give it one last chance. This ranch is more in line with what we expected and are very pleased with it. Last season I shot a 129" deer with my bow, then turned around and shot a 7.5 buck that went around 114" to close out my season in the first week of January. We had bigger buck on cam but Im trigger happy. Boy was that a mistake..... Lease members showed up 2 weeks later for a quick random hunt and checked my cam. An absolute Beast of a buck showed up earlier that week and it looked like he would break 160". I was shocked at the size of this deer. He was the biggest deer we had ever got on cam. This summer rolls around and he was nowhere to be found on game cams, same as last season. Then out of nowhere he pops up in October. Body size and rack were both down from the year before but he was still a Beast. No more kickers and less mass but still had his massive frame. He bounced again before season only to show up randomly the hunt after I left the ranch in mid-December. He stayed for a few days and then poof, gone again. At this point I had promised everyone on the lease that it was Beast or bust this season so the game had begun. After Christmas my family was hit with the Kung-Flu. Some are still fighting it actually but I was in quarantine for the new years and my hunting trip planned with approved vacation looked bleak. By a miracle, everyone got Covid except for me at our last Christmas. I tested negative and bolted the next day for Mexico.
We get to the lease and my spot is dead. Literally a few does and a spike. A new big big buck showed up and so I went after him at another persons spot on day 3 of our trip. Another dumb mistake. Beast decided to show back up that morning and my lease mates sent me pics and video over the next 1.5hrs which made my stomach hurt. That evening I was geared up and back in my stand hoping for a chance. The hunt started slow and then 2 does moved in towards the pen. As I look left I catch movement and boom, there he is!! I did everything possible not to look at his rack. He gets into the feed pen at 35yds and I am ready. I draw back with ease and then he catches movement. We pause for a short bit and then I release my arrow.
This is where confusion sets in; my arrow goes low and forward. I'm furious and completely unsure what just happened. He runs off to my right out of sight. I look things over and there is the issue, I shot through the bottom of my popup window
. As get more frustrated my buddy taps me and tells me to shut up and be still. Beast is coming back into the pen. I knock another arrow and he preps the gun in case he bails. Beast does a loop and starts to enter the pen from the back side. Then he stops and hangs up at 50yds literally straddling my previously shot arrow. The knockturnal is fully lit between his legs. We do the stare at the pen dance for what seems like 15min and I finally told myself; just end the suspense and shoot the biggest deer of your life. I grab my .270 and drop him in his tracks. Sorry for bailing on the bow but a deer like this called for extreme measures. Final tape we got on him was 153-5/8". It's still surreal that i shot a 150" class deer.
The best part of this is that when I brought the antlers home, my 3yr old daughter just couldn't get enough of this deer. She literally carried it with her around the house, to the bathroom, on the couch to watch tv with her, and then finally through a fit to allow her to sleep with "my deer", which I obliged. Quite honestly it made me proud. I may have a future huntress on my hands. Enjoy the pics and thanks for reading. I needed a break from work.
Then I was invited out for a hunt not knowing what type of deer I was going to be able to shoot. I just knew it was a top notch ranch. This hunt far exceeded my expectations and I was lucky enough to land my biggest buck to date, 147" even. He was a monster of a buck weighing over 235# and dressed weight of 206#. I was completely over the moon with shooting this deer. He was big framed 9pt that was an absolute bruiser. I hunted hard for 4 days straight with not much action and then the deer just started pouring in the last morning. I might have been in the stand a full 30min. Absolute awesome hunt with some great people. Kudos to my bil for that opportunity. I cant wait to see how he turns out from the taxi.
Now finally the main course. For back story, a group of good friends all decided that we would take on a new hunting challenge in Mexico. Only one of us had any experience south of the border, but what is life without challenges and potential life threatening scenarios. Count me in. Well the first season was absolutely terrible. It's honestly hard to explain type terrible. We had a lot of fun but the hunting was again, TERRIBLE.
That season ended and we got a new ranch to give it one last chance. This ranch is more in line with what we expected and are very pleased with it. Last season I shot a 129" deer with my bow, then turned around and shot a 7.5 buck that went around 114" to close out my season in the first week of January. We had bigger buck on cam but Im trigger happy. Boy was that a mistake..... Lease members showed up 2 weeks later for a quick random hunt and checked my cam. An absolute Beast of a buck showed up earlier that week and it looked like he would break 160". I was shocked at the size of this deer. He was the biggest deer we had ever got on cam. This summer rolls around and he was nowhere to be found on game cams, same as last season. Then out of nowhere he pops up in October. Body size and rack were both down from the year before but he was still a Beast. No more kickers and less mass but still had his massive frame. He bounced again before season only to show up randomly the hunt after I left the ranch in mid-December. He stayed for a few days and then poof, gone again. At this point I had promised everyone on the lease that it was Beast or bust this season so the game had begun. After Christmas my family was hit with the Kung-Flu. Some are still fighting it actually but I was in quarantine for the new years and my hunting trip planned with approved vacation looked bleak. By a miracle, everyone got Covid except for me at our last Christmas. I tested negative and bolted the next day for Mexico.
We get to the lease and my spot is dead. Literally a few does and a spike. A new big big buck showed up and so I went after him at another persons spot on day 3 of our trip. Another dumb mistake. Beast decided to show back up that morning and my lease mates sent me pics and video over the next 1.5hrs which made my stomach hurt. That evening I was geared up and back in my stand hoping for a chance. The hunt started slow and then 2 does moved in towards the pen. As I look left I catch movement and boom, there he is!! I did everything possible not to look at his rack. He gets into the feed pen at 35yds and I am ready. I draw back with ease and then he catches movement. We pause for a short bit and then I release my arrow.
This is where confusion sets in; my arrow goes low and forward. I'm furious and completely unsure what just happened. He runs off to my right out of sight. I look things over and there is the issue, I shot through the bottom of my popup window
. As get more frustrated my buddy taps me and tells me to shut up and be still. Beast is coming back into the pen. I knock another arrow and he preps the gun in case he bails. Beast does a loop and starts to enter the pen from the back side. Then he stops and hangs up at 50yds literally straddling my previously shot arrow. The knockturnal is fully lit between his legs. We do the stare at the pen dance for what seems like 15min and I finally told myself; just end the suspense and shoot the biggest deer of your life. I grab my .270 and drop him in his tracks. Sorry for bailing on the bow but a deer like this called for extreme measures. Final tape we got on him was 153-5/8". It's still surreal that i shot a 150" class deer. The best part of this is that when I brought the antlers home, my 3yr old daughter just couldn't get enough of this deer. She literally carried it with her around the house, to the bathroom, on the couch to watch tv with her, and then finally through a fit to allow her to sleep with "my deer", which I obliged. Quite honestly it made me proud. I may have a future huntress on my hands. Enjoy the pics and thanks for reading. I needed a break from work
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