Was able to spend the weekend with My son Hunter who came home from College. I cherish this time since he has been gone for 2 months. No better place to spend quality time then at the ranch.
Little back story on the deer. In 2016 I shot and posted on here a deer we called Warhorse. In that video was a young clean 10 point that was very pretty for his age. So we named him Pretty boy. He is a pretty regular deer. We see him on Cams all the time so we know him well. We thought he was prob a 3 year old in that video in 2016, So that would make him a 7 year old this year.
I was up for big deer this year on the ranch and I set my sites on Pretty boy. All his life he has been at 1 feeder. Then 2 weeks before hunting him he moved. Not sure why other than maybe some more dominant deer pushed him off. He moved to one of our other spots that is not super easy to hunt. It is in the middle of the ranch and in an open area where pinch points of trees meet. So getting in and out is tuff. So it is best as a drop off spot. My lease Partner dropped me off 2 weeks ago when we had a N wind for an evening. Pretty boy showed and I watched him for over an hour. He was in the pen with about 10 other bucks. He is a spectacular deer. Big Frame, Kicker, spread etc.. I am not sure if I just had to much history with him, or since the fact I have a couple other deer that look just like him on the wall, but I did not get excited at all. I enjoyed watching him, but never even thought about shooting him. It was at that moment that I decided to let my son Hunter shoot my deer for the year.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Son and me hit the ranch Friday midday since he does not have any classes on Friday. The wind is not going to be great where Pretty boy is hanging out. Really need a north wind to hunt this spot. But we have a SE wind. This is the only spot on the ranch where the blind is actually on the east side of the pen. All the rest are set on West and can hunt most winds. But since the deer come from a certain direction, there was no where to set a West Setup. So instead of both of us trying to beat the wind, I send him in Solo with Ozonics and instructions to only open 1 window.
His wind is blowing from his left to front right. Wind is cutting the edge of the feeder pen. But with the Ozonics we have made it work before. He texted me and said there was a ton of deer staging out away from feeder but none were Pretty boy. We know where Pretty boy beds so I knew the hard part was going to be getting PB through Hunters Wind cone. He comes in from behind blind on the right. Which means Hunters wind is blowing across his path. Now Hunter is in an elevated Krivoman Tower so that helps a little.
After feeder throws the normal young deer barrel in without a care. Then the older dudes start showing up. Couple 8 year old deer are hanging up and acting weird. They would walk in downwind, Raise there nose, then turn around and walk away. then they would repeat this step 3 or 4 times before they finally came in. My guess is PB was watching this from Behind Hunter out of view. Once they committed, he came in. As soon as he hit the wind Cone he did the same thing. Backed out and walked around an just stood there for 15 minutes. He finally Jumped in Pen but was very nervous, He then jumped out and walked off without giving him a shot. There were probably 15 or so deer in Pen so it was a good hunt.
The next morning I dropped him in there about an hour before feeder goes off. Told him to keep everything shut up tight until 15 min before Feeder throws. I get a text that all the normal big bucks are in. Then I get the text that says "He is here.. " I text back saying stay calm, make sure video is running and just let him get calm and in the perfect position. Then I do not text anymore. Don't want to ruin any chances.
About 10 minutes go by and I get a text that said Shot may have been a little low, but arrows is covered in Blood. That is when I started Shaking. I was not even in the blind and Was getting buck fever. He closed the window and called me. He said the deer jumped out of pen and ran to the left up a hillside then turned and left out of site behind a large live oak. He said what was weird is that all the deer keep walking that way and staring, then getting nervous and walking off. Then they would go back and look again. I had a good idea he was laying there just out of his view. The blind is elevated up inside a large Live oak so you can not see a long ways to left.
By this time the deer are back in feeder pen. I drive up to about 200 yards from pen where they can see me and they run off. I tell him to get out and use his Bino's from ground. I am watching him exit blind with my bino's and he hits the ground, pulls glass up, then puts glass down and pics up Cell phone. Dad, He is laying right there. Not 50 yards from pen. Just about 10 yards out of view from blind.
I was so proud of how he handles himself. He did say he could not understand how his heart was so loud in the blind. Said that is all he could hear in blind. Thought something was wrong.
Anyway, here he is. A fantastic Hill country buck. Age and feed can do wonders for deer no matter their location. Feel very blessed to be on this place and have the deer we have.
Little back story on the deer. In 2016 I shot and posted on here a deer we called Warhorse. In that video was a young clean 10 point that was very pretty for his age. So we named him Pretty boy. He is a pretty regular deer. We see him on Cams all the time so we know him well. We thought he was prob a 3 year old in that video in 2016, So that would make him a 7 year old this year.
I was up for big deer this year on the ranch and I set my sites on Pretty boy. All his life he has been at 1 feeder. Then 2 weeks before hunting him he moved. Not sure why other than maybe some more dominant deer pushed him off. He moved to one of our other spots that is not super easy to hunt. It is in the middle of the ranch and in an open area where pinch points of trees meet. So getting in and out is tuff. So it is best as a drop off spot. My lease Partner dropped me off 2 weeks ago when we had a N wind for an evening. Pretty boy showed and I watched him for over an hour. He was in the pen with about 10 other bucks. He is a spectacular deer. Big Frame, Kicker, spread etc.. I am not sure if I just had to much history with him, or since the fact I have a couple other deer that look just like him on the wall, but I did not get excited at all. I enjoyed watching him, but never even thought about shooting him. It was at that moment that I decided to let my son Hunter shoot my deer for the year.
Fast forward to this past weekend. Son and me hit the ranch Friday midday since he does not have any classes on Friday. The wind is not going to be great where Pretty boy is hanging out. Really need a north wind to hunt this spot. But we have a SE wind. This is the only spot on the ranch where the blind is actually on the east side of the pen. All the rest are set on West and can hunt most winds. But since the deer come from a certain direction, there was no where to set a West Setup. So instead of both of us trying to beat the wind, I send him in Solo with Ozonics and instructions to only open 1 window.
His wind is blowing from his left to front right. Wind is cutting the edge of the feeder pen. But with the Ozonics we have made it work before. He texted me and said there was a ton of deer staging out away from feeder but none were Pretty boy. We know where Pretty boy beds so I knew the hard part was going to be getting PB through Hunters Wind cone. He comes in from behind blind on the right. Which means Hunters wind is blowing across his path. Now Hunter is in an elevated Krivoman Tower so that helps a little.
After feeder throws the normal young deer barrel in without a care. Then the older dudes start showing up. Couple 8 year old deer are hanging up and acting weird. They would walk in downwind, Raise there nose, then turn around and walk away. then they would repeat this step 3 or 4 times before they finally came in. My guess is PB was watching this from Behind Hunter out of view. Once they committed, he came in. As soon as he hit the wind Cone he did the same thing. Backed out and walked around an just stood there for 15 minutes. He finally Jumped in Pen but was very nervous, He then jumped out and walked off without giving him a shot. There were probably 15 or so deer in Pen so it was a good hunt.
The next morning I dropped him in there about an hour before feeder goes off. Told him to keep everything shut up tight until 15 min before Feeder throws. I get a text that all the normal big bucks are in. Then I get the text that says "He is here.. " I text back saying stay calm, make sure video is running and just let him get calm and in the perfect position. Then I do not text anymore. Don't want to ruin any chances.
About 10 minutes go by and I get a text that said Shot may have been a little low, but arrows is covered in Blood. That is when I started Shaking. I was not even in the blind and Was getting buck fever. He closed the window and called me. He said the deer jumped out of pen and ran to the left up a hillside then turned and left out of site behind a large live oak. He said what was weird is that all the deer keep walking that way and staring, then getting nervous and walking off. Then they would go back and look again. I had a good idea he was laying there just out of his view. The blind is elevated up inside a large Live oak so you can not see a long ways to left.
By this time the deer are back in feeder pen. I drive up to about 200 yards from pen where they can see me and they run off. I tell him to get out and use his Bino's from ground. I am watching him exit blind with my bino's and he hits the ground, pulls glass up, then puts glass down and pics up Cell phone. Dad, He is laying right there. Not 50 yards from pen. Just about 10 yards out of view from blind.
I was so proud of how he handles himself. He did say he could not understand how his heart was so loud in the blind. Said that is all he could hear in blind. Thought something was wrong.
Anyway, here he is. A fantastic Hill country buck. Age and feed can do wonders for deer no matter their location. Feel very blessed to be on this place and have the deer we have.
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