My family and I are staying at a friends place while our house is finished being built in Central Texas. He has some acreage and some free ranging Hill Country deer, but didn’t think much was there since it was a smallish lot butting up against Lake LBJ, but that didn’t stop me from putting out a camera and some corn just to see. Boy was I surprised when I first pulled the card. A really nice 9 point was on camera. With my blood pumping, I made a little ground blind out of dead tree limbs and natural cover and sure enough, the first morning sit, he comes in on a string. I go to draw right before he hit my shooting lane and he pegged me, dead to rights, and bolted. No biggie. I’ll get him tomorrow. Well, 14 days later, and hunting EVERY day, I am going nuts, making new ground blinds, brushing them in, cutting shooting lanes, reading weather apps, putting up pop up blinds, and even climbing and hunting out of a tree without a tree stand. The wind was killing me and the deer were by far the most skittish deer I have EVER hunted. I literally couldn’t even turn my head without getting pegged...drawing a bow seemed literally impossible. I spent hours brushing in blinds, using diff chairs, buying Ghillie face masks, and watching YouTube videos. I finally got decently comfortable in my pop up with one tiny little hole about 12 inches wide for shooting. El Blanco (his horns seemed really white my first encounter) was a regular on the camera at night with a couple daylight pics sprinkled in (always when I was at my other spots. [emoji849]). Well this morning, I set my one piece all plastic chair (quietest) in the very back corner of the pop up, got there early and literally didn’t move. Right before sun up, I was resting my eyes when I heard corn being crunched. I was shielded by the closed window so I couldn’t see. I slowly grabbed my binocs and slowly leaned forward to peak around through my tiny hole, and my entire binoculars were filled with El Blanco staring right at me! Instant panic attack. I slowly lean back and try to execute my predetermined plan of drawing and anchoring while shielded, then leaning forward to shoot. Not sure if he saw or heard me but as soon as I put pressure on my string to pull back he skittered away. Dang it! Feeling depleted, I look up and he is coming back. I’m scared to even move a muscle now. He goes back to the corn and is feeding, facing directly at me. (I have mesh windows that are supposedly “one way” windows that can only see out. Not so sure about that.) Anyways, I watch him feed in a quartering to position for about ten minutes while some doe start to trickle into the area. Great, more eyes, ears, and noses. The wind was iffy at best and it must have shifted because a large doe started blowing, and El Blanco skitters away again. Dang it!! Dang doe!! Well, it must have been some sweet corn because he sauntered back again. I’m starting to unravel. He feeds quartering to again (*******). Finally he turns broad side and I attempt again, to slowly draw back BEHIND the wall. Not sure what he saw or heard but he skittered off again. Dang it!! I go ahead and rip to full draw hoping he would stop not far away and give me a shot, but unfortunately he continued out of my view. Now, 99 times out of 100 I would of let down with disgust, but for some reason I stayed at full draw just in case he wanted to come back for some more of that sweet corn. I hold for about a minute and was about to give up when I see movement from where he disappeared. He’s coming back!! But very slowly!!! [emoji30][emoji30][emoji30]. My arms and back are already burning, but I decided I’d tear every muscle in my shoulder before I let down. For another Agonizing 2-3 minutes he would step and look around, step and look around. I was scared to even try to get to my anchor. After what seems like 20 minutes, he crossed into my window at about ten yards. I slowly found my anchor point, nestled my pin behind his shoulder, and let it rip. From the sound of it and the look of my nockturnal disappearing, I knew it was a good hit. He ran off like a ****** bull, crashing loudly through the cedar tree thicket. I slumped down in my chair, exhausted, relieved, exhilarated, and grateful. I couldn’t believe what had transpired. I went and looked at my arrow and it was what you wanna see. A rage X-treme broad head and bright red blood all the way up. I waited in the blind about thirty minutes texting buddies then headed to the house to get my 9 year old son for the tracking job. It was a good trail and he didn’t go 80 yards. My son and I celebrated like little school girls. He was with me during all those blind builds and lane trimmings and would ask every morning with wide eyes, “did you get him?!!!” Well today, I got to say, “yeah bud, go get some clothes on, we got some tracking to do.” Man I love this. RIP El Blanco, you were a worthy and respected adversary. Thanks for taking the time to read fellas. Just for fun. What’s your guesses on age and score? Also, which pic is the best LDP in your opinion?
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