My 2018 season started off a little different than typical. The early arrival of our son Emmett caused hunting prep and time to be put on the back burner. I'm not complaining though, my son will always be first and foremost. What time I was able to spend bow hunting around Bastrop proved fruitless. It was a really tough start for movement, as I went several hunts without seeing a single deer. I was invited to hunt a big low fence ranch in Llano county this past weekend with some friends and colleagues. Arriving Friday, we randomly selected stands and headed out for our first hunt. Due to the rainy conditions, deer sightings were at a minimum. I did get an opportunity to itch my trigger finger with 2 hogs though.
Saturday morning had all the signs of being a good morning. The rain had moved on for the time being. I was settled in the stand early after corning the road on each side of me. As it was finally getting light enough to see, I decided it was time to get serious. I pulled my bino case from my backpack, making plenty of racket in the process. I proceeded to then drop them, making one heck of boom in the quite morning darkness. Then it was on to opening the window, which was stuck and took considerable jiggling to open it. After cursing myself for not doing all this as soon as I got into the stand, I raised the binos to check the east road first. The very first thing I see is a stud of a buck a mere 50 yards from me, and staring a hole in my stand. My heart sank. I knew I had just blown my chance from a rookie move. A stare off lasting several minutes resulted in my surprise to the buck lowering his head and feeding on corn.
It was game time! Still being very early, I had a difficult time seeing the buck with the naked eye. So sliding my ear muffs on and getting my Browning A-bolt 280 out the window was difficult to coordinate with quick looks from the binos. Succeeding in doing such, I settled behind the scope to further assess the buck. I quickly determined he was at least 4.5 - 5.5, and readied myself for the shot. A tree limb made for a buck fever filled 5 minute wait. When a younger buck entered the picture, ol big boy decided to push him out, which ended up being right towards the stand. Only 50 yards away at the time, I followed the buck till he finally stopped, now only 30 yards away! As soon as he turned broadside, I turned a 140 grain loose. He folded from the shot, stood back up, took two steps, and dropped again. Holy smokes, I think I just cost myself $600!
Many of the deer that were out stayed, and as bad as I wanted to rush over to see the buck, I decided to sit it out a little while to take in the rest of a perfect morning. I saw several other nice bucks that morning, and even got another opportunity to touch one off again when a pig came in to visit the feeder. Finally around 8 am I exited the stand to put my hands on the buck. He was every bit as wide as he looked in the scope. For that area, I knew I had just killed a stud of a buck. I received a lot of "holy sh*ts" and "da*n nice" back when I sent a pic through in a group message.
Pending score, he'll likely fall in either second place or third on my list of bucks. Pretty excited about this one. I finished the hunt off with an exciting, rut filled afternoon hunt, and then a sleep in Sunday morning (perk of killing a big buck Saturday!). I have much to be thankful for this year, and this buck adds one more element to that! For those who made it to the end, thanks for the read!
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Saturday morning had all the signs of being a good morning. The rain had moved on for the time being. I was settled in the stand early after corning the road on each side of me. As it was finally getting light enough to see, I decided it was time to get serious. I pulled my bino case from my backpack, making plenty of racket in the process. I proceeded to then drop them, making one heck of boom in the quite morning darkness. Then it was on to opening the window, which was stuck and took considerable jiggling to open it. After cursing myself for not doing all this as soon as I got into the stand, I raised the binos to check the east road first. The very first thing I see is a stud of a buck a mere 50 yards from me, and staring a hole in my stand. My heart sank. I knew I had just blown my chance from a rookie move. A stare off lasting several minutes resulted in my surprise to the buck lowering his head and feeding on corn.
It was game time! Still being very early, I had a difficult time seeing the buck with the naked eye. So sliding my ear muffs on and getting my Browning A-bolt 280 out the window was difficult to coordinate with quick looks from the binos. Succeeding in doing such, I settled behind the scope to further assess the buck. I quickly determined he was at least 4.5 - 5.5, and readied myself for the shot. A tree limb made for a buck fever filled 5 minute wait. When a younger buck entered the picture, ol big boy decided to push him out, which ended up being right towards the stand. Only 50 yards away at the time, I followed the buck till he finally stopped, now only 30 yards away! As soon as he turned broadside, I turned a 140 grain loose. He folded from the shot, stood back up, took two steps, and dropped again. Holy smokes, I think I just cost myself $600!
Many of the deer that were out stayed, and as bad as I wanted to rush over to see the buck, I decided to sit it out a little while to take in the rest of a perfect morning. I saw several other nice bucks that morning, and even got another opportunity to touch one off again when a pig came in to visit the feeder. Finally around 8 am I exited the stand to put my hands on the buck. He was every bit as wide as he looked in the scope. For that area, I knew I had just killed a stud of a buck. I received a lot of "holy sh*ts" and "da*n nice" back when I sent a pic through in a group message.
Pending score, he'll likely fall in either second place or third on my list of bucks. Pretty excited about this one. I finished the hunt off with an exciting, rut filled afternoon hunt, and then a sleep in Sunday morning (perk of killing a big buck Saturday!). I have much to be thankful for this year, and this buck adds one more element to that! For those who made it to the end, thanks for the read!
Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
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