long read, feel free to skip
So after my wife has an unbelievable encounter with a good deer Sunday morning she decides she wants to make another sit yesterday afternoon (its great being just under 2 hours from the deer woods). She goes back to the same tree stand, my son hunts a pretty consistent travel area and I decide to head over and just watch and maybe kill a pig or 12. “Bucks only I say” as they leave camp! We still gotta drive home and it’s a school night. Just as they leave my dad pulls in on the tractor from mowing the pastures. Hes planted yet another tractor pin and the brush hog is hanging from only 2 points. Knowing hes staying and loading it on the trailer later I help him re-attach the mower before an evening hunt. No matter how many pins we’ve planted none have ever grown.
Get all that settled and I head to an old clear cut area near the edge of our property that backs up to a small place that’s really thick. So far it appears no one appears to be hunting it this year. I can see about up to 150 yards one way with several other lanes in nearly every direction. One feeder and 4 food plots. Feeder throws and Im watching 7 does and yearlings almost instantly. They get full of corn and head over to a food plot and graze. One doe gets enough and lays down to take a nap while the yearlings played. I start to wonder why these 4 or 5 mature does aint got a buck on them when all of them throw their heads up and look into a yaupon thicket. Wouldn’t you know it, swine. Two red and black spotted sows exit first then a freakin hammer of a boar comes out. The does literally take a step back. There was no doubt I was gonna x-ring this pig. I watch him as he steps up to a trot right at the does and of course they spook. This pig knew exactly what he was doing. Sows are making it to the feeder and the boar heads their way. Once he gets broadside I see just how large he is!! It had been a year since Ive touched off the trigger on my APR and I failed to remember how touchy it was. The gun went off so quick I think my finger hit the floor plate release and the next 2 rounds fell out on the floor. Pig down. Bullets on the floor.
I gather my bullets back up and re-load the gun. Maybe 10 minutes passes and I get a text from wife. Her deer came back, she makes full draw and sails an arrow right over his back. Broadside at 23 yards. Shes bummed. I try and calm her down and let her know that deer has no idea what happened and he hasn’t gone far.
Movement to my left….put the phone down
Throw the binocs up and there stands a pretty decent 8 staring at the dead boar. The deer immediately gets nervous and cant stand the dead pig. He circles the pig as I put the gun out the window to make an attempt to age this year at a trot. He ends up stopping behind a tree lined in brush with too risky of a shot and Im really leaning on the ‘nice deer, too young’ train as he bolts into the woods. Crap! Buck was in the 4-5 year old range and pushing 16-17 inches wide with 7” G2s and decent brows. Just no mass. Thinking back Im near certain Ive got multiple pics of him and hes definitely a hard pass.
As I watch the area I think he may reappear, another buck but MUCH bigger in stature steps out. Hes making the same line the previous buck did moments before all while eyeballing the dirt nap boar. Im watching this deer in the scope and trying to talk myself out of shooting this deer and sticking to my bow hunting. But Im seeing how big his body is, how short his neck is and how small his ears look. I know he’s and older deer and got some decent mass. But Im not really wowed by his height. All this has unfolded in less than 30 seconds or less and hes only got a few yards and hes out of sight. I try and whistle at him so I can further judge the deer and I cant seem to whistle loud enough. Thumb the safety and whistle again. He briefly looks away and Im think ****, then remember they always look bigger looking away. The deer takes a few steps, stops again and the 6.5 barks! The buck mule kicks in the scope and heads into the woods.
I think what have I done? Havent killed a buck with a rifle in close to 10 years. So I send text to wife and say….’I couldn’t help it’ and I crawl out of the blind. Being my intention was to just observe deer I only carried my gun, binocs and a phone. I have no flashlight and running out of daylight quick. I get to where he was and see zero blood. Im frantically looking for a sign of the hit while replaying his huge mule kick as he ran. Roughly 20 yards from the shot I see a little blood but not what Im expecting and my heart sinks. I know I was solid on the hold and was ready for the trigger this time. I did my part I know it! I decide to head back to camp for a better light, maybe the dog and some help.
No one is back from their hunts yet so I end up getting on the track alone and head into some nasty stuff. Blood has improved a little but again, not what Im looking for. Then I see blood on a folded yaupon that’s 4 foot in the air?!?! My son shows up and I have him come stand by last blood as I ease into the woods just about on all 4s. Take a couple steps, stop and listen while scanning with the light. Ive now gone about 50 yards from the shot and don’t have any sign to tell me which way to go. Take a couple more steps and scan. White belly and tines!!!
Huge relief!!! I step over to him, turn the light out and dropped down to one knee to think in the dark. I thank my grandparents for having the thought almost 50 years ago to buy this dirt. Think about the many hours Ive spent on this ground and Im glad to be able to cherish so many moments with family on this little slice of Texas. I have my son step up and hear him say……..gawwww! when I grab his beams. Now we gotta drag this hawse out of what we basically crawled into. Tripping over saw vines we go
Once hes out of the woods I can really see him and think, who is this deer? Never seen him that I know of. I scramble back over to @smart s LDP thread and hand kiddo the phone to take some pics. He takes one photo and I tell him hold on there sport we're gonna be here a minute!
Not how I would have choose for it to happen but my 2019 Buck in the books. I don’t know why I didn’t weigh him when the scale was already out but he’s right up there with the biggest body weight bucks we’ve taken. The boar tipped the scale at 201 and was scarred up from stem to stern. If he hadn’t stank so bad I would have inspected a couple of wounds in his shoulder area. His ‘plate’ was hard as a rock and hes bigger than my previous by 23 lbs.
Viva Pine needles!
So after my wife has an unbelievable encounter with a good deer Sunday morning she decides she wants to make another sit yesterday afternoon (its great being just under 2 hours from the deer woods). She goes back to the same tree stand, my son hunts a pretty consistent travel area and I decide to head over and just watch and maybe kill a pig or 12. “Bucks only I say” as they leave camp! We still gotta drive home and it’s a school night. Just as they leave my dad pulls in on the tractor from mowing the pastures. Hes planted yet another tractor pin and the brush hog is hanging from only 2 points. Knowing hes staying and loading it on the trailer later I help him re-attach the mower before an evening hunt. No matter how many pins we’ve planted none have ever grown.
Get all that settled and I head to an old clear cut area near the edge of our property that backs up to a small place that’s really thick. So far it appears no one appears to be hunting it this year. I can see about up to 150 yards one way with several other lanes in nearly every direction. One feeder and 4 food plots. Feeder throws and Im watching 7 does and yearlings almost instantly. They get full of corn and head over to a food plot and graze. One doe gets enough and lays down to take a nap while the yearlings played. I start to wonder why these 4 or 5 mature does aint got a buck on them when all of them throw their heads up and look into a yaupon thicket. Wouldn’t you know it, swine. Two red and black spotted sows exit first then a freakin hammer of a boar comes out. The does literally take a step back. There was no doubt I was gonna x-ring this pig. I watch him as he steps up to a trot right at the does and of course they spook. This pig knew exactly what he was doing. Sows are making it to the feeder and the boar heads their way. Once he gets broadside I see just how large he is!! It had been a year since Ive touched off the trigger on my APR and I failed to remember how touchy it was. The gun went off so quick I think my finger hit the floor plate release and the next 2 rounds fell out on the floor. Pig down. Bullets on the floor.
I gather my bullets back up and re-load the gun. Maybe 10 minutes passes and I get a text from wife. Her deer came back, she makes full draw and sails an arrow right over his back. Broadside at 23 yards. Shes bummed. I try and calm her down and let her know that deer has no idea what happened and he hasn’t gone far.
Movement to my left….put the phone down
Throw the binocs up and there stands a pretty decent 8 staring at the dead boar. The deer immediately gets nervous and cant stand the dead pig. He circles the pig as I put the gun out the window to make an attempt to age this year at a trot. He ends up stopping behind a tree lined in brush with too risky of a shot and Im really leaning on the ‘nice deer, too young’ train as he bolts into the woods. Crap! Buck was in the 4-5 year old range and pushing 16-17 inches wide with 7” G2s and decent brows. Just no mass. Thinking back Im near certain Ive got multiple pics of him and hes definitely a hard pass.
As I watch the area I think he may reappear, another buck but MUCH bigger in stature steps out. Hes making the same line the previous buck did moments before all while eyeballing the dirt nap boar. Im watching this deer in the scope and trying to talk myself out of shooting this deer and sticking to my bow hunting. But Im seeing how big his body is, how short his neck is and how small his ears look. I know he’s and older deer and got some decent mass. But Im not really wowed by his height. All this has unfolded in less than 30 seconds or less and hes only got a few yards and hes out of sight. I try and whistle at him so I can further judge the deer and I cant seem to whistle loud enough. Thumb the safety and whistle again. He briefly looks away and Im think ****, then remember they always look bigger looking away. The deer takes a few steps, stops again and the 6.5 barks! The buck mule kicks in the scope and heads into the woods.
I think what have I done? Havent killed a buck with a rifle in close to 10 years. So I send text to wife and say….’I couldn’t help it’ and I crawl out of the blind. Being my intention was to just observe deer I only carried my gun, binocs and a phone. I have no flashlight and running out of daylight quick. I get to where he was and see zero blood. Im frantically looking for a sign of the hit while replaying his huge mule kick as he ran. Roughly 20 yards from the shot I see a little blood but not what Im expecting and my heart sinks. I know I was solid on the hold and was ready for the trigger this time. I did my part I know it! I decide to head back to camp for a better light, maybe the dog and some help.
No one is back from their hunts yet so I end up getting on the track alone and head into some nasty stuff. Blood has improved a little but again, not what Im looking for. Then I see blood on a folded yaupon that’s 4 foot in the air?!?! My son shows up and I have him come stand by last blood as I ease into the woods just about on all 4s. Take a couple steps, stop and listen while scanning with the light. Ive now gone about 50 yards from the shot and don’t have any sign to tell me which way to go. Take a couple more steps and scan. White belly and tines!!!
Huge relief!!! I step over to him, turn the light out and dropped down to one knee to think in the dark. I thank my grandparents for having the thought almost 50 years ago to buy this dirt. Think about the many hours Ive spent on this ground and Im glad to be able to cherish so many moments with family on this little slice of Texas. I have my son step up and hear him say……..gawwww! when I grab his beams. Now we gotta drag this hawse out of what we basically crawled into. Tripping over saw vines we go
Once hes out of the woods I can really see him and think, who is this deer? Never seen him that I know of. I scramble back over to @smart s LDP thread and hand kiddo the phone to take some pics.
He takes one photo and I tell him hold on there sport we're gonna be here a minute!Not how I would have choose for it to happen but my 2019 Buck in the books. I don’t know why I didn’t weigh him when the scale was already out but he’s right up there with the biggest body weight bucks we’ve taken. The boar tipped the scale at 201 and was scarred up from stem to stern. If he hadn’t stank so bad I would have inspected a couple of wounds in his shoulder area. His ‘plate’ was hard as a rock and hes bigger than my previous by 23 lbs.
Viva Pine needles!
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