I joined a deer lease in Christoval just south of San Angelo for the 2019 season. It was my first year on the place along with several others. The property was somewhat managed with plans on us really trying to develop the place with protein and age and grow some big deer. The first year on the place we all did our own protein and we saw some pretty good deer. I ended up taking two nice management deer.
Opening morning of rifle season 2019 was the first time I saw a buck that would be known as “Deep Splits”. He was a giant but according to trail camera pictures he was not old enough for us to take him that year. The biggest deer I’ve ever killed at the time was a 143’ 11 pt. and this deer appeared to be much bigger. It was hard for me to pass him, but I knew that he wasn’t old enough and I had to do the right thing. I got a good show that morning, he got his butt stomped by a smaller racked bigger body deer.
I didn’t like that deer beating up on what I knew was going to be an awesome trophy deer, so I brought a buddy’s daughter to the stand with me that evening and she killed the big body bully.
During the 2019 season I saw him probably 10-12 times and made a lot of video of him. Both of my daughters were with me at some point and each got to see him also. My oldest hunts a lot and begged me to let her shoot him. LOL
At the end of the season, I was glad to see that he was still alive and healthy.
The lease decided this year that we would all put our money in a pool and protein feed as a group rather than everyone doing it on their own. We got protein feeders in place in all of the pastures and really opened up the flood gates on the protein. We had someone from the lease go up at least once a month and make sure the protein feeders were running and full.
During turkey season a friend found one of his sheds while we were running and gunning for birds. I confirmed through pictures that it was him.
It was a cool find and I let him keep the shed (For the time being anyway).
I wasn’t running trail cameras on the protein until about August. My jaw about hit the floor when I checked my first round of trail camera pictures. He had developed deep splits on each of his G2’s and put on a lot of mass. I could tell from the trail cam pics that he was going to be huge this year. He was a protein hog and was at my feeder religiously sucking in down.
Around the first of September we got some really heavy late summer rains and the deer started backing off the protein with all the new greenery. Deep Splits all but disappeared and by the time the archery opener arrived he was missing in action. A little depressed but that’s the way it goes with trying to pattern deer.
My nephew visited me from Alabama in October and arrowed a solid management 8pt.
I hunted all season and Deep Splits was a no show all of October and November, around the first of December myself and another lease member started getting occasional trail cam pictures of him. I was relieved that he hadn’t been killed by neighboring hunters.
Towards the end of December, he was in my area more and more. I missed him by a half a day or a day several times. I hunted a Sunday morning and had to go home, and he was there Sunday evening, the next weekend he was there Friday evening and I hunted all weekend and he never showed.
Season was coming to a close fast and I knew I was only going to have one more chance to hunt him. I decided to take some vacation days and stay at the lease as long as I could. I didn’t want to miss him by a half day and not get him. My plan was to go up on Christmas day and stay through the morning of the 30th if needed.
I got to the lease early Christmas Day and snuck out and checked my trail camera around noon. He had been there that morning! I got buck fever just off seeing his pic and hoping he would be there at least once over the next 5 days. The trail camera showed that he had been there the last 3 mornings in a row but was never there in the afternoons.
I decided to sneak into the blind early as I was at the lease by myself. I got settled in around 2:30. I immediate started seeing action with a herd of black buck does moving in. We are a low fence ranch but have a solid herd of free ranging blackbuck. A while later the white tail started moving and I had about a half dozen deer in front of me but no signs of Deep Splits. A little after 4 I saw some deer legs moving through the oak trees and put my binoculars up to see what it was. I quickly saw it was a big body deer and my heart started beating fast. There is another big body 8pt that has been showing up on camera and I had a feeling it was going to be one of the two. A few steps later and I saw a “Deep Split” and immediately went from my binoculars to my rifle. I never looked at his antlers again. He was only about 100 yards away I just needed him to stop and give me a good shot. He walked out of the oaks and milled around for a few seconds before I squeezed the trigger. I settled right behind his shoulder and shot. I shoot a silenced 6.5 Creedmoor and one of the cool things about it is that you can really hear the bullet hit. I heard the hit and saw him react, I knew he was hit good, but he was close to an oak thicket and ran out of sight.
I had to take a second to calm down and collect my thoughts. I immediately started texting friends and family as everyone that knows me knows how bad I wanted this deer and how I was obsessed with him. The congratulations started rolling in. I got out of the blind and looked into the oak with my binoculars but there was no sign of him. I decided to play it safe and make sure everything was perfect with this one. I decided to go back to camp and get my tracking dog Trigger and let him do the tracking, this would take about 30 minutes and give him some time just in case of the unthinkable.
When me and Trigger walked down to the feeder, I saw him laying about 70 yards away. When I finally put my hands on him, he actually grew! He was bigger and heavier than I thought. I was guessing him to be about 155”.
I got him loaded up and the landowner met me to take pictures for me. When I dropped my tailgate and he saw him he flipped out. We started celebrating like kids, he was almost as excited as I was. I told him that I thought he was going to tape out around 155” and said it was going to be bigger, he said it was going to be 165”.
After we took about 200 pictures from all different angles, I got him skinned and in the cooler. There is another guy on my lease that shot a 161” deer this year and he said he was going to be in camp in a few hours.
I decided to wait till he got there to score him. I actually let him do the scoring and when we started adding up the solid numbers, he hit 155”. I stopped and asked in disbelief if we had added the spread twice, we ran it again and he landed at 155! When we tallied the 8th’s up he gross scored 162 5/8.
By far the biggest deer I have ever taken. I am still in disbelief! What a difference an extra year and a buffet of protein made.
Right now, as it stands, he is the biggest buck killed on the lease so far this year. I feel pretty confident I’ll be taking the plaque and big buck belt from the lease this year. LOL
Time to get the protein flowing and ready for next season, here we go again. I’ve been passing a deer I call Flames, he’s a solid 10 and is going to be a bruit in time with the protein buffet.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Opening morning of rifle season 2019 was the first time I saw a buck that would be known as “Deep Splits”. He was a giant but according to trail camera pictures he was not old enough for us to take him that year. The biggest deer I’ve ever killed at the time was a 143’ 11 pt. and this deer appeared to be much bigger. It was hard for me to pass him, but I knew that he wasn’t old enough and I had to do the right thing. I got a good show that morning, he got his butt stomped by a smaller racked bigger body deer.
I didn’t like that deer beating up on what I knew was going to be an awesome trophy deer, so I brought a buddy’s daughter to the stand with me that evening and she killed the big body bully.
During the 2019 season I saw him probably 10-12 times and made a lot of video of him. Both of my daughters were with me at some point and each got to see him also. My oldest hunts a lot and begged me to let her shoot him. LOL
At the end of the season, I was glad to see that he was still alive and healthy.
The lease decided this year that we would all put our money in a pool and protein feed as a group rather than everyone doing it on their own. We got protein feeders in place in all of the pastures and really opened up the flood gates on the protein. We had someone from the lease go up at least once a month and make sure the protein feeders were running and full.
During turkey season a friend found one of his sheds while we were running and gunning for birds. I confirmed through pictures that it was him.
It was a cool find and I let him keep the shed (For the time being anyway).
I wasn’t running trail cameras on the protein until about August. My jaw about hit the floor when I checked my first round of trail camera pictures. He had developed deep splits on each of his G2’s and put on a lot of mass. I could tell from the trail cam pics that he was going to be huge this year. He was a protein hog and was at my feeder religiously sucking in down.
Around the first of September we got some really heavy late summer rains and the deer started backing off the protein with all the new greenery. Deep Splits all but disappeared and by the time the archery opener arrived he was missing in action. A little depressed but that’s the way it goes with trying to pattern deer.
My nephew visited me from Alabama in October and arrowed a solid management 8pt.
I hunted all season and Deep Splits was a no show all of October and November, around the first of December myself and another lease member started getting occasional trail cam pictures of him. I was relieved that he hadn’t been killed by neighboring hunters.
Towards the end of December, he was in my area more and more. I missed him by a half a day or a day several times. I hunted a Sunday morning and had to go home, and he was there Sunday evening, the next weekend he was there Friday evening and I hunted all weekend and he never showed.
Season was coming to a close fast and I knew I was only going to have one more chance to hunt him. I decided to take some vacation days and stay at the lease as long as I could. I didn’t want to miss him by a half day and not get him. My plan was to go up on Christmas day and stay through the morning of the 30th if needed.
I got to the lease early Christmas Day and snuck out and checked my trail camera around noon. He had been there that morning! I got buck fever just off seeing his pic and hoping he would be there at least once over the next 5 days. The trail camera showed that he had been there the last 3 mornings in a row but was never there in the afternoons.
I decided to sneak into the blind early as I was at the lease by myself. I got settled in around 2:30. I immediate started seeing action with a herd of black buck does moving in. We are a low fence ranch but have a solid herd of free ranging blackbuck. A while later the white tail started moving and I had about a half dozen deer in front of me but no signs of Deep Splits. A little after 4 I saw some deer legs moving through the oak trees and put my binoculars up to see what it was. I quickly saw it was a big body deer and my heart started beating fast. There is another big body 8pt that has been showing up on camera and I had a feeling it was going to be one of the two. A few steps later and I saw a “Deep Split” and immediately went from my binoculars to my rifle. I never looked at his antlers again. He was only about 100 yards away I just needed him to stop and give me a good shot. He walked out of the oaks and milled around for a few seconds before I squeezed the trigger. I settled right behind his shoulder and shot. I shoot a silenced 6.5 Creedmoor and one of the cool things about it is that you can really hear the bullet hit. I heard the hit and saw him react, I knew he was hit good, but he was close to an oak thicket and ran out of sight.
I had to take a second to calm down and collect my thoughts. I immediately started texting friends and family as everyone that knows me knows how bad I wanted this deer and how I was obsessed with him. The congratulations started rolling in. I got out of the blind and looked into the oak with my binoculars but there was no sign of him. I decided to play it safe and make sure everything was perfect with this one. I decided to go back to camp and get my tracking dog Trigger and let him do the tracking, this would take about 30 minutes and give him some time just in case of the unthinkable.
When me and Trigger walked down to the feeder, I saw him laying about 70 yards away. When I finally put my hands on him, he actually grew! He was bigger and heavier than I thought. I was guessing him to be about 155”.
I got him loaded up and the landowner met me to take pictures for me. When I dropped my tailgate and he saw him he flipped out. We started celebrating like kids, he was almost as excited as I was. I told him that I thought he was going to tape out around 155” and said it was going to be bigger, he said it was going to be 165”.
After we took about 200 pictures from all different angles, I got him skinned and in the cooler. There is another guy on my lease that shot a 161” deer this year and he said he was going to be in camp in a few hours.
I decided to wait till he got there to score him. I actually let him do the scoring and when we started adding up the solid numbers, he hit 155”. I stopped and asked in disbelief if we had added the spread twice, we ran it again and he landed at 155! When we tallied the 8th’s up he gross scored 162 5/8.
By far the biggest deer I have ever taken. I am still in disbelief! What a difference an extra year and a buffet of protein made.
Right now, as it stands, he is the biggest buck killed on the lease so far this year. I feel pretty confident I’ll be taking the plaque and big buck belt from the lease this year. LOL
Time to get the protein flowing and ready for next season, here we go again. I’ve been passing a deer I call Flames, he’s a solid 10 and is going to be a bruit in time with the protein buffet.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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