Bare with me because this is a long one ....as usual....lol
After missing the whole month of October due to family matters and a handful of fishing events, I managed to sneak out west this weekend and give it a go despite the bad winds for my blind. Anything with W in it usually is not good for me but I had some strategy that included closed windows and a dead eye..
if anything it was going to be good to get out in the cooler weather and relax some.
Deadeye made it on our lists of bucks to watch as an 8 that had a kicker and showed some potential for our place. He was so named due to having a glossed over right eye that did not "glow" on nighttime TC pics. We try to kill spindly 8s early at 4ish and give those with longer G2's and G3s and heavier horns a pass to see how they do.. The kicker helped him as well. We kill the occasional 140 and low 150 but 135 is considered a nice deer on our place. Our deer are a mix of hill country and west Texas falling down off the plateau into the Angelo area, so basically, we get our fair share of pencil horned scrubs with some good deer mixed in. We try to let the better framed deer get some age on them even if they are MF 8s points because we like our big 8s and occasionally they jump to 9 or 10s.
In year two on the list, he came back with 3 kickers and a little more length but we to continued to pass him and hoped he'd get better. Towards the end of last season he went awol and we were beginning to think he got killed by a neighboring hunter or fighting for a girlfriend. Kinda bummed but held out hope he was off chasing a second round of girlfriends. Never saw him again that season or before they shed.
As summer trail camera was upon us, we had several deer on the list we were hoping would improve, so anticipation was high. Deadeye was still awol and I was starting to get concerned he didn't make it. In mid-July this deer showed up and I was hoping it was him. I didn't get another pic of him nor did I get a night time pic to confirm via the eye test..
.
Then mid August came along and...
Then mid September...
So in the past I've had issues with underscoring deer via my Coverts and I've missed some deer by as much as 10-11 inches. I'm not sure if its because I set the camera back so far to capture the whole pen area, if it's just Covert's lens or if I'm just ultra conservative. I run a regular Browning Strikeforce as well just for this reason....plus I can capture a pic every minute with it, without having any transmission issues. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the Browning on the whole month of September so I was left to judging using my Coverts. I sent my Covert pics to a lot of TBHers and lease buddies asking their opinions on his score and it varied anywhere from 130" to 145" with a whole lot in between depending on who you asked.
Compounding it a bit was his big body and seemingly longer than normal ears for our place. Personally I was seeing low to mid 30s but on some pics it would look more. It was just all around deceiving. Man what a predicament lol. So I decided to not allow myself to get excited and took the I want to see him in person approach before I made a decision. I was fully ready to pass and accept the possibility that another member might shoot him if I didn't think he was a deer I wanted to pursue. I shot a decent deer last year after a long dry spell that I probably should have passed on and I didn't want to do that again.
Here are some of the TC pics we looked over.
As many of you know my brother was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer during dove season so the past few months have been spent trying help out there where or when I can. I missed opening weekend because of this and then had a few fishing events take up a couple of Oct Saturdays, mix in still remodeling my house and well I finally was able to get out on west 10/29. I was going to hunt my Slacker blind and go put an eye on Deadeye, (pun intended
) fully prepared to pass but hoping he was on the upper end of the guesses and the Coverts tricked us again. The NW wind that day was the worst possible for my blind so I opted to hang around camp, settle in and get ready for the 42 degree SSW winds the next morning.
The SSW winds blow across my face and out toward one of the main crossings in the north part of my feedpen (yellow X)...so while not ideal, I can work with it. I decided to shut the whole sealed blind down in case he or other deer decided to circle around behind me and go in that route. Its very common so I had to take away some of their defense. My hope would be that if I liked him and decided to shoot, he would come in at the red X where the Coverts showed regardless of wind direction and I could catch him on the south side of the pen when I opened my shooting window. I intended to look him over and be aggressive. I knew opening the window and pushing my camera into view with him close was going to take some luck but I figured it was my best shot. It was also going to make my video footage low and that it did. The red dot is where I shot him
So fast forward to that morning and my feeder goes off. I can already see a young buck in there feeding through the tinted window so I know I'm going to have to watch out for more than one set of eyes and another nose with my strategy. In jumps a big doe ...great!...even worse..she's probably a blower with my luck
. Not a minute after I hear a heavy thump- thump of a deer jumping in the pen the direction of the red x/pen entrance and I'm thinking is that him? I scoot up to my window and look to my right. "Holy **** its him and **** look at that heavy rack! 
He walks within 12-15 yards of the blind standing broadside facing left (his good eye at me) and stands in front of me for a minute or two with his head up. I'm looking through binoculars, through tinted windows, in low light and can STILL see I'm shooting this guy! Now I just have to get the window open and camera in place. He turns to his right and starts eating with is but to me. He then swings around with his bad eye to me! BoneThug and I had joked about using it to my advantage and I'll be ****ed if it didn't play out. It was go time lol. I got the window opened, the camera swooped around and zoomed in recording and he didn't once raise his head. Couldn't have played out any better. I grabbed my bow and he had walk to the side of the feeder eating now turned, showing me his good eye, at 22 yards. He moved his leg forward raised his head and gave me the perfect quartering away shot. I aimed at the Deadly V opening but hit a little lower than I was aiming by about 2". The good news is it was still the perfect pocket heart shot. Glad i was not aiming for the perfect pocket heart shot lodging in the opposite leg bone.. Because it was lower, I was certainly concerned but after viewing the video I started feeling better about it. That arrow will sure play tricks on you.
This is where it gets crazy for a few seconds He smashes into the pen fence panel, horns first because his front legs were pinned together by the arrow ...his rear legs went over the top of the pen first because they still worked, with his head caught in the panel and he is literally hanging there upside down arched with his white chest facing the sky He's all twisted up. The initial crash and his weight eventually bust the wire holding the t-post and panel together and it bends down allowing him to fall over to the outside of the pen. He gathers himself and runs off with an occasional stumble and I lose sight of him in the cedars. Unfortunately I was watching and not moving this camera to him but you can hear the crash on the video below. All this happened within the first few minutes of daylight on my first hunt of the year.
I gave him 20 minutes and walked up the the site of the crash. Found my broken lucky arrow and started looking for blood. The Grim Reaper Micro Hybrid stayed in him since it hit the opposite leg bone, but it went though his pump station to get there. Hey Shane! "He didn't make it 70" according to Google Earth..
Love these broadheads!
Always good when you see this.
And even better is when they die 20' from the road right behind that short green cedar....
When I looked at him from a distance I started to get excited. When I walked up on him, I got really excited! He carried his mass all the way through to the tips of his beams, he had some ****** brows that curled backwards, a kicker, and some tines with a lot of bending, bladed character. Heckuva deer for our place and I was proud to get him. If my scoring holds up he will be my best archery deer at 142 6/8" besting my previous by 4/8"
Figured out why his eye was bad... he had a mesquite thorn inside it. You can see the back end of it here and could feel it... ouch!!
And the LDP...To the turkey tree we went. Hey at least its different.. My meat hooks and big body don't do this LDP justice. You can see the mass in the pics above. Was hard to get a good pics with all the character bends and blades in it as well so this is what I settled on this and went to celebrate... Not my best work..
The video below. Sorry for the short footage. It all happened so fast and with the windows closed, I couldn't get the video rolling until I was ready to shoot. He gave up that leg soon after and I took it..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihoHsDAmBs"]Deadeye....2021 bow season - Christoval, Texas - YouTube[/ame]
http://youtu.be/3ihoHsDAmBs
After missing the whole month of October due to family matters and a handful of fishing events, I managed to sneak out west this weekend and give it a go despite the bad winds for my blind. Anything with W in it usually is not good for me but I had some strategy that included closed windows and a dead eye..
if anything it was going to be good to get out in the cooler weather and relax some.Deadeye made it on our lists of bucks to watch as an 8 that had a kicker and showed some potential for our place. He was so named due to having a glossed over right eye that did not "glow" on nighttime TC pics. We try to kill spindly 8s early at 4ish and give those with longer G2's and G3s and heavier horns a pass to see how they do.. The kicker helped him as well. We kill the occasional 140 and low 150 but 135 is considered a nice deer on our place. Our deer are a mix of hill country and west Texas falling down off the plateau into the Angelo area, so basically, we get our fair share of pencil horned scrubs with some good deer mixed in. We try to let the better framed deer get some age on them even if they are MF 8s points because we like our big 8s and occasionally they jump to 9 or 10s.
In year two on the list, he came back with 3 kickers and a little more length but we to continued to pass him and hoped he'd get better. Towards the end of last season he went awol and we were beginning to think he got killed by a neighboring hunter or fighting for a girlfriend. Kinda bummed but held out hope he was off chasing a second round of girlfriends. Never saw him again that season or before they shed.
As summer trail camera was upon us, we had several deer on the list we were hoping would improve, so anticipation was high. Deadeye was still awol and I was starting to get concerned he didn't make it. In mid-July this deer showed up and I was hoping it was him. I didn't get another pic of him nor did I get a night time pic to confirm via the eye test..
.Then mid August came along and...
Then mid September...
So in the past I've had issues with underscoring deer via my Coverts and I've missed some deer by as much as 10-11 inches. I'm not sure if its because I set the camera back so far to capture the whole pen area, if it's just Covert's lens or if I'm just ultra conservative. I run a regular Browning Strikeforce as well just for this reason....plus I can capture a pic every minute with it, without having any transmission issues. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the Browning on the whole month of September so I was left to judging using my Coverts. I sent my Covert pics to a lot of TBHers and lease buddies asking their opinions on his score and it varied anywhere from 130" to 145" with a whole lot in between depending on who you asked.
Compounding it a bit was his big body and seemingly longer than normal ears for our place. Personally I was seeing low to mid 30s but on some pics it would look more. It was just all around deceiving. Man what a predicament lol. So I decided to not allow myself to get excited and took the I want to see him in person approach before I made a decision. I was fully ready to pass and accept the possibility that another member might shoot him if I didn't think he was a deer I wanted to pursue. I shot a decent deer last year after a long dry spell that I probably should have passed on and I didn't want to do that again. Here are some of the TC pics we looked over.
As many of you know my brother was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer during dove season so the past few months have been spent trying help out there where or when I can. I missed opening weekend because of this and then had a few fishing events take up a couple of Oct Saturdays, mix in still remodeling my house and well I finally was able to get out on west 10/29.
I was going to hunt my Slacker blind and go put an eye on Deadeye, (pun intended) fully prepared to pass but hoping he was on the upper end of the guesses and the Coverts tricked us again. The NW wind that day was the worst possible for my blind so I opted to hang around camp, settle in and get ready for the 42 degree SSW winds the next morning.The SSW winds blow across my face and out toward one of the main crossings in the north part of my feedpen (yellow X)...so while not ideal, I can work with it. I decided to shut the whole sealed blind down in case he or other deer decided to circle around behind me and go in that route. Its very common so I had to take away some of their defense. My hope would be that if I liked him and decided to shoot, he would come in at the red X where the Coverts showed regardless of wind direction and I could catch him on the south side of the pen when I opened my shooting window. I intended to look him over and be aggressive. I knew opening the window and pushing my camera into view with him close was going to take some luck but I figured it was my best shot. It was also going to make my video footage low and that it did. The red dot is where I shot him
So fast forward to that morning and my feeder goes off. I can already see a young buck in there feeding through the tinted window so I know I'm going to have to watch out for more than one set of eyes and another nose with my strategy. In jumps a big doe ...great!...even worse..she's probably a blower with my luck
. Not a minute after I hear a heavy thump- thump of a deer jumping in the pen the direction of the red x/pen entrance and I'm thinking is that him? I scoot up to my window and look to my right. "Holy **** its him and **** look at that heavy rack! He walks within 12-15 yards of the blind standing broadside facing left (his good eye at me) and stands in front of me for a minute or two with his head up. I'm looking through binoculars, through tinted windows, in low light and can STILL see I'm shooting this guy! Now I just have to get the window open and camera in place. He turns to his right and starts eating with is but to me. He then swings around with his bad eye to me! BoneThug and I had joked about using it to my advantage and I'll be ****ed if it didn't play out. It was go time lol. I got the window opened, the camera swooped around and zoomed in recording and he didn't once raise his head. Couldn't have played out any better. I grabbed my bow and he had walk to the side of the feeder eating now turned, showing me his good eye, at 22 yards. He moved his leg forward raised his head and gave me the perfect quartering away shot. I aimed at the Deadly V opening but hit a little lower than I was aiming by about 2". The good news is it was still the perfect pocket heart shot. Glad i was not aiming for the perfect pocket heart shot lodging in the opposite leg bone.. Because it was lower, I was certainly concerned but after viewing the video I started feeling better about it. That arrow will sure play tricks on you. This is where it gets crazy for a few seconds He smashes into the pen fence panel, horns first because his front legs were pinned together by the arrow ...his rear legs went over the top of the pen first because they still worked, with his head caught in the panel and he is literally hanging there upside down arched with his white chest facing the sky
He's all twisted up. The initial crash and his weight eventually bust the wire holding the t-post and panel together and it bends down allowing him to fall over to the outside of the pen. He gathers himself and runs off with an occasional stumble and I lose sight of him in the cedars. Unfortunately I was watching and not moving this camera to him but you can hear the crash on the video below. All this happened within the first few minutes of daylight on my first hunt of the year. I gave him 20 minutes and walked up the the site of the crash. Found my broken lucky arrow and started looking for blood. The Grim Reaper Micro Hybrid stayed in him since it hit the opposite leg bone, but it went though his pump station to get there. Hey Shane! "He didn't make it 70" according to Google Earth..
Love these broadheads!Always good when you see this.
And even better is when they die 20' from the road right behind that short green cedar....
When I looked at him from a distance I started to get excited. When I walked up on him, I got really excited! He carried his mass all the way through to the tips of his beams, he had some ****** brows that curled backwards, a kicker, and some tines with a lot of bending, bladed character. Heckuva deer for our place and I was proud to get him. If my scoring holds up he will be my best archery deer at 142 6/8" besting my previous by 4/8"
Figured out why his eye was bad... he had a mesquite thorn inside it. You can see the back end of it here and could feel it... ouch!!
And the LDP...To the turkey tree we went. Hey at least its different..
My meat hooks and big body don't do this LDP justice. You can see the mass in the pics above. Was hard to get a good pics with all the character bends and blades in it as well so this is what I settled on this and went to celebrate... Not my best work..The video below. Sorry for the short footage. It all happened so fast and with the windows closed, I couldn't get the video rolling until I was ready to shoot. He gave up that leg soon after and I took it..
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihoHsDAmBs"]Deadeye....2021 bow season - Christoval, Texas - YouTube[/ame]
http://youtu.be/3ihoHsDAmBs
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