We had an awesome hunt in Texas the past 4 days. 5 guys and one gal in camp and 6 tags filled! To keep it as short as possible, I'll tell the story of my hunt and follow with pics of all the lucky hunter's bucks...
Saturday morning before light Logan and I headed into the same spot I'd scored on some nice bucks in years past. We carried a pop up blind in as the wind was supposed to get up to 20-30mph gust and I really didn't want to sit out in the broad open in all that wind. Setting up a blind before light without a flashlight turned into a humorous task to say the least, but we got her done and tied her in good for the South winds that were predicted for the day. As light came, we started seeing a few does filter through the rye field below headed for bed. A few young bucks passed through as well, but nothing of any size. The next 3 hunts yielded the same results. The big boys just were not moving during light, but we got to see a pile of 1.5 and 2.5yo bucks that showed potential.
Day 3 got alittle more interesting. Logan and I decided to split up to glass more ground, so I grabbed a turkey hunting chair and headed for a fence row above a drainage that deer had been filtering through on their way to the rye every morn. Logan headed to the blind we'd been sitting in the first couple days. Right at dusk I had a mature buck slip by headed twds Logan, but it was just too early to see what he was. A bit later Logan hit me with a text telling me he was a nice tall 8. I could see the rye field, but it was still too early to get a good view of the buck and there was no way I could move without being busted. A few minutes after the buck passed, a dandy 8pt hopped the fence and posed at 170yds. He was around 20" inside, but week on mass and had short brows. I gave him a pass and hung tight. Shortly after another 4.5ish 130s class 8 came onto the scene. I had 3 big 8s in the field and a pile of does by this time, so just sat back and enjoyed the show. I watched those bucks for over an hour, got to see them make scrapes, rub a bit, and even shove each other around one time.
After that exciting 3rd morning hunt, I had high hopes that big daddy might show at any time. That afternoon a front blew in hard, it rained, hailed, the temps dropped off, and we just knew the big boys had to get on their feet after the change. Well, it didn't quite work out that way as we didn't see any mature bucks that eve.
Only one day left with a prediction of strong winds out of the North. I didn't really know what to expect and after sitting in the wind for three days, the beginnings of a sinus infection was lurking. I decided to bundle up and head back to the fence row where I saw the 3 big 8s the morning before. The deer activity sort of fell off from the 3 previous days. I saw a few does and a few small bucks, but nothing mature came onto the scene that morn.
One hunt left yesterday eve, tag soup was lurking, but I decided to hit the same spot again and hope for the best. When I got out of the truck the wind was really howling, prob 20-30mph gust out of the North. I had pretty much decided to head for the pop-up to keep out of the cold wind as much as possible, but I wanted to swing high on the way in to see if there were any deer already on the field. As soon as I top the ridge, I can see a few deer in the rye. I saw a nice buck about 400yds out, but the wind was whipping so hard I really couldn't get a good look at him. I quickly slipped back off the hill and looped around to the pop-up. When I topped the hill I would be within site of the deer for around 50yds, so I slipped a bit and glassed along the way with the stiff wind covering my moves. I could see a handful of does in the field, so I lined the blind up between us and eased my way to the blind. I crawled in, but there was a little issue, We'd primarily tied the blind off for the stout winds out of the South for the previous days, so she was trying to lift off with the stout North winds after the front. I manage to slip in without being busted, but there's no way I can anchor the blind without them catching me. I put one foot down on the corner and made the best of it. I'm steadily searching the brush pockets in the field trying to get a better view of the buck I'd seen, but he was nowhere to be found. I knew that rascal had to be there, so I kept scanning the area. Then I catch movement in some brush and catch a glimpse of antlers headed for the does in the open. As soon as that big boy cleared the brush, I knew it was a shooter, a mature heavy horned 8. Holding a blind in fierce wind and trying to pull off a shot aint the easiest situation to say the least. I grab my rifle, settle in, and fight the fever as the buck heads twds the does. When he hit about 180, he paused straight into the wind, so I settled the hairs, took a breath, and squeezed off. When I recovered from recoil, he was down for the count! The 100grn TTSX had done it's job and the fever came back with a vengeance!
He turned out to be a dandy 8pt with nice mass(5-3/4" bases). Taped out at 139-6/8"
Cell pic with a nice view of the double throat patch:
A view of the pop-up on the ridge behind me:
The other nice bucks taken in camp:
My bud John and his beauty of a 9pt taken on the last day just before dark. Johns buck had 5 points broken off, including what must have been a real nice drop as half the beam is busted off underneath for over 2" underneath one of his 3s. Looked like he busted one beam in velvet and also had busted off the g4 on one side. The other break offs were small stickers. Even with the breaks it's still a beauty of a 9pt with a 19" inside spread and taped out at 142"
John's wife Julie with a dandy 8pt she took on day two:
Gordon's nice heavy 8pt from day two as well:
Chris shot a nice 9 on day two, but we couldn't find him. After some persistent searching for two days, Chris and Gordon stumbled onto the buck. The coyotes had cleaned him up quite well:
Bob's nice 8 from the last eve of the hunt:
We had a great time with a great group of hunters and managed to take some nice bucks to boot.
Ya'll have a good one,
loder
