I loaded up the family on Sunday and made the 7 hour drive west to my buddy's family ranch in San Angelo, Tx. They own 2600ac and Bobby is really the only one that hunts it. That is fine and well except he wants to manage his place for higher quality deer. It is a VERY high deer density area and to manage for quality it is impossible for one man to do. That's where I came in.
I had very limited time to hunt. We both have very young families and he only has limited time at home away from working out of town. I certainly didn't want to over stay my welcome so the plan was to hunt Sunday evening through Tuesday morning.
I was really hoping to fill a couple of doe tags and that proved to be a challenge. There was always deer in the way, they wouldn't offer a good angle etc. I took it down to the wire. I'd seen some really nice deer, 2 that would get into the 130's but none that were 5 years old or older. I did manage to make a 220 yard shot on a big ~200lbs sow hog on Monday. That was much needed pork for smoked sausage coming up soon.
So Tuesday morning I was covered up in deer... And they were all bucks! The problem was, they were all 2 and 3 year old deer. All of the sudden a buck twice as big as anything in front of me stepped out of the draw but he had his head down and the grass is high. Away back, barrel chest, thick neck, tarsals stained black all the way to his feet. This deer was. Shooter regardless to what was on his head. Still I waited... And waited... And waited!
15min must have gone by. He'd pick his head up and by the time I got the binos on him, his head was back hidden behind the grass. FINALLY he let me get a look. Narrow rack, mediocre tines, good mass, and short beams. Not a monster by any standards, but was certainly a big mature buck. When managing for numbers it doesn't make sense to kill off your top tier bucks. This guy was exactly the kind of deer Bobby wanted shot. I felt like I should oblige.
Once I decided to go, I started focussing on shot placement. I clicked the safety off on my Browning A Bolt .280 and waited for the perfect broadside angle. When it came I put the crosshairs of the Swarovski Z3 just a touch back from the shoulder so I wouldn't destroy any meat. The hand loaded 140gr Sierra Boat Tail being pushed by 54.5gr of 4310 makes a pretty gnarly hole if it hits a serious bone. He stopped, I settled, and slowly squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!!! No reaction whatsoever that made me feel like I'd made a good shot. He didn't buckle, he didn't stumble, I didn't hear the report of the bullet smacking its target... Nothing. He just ran back the direction he came from. I sat probably another 30 min and decided to go take a look.
It looked like I was in the chips! I scanned ahead and didn't see anything that looked like a deer, so I pressed forward with the track. Ray Charles could have followed the blood trail and I never slowed below a steady walk. Just inside the brush about 40 yards I walked up on my deer.
Another awesome weekend with friends and family, and some outstanding table fair headed back home with me. I'm East Tx through and through, but I sure do enjoy it when I make it out to the short tree country.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had very limited time to hunt. We both have very young families and he only has limited time at home away from working out of town. I certainly didn't want to over stay my welcome so the plan was to hunt Sunday evening through Tuesday morning.
I was really hoping to fill a couple of doe tags and that proved to be a challenge. There was always deer in the way, they wouldn't offer a good angle etc. I took it down to the wire. I'd seen some really nice deer, 2 that would get into the 130's but none that were 5 years old or older. I did manage to make a 220 yard shot on a big ~200lbs sow hog on Monday. That was much needed pork for smoked sausage coming up soon.
So Tuesday morning I was covered up in deer... And they were all bucks! The problem was, they were all 2 and 3 year old deer. All of the sudden a buck twice as big as anything in front of me stepped out of the draw but he had his head down and the grass is high. Away back, barrel chest, thick neck, tarsals stained black all the way to his feet. This deer was. Shooter regardless to what was on his head. Still I waited... And waited... And waited!
15min must have gone by. He'd pick his head up and by the time I got the binos on him, his head was back hidden behind the grass. FINALLY he let me get a look. Narrow rack, mediocre tines, good mass, and short beams. Not a monster by any standards, but was certainly a big mature buck. When managing for numbers it doesn't make sense to kill off your top tier bucks. This guy was exactly the kind of deer Bobby wanted shot. I felt like I should oblige.
Once I decided to go, I started focussing on shot placement. I clicked the safety off on my Browning A Bolt .280 and waited for the perfect broadside angle. When it came I put the crosshairs of the Swarovski Z3 just a touch back from the shoulder so I wouldn't destroy any meat. The hand loaded 140gr Sierra Boat Tail being pushed by 54.5gr of 4310 makes a pretty gnarly hole if it hits a serious bone. He stopped, I settled, and slowly squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!!! No reaction whatsoever that made me feel like I'd made a good shot. He didn't buckle, he didn't stumble, I didn't hear the report of the bullet smacking its target... Nothing. He just ran back the direction he came from. I sat probably another 30 min and decided to go take a look.
It looked like I was in the chips! I scanned ahead and didn't see anything that looked like a deer, so I pressed forward with the track. Ray Charles could have followed the blood trail and I never slowed below a steady walk. Just inside the brush about 40 yards I walked up on my deer.
Another awesome weekend with friends and family, and some outstanding table fair headed back home with me. I'm East Tx through and through, but I sure do enjoy it when I make it out to the short tree country.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
