I’ve focused all my deer hunting on my Oklahoma place since 2014, but since I tagged the buck up there October, I decided to give east TX a try this year. I did a little scouting last Thursday and Friday, and I set my climbing stand on a scrape line. Saturday morning, I passed a really nice young 11 point and ended up shooting a doe that busted me (I don’t tolerate blowing does). I got skunked Saturday evening. Sunday morning, I threw up a ground blind on another scrape line and saw a young doe, a 3 pt, 4 pt, 6 pt, and a nice 8 pt. Sunday evening, I went back to my climber and saw a different 4 point. I didn’t get to hunt yesterday and almost didn’t go today because of the heat, but I decided to go due to this being a “best” day on the solunar table. The minor time for the morning was 6:19-7:19. Just after daylight, the 8 point I passed on Sunday walked under me at about 25 yards, and a little after 7, I heard something moving through the leaves behind me. I turned and saw it was a buck, but I thought it was the 8 point coming back. I got my binos on him and realized it was a different buck with a huge body, so by the time I decided to take him, he was moving off through the woods away from me. I got him in the scope, and fortunately, he stopped. I shot through a 10-12” gap between two tree at 60 yards. I couldn’t see him but heard him fall, but he got back up and slowly walked about 20 yards twitching his tail. He stopped again and fell within sight of my stand about 40 yards to my right.
I knew he was a big bodied buck, but I didn’t realize he was the biggest buck I’ve ever killed in east TX. He bottomed out a 200 lb scale.
He’s not the biggest racked buck I’ve killed in east TX, but he gross scored 130.5”.
I haven’t hunted old school with no corn and no cameras in probably 30 years, and I have to admit it’s kind of liberating.
I used a Blaser BBF 97 12 ga over 308 combo gun topped with an illuminated Schmidt Bender 1.25-4 scope.
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