My son and I headed out to our deer lease this past weekend for the opener of general gun season here in Texas. By picking him up a few minutes early from school we had enough time to drive out to the property and get a bow hunt in before the gun season started the next morning.
I have a trail camera set up and have seen a few nice bucks, but most have not been legal bucks in this county (13 inch minimum inside spread). But, there was this one buck on my camera- twice- and I have been very excited to get a good look at him. Once he showed up in the middle of the night before bow season. The second time he showed up in the middle of the afternoon, right in the middle of bow season- on a Saturday afternoon no less. (I had written this weekend off as the moon was all wrong and some weather had blown in and it was supposed to be really windy that day- which it was. But, I was also attending a Halloween party with some friends of ours and it just wouldn't do to brood over not being in a deer stand when I couldn't.) Anyway, this is what I missed being at the party (He is a 5x6). He only hung around for 45 minutes, so I probably wouldn't have gotten a shot off anyway...(Facepalm)
<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/y3hrrvaJrMc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The date and time are wrong as the batteries in my camera were failing and it forgets these right before it decides to stop taking video.
I've already hunted too much during bow season- at least according to my wife- and have two work trips set up for the weeks immediately after opening weekend so she really doesn't want me to go. BUT, IT IS OPENING WEEKEND!!!
Anyway, we make it out to the lease and the bow hunt is a bust. I saw 2 does and a button buck. I could have taken a doe, but I had already taken a spike and decided that I was only going to shoot if a big boy showed up.
Opening morning sounded about like I expected it to sound, and we only saw a scrubby 3x4 and a fork horn. Before we headed back to the camp house for breakfast I grabbed the SD card out of my game camera so I could see what had happened over the past week. There was very little action as it had been a very wet weekend, however, there was a bright spot. A nice 4x5 showed up on Wednesday of that week around 8:20.
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Did I mention it had been raining?
I had seen this buck in another video and had decided that while less immediately impressive than the one above, he was most definitely wider and his antlers were almost (if not) as tall. I decided there that these were the 2 bucks that I was hunting for, and I wasn't going to shoot anything else.
The fork horn from Saturday morning showed up again on Sunday morning early and I pretty well thought that may be all that I was going to see. But, at 7:20 (time change was this morning) I see wide main beams bouncing in front of me. He didn't head for the corn but instead made a bee line for the next pasture. I had a small opening where I was pretty sure he was going to show up and leveled my Thompson Center Omega 50 cal at the opening. He wasn't stopping so I picked a spot and when he got there I squeezed the trigger. Smoke obscured my view but he bounded away- apparently unscathed. I had sighted my rifle at 50 yards and new from previous experience that a 50 yard hold was good to 100 yards and the shot felt really good so I was a bit at a loss as to the reaction from the deer. I pulled up the range finder and ranged the tree nearest to the deer when I fired- 107 yards. I reloaded the gun and told my sun to tell me when it was 7:45, that gave us 15 minutes to wait before we went to see what may or may not be on the ground. During this time I got my binos back out and made sure I knew (KNEW) where the deer was when I fired- so I could- hopefully- begin the blood trail. (I don't know why I lie to myself about this whole blood trail thing. While I can see red and green perfectly well on their own, I have red/green colorblindness which causes red mixed with green to blend in better than Waldo. A deer would have to roll out a Hollywood style red carpet for me to trail him by blood- at least before the first frost.) Anyway, I pull up the binos and focus on the spot where the deer was when I fired, but the image wouldn't really focus. I dialed back the focus and found the problem- there was a wispy bush (invisible to the naked eye) right in between the deer and my position. Upon further inspection I found a broken off stem about 1/2 the diameter of my little finger. The top edge of the stem was dented in a way that suggested a wide and slow moving bullet had knocked the rest of the stem off as it careened off course. Enthusiasm fully muted, I began what I believed to be a futile search for a deer carcass. With the ground as wet as it was, and with as little leaf litter as there was, a blood trail was just wishful thinking. We walked slowly in the direction I knew he had taken and I went over the shot again and again in my mind. As I turned to say "I think I missed" I saw him...
I took all the pictures of the deer I could and then handed the camera to my son. He took the best pictures of the day. While I had to position the deer, he told me how to do it, where to sit, and put the camera in position. I set the timer but he set up the shot...
It was a great weekend spent with our family and friends. While my wife didn't want me to go, but I now have the rest of the season free. My son is super excited as we can open the pen to attract the hogs and he can hog hunt. And, I have hopes that the other buck will live through the season and spread his genes far and wide.
I have a trail camera set up and have seen a few nice bucks, but most have not been legal bucks in this county (13 inch minimum inside spread). But, there was this one buck on my camera- twice- and I have been very excited to get a good look at him. Once he showed up in the middle of the night before bow season. The second time he showed up in the middle of the afternoon, right in the middle of bow season- on a Saturday afternoon no less. (I had written this weekend off as the moon was all wrong and some weather had blown in and it was supposed to be really windy that day- which it was. But, I was also attending a Halloween party with some friends of ours and it just wouldn't do to brood over not being in a deer stand when I couldn't.) Anyway, this is what I missed being at the party (He is a 5x6). He only hung around for 45 minutes, so I probably wouldn't have gotten a shot off anyway...(Facepalm)
<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/y3hrrvaJrMc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The date and time are wrong as the batteries in my camera were failing and it forgets these right before it decides to stop taking video.
I've already hunted too much during bow season- at least according to my wife- and have two work trips set up for the weeks immediately after opening weekend so she really doesn't want me to go. BUT, IT IS OPENING WEEKEND!!!
Anyway, we make it out to the lease and the bow hunt is a bust. I saw 2 does and a button buck. I could have taken a doe, but I had already taken a spike and decided that I was only going to shoot if a big boy showed up.
Opening morning sounded about like I expected it to sound, and we only saw a scrubby 3x4 and a fork horn. Before we headed back to the camp house for breakfast I grabbed the SD card out of my game camera so I could see what had happened over the past week. There was very little action as it had been a very wet weekend, however, there was a bright spot. A nice 4x5 showed up on Wednesday of that week around 8:20.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Gaky2QZKwl8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Did I mention it had been raining?
I had seen this buck in another video and had decided that while less immediately impressive than the one above, he was most definitely wider and his antlers were almost (if not) as tall. I decided there that these were the 2 bucks that I was hunting for, and I wasn't going to shoot anything else.
The fork horn from Saturday morning showed up again on Sunday morning early and I pretty well thought that may be all that I was going to see. But, at 7:20 (time change was this morning) I see wide main beams bouncing in front of me. He didn't head for the corn but instead made a bee line for the next pasture. I had a small opening where I was pretty sure he was going to show up and leveled my Thompson Center Omega 50 cal at the opening. He wasn't stopping so I picked a spot and when he got there I squeezed the trigger. Smoke obscured my view but he bounded away- apparently unscathed. I had sighted my rifle at 50 yards and new from previous experience that a 50 yard hold was good to 100 yards and the shot felt really good so I was a bit at a loss as to the reaction from the deer. I pulled up the range finder and ranged the tree nearest to the deer when I fired- 107 yards. I reloaded the gun and told my sun to tell me when it was 7:45, that gave us 15 minutes to wait before we went to see what may or may not be on the ground. During this time I got my binos back out and made sure I knew (KNEW) where the deer was when I fired- so I could- hopefully- begin the blood trail. (I don't know why I lie to myself about this whole blood trail thing. While I can see red and green perfectly well on their own, I have red/green colorblindness which causes red mixed with green to blend in better than Waldo. A deer would have to roll out a Hollywood style red carpet for me to trail him by blood- at least before the first frost.) Anyway, I pull up the binos and focus on the spot where the deer was when I fired, but the image wouldn't really focus. I dialed back the focus and found the problem- there was a wispy bush (invisible to the naked eye) right in between the deer and my position. Upon further inspection I found a broken off stem about 1/2 the diameter of my little finger. The top edge of the stem was dented in a way that suggested a wide and slow moving bullet had knocked the rest of the stem off as it careened off course. Enthusiasm fully muted, I began what I believed to be a futile search for a deer carcass. With the ground as wet as it was, and with as little leaf litter as there was, a blood trail was just wishful thinking. We walked slowly in the direction I knew he had taken and I went over the shot again and again in my mind. As I turned to say "I think I missed" I saw him...
I took all the pictures of the deer I could and then handed the camera to my son. He took the best pictures of the day. While I had to position the deer, he told me how to do it, where to sit, and put the camera in position. I set the timer but he set up the shot...
It was a great weekend spent with our family and friends. While my wife didn't want me to go, but I now have the rest of the season free. My son is super excited as we can open the pen to attract the hogs and he can hog hunt. And, I have hopes that the other buck will live through the season and spread his genes far and wide.
