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Live Hunt Details

Hunters
     
Michael Middleton
      Michaela Middleton

Location
   
Webb County, Texas

Dates
    December 29 - January 1

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A Webb County New Year!


Sunday Evening

Sunday evening found me back at the Swivel Limb on Hi-Line road.  I still had hopes of seeing the big boy that my brother and I were unable to get last season.  Again, I went out early for a long afternoon sit.  While hunting this stand, I've had deer approach from every conceivable direction, and while the east-northeast wind was not perfect  to hunt the stand, the primary trails were not in the path of my scent, but any shift in the wind could change that in a hurry.  It was some time before I finally had a deer approach from behind me.  A lone doe was cautiously looking toward the decoy that was still set up from the previous morning.  She seemed much more skittish than the deer I had seen previously, and she remained behind me, just out of the shooting lane for quite some time.  I decided that if she entered the shooting lane at which my Sony Digital camcorder was pointed, I would attempt the shot, but I knew it would be tricky due to her nervousness.  Several times, she poked her head into the lane to eat, but each time she retreated, obviously "feeling" something was not right.  I'm not sure if it was the decoy or a trickle of my scent, but something had her wired.

After a half hour or better of hide and seek, I heard a ruckus coming from in front of me, just across the fence toward the feeder.  It was hogs.  They quickly came in and vacuumed up the corn from under the feeder.  The large boar crossed the fence and walked behind me, while several sows and smaller hogs fed on the corn that I had scattered in the gate opening, which offered a great funnel.  I had a perfect shot opportunity to the gate at about 12 yards, but due to the position of the camera, and a limb blocking it's view to the opening, I could not take the shot on film.  I figured that the hogs would continue to feed until they entered the second lane to the left, and focused the camera on that position.  One of the little piglets broke off from the group and walked directly under the limb on which I was positioned!  About that same time, I heard the big boar growling and making a ruckus like he'd been hit with a hammer.  I noticed the breeze was blowing right toward him, and he obviously didn't appreciate my smell!  All of the pigs panicked and vacated the area.  

I had hoped to avoid having an animal walk downwind, but as much as the deer and hogs moved around, I knew that it was impossible to prevent it.   Things settled back down, and about 45 minutes later, I heard movement across the fence to my right.  My heart raced when I could see an approaching buck, catching glimpses of his heavy, dark antlers as he made his way through the brush and limbs between us.  I focused the camera on him as he walked toward the opening in the gate.  I grabbed my bow from the hook above.  "This could be the one" I thought as I prepared the camera and bow for the shot.  I could tell that he had a lot of mass, and looked to have good tine length and a little character in the curl of his antlers. Click on the image below for a video clip of the deer's approach, just as I saw it. 

Finally, he stepped into plain view, and I noticed that he was only an eight pointer, and more importantly, had a broken left G3 and right brow tine.  Still, he was a beautiful buck.  He made his way through the gate and into my shooting lane in direct view of the camera, but knew that I would be disappointed had I settled for him.  He turned away from me to take a look at the decoy, which was apparently unsettling for him as he bolted away for good.

Later in the evening, I again had a trio of does that came in but were extremely cautious.  They fed on some corn in the road, but were reluctant to enter the shooting lane.  They didn't appear to know I was around, but apparently knew something wasn't quite right.  Just when it looked like they were settling down, I heard that familiar, obnoxious sound of hogs approaching to the feeder.  Again, what looked to be the same group of hogs as before, entered the picture and cleaned the newly thrown corn from under the feeder.  Again, I readied for them to come through the gate and into my filming/shooting window.  They came back into the gate opening, offering a great shot opportunity, but I deferred until they fed into a good camera angle.  Like all of the animals on this evening, however, the hogs seemed more on edge than normal, and again left without me getting a shot.  

For whatever reason, there are days when the animals seem almost tame, and other days when the animals, almost in unison, seem to sense danger.  This evening was definitely the latter. I could have taken a shot at the eight pointer with the broken tines, but chose not to.  However, I had hoped to get a shot at a doe and at least one hog this evening so as not to come down to the last hunt without having something in the cooler. 

Check back soon for Monday morning's exciting update.