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Live Hunt Details

Hunters
      
Michael Middleton
      

Location
    
  Encinal, Texas

Dates
 December 29, 2001- January 2, 2002

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Post Rut Hunting in Encinal



 Saturday

Thursday evening and all day Friday were spent celebrating a belated Christmas with the in-laws.  We got home around midnight on Friday night, and after packing my gear, it was pretty late when we finally got to bed.  Nevertheless, I still had trouble going to sleep because of the anticipation of the hunt.  I tried to convince my wife to let me leave right then, but she wouldn't hear of it.  Probably a good thing, anyway.  I finally drifted off to sleep for a few hours, and then woke up again at 5 a.m.  I tried to go back to sleep, but just couldn't do it.  Thinking she might be in an incoherent state, I gently woke my wife and asked her if I could leave yet.  "One more hour," came her reply!  I let her drift back to sleep and then got up to take a shower. . . scent free of course! 

I tried to kill time as best I could.  I tried to log onto my favorite internet website, TexasBowhunter.com, but for some reason the site was down.  By the time I contacted the web host and got the problem corrected, it was time to go!

My dad, step-mom and brother, Mark, had been at the ranch since Thursday, and I was looking forward to spending some time visiting with them.  However, my dad called and informed me that a long time family friend had passed last night, requiring them to leave today in order to attend the funeral.  That means that I'll likely be spending the majority, if not all, of the week hunting alone.

I arrived at the ranch by 2:30 and quickly set up my Brush Country camo'd ICE Blind about 15 yards off a sendero.  I returned to the cabin for a quick bite to eat and a shower.  I donned my brand new Brush Country field shirt and cap and made my way back to the blind.  I did have a mishap on the way.  I made a turn off the main road onto one of our ranch roads, and as I did, I hit a bump.  I was concerned about my bow, which I had set on top of a couple bags of corn, and I turned to make sure it had not bounced out.   As I turned my head, my pickup drifted ever-so-slightly to the right and I hit relatively hard into the wooden gate post.   I got out to inspect, and while the post suffered no damage, the corner of my bumper was bent pretty badly, enough that when I tried to make a left turn, the bumper would rub the tire.  I was sick!  I decided to continue my hunt and deal with this problem later. 

Once inside the blind, I dozed on and off until I heard something munching on corn.  Several javelina were enjoying quite a feast.  I opted not to attempt a shot, since I don't particularly care to eat them.  They eventually moved on, only to appear again a short time later.  Actually, I only saw two the second time, and they were chasing and biting each other viciously!  In fact, they came within 5 yards of the blind on two different occasions.  I was certain that they were eventually going to end up in the blind with me!

Moments after they disappeared, I spotted several deer a ways back in the brush.  I couldn't make out what they were, but I could tell from the body language that at least one was a buck chasing a doe.  I heard crunching once more.  My excitement built as I anticipated a big buck showing in my shooting lane.  It didn't take long, however, to figure out that the source was hogs!  And one of them was huge!!!

I contemplated shooting one.  Initially, I decided that I wasn't going to take a big one, but rather a good eating sized sow.  Then I decided that I'd attempt to take the largest one.  I got a little greedy waiting on a perfect video shot, however.  Although the hog presented a broadside shot on a couple of different occasions, I kept waiting until I could see the pig's whole body on the screen, instead of the head being partially obscured by brush.  Unfortunately, I waited too long and the two larger hogs spooked and ran in the brush.  Two smaller sows remained, and again I positioned for a shot.  I was just getting ready to draw on a nice red one, when for whatever reason, the got nervous and left!  Oh well.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of other opportunities to see hogs!

A while later, a doe appeared in my shooting window. 

At 12 yards, she looked at the blind for just a second before deciding there was no imminent danger, and then began to feed.   My excitement level again peaked as she kept looking nervously behind her.  A few minutes later, a second doe came in.  She was really nervous, not about me or my blind, but about whatever it was that was chasing her!

Finally, I saw antlers!  I could only barely see them in the viewfinder of my camera because I wanted to stay hidden from the deer's view inside the window.  He was a decent buck, but not a shooter.  The buck seemed really nervous as he kept one eye on the doe in front and the other cautiously on my blind.  One of the doe became nervous about something and ran off, and the buck decided to retreat as well.

Click on the image above to see the video of this scene.

Although there was still a bit of shooting light remaining, there was not enough for quality film, so I left the blind a little early to look down the road to see what might be moving.  I saw another decent quality young buck, and though I managed to get him on film, the quality was shaky, at best, so I'll refrain from posting it.

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