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I decided to brave the cold and wind from my treestand
rather than my ICE Blind this morning. As I layered
my Brush Country camo for warmth, I was settled
in by 6:15, and again found myself sitting in the dark for
quite some time. By the time it became light enough
to see, I sat anxiously waiting for deer activity.
The longer I waited, the colder I got as the deer didn't
seem to be moving. Finally, at about 9:00, three
bucks came in from various directions. There were a
couple of eights and a small six that fed for a few minutes,
then left again.
It was a while before anything
else came in, until this young spike came in for a brief
visit. I got a little careless and he spotted me,
but soon settled back in and began feeding.
By 10:15, I was shivering and contemplating getting
down. I was looking down at my video camera, trying
to convince myself to pull my hands out of my hand warmer
muff wrapped around my waste and gather up my gear.
I gave one last glance up and spotted a deer walking
toward me down the road from my right. I slowly sat
back down. I saw that it was a small buck, but it
was a deer, nonetheless. Right at the same time, the
buck stopped, still about 60 yards away, and began looking
toward the brush directly in front of me. I looked
over to see a javelina coming across the road to the
corn. The buck continued towards me, and then 10
more javelina came out of the brush.
The buck came on in, and began to feed about 12 yards
from me, while the javelina fed farther back. Just
then, an old, brown colored javelina charged toward the
buck and ran him away. Now that made me mad. I
normally don't mind javelina because, typically, they'll
feed together with deer without becoming aggressive.
But this one just crossed the line. I was going to
look for something to throw at them to try to run them
off, when I noticed the young buck was standing on the
road about 45 yards away looking directly at me. I
froze. I didn't want to spook him while trying to
scare the javelina. He continued to stare in my
direction for several minutes. Suddenly, I heard
footsteps approaching on the trail behind me and to my
right. I slowly turned to see that the young buck
was not looking at me, but in fact was looking at a
quality, mature ten pointer!
It didn't take long to identify this buck as a
shooter. I liked the looks of this buck, and for
whatever reason, it felt right. The buck came into
position, putting his head down behind a cactus bush,
while I focused my camera on him, grabbed my bow and
readied for the shot. One last glance at the camera
to make sure everything was in place to capture it on
video, and then I prepared to draw, taking note of the
twelve other animals in front of me. I noticed that
the old, brown javelina was walking towards the deer, and
then, like he had with the eight pointer, the javelina
charged the larger buck, sending him scurrying into the
brush to my left, then back toward the road where the
younger buck was still standing.
Oh man, I was burning hot! I wanted to shoot that
little sucker right then and there! But both bucks
were still in the vicinity, and by now the ten was walking
slowly back toward the corn. I pointed the camera at
a spot relatively far away from the javelina where I
thought the buck most likely to go. As he approached
the spot, the brown javelina again started walking toward
the buck, causing the buck to quickly cross to my right,
and then away toward the road. By now I was
steaming, but still thought the buck might be determined
to return. As he walked away, I made a soft
"bleat" with my mouth. The buck
stopped. Again I made the sound, and the buck
turned. A few seconds later, he started walking back
in! I briefly contemplated forsaking the video this
time and taking the first available shot, but decided that
my goal was not just to take a big buck, but to capture it
on film! Once again, however, the javelina diverted
the buck away from the meal, and this time my mouth bleats
had no affect. The buck sauntered down the road to
my right, and I watched angrily as the buck disappeared a
hundred yards down the road.
About the time he disappeared, however, I spotted
another buck walking toward me from the same
direction. It turned out to be the droopy horned
nine pointer that I had seen earlier in the morning, and
he simply walked on by me at 8 yards, never giving
consideration to the golden morels on the ground, which
were still quickly becoming consumed by eleven javelina.
When the buck disappeared to my left, I was fighting
mad! I reached in the front pocket of my Brush
Country bib overalls and found my mini-mag flashlight, and
then hurled it wildly at the brown javelina. I
missed by a few feet, and the javelina only picked their
heads up for a brief moment, then returned to
feeding. I reached in my pack and found a hex wrench
set, and chunked it at the same javelina. This time
the throw was more accurate, missing the pig by only a few
inches. Still, the javelina, while momentarily
startled, were undeterred.
I sat shivering in my stand, in part due to the cold
and because of the nerves of having narrowly missed an
opportunity to shoot a nice buck, but also because I was
so mad, for several minutes, contemplating what my next
action should be. I had sat here in the cold for
over 4 and a half hours, only to have a smelly rodent
chase off my deer! I almost rared back on my Hoyt
Striker and sent a Thunderhead tipped message between the
old javelina's eyes but, not wanting to violate any game
laws of the state of Texas (waste of a game animal), and
not wanting to risk breaking an arrow or losing a
broadhead on this worthless critter, I decided against
it. Finally, I climbed down from my stand, and in a
fit of rage charged the brown javelina. He looked at
me, confused, until I was only about five feet from him,
and then they all scampered in different directions into
the brush. However, they stopped only several yards
away. Again, I gave chase until I was satisfied they
would not be returning. By now, however, I was too
cold, and too mad to get back in my stand.
I decided instead to make a quick trip into town to buy
some warmups and a new video tape, as my second one was
dangerously close to the end! Before I left, I
admired the yard buck, who was feeding behind the
cabin.
Tuesday Afternoon
While in town, I bought a pair of warmup bottoms to
keep me a bit warmer than I had been this morning, and a
two pack of video tapes. I also found a nice little
Marksman BB gun that would work just perfectly on those
pesky javelina! I was back at the ranch by 2:30.
By now, I was refreshed and ready for more stand
time. I drove around the back way to my stand, and
for some unknown reason, as I reached my parking spot, I
decided that I wanted to hunt my ICE Blind setup this
afternoon rather than the chain on, even though I had
already identified a shooter buck. Call it a whim, a
hunch, or a gut feeling, but I made up my mind to do
it. All of my gear was still in the mesquite tree,
so I gathered it up and made my way to the ICE
Blind. This gut feeling, unfortunately,
turned out just like so many others! It seems I made
the wrong decision, as the only thing I saw all evening
was a unicorn; a a spike with only one antler! 
He
only hung around for several minutes, and aside from that,
the only action I had was "plinking" a lone
javelina with my new BB gun. I missed with the first
shot, but seemingly hit him with the second, as he
scampered back into the brush. However, he returned
again, and again I sent a BB in his vicinity. I
didn't see the BB, but he again ran away, only to return a
third time! This time, when I cocked the gun, the
javelina disappeared for good! As I left the blind in
the darkness, I wondered what had posessed me to make the
decision to forego the "old faithful" chain on
stand, which has proven productive for several years, to
hunt the new location, from which I've seen very little
activity this season. I wanted to make a conscious
effort this season to expand from the four or five old
"standby" stands that I find myself hunting each
year, so Casey and I set up at this location during Labor
Day weekend. There was plenty of sign to indicate
deer were using the feeder, including tracks and a few
rubs. However, whether due to improper setup, smell,
or whatever, I haven't had much luck hunting this
location. I guess tomorrow I'll return to my
"old faithful." I suppose there's a reason
those locations become "old faithfuls!"
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