My wife Leigh and I had been planning a trip down to my Zavala county lease for several months during her time off for Christmas/New Year break. She has always been very considerate of my love for hunting and we try to make at least one trip a year that puts her in the shooters chair. Our busy schedule was going to make this year's trip extra short as we only had time for a one night, two hunt trip.
This season had been tough so far. Early fall rain had made for spring green in October and the right bucks seemed to be held up tight in the brush. Even with the rut kicking, I did not expect a whole lot to come out of our short trip.
Getting to the ranch Thursday, we unpacked and made our run to pull camera cards. Checking cards showed a lot of the same old thing but one interesting picture. On 12/19, we had a picture of a very interesting and never seen before buck.
Being 8 days earlier and only one picture, there really was no thought of finding the buck so we just decided to go to one of my favorite stands where we normally hunted. We got in the stand just before 4:00. At 4:45, i noticed a very good deer in a sendero to our south. One look through the binos and it was game on. After a little game of in and out of the brush, he turned broadside at 175 yards and Leigh made an absolute textbook high shoulder shot that anchored him in his tracks. It had to sound like a bottom of the ninth homerun in the blind. We were both so excited. We sat there talking about how awesome it all was for a while and got down to go check him out. He is a beautiful deer, way bigger than any I have killed. He taped out at 157" and his teeth showed 6.5. I dont know who is more proud of the deer but we can call it a tie. After all of my hard hunting this year, Leigh can spend 45 minutes in the stand and make it all look so easy. This buck was surely meant to be there for her.
This season had been tough so far. Early fall rain had made for spring green in October and the right bucks seemed to be held up tight in the brush. Even with the rut kicking, I did not expect a whole lot to come out of our short trip.
Getting to the ranch Thursday, we unpacked and made our run to pull camera cards. Checking cards showed a lot of the same old thing but one interesting picture. On 12/19, we had a picture of a very interesting and never seen before buck.
Being 8 days earlier and only one picture, there really was no thought of finding the buck so we just decided to go to one of my favorite stands where we normally hunted. We got in the stand just before 4:00. At 4:45, i noticed a very good deer in a sendero to our south. One look through the binos and it was game on. After a little game of in and out of the brush, he turned broadside at 175 yards and Leigh made an absolute textbook high shoulder shot that anchored him in his tracks. It had to sound like a bottom of the ninth homerun in the blind. We were both so excited. We sat there talking about how awesome it all was for a while and got down to go check him out. He is a beautiful deer, way bigger than any I have killed. He taped out at 157" and his teeth showed 6.5. I dont know who is more proud of the deer but we can call it a tie. After all of my hard hunting this year, Leigh can spend 45 minutes in the stand and make it all look so easy. This buck was surely meant to be there for her.
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