Pressured Deer Are EASY To Pattern

[lovemylegacy]

DUDE! Ya killin me.

[Stuck]

OK I'll ask. Why didn't the crossbow fire? Bolt not seated?

[AgHntr10]

Best thread I've read in a while

[Johnny]

I've been throwing corn out behind my house and my bow lease down the road already. Looks like we will be talking a lot of deer hunting over the next few days while slinging dirt. Keep em coming!

[GarGuy]

Dad Whacks An East Tx Monster!

What a morning! Dad and I got in early this morning and had several deer come by day break. We had a bunch of does at 20yds when they all threw their heads up and looked the way the two monsters had been coming. I had to lean way over to look but dad could see that direction well. I could make out three BIG deer coming.

Dad got his binos up and said,"ITS HIM!". Dad got his 280 Remington and put it on his shooting stick but Dad had on so many layers of clothes that he couldn't shoulder his gun! LOL. Did I mention it was cold this morning? I moved the gun back and we quietly unzipped his heavy coat. In the meantime, The big typical framed ten had sprinted to the corn at 20yds and pushed the does out. We carefully got the gun back in position on the inside of his coat and got him turned slightly to his right. Now there are a 6 deer at 20yds and I was a wreck.

Gun in position and deer quartering to us, I told him to shoot! That's when I noticed he wasn't even looking at the giant but had the scope on that old freak 8pt that I posted a picture of on another thread. The 8pt was back in the brush and I told dad to shoot that deer right now! He said that other deer is coming in! " I don't care! Shoot that deer!" He did! At the crack of the rifle the giant took a nose dive.

He is a main frame ten with four scorable kickers. Longest beam was 25 2/8. G2s both over 12 inches. Two mass measurements over 8 inches. I rough scored him at 176 4/8 but I think I cheated him a few inches on some of the judgement call measurements. I will score him again when the antlers are off the deer. Congrats DAD on your biggest buck to date!

[GarGuy]

OK I'll ask. Why didn't the crossbow fire? Bolt not seated?

Cocked with the safety on and the anti dryfire was holding the string. Operator rookie mistake.

[Bayouboy]

Any kind. Mix it rich. Great cover scent for covering where you walk to hand corn when sprayed on boots. No substitute for having the wind right though.

I have a tailgate feeder on my Polaris Ranger. Everytime I go to the lease I have certain areas that I corn before I leave. Especially the clear cut trails. I always pour a small bottle of vanilla in my feeder before I corn the trails to get them used to it. They evidently have become accustomed to it. Seems they expect it!

[GarGuy]

The death of Cripple horn

Guys I have had a fun season and stuck to archery only all the way through. Yesterday, I filled my last tag with a 6.5 year old 8 pt that scored 153 7/8.

I know many of you pass bucks bigger than that on a daily basis but a free ranging deer that size in East Tx with archery gear is a challenge to me. For the past 7 years, I have committed to hunting a deer over 150 and all but two years have succeeded. I was thinking it wouldn't happen this year with making mistakes early on and then my number one deer getting killed by a neighbor.

Anyway, I had a huge 8 pt that Summered on one of my places but spent much of the rut a couple miles away in another county. Every year when the rut ended he would come home. I kept adding him up and getting low 50s but almost hated to hope he was that big but each time I saw him live, he was just stunning. I was pleased to start getting sporatic pics of him on his home turf a couple weeks ago in one of my sanctuaries. These spots have food plots and feeders but I have put off limits through out the season.Last Friday and Saturday, I got over 500 pics of him in my hand corn pile with a bachelor group of other nice deer and I knew he was home to stay so I started putting a plan together.

Yesterday evening the wind was perfect and I told my wife that this was the day. I could just feel it. I got in my ground blind in the sanctuary and was covered up in deer early. I had 13 does and one small buck in the corn and plot when I looked up and saw three bucks come in the food plot about 300yds out. One looked BIG!. About that time I looked out my left window and saw three bucks coming from the opposite direction and they looked big. I grabbed my binos and saw several nice bucks I recognized but not Ol Big. One deer was behind the rest and when he raised his head up , even at 300 yds there was no doubt and he headed toward my hand corn at 20-25yds. The other three bucks got to the corn pile and chased the does out before commencing to try to devour all 100lbs of corn! I knew Ol Big couldn't stand that and sure enough he was at 100yds and closing when 4 dang coyotes broke out into the food plot. Deer vanished in every direction! I was sick.

I probably had 20 minutes of shooting light left when deer started filing back to the corn. I looked through the binoculars at them and saw a deer come out way back at the end. He raised his head up and even in the low light the light colored mass on his head was obvious. This time he was alone and coming at a very fast walk. He never paused as he closed the 300yds to the hand corn.

23yds...turned broadside..pin perfect...WHACK! He blew out and I was just sitting there wondering if that really happened. I sat a few minutes and tried to settle my nerves before sneaking out to peek at the arrow. it was stuck in the ground behind where he was standing and the fletching was bright red. I picked it up and stuck it in the ground , then sneaked out and headed home figuring I would give him an hour. I was sitting on the couch talking to dad and was about to head back when I wiped my nose with my left hand and it STUNK! Oh GOD I know the smell of guts! Now I got physically ill! I called my BIL who has been on many blood trails with me and he said he was in Bryan but headed home. That's 2 hours. It was all I could do to say I would wait on him but I knew it was the right thing to do.

We got out there about 830pm and sure enough there was paunch contents that the arrow carried through even though there was bright blood on the fletching. We worked the trail I saw him enter on and had gone about 40yds when I found the first blood. Pink lung blood and I was excited. A few yards further and some nose blown blood with a sliver of lung tissue in it. Then the blood just quit. tiny flecks on hands and knees with smears on weeds. I called BBoswell shortly after smelling guts and now I was really considering pulling out till morning and bringing in the dog. We knew we weren't pushing the deer though and figured we would trail until we found his first bed. We spent 2 hours working 250yds when I saw a spot he had stopped and bled pretty good out both sides. He made a turn there and I back tracked a little in order to see which way he might have headed. I shined my light down the tunnel and said he could have gone through there. 5 yards away was a big old set of antlers sticking up out of the brush connected to a stone dead OL Big!! The whooping began!

Its been a long season but tag number five is on Ol Big! He is a clean 8pt with 35 plus inches of mass. 153 7/8

[Johnny]

Steve's dads East Texas brute...183 4/8's respectively.



Ol Cripple Horn 153 7/8's....big 8's just set me off.

[tbgascorer]

Thanks for sharing garguy, I enjoyed the stories.

[myway]

Wow! Always enjoy your thread but this one will get a man ready for deer season. Question I am firm believer in hand corn as well but it seems anymore the hogs find it as fast and turns into a hog spot and I loose interest. Do you think it effects the spot as much as I do or do you continue to hunt it? Unfortunately I do not have the luxury of baiting west Texas like I would like but it's usually a 50 or so before I leave on Sunday.
Once again love the reads.

[GarGuy]

Thanks for sharing garguy, I enjoyed the stories.

I could do this for weeks. I am enjoying reliving a few of them.

[Clay243]

Garguy do you feed protien in your sanctuarys?

[GarGuy]

OL Double Shot

Several years ago, a friend was at the house that builds custom guns. He was building a 22-250 and had just finished the bedding. We took it to the range and it was a one holer with his favorite load behind a sierra sp bt bullet. Man it was fun to shoot. Well that afternoon it was time to get in the thickets. He brought that 22-250 to me and said I should christen it for him. Reluctantly, I took it. I was sitting a ladder stand in..you guessed it...a bad thicket with American beauty berry waist high and three big postoaks on a little ridge 50yds away.
About 30 minutes before dark, I caught a glimpse of antlers. He raised his head again and man what a beautiful buck! Big mature 5.5 year old ten with long brows that looked 150ish. Now all I could see was the top line of his back and his neck. He had a beautiful double throat patch and I didn't want to ruin it so I looked for an opening to his ribcage. I found it and touched it off. He fell like a sack of taters. I just sat there as my friend was close and I knew he would have heard the shot. He got there right at dark and we walked over to the little ridge and he WASNT THERE! There was blood, meat, hair, and bone but the deer had drug himself down the back side of the hill. Easy trail as he was literally dragging is body. Then it ended. I spent four days looking for him. I knew for a fact that I had shot him high in the shoulder and was sick for weeks about him crawling off to die.

Two years later I was hunting with the same friend in another thicket a couple miles away. Just before dark a stud of a buck came crashing in and ran the rest of my deer out. Huge 10pt and a no brainer shooter so I rolled him up. When we rolled him over, he had a giant scar on his shoulder and a bunch of it was missing. Even a bunch of backstrap was gone and a hollow across his spine. Mt friend commented that he must have been hit by a truck. I agreed. I got him home and started caping him out since he had such a beautiful double throat patch cape and saw bullet fragments. I told my friend that the deer had been shot there with a small, high velocity bullet that had totally failed. He was the first to think of it...could that be the deer you shot two years ago? Nah...that was two miles away... I rolled his one good backstrap out and there was the jacket of the bullet. Nice little Seirra sp boat tail!

He was now 7.5 and scored 157 as a typical ten with 2 fliers off his G2s.

[GarGuy]

Garguy do you feed protien in your sanctuarys?

No but I plant clover, wheat, rye, and honeysuckle.