My dad, brother (Jeter on TBH) and I always dreamed of having our own property to hunt rather than have to lease; most on here share the same dream. After countless trips to meet realtors on ranches/farms over the course of about 10 years, we found the place we thought was right for us in March 2013. The only trail cam pics we had from the place were of a bunch of, what looked to be, young deer and one night time pic of a buck that looked like he might be in the 130s...we were hoping he was just a young buck with some upside. Having always leased, our mentality was to just move our stuff if a place did not turn out to be as good as we hoped. We knew that when you buy a place, you are stuck with it for a while (unless you can quickly find a buyer) whether the hunting was great or not. We knew that this piece of land would have some deer and be a good place for our family to get away and enjoy the outdoors, but deep down we always wanted to think the hunting could be great. So with that, we began developing what has affectionately been dubbed "The Farm".
Not knowing what to expect regarding deer, I'll never forget the day in the Summer of 2013 when Dad sent me this pic...
Knowing nothing about the deer quality, except what we'd read and heard, I commented that this deer was a moose of a buck, and we were all excited to see what this place had in store for us. "The Moose" was named that day and became a quite special animal to all of us. He validated our efforts to that point, in a way. Fortunately, he was not the only good buck we had on the place so we began to strategize to try to kill these buck. Our farm is in big wheat/farm land not the mesquite country that we were used to hunting in Shackelford County. We quickly learned that farm country buck are not starving and they typically could care less about your corn feeders. My brother connected on a management 7 pt that was 20" wide towards the end of the 2013 season as our only kill. 5 minutes later, after hearing a lot of splashing coming from the river, a doe burst from the trees with 6 bucks in hot pursuit, including The Moose. My brother's tag was filled and the deer were well out of bow range, but this would be one of many encounters that we would have with The Moose in 2013...just no bow shots and we only bow hunt our farm.
After the season was over, prep for 2014 began with killing The Moose our top priority. Stands were moved based on travel patterns we'd observed hoping to get within bow range of the old buck. During turkey season a friend of ours (Floor Man) found one of his sheds while hunting our place, and we were amazed to find that the deer we thought was a nice 130 class buck was actually going to be closer to 145 because of his exceptional mass and 24" main beams. This only added fuel to our fire...now we were learning that he was actually quite the trophy not just an old 8 pt. We identified him in late May eating at one of our protein feeders constantly and enjoyed watching him grow his massive rack throughout the summer of 2014...
Several encounters with him in 2014 yielded no shots so we were happy to see him alive and well after lots of rifle shots around us the final evening of the 2014 season...
2015 season prep began and stands were moved again employing Krivoman blinds at our primary spots in an effort to help us quit just seeing these deer but rather give us a chance to kill some of them. The Moose was impressive again all summer and we were itching for the 2015 season to roll around. Our new sets worked great...we've all had many encounters with many good bucks but none of our Hit List bucks had given us shots. We knew it was just a matter of time before something was going to hit the ground. The two bucks at the top of the hit list were The Moose and a buck he's run with during the summer since 2013 that we called The Freak because of his non-typical left side during the 2014 season due to injury (2013 and 2015 he is a slick 10 pt.).
Yesterday afternoon, Dad and J'son (my brother) were able to get away from work and run up for an overnighter to take advantage of the cold front that had moved in. In the group text, Dad was seeing deer and J'son was not (in our East Krivoman blind). The East Krivo is a great morning spot so I text J'son at 6:33 "East will have a shooter in the morning" to which he responded "Will c". 7:18 this morning, my phone rings...it's J'son. I knew something good happened. The sound of his voice is why we hunt; the excitement was clear as a bell when he said, "I just shot The Moose". He then goes on to tell me that he spotted him walking from the protein at about 300 yards and as he closed the distance to 80 yards, the buck stopped and looked his direction. J'son looks and there under the feeder at 28 yards stands The Freak...
Decision time...The Moose begins to approach and it becomes obvious that he runs the show. J'son decides to wait...The Moose nudges The Freak out from under the feeder and begins to eat. J'son draws his E35, settles and hits the trigger. 15 years of searching, saving, investing and strategizing came together in that moment. The Rage went to work; both buck bolted with one bleeding heavily. To be safe and let Dad finish his hunt J'son went back to camp and got his Blue Lacy (Belle). She covered 95 yards in about 30 seconds and there he laid.
What a buck!!!! Congratulations to my brother... I need to get to The Farm!
Not knowing what to expect regarding deer, I'll never forget the day in the Summer of 2013 when Dad sent me this pic...
Knowing nothing about the deer quality, except what we'd read and heard, I commented that this deer was a moose of a buck, and we were all excited to see what this place had in store for us. "The Moose" was named that day and became a quite special animal to all of us. He validated our efforts to that point, in a way. Fortunately, he was not the only good buck we had on the place so we began to strategize to try to kill these buck. Our farm is in big wheat/farm land not the mesquite country that we were used to hunting in Shackelford County. We quickly learned that farm country buck are not starving and they typically could care less about your corn feeders. My brother connected on a management 7 pt that was 20" wide towards the end of the 2013 season as our only kill. 5 minutes later, after hearing a lot of splashing coming from the river, a doe burst from the trees with 6 bucks in hot pursuit, including The Moose. My brother's tag was filled and the deer were well out of bow range, but this would be one of many encounters that we would have with The Moose in 2013...just no bow shots and we only bow hunt our farm.
After the season was over, prep for 2014 began with killing The Moose our top priority. Stands were moved based on travel patterns we'd observed hoping to get within bow range of the old buck. During turkey season a friend of ours (Floor Man) found one of his sheds while hunting our place, and we were amazed to find that the deer we thought was a nice 130 class buck was actually going to be closer to 145 because of his exceptional mass and 24" main beams. This only added fuel to our fire...now we were learning that he was actually quite the trophy not just an old 8 pt. We identified him in late May eating at one of our protein feeders constantly and enjoyed watching him grow his massive rack throughout the summer of 2014...
Several encounters with him in 2014 yielded no shots so we were happy to see him alive and well after lots of rifle shots around us the final evening of the 2014 season...
2015 season prep began and stands were moved again employing Krivoman blinds at our primary spots in an effort to help us quit just seeing these deer but rather give us a chance to kill some of them. The Moose was impressive again all summer and we were itching for the 2015 season to roll around. Our new sets worked great...we've all had many encounters with many good bucks but none of our Hit List bucks had given us shots. We knew it was just a matter of time before something was going to hit the ground. The two bucks at the top of the hit list were The Moose and a buck he's run with during the summer since 2013 that we called The Freak because of his non-typical left side during the 2014 season due to injury (2013 and 2015 he is a slick 10 pt.).
Yesterday afternoon, Dad and J'son (my brother) were able to get away from work and run up for an overnighter to take advantage of the cold front that had moved in. In the group text, Dad was seeing deer and J'son was not (in our East Krivoman blind). The East Krivo is a great morning spot so I text J'son at 6:33 "East will have a shooter in the morning" to which he responded "Will c". 7:18 this morning, my phone rings...it's J'son. I knew something good happened. The sound of his voice is why we hunt; the excitement was clear as a bell when he said, "I just shot The Moose". He then goes on to tell me that he spotted him walking from the protein at about 300 yards and as he closed the distance to 80 yards, the buck stopped and looked his direction. J'son looks and there under the feeder at 28 yards stands The Freak...
Decision time...The Moose begins to approach and it becomes obvious that he runs the show. J'son decides to wait...The Moose nudges The Freak out from under the feeder and begins to eat. J'son draws his E35, settles and hits the trigger. 15 years of searching, saving, investing and strategizing came together in that moment. The Rage went to work; both buck bolted with one bleeding heavily. To be safe and let Dad finish his hunt J'son went back to camp and got his Blue Lacy (Belle). She covered 95 yards in about 30 seconds and there he laid.
What a buck!!!! Congratulations to my brother... I need to get to The Farm!
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