We finished up our first season on a new 4700 ac lease near Catarina. Had no idea what to expect and really was behind the 8 ball with such a late start (didn't ink the deal till late August). Saw more 1-3 yr old bucks than I ever imagined could be on one place and started seeing mature deer after Christmas and it seemed like every day we saw new bucks. This past weekend was hot, windy and overall should have been the worst hunting of the year but it was absolutely anything but slow. We had been having some success rattling but honestly nothing like what I had expected so this past Saturday morning my son, my old college roommate, and myself walked in to a lake we had not been to yet to see if my son could jump a few ducks. No idea why, but I decided to grab the horns just in case there was an opening to rattle in. This was 10:00 in the morning and it was already HOT! We did see many ducks but they were on the north end of the lake so I told my son to hit the horns just for grins. 30 seconds later two good bucks are running along the lake shore opposite of us he** bent on getting to the party. One was a very young 3.5 yr old 20" main frame 12 and the other was an older 8 pt. About half way around the lake the 12 split off but the 8 kept on coming. He got about 20 feet from my son and skid to a halt. By this time I had told my old roommate to grab the gun and "SHOOT"! He had to wait for the 8 to move far enough away from my son (we were not side by side with him) and after he trotted off about 20 yards, he (my old roommate) took the shot and it was over. Not the biggest buck on the place but it was the biggest he has ever shot and it was great repayment for him taking me hunting for so many years. We decided to try some more rattling and boy was it incredible. I’ve rattled up hundreds of bucks over the years but this weekend was in my top 3-4 ever. We did 11 sets and rattled up bucks in every spot but 2. Yesterday morning we set up on an oilfield pad with the south wind blowing across it into a thick creek bottom and rattled in 8 different bucks in about 15 minutes including one really big deer that never gave me a great look and another 150 class young ten that stood staring at my son (the rattler) at about 5 steps for a good 2-3 minutes. Overall it was a great season. We shot 5 big mature 8 pts that scored anywhere from 131” to 148 ½” and one 173” trophy. Of those 6 deer, every one of them was the biggest the hunter had ever shot and 2 were the hunters first deer!!!!! All of them are getting mounted and will have a permanent memory for the owner. Can’t beat that.
Comment