Travis, sent me an email in early August with pictures of 2 bucks I could shoot if I saw them this year. A straight 10 with a split left brow and an old 9 that was an 8 pt last year, that I tried for 2 months to unsuccessfully kill. Travis and his family have been kind enough to invite me to hunt their ranch a few times per year for the past 6 years or so, and for 4 or 5 of those years, Travis has been trying to get me on a buck. Every year, something went wrong. A potential shooter would move stands, avoid bow range, or just up and disappear altogether.
Fast forward to this season. The season started with high expectations as there were 2 potential bucks to pick from if I saw them, and both bucks, we estimated to be in the 140 inch range. Either would be my biggest buck ever! I drove down to the ranch a few days early, prior to the Annual Berger Ranch Bow Opener, which is actually the 2nd weekend of bow season. The first morning I sat, I was immediately greeted with a 170 inch buck at 12 yards that had been eluding Travis' brother Wade (First Shot) here on TBH. I tried to video tape him, but it was just too early and too dark.
As first light rose, I was about to start videoing the monster buck when he was suddenly startled and bolted off! I thought, "dang, did I do something? Did he smell me?" As I contemplated my mess up, I peaked around the corner of my window and standing at no less than 10 yards was a doe and the split brow 10, Travis said I could take!! Clearly the larger racked deer didn't want anything to do with the bigger bodied, older 10 pt. I slowly moved my video camera into position, but the buck was so close, he wouldn't let me move the camera. As he put his head back down to eat, I slowly moved the camera into position and boom, the buck sensed something wasn't right about the coffin blind and slowly jogged off
I figured I had blown another opportunity.
I went back to camp, talked it over with the guys, everyone gave encouragement, and Travis said he'd be back this evening, he was a home body buck that didn't like to leave the area.
That evening I crawled into the coffin ground blind earlier than normal and it was a balmy 85 degrees in early October in South Texas. I brought a few beers for the sit, because I'm normally a very serious hunter and don't like to have other distractions in the stand, but bringing a few beers has been a lucky charm for me in the past, so I brought 6
Right away there was a young buck that looked sick and snake bitten, as he hadn't shed his velvet yet and he was extremely skinny. He suddenly jogged off and I saw a high, large rack walking through the brush. I went for the video camera and caught the tail end of him and couldn't make out what he was. No sooner than I sat the video camera back down, I saw the 10 with the split brow walk out at 35 yards. I quickly hit record on the camera and commenced to making sure this was the buck and engraved in my head that I was gonna nail him this time! I must have watched him for 10-15 minutes, it seemed like forever, I couldn't get the camera right, he wouldn't stand still, he would face me, turn away from me, get too far, get too close....Finally, he stood still for a second, I got my bow ready, and BAM! A doe walks in front of him about 10 yards from me! She slowly shy'd away and it was time to take the shot!
I drew back trying to let his front leg move forward, as J-Bone's video early that week described, I figured his leg to be far enough forward, focused in on the knuckle and let it fly! Whop, arrow hit him and it looked good!! I quickly texted Travis, posted on the TBH live thread. I watched the tape, the shot looked a little far back, but I thought I heard crashing in the brush! I was pumped. I waited about 45 minutes and walked it back to the house. I showed all the guys in camp the video and everyone said the same thing, "the shot was a little far back, but that is a dead deer!"
So now the search starts, I'll make this short and sweet. We searched for 2 hours, lots of blood at the point of entry and exit and going into the brush....Droplets of blood in the brush and we lose blood after 80 yards. I was heartbroken. Needless to say I didn't eat much that night, nor drink much and I was in bed by 10:30 because there was nothing else to do but wait until sunlight. Travis' dad had a guy coming with some dogs and we were going to try in the morning.
Dogs show up, we take off. The dogs turned out to be puppies and got on the same trail we followed all night and stopped exactly where the last blood was found. I asked Travis if we could call Roy Hindes as he found a monster buck Travis shot a few years prior. We called Roy and he regretted to inform us that he promised a lady he would play the fiddle at her funeral and her funeral was that day, and he couldn't make it. (True south Texas gentleman) Alas, his son Cuatro could be at the ranch in 2 hours with some dogs. My optimism immediately grew, because I had seen the Hindes' dogs work before and knew they were going to find my buck!
Cuatro showed up promptly 2 hours later and his dogs went to work. We stayed near the truck while Travis, Cuatro, and the dogs immediately got on the trail. About 20 minutes after the dogs took off, Travis texted me and said the dogs needed water, "take Cuatro and the dogs to the nearby water well." I showed Cuatro to the well and went back and brought Travis a drink while he was holding down the dogs last position in the brush.
I heard Cuatro's truck pull back up to the area and within 30 seconds, the dogs were back and sitting with us in the EXACT spot that they had previously quit at! It was amazing! Cuatro arrived a few minutes later and quickly signaled for the dogs to start up again. Within another minute, the dogs were hot on a trail. Cuatro was explaining a bit of how watching the dogs on a GPS works, and all of a sudden proclaimed, "man they're moving fast, moving together real fast!" My heart started racing. We followed the dogs on the GPS and raced about 250 yards into the thick south Texas brush, and there, laid up under a tree, was the biggest buck of my life! A straight 10 with a split left brow tine! The buck was hardly stiff and we assumed he made it all night and died sometime in the mid morning/lunch time range. I hit him about 4 inches behind the shoulder in what must be a no kill, no man's land, because the only thing I caught was a tad bit of liver and diaphragm.
We quickly took a LDP and loaded him up, I was ecstatic! I got back to the house thanked Travis, Mr. Berger, Cuatro, and the hounds. We snapped some more LDP's and taped him out. Everyone was guessing high 140's and low 150s, Matt had shouted 152 the night before when seeing the shot and buck on camera. When it was all said and done we got 151 7/8, by far my biggest buck to date!
Many thanks go out to Travis, Mr. Berger, Wade, and Erin. Thanks so much for being great friends! Thanks to Matt, Erik, Mikey, Dr. D, Erv, T, Kenward, Mark, Artos, Mike D, and all the guys that tried to keep my spirits up all night. And lastly, thanks to Cuatro Hindes and the Hindes family and their SECOND TO NONE class of tracking dogs! Thanks for following along and enjoy the video!
Fast forward to this season. The season started with high expectations as there were 2 potential bucks to pick from if I saw them, and both bucks, we estimated to be in the 140 inch range. Either would be my biggest buck ever! I drove down to the ranch a few days early, prior to the Annual Berger Ranch Bow Opener, which is actually the 2nd weekend of bow season. The first morning I sat, I was immediately greeted with a 170 inch buck at 12 yards that had been eluding Travis' brother Wade (First Shot) here on TBH. I tried to video tape him, but it was just too early and too dark.
As first light rose, I was about to start videoing the monster buck when he was suddenly startled and bolted off! I thought, "dang, did I do something? Did he smell me?" As I contemplated my mess up, I peaked around the corner of my window and standing at no less than 10 yards was a doe and the split brow 10, Travis said I could take!! Clearly the larger racked deer didn't want anything to do with the bigger bodied, older 10 pt. I slowly moved my video camera into position, but the buck was so close, he wouldn't let me move the camera. As he put his head back down to eat, I slowly moved the camera into position and boom, the buck sensed something wasn't right about the coffin blind and slowly jogged off
I figured I had blown another opportunity.I went back to camp, talked it over with the guys, everyone gave encouragement, and Travis said he'd be back this evening, he was a home body buck that didn't like to leave the area.
That evening I crawled into the coffin ground blind earlier than normal and it was a balmy 85 degrees in early October in South Texas. I brought a few beers for the sit, because I'm normally a very serious hunter and don't like to have other distractions in the stand, but bringing a few beers has been a lucky charm for me in the past, so I brought 6
Right away there was a young buck that looked sick and snake bitten, as he hadn't shed his velvet yet and he was extremely skinny. He suddenly jogged off and I saw a high, large rack walking through the brush. I went for the video camera and caught the tail end of him and couldn't make out what he was. No sooner than I sat the video camera back down, I saw the 10 with the split brow walk out at 35 yards. I quickly hit record on the camera and commenced to making sure this was the buck and engraved in my head that I was gonna nail him this time! I must have watched him for 10-15 minutes, it seemed like forever, I couldn't get the camera right, he wouldn't stand still, he would face me, turn away from me, get too far, get too close....Finally, he stood still for a second, I got my bow ready, and BAM! A doe walks in front of him about 10 yards from me! She slowly shy'd away and it was time to take the shot!
I drew back trying to let his front leg move forward, as J-Bone's video early that week described, I figured his leg to be far enough forward, focused in on the knuckle and let it fly! Whop, arrow hit him and it looked good!! I quickly texted Travis, posted on the TBH live thread. I watched the tape, the shot looked a little far back, but I thought I heard crashing in the brush! I was pumped. I waited about 45 minutes and walked it back to the house. I showed all the guys in camp the video and everyone said the same thing, "the shot was a little far back, but that is a dead deer!"
So now the search starts, I'll make this short and sweet. We searched for 2 hours, lots of blood at the point of entry and exit and going into the brush....Droplets of blood in the brush and we lose blood after 80 yards. I was heartbroken. Needless to say I didn't eat much that night, nor drink much and I was in bed by 10:30 because there was nothing else to do but wait until sunlight. Travis' dad had a guy coming with some dogs and we were going to try in the morning.
Dogs show up, we take off. The dogs turned out to be puppies and got on the same trail we followed all night and stopped exactly where the last blood was found. I asked Travis if we could call Roy Hindes as he found a monster buck Travis shot a few years prior. We called Roy and he regretted to inform us that he promised a lady he would play the fiddle at her funeral and her funeral was that day, and he couldn't make it. (True south Texas gentleman) Alas, his son Cuatro could be at the ranch in 2 hours with some dogs. My optimism immediately grew, because I had seen the Hindes' dogs work before and knew they were going to find my buck!
Cuatro showed up promptly 2 hours later and his dogs went to work. We stayed near the truck while Travis, Cuatro, and the dogs immediately got on the trail. About 20 minutes after the dogs took off, Travis texted me and said the dogs needed water, "take Cuatro and the dogs to the nearby water well." I showed Cuatro to the well and went back and brought Travis a drink while he was holding down the dogs last position in the brush.
I heard Cuatro's truck pull back up to the area and within 30 seconds, the dogs were back and sitting with us in the EXACT spot that they had previously quit at! It was amazing! Cuatro arrived a few minutes later and quickly signaled for the dogs to start up again. Within another minute, the dogs were hot on a trail. Cuatro was explaining a bit of how watching the dogs on a GPS works, and all of a sudden proclaimed, "man they're moving fast, moving together real fast!" My heart started racing. We followed the dogs on the GPS and raced about 250 yards into the thick south Texas brush, and there, laid up under a tree, was the biggest buck of my life! A straight 10 with a split left brow tine! The buck was hardly stiff and we assumed he made it all night and died sometime in the mid morning/lunch time range. I hit him about 4 inches behind the shoulder in what must be a no kill, no man's land, because the only thing I caught was a tad bit of liver and diaphragm.
We quickly took a LDP and loaded him up, I was ecstatic! I got back to the house thanked Travis, Mr. Berger, Cuatro, and the hounds. We snapped some more LDP's and taped him out. Everyone was guessing high 140's and low 150s, Matt had shouted 152 the night before when seeing the shot and buck on camera. When it was all said and done we got 151 7/8, by far my biggest buck to date!
Many thanks go out to Travis, Mr. Berger, Wade, and Erin. Thanks so much for being great friends! Thanks to Matt, Erik, Mikey, Dr. D, Erv, T, Kenward, Mark, Artos, Mike D, and all the guys that tried to keep my spirits up all night. And lastly, thanks to Cuatro Hindes and the Hindes family and their SECOND TO NONE class of tracking dogs! Thanks for following along and enjoy the video!
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