Over Thanksgiving I went down to my family's ranch in McMullen County. My wife and I arrived down at the ranch on Wednesday evening after dark. I was really excited to get out and hunt till Sunday morning before having to head back to Houston.
In 2008 we noticed a nice 3.5 year old buck with good mass that we named Tank Jr. This season we decided he would be 7.5 years old and would never turn into a 160"+ deer we had hoped for and it was his time to go.
The hunt started and I was unsuccessful on the first couple of hunts with no sightings of my target deer but there was a front blowing in on Friday afternoon and I hoped that would start getting deer on their feet a little earlier. The blind I was hunting is made for an east or southeast wind which ruled it out for Friday PM and Saturday AM. I kept checking the weather on my phone and it indicated that the wind would be shifting from NE to SE between the hours of 4-6PM on Saturday so I decided to hold off going to the stand until about 4:45. There were several small bucks when I arrived at my tripod and they took off as I crested the hill. Not unusual to run deer off so I got situated and got ready for my brief evening sit. At about 5:30 I caught sight of a nice 6.5 year old 12 point that I've been watching for years and decided I would take him instead of my big heavy 10 pt that I was truly after. He was very spooky and took his time coming in but finally came into the hand corn that I had thrown out. I tried to draw on him 4-5 times over the next 30 minutes and couldn't get it done. I would start to apply pressure to my string and he would turn and face me for 5 minutes and as soon as he would turn broadside, I would have a large doe or two constantly surveying their surroundings preventing me from coming to full draw on a mature South Texas 12 pt. Frustrated doesn't begin to describe how I was feeling. At this point I now had the 6.5 year old 12 pt, a 5.5 13 pt and a real pretty 3.5 year old 9 pt as well as a collection of younger bucks and some does within 30 yards of me which made it hard to move AT ALL. I was wearing very light clothing and as soon as the sun hit the horizon along with having two very mature bucks within bow range caused me to get the shakes like I haven't gotten since I was a little kid looking through my scope at my first buck. Here is a picture of the 6.5 year old 12 pt.
I tried to compose myself but couldn't seem to stop the shakes. I was laughing at myself for having absolutely no control over my buddy for a full 5 minutes. I finally regained my composure and decided to hold off on shooting the 12 with the hopes of other mature bucks visiting the area with 10 minutes of legal shooting light left. After about 8 minutes I hear something walking in the brush behind me and making its way towards me. I slowly ease my head around and see a BIG dark body slipping through the underbrush and making his way towards me. He popped out at less then 15 yards from my tripod and immediately walked over to the 20 yard hand corn pile. He was much large bodied then the 12 or 13 point and without being able to make out his full rack I decided to take him. I had about 1 minute of shooting light left and settled my pin low on his front shoulder and released my arrow. I heard the arrow smack his body and he torqued his body sideways and came sprinting back by my tripod from where he came from. It sounded like a D9 was making its way though the thick mesquite and one low grunt as the woods grew dead silent. I immediately sent me dad a text saying I had shot a good buck and wasn't sure which one it was and I wanted to wait 30 minutes before getting down. I made it 25 and had to get down and my dad came an met me. We went to the sight of the shot and found no blood. Doubt started to creep in my mind and about that time I found my arrow with about 7" broken off of it. We started into the thick mesquite laden creek bottom and hadn't walked 45 yards and found the final resting place of my buck. We crossed the creek still without knowing which buck it was. When we walked up to him we were blown away with the size of this deer's body and discovered that it was Tank Jr. He tipped the scale at 215 lbs (live weight). This was the deer that I really had my heart set on and to walk up to him with my Dad was something I will hold on to for the rest of my life. He isn't the best buck I've ever taken with my bow but he sure is one that I was proud to shoot. Sorry for the long story. Here are the pictures.
Thanks for reading.
In 2008 we noticed a nice 3.5 year old buck with good mass that we named Tank Jr. This season we decided he would be 7.5 years old and would never turn into a 160"+ deer we had hoped for and it was his time to go.
The hunt started and I was unsuccessful on the first couple of hunts with no sightings of my target deer but there was a front blowing in on Friday afternoon and I hoped that would start getting deer on their feet a little earlier. The blind I was hunting is made for an east or southeast wind which ruled it out for Friday PM and Saturday AM. I kept checking the weather on my phone and it indicated that the wind would be shifting from NE to SE between the hours of 4-6PM on Saturday so I decided to hold off going to the stand until about 4:45. There were several small bucks when I arrived at my tripod and they took off as I crested the hill. Not unusual to run deer off so I got situated and got ready for my brief evening sit. At about 5:30 I caught sight of a nice 6.5 year old 12 point that I've been watching for years and decided I would take him instead of my big heavy 10 pt that I was truly after. He was very spooky and took his time coming in but finally came into the hand corn that I had thrown out. I tried to draw on him 4-5 times over the next 30 minutes and couldn't get it done. I would start to apply pressure to my string and he would turn and face me for 5 minutes and as soon as he would turn broadside, I would have a large doe or two constantly surveying their surroundings preventing me from coming to full draw on a mature South Texas 12 pt. Frustrated doesn't begin to describe how I was feeling. At this point I now had the 6.5 year old 12 pt, a 5.5 13 pt and a real pretty 3.5 year old 9 pt as well as a collection of younger bucks and some does within 30 yards of me which made it hard to move AT ALL. I was wearing very light clothing and as soon as the sun hit the horizon along with having two very mature bucks within bow range caused me to get the shakes like I haven't gotten since I was a little kid looking through my scope at my first buck. Here is a picture of the 6.5 year old 12 pt.
I tried to compose myself but couldn't seem to stop the shakes. I was laughing at myself for having absolutely no control over my buddy for a full 5 minutes. I finally regained my composure and decided to hold off on shooting the 12 with the hopes of other mature bucks visiting the area with 10 minutes of legal shooting light left. After about 8 minutes I hear something walking in the brush behind me and making its way towards me. I slowly ease my head around and see a BIG dark body slipping through the underbrush and making his way towards me. He popped out at less then 15 yards from my tripod and immediately walked over to the 20 yard hand corn pile. He was much large bodied then the 12 or 13 point and without being able to make out his full rack I decided to take him. I had about 1 minute of shooting light left and settled my pin low on his front shoulder and released my arrow. I heard the arrow smack his body and he torqued his body sideways and came sprinting back by my tripod from where he came from. It sounded like a D9 was making its way though the thick mesquite and one low grunt as the woods grew dead silent. I immediately sent me dad a text saying I had shot a good buck and wasn't sure which one it was and I wanted to wait 30 minutes before getting down. I made it 25 and had to get down and my dad came an met me. We went to the sight of the shot and found no blood. Doubt started to creep in my mind and about that time I found my arrow with about 7" broken off of it. We started into the thick mesquite laden creek bottom and hadn't walked 45 yards and found the final resting place of my buck. We crossed the creek still without knowing which buck it was. When we walked up to him we were blown away with the size of this deer's body and discovered that it was Tank Jr. He tipped the scale at 215 lbs (live weight). This was the deer that I really had my heart set on and to walk up to him with my Dad was something I will hold on to for the rest of my life. He isn't the best buck I've ever taken with my bow but he sure is one that I was proud to shoot. Sorry for the long story. Here are the pictures.
Thanks for reading.
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