Hello Everybody,
Here is the story of my best bow buck to date (sorry for the long read). I posted in the discussion forum yesterday and really approciate all of your comments so far on the other thread.
I've been pretty fortunate to grow up hunting and have been able to hunt with alot of good people in alot of great places but have never taken a really good buck with my bow. I've taken several spikes, alot of does, numerous hogs, javelina, and even turkey with my bow but a great buck has always given me the slip. I've seen plenty of animals and passed alot of good young bucks that needed to grow another year or two before they were taken. One thing remains the same, I always keep grinding it out, no matter what.
This year I am lucky enough to get to hunt on a large ranch down in South Texas but the kicker is it doesn't allow bowhunting. I also have several hunts booked for later in the year at the Lincoln Ranch in Webb County so I wasn't really planning on bowhunting until after Thanksgiving. I adjust insurance claims for the Catastrophe Team of a large insurance company so as you can imagine with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike I've been slammed. The good thing about Ike is that I get to work from my home in Galveston County as opposed to travelling all over the country working out of hotel rooms. Our company had mandatory days off we had to take due to the amount of time we'd been working and once I found out when my days were gonna be I started looking for a place to bowhunt for whitetails.
I got referred to former Texans O-lineman Steve Mckinney from another member on here so I called Steve up and told him what dates I had off and he was more than accomodating at making them work. Once everything was set up we were off to his place near Marquez, TX (pronounced Mar-K). After getting everything unloaded at the camphouse he took me to his 3d range to make sure my bow was sighted in. Then he showed me some video of several of the bucks on his place and that was all I needed to see, I was pumped.
The first afternoon on the stand I saw probably close to 20 deer with 13 of them being bucks. I passed on 4 good young 8 pts and several good young 10 pts. I am used to hunting out of a pop-up blind and Steve had me hunting out of a ladder stand so it was pretty cool being where you couldn't move too much without spooking the deer. The first night we had a great home cooked meal followed by some picking and grinning on his guitar. I had no idea he could play. We shared the campfire and talked about everything from our families to the NFL to the current state of the Aggie Football program.
The next morning found us on the same stand again. It was hot and we saw plenty of younger bucks and does but no mature bucks yet. That next evening found me on the same stand again and the deer were moving. I saw several young 8's again and the same young 10 I had seen the day before when a big mature 8 came along and bullied all the other deer. He was bigger than anything I had shot before with my bow but I couldn't make up my mind on whether or not I wanted to take him. He had nice dark tines and brow tines that both curled backwards. His mainbeams went almost straight up too. I had him at 15 yards for 4-5 minutes and when I finally decided I was going to take him he figured something was up and got out of range, taking the other deer with him.
Well, I was kicking myself when about 20 minutes later him and the young 10 started to make their way back in. He was about 35 yards out and getting closer and I was preparing to take the shot when all of a sudden, big boy comes out from the opposite direction along a trail in full sneak mode. He came in and came in quickly. I took one look to know this was now the buck I was going to try to take. Everything else from here on was downhill. He came straight in towards the stand and when he got to 24 yards he did a quick turn and started to feed away from me quartering from left to right. It was a PICTURE PERFECT SETUP!! I don't really know what happened next. I went into kill-mode, got the bow drawn back, settled the pin and let an arrow go. I heard the hit and saw my arrow flip out of the deer as he turned and bolted. His tail was down so I knew I had a good hit on him and I heard him pile up several seconds later.
The buck had only been visible for probably 20 seconds before I made the shot so there was no time to get nervous or get the shakes. It wasn't until I was texting Steve, my wife, and several buddies that I started to shake.
Big Steve came and picked me up, we went and found my arrow and shortly after that we found where the deer went into the woods and once he hit the woods the blood trail was easy to follow. We found my buck piled up about 35 yards into the thicket. My 100 grain Muzzy's had done the job and we were staring at the largest buck I had ever taken with a bow!! Steve and I were both pretty fired up. After we got the buck out of the woods we took a few pictures and Steve caped my trophy out for me then cooked up another wonderful dinner. We hunted again the next day and again saw plenty of animals but nothing withing bow range and then it was back to Houston for the grind. All my hard work and hard hunting finally paid off and its only mid October!! I still have 2 bowhunts on the Lincoln Ranch and several trips planned to South Texas to hunt near the King Ranch!!! Not to mention another trip to Steve's place to try for an axis or aoudad. This has already been a great season and hopefully it will only get better..
This hunt with Steve is definitely one I won't ever be forgetting. The buck I took was much more than I had anticipated when I set the hunt up with Mckinney Whitetails. Steve really went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable and taken care of on the hunt and put me on a trophy to boot. For those that don't know Steve I would suggest you get to know him because he is one heck of a guy. He knows his deer too! He's got a great setup for deer hunting close to Houston and that's perfect for kids as well. I would highly recommend hunting with Steve if you ever get the chance. His land is MLD as well so you don't have to use one of your tags. Thanks again Steve for an AWESOME HUNT!!!!!
Here are a few more pics:
Here is the story of my best bow buck to date (sorry for the long read). I posted in the discussion forum yesterday and really approciate all of your comments so far on the other thread.
I've been pretty fortunate to grow up hunting and have been able to hunt with alot of good people in alot of great places but have never taken a really good buck with my bow. I've taken several spikes, alot of does, numerous hogs, javelina, and even turkey with my bow but a great buck has always given me the slip. I've seen plenty of animals and passed alot of good young bucks that needed to grow another year or two before they were taken. One thing remains the same, I always keep grinding it out, no matter what.
This year I am lucky enough to get to hunt on a large ranch down in South Texas but the kicker is it doesn't allow bowhunting. I also have several hunts booked for later in the year at the Lincoln Ranch in Webb County so I wasn't really planning on bowhunting until after Thanksgiving. I adjust insurance claims for the Catastrophe Team of a large insurance company so as you can imagine with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike I've been slammed. The good thing about Ike is that I get to work from my home in Galveston County as opposed to travelling all over the country working out of hotel rooms. Our company had mandatory days off we had to take due to the amount of time we'd been working and once I found out when my days were gonna be I started looking for a place to bowhunt for whitetails.
I got referred to former Texans O-lineman Steve Mckinney from another member on here so I called Steve up and told him what dates I had off and he was more than accomodating at making them work. Once everything was set up we were off to his place near Marquez, TX (pronounced Mar-K). After getting everything unloaded at the camphouse he took me to his 3d range to make sure my bow was sighted in. Then he showed me some video of several of the bucks on his place and that was all I needed to see, I was pumped.
The first afternoon on the stand I saw probably close to 20 deer with 13 of them being bucks. I passed on 4 good young 8 pts and several good young 10 pts. I am used to hunting out of a pop-up blind and Steve had me hunting out of a ladder stand so it was pretty cool being where you couldn't move too much without spooking the deer. The first night we had a great home cooked meal followed by some picking and grinning on his guitar. I had no idea he could play. We shared the campfire and talked about everything from our families to the NFL to the current state of the Aggie Football program.
The next morning found us on the same stand again. It was hot and we saw plenty of younger bucks and does but no mature bucks yet. That next evening found me on the same stand again and the deer were moving. I saw several young 8's again and the same young 10 I had seen the day before when a big mature 8 came along and bullied all the other deer. He was bigger than anything I had shot before with my bow but I couldn't make up my mind on whether or not I wanted to take him. He had nice dark tines and brow tines that both curled backwards. His mainbeams went almost straight up too. I had him at 15 yards for 4-5 minutes and when I finally decided I was going to take him he figured something was up and got out of range, taking the other deer with him.
Well, I was kicking myself when about 20 minutes later him and the young 10 started to make their way back in. He was about 35 yards out and getting closer and I was preparing to take the shot when all of a sudden, big boy comes out from the opposite direction along a trail in full sneak mode. He came in and came in quickly. I took one look to know this was now the buck I was going to try to take. Everything else from here on was downhill. He came straight in towards the stand and when he got to 24 yards he did a quick turn and started to feed away from me quartering from left to right. It was a PICTURE PERFECT SETUP!! I don't really know what happened next. I went into kill-mode, got the bow drawn back, settled the pin and let an arrow go. I heard the hit and saw my arrow flip out of the deer as he turned and bolted. His tail was down so I knew I had a good hit on him and I heard him pile up several seconds later.
The buck had only been visible for probably 20 seconds before I made the shot so there was no time to get nervous or get the shakes. It wasn't until I was texting Steve, my wife, and several buddies that I started to shake.
Big Steve came and picked me up, we went and found my arrow and shortly after that we found where the deer went into the woods and once he hit the woods the blood trail was easy to follow. We found my buck piled up about 35 yards into the thicket. My 100 grain Muzzy's had done the job and we were staring at the largest buck I had ever taken with a bow!! Steve and I were both pretty fired up. After we got the buck out of the woods we took a few pictures and Steve caped my trophy out for me then cooked up another wonderful dinner. We hunted again the next day and again saw plenty of animals but nothing withing bow range and then it was back to Houston for the grind. All my hard work and hard hunting finally paid off and its only mid October!! I still have 2 bowhunts on the Lincoln Ranch and several trips planned to South Texas to hunt near the King Ranch!!! Not to mention another trip to Steve's place to try for an axis or aoudad. This has already been a great season and hopefully it will only get better..
This hunt with Steve is definitely one I won't ever be forgetting. The buck I took was much more than I had anticipated when I set the hunt up with Mckinney Whitetails. Steve really went above and beyond to make sure I was comfortable and taken care of on the hunt and put me on a trophy to boot. For those that don't know Steve I would suggest you get to know him because he is one heck of a guy. He knows his deer too! He's got a great setup for deer hunting close to Houston and that's perfect for kids as well. I would highly recommend hunting with Steve if you ever get the chance. His land is MLD as well so you don't have to use one of your tags. Thanks again Steve for an AWESOME HUNT!!!!!
Here are a few more pics:
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