Posted By: JCB
CINCO GRANDE DOWN!!! - 11/01/15 08:58 PM
I know some of yall like stories so here you go. For those that just like the pictures there are a few of those as well.
The story of Cinco Grande actually started last year. Opening morning of rifle season 2014 I saw him for the first time and he was a 6 point at that time. He was no doubt king of the hill! Any buck that came around he would either run them off or whip their tail if they wouldn’t leave when he approached. I talked to the lease manager about him since we are allowed one cull and one trophy and he pretty much gave everyone the green light to take him out if they saw him even though our cull system is really centered around spikes.
Later in December one of the other lease members saw him and took about a 200 yard shot at him but never found him or any blood. At that same time I also quit getting trail cam pics of him so I had just about assumed that the hunter had wounded him and he went off and died somewhere. About Christmas time he showed up on my trail cam again and there was no signs of a wound at all however he never showed himself in person the rest of the season.
Fast forward to August 2015 and I go out and set up my cameras and start the feeders. About a month later I check the cards and he was back only this time as a huge 5 point. Later in October I sent the pics to our lease manager to show him what he looked like this year and to make sure he was still on the hit list before I tried to hunt him. He gave me the green light so I added him to my hit list for this year.
It wasn’t until the morning of the 27th that I got my first glimpse of him. It was shortly after day light and I heard some running directly behind my ground blind. I kind of struggled to look through the brush I was using for camo when I saw 2 Does go running across the small opening to my right hand side and right behind them was Cinco Grande going after them. After he chased them for about 75 yards he turned and came back towards me so I got ready. He had other plans though. He passed within 30 yards of me and went right back to where he came from never giving me a shot at all. I was sick!!
Determined not to let him beat me this year I kept hunting him and all but gave up on trying to get my top buck on the hit list.
The afternoon of the 30th I climbed into the same little brush blind and got settled in. I had seen several Does and a young 10 point but no signs of Cinco. I could hear lots of thunder to the west so I pulled up radar on my phone and could see I was right on the edge of some really nasty storms. I started to put a plan together on what to do if the storms did in fact hit and sure enough they did. When the sprinkles started I made a mad dash for my rifle box about 75 yards away and waited the storm out in there. It came an absolute FLOOD for about 25 minutes complete with marble size hail and gusty winds. Once it cleared out I ran back to the ground blind to sit for the last 45 minutes of daylight with high hopes.
After the storms it was dead calm and all you could hear was the water dripping from the trees. After about 10 minutes back in the blind I could hear the unmistakable sounds of hoofs sloshing through the mud behind me and 4 doe appeared and bringing up the rear was the same young 10 point I saw earlier. They kind of ran around for a little while longer and two more yearling bucks joined in as well. Shortly before 7pm they all focused their attention to the west so I took a peak through the brush and could see Cinco Grande closing in on them from about 50 yards away. With my heart about to beat out of my chest I scrambled to get the crossbow into position before he busted all the Does out of there and was gone. As the Does started to break up he passed in front of my blind quartering away right at 30 yards which is my personal max distance for a crossbow. Fully expecting him to string jump me at least a little I decided to shoot as if he were really about 25 yards. The Slick Trick found its mark and he took off like a rocket! As he got near the ranch road he slowed down and started to stumble but still made it to the brush before I saw him tip over. I gathered all my stuff and since I wasn’t 100% positive that he had really gone down over there I recocked the bow and gave him about 15 minutes before trying to trail him.
I went to the spot where he was when I shot and only found a small amount of blood but then again everything was flooded so it would have been hard to see anyway. I started to make my way over to where I thought I saw him go down and didn’t find anything for about 10 minutes. At that point I was getting concerned so I went back to the road so I could look back towards the blind and get my bearings on where I thought he entered the brush. As I got back to the road I saw a small buck standing in the road looking back into the brush just a little bit south of where I was at. I figured he had to be looking at something pretty darn interesting for him to be ignoring me so I walked over there and sure enough there he was about 20 yards off the road.
When I walked up to him I was shocked at how big of a body he had!!! I have no idea how much he weighed but he was enormous for our area and by far the biggest bodied deer I have ever taken in my life. I had the deer at 5.5 years old based on my history with him and game cam pics, but he could easily be older.
Now you might think this story would end right there but it doesn’t. You see earlier in the day we went to town to get a few groceries and before we left camp I put the truck in 4 wheel drive. It engaged fine but once we were on more solid ground I went to put it back into 2 wheel drive and the shifter was as loose as the change in my pocket. At that point I was stuck in 4x4 and no way was I going to drive to town that way so I climbed up under the truck to check out the issue and noticed my linkage rod had fallen off. I looked on the side of the transfer case and could see the lever it was suppose to attach to and I tugged on it by hand and got the truck back into 2x4 mode. After that I back tracked to see if I could find the rod and found it about a ½ mile back in the road. What had happened is the rubber groments that hold it in place had weather cracked and rotted over the years and caused the linkage rod to fall out at the worst possible time.
Like I said earlier we had a FLOOD come through while I was in my stand and with the warm weather I wasn’t sure the deer would be safe to leave hanging over night so I called the processor in town and explained to them the situation with the warm night, the muddy roads and my 4x4 quiting when I needed it most and asked them what they thought about leaving him hanging overnight. He said I probably needed to get it to town ASAP so I crawled back under the truck and wrestled the transfer case back into 4 wheel drive in the sloppy red mud and off we went. We ended up rolling into town after 9pm and I cant thank the guys at B&K processing enough for staying there waiting on me to show up!!! I am sure they had better things to do on a Friday night than to wait for one guy with incredibly bad luck to show up with a deer. LOL
Yep he is just a 5 point to some people but he is much more than that to me! I get way more thrill out of bagging a smart old fully mature 5 point than some young 10 point. Of course when you tell your friends that you shot a 5 point but passed on multiple 10 points they might laugh but the jokes on them.
When you find your arrow and see this much blood its hard to imagine how it could get any better unless its still in the deer.
Was really surprised to see this from a Slick Trick. You can see one of the blades sheared off at some point during penetration.
The arrow sliced through the top part of his heart and as you can see he was spraying everywhere.
The story of Cinco Grande actually started last year. Opening morning of rifle season 2014 I saw him for the first time and he was a 6 point at that time. He was no doubt king of the hill! Any buck that came around he would either run them off or whip their tail if they wouldn’t leave when he approached. I talked to the lease manager about him since we are allowed one cull and one trophy and he pretty much gave everyone the green light to take him out if they saw him even though our cull system is really centered around spikes.
Later in December one of the other lease members saw him and took about a 200 yard shot at him but never found him or any blood. At that same time I also quit getting trail cam pics of him so I had just about assumed that the hunter had wounded him and he went off and died somewhere. About Christmas time he showed up on my trail cam again and there was no signs of a wound at all however he never showed himself in person the rest of the season.
Fast forward to August 2015 and I go out and set up my cameras and start the feeders. About a month later I check the cards and he was back only this time as a huge 5 point. Later in October I sent the pics to our lease manager to show him what he looked like this year and to make sure he was still on the hit list before I tried to hunt him. He gave me the green light so I added him to my hit list for this year.
It wasn’t until the morning of the 27th that I got my first glimpse of him. It was shortly after day light and I heard some running directly behind my ground blind. I kind of struggled to look through the brush I was using for camo when I saw 2 Does go running across the small opening to my right hand side and right behind them was Cinco Grande going after them. After he chased them for about 75 yards he turned and came back towards me so I got ready. He had other plans though. He passed within 30 yards of me and went right back to where he came from never giving me a shot at all. I was sick!!
Determined not to let him beat me this year I kept hunting him and all but gave up on trying to get my top buck on the hit list.
The afternoon of the 30th I climbed into the same little brush blind and got settled in. I had seen several Does and a young 10 point but no signs of Cinco. I could hear lots of thunder to the west so I pulled up radar on my phone and could see I was right on the edge of some really nasty storms. I started to put a plan together on what to do if the storms did in fact hit and sure enough they did. When the sprinkles started I made a mad dash for my rifle box about 75 yards away and waited the storm out in there. It came an absolute FLOOD for about 25 minutes complete with marble size hail and gusty winds. Once it cleared out I ran back to the ground blind to sit for the last 45 minutes of daylight with high hopes.
After the storms it was dead calm and all you could hear was the water dripping from the trees. After about 10 minutes back in the blind I could hear the unmistakable sounds of hoofs sloshing through the mud behind me and 4 doe appeared and bringing up the rear was the same young 10 point I saw earlier. They kind of ran around for a little while longer and two more yearling bucks joined in as well. Shortly before 7pm they all focused their attention to the west so I took a peak through the brush and could see Cinco Grande closing in on them from about 50 yards away. With my heart about to beat out of my chest I scrambled to get the crossbow into position before he busted all the Does out of there and was gone. As the Does started to break up he passed in front of my blind quartering away right at 30 yards which is my personal max distance for a crossbow. Fully expecting him to string jump me at least a little I decided to shoot as if he were really about 25 yards. The Slick Trick found its mark and he took off like a rocket! As he got near the ranch road he slowed down and started to stumble but still made it to the brush before I saw him tip over. I gathered all my stuff and since I wasn’t 100% positive that he had really gone down over there I recocked the bow and gave him about 15 minutes before trying to trail him.
I went to the spot where he was when I shot and only found a small amount of blood but then again everything was flooded so it would have been hard to see anyway. I started to make my way over to where I thought I saw him go down and didn’t find anything for about 10 minutes. At that point I was getting concerned so I went back to the road so I could look back towards the blind and get my bearings on where I thought he entered the brush. As I got back to the road I saw a small buck standing in the road looking back into the brush just a little bit south of where I was at. I figured he had to be looking at something pretty darn interesting for him to be ignoring me so I walked over there and sure enough there he was about 20 yards off the road.
When I walked up to him I was shocked at how big of a body he had!!! I have no idea how much he weighed but he was enormous for our area and by far the biggest bodied deer I have ever taken in my life. I had the deer at 5.5 years old based on my history with him and game cam pics, but he could easily be older.
Now you might think this story would end right there but it doesn’t. You see earlier in the day we went to town to get a few groceries and before we left camp I put the truck in 4 wheel drive. It engaged fine but once we were on more solid ground I went to put it back into 2 wheel drive and the shifter was as loose as the change in my pocket. At that point I was stuck in 4x4 and no way was I going to drive to town that way so I climbed up under the truck to check out the issue and noticed my linkage rod had fallen off. I looked on the side of the transfer case and could see the lever it was suppose to attach to and I tugged on it by hand and got the truck back into 2x4 mode. After that I back tracked to see if I could find the rod and found it about a ½ mile back in the road. What had happened is the rubber groments that hold it in place had weather cracked and rotted over the years and caused the linkage rod to fall out at the worst possible time.
Like I said earlier we had a FLOOD come through while I was in my stand and with the warm weather I wasn’t sure the deer would be safe to leave hanging over night so I called the processor in town and explained to them the situation with the warm night, the muddy roads and my 4x4 quiting when I needed it most and asked them what they thought about leaving him hanging overnight. He said I probably needed to get it to town ASAP so I crawled back under the truck and wrestled the transfer case back into 4 wheel drive in the sloppy red mud and off we went. We ended up rolling into town after 9pm and I cant thank the guys at B&K processing enough for staying there waiting on me to show up!!! I am sure they had better things to do on a Friday night than to wait for one guy with incredibly bad luck to show up with a deer. LOL
Yep he is just a 5 point to some people but he is much more than that to me! I get way more thrill out of bagging a smart old fully mature 5 point than some young 10 point. Of course when you tell your friends that you shot a 5 point but passed on multiple 10 points they might laugh but the jokes on them.
When you find your arrow and see this much blood its hard to imagine how it could get any better unless its still in the deer.
Was really surprised to see this from a Slick Trick. You can see one of the blades sheared off at some point during penetration.
The arrow sliced through the top part of his heart and as you can see he was spraying everywhere.
. Great write up too.
