When we make the decision to pull the trigger, it is then our responsibility to do what ever it takes to make a good recovery of that game animal.

Over the weekend, we were doing spot and stalk hunting for whitetail bucks.. We were up on this high bluff overlooking a river bottom and saw a shooter 8 point crossing the river to the other side.

I made the call to pull the trigger and put on a good shot. He did not run far, but we had a 3 mile drive to go get to a spot to be able to cross the river. Only to find out the crossing points had been washed out and not crossed in years.

good thing , with a little work, my jeep made it and we were able to drive thru some thick country to make the recovery.

Video below of the recovery.

That looked fun..

I had one fall in the Trinity on my place, good lord, luckily a block and tackle was in the barn otherwise the gators could of had him

JT, you really have evolved with your hunting the past few years from when you started hunting whitetail, I have to commend you for that. What are you shooting, I know it's an AR caliber of some sort, .308, 6.5 Creedmore? Seems like they run after being shot by you quite a bit. May want to grain up on the bullet or take more shoulder shots to try and DRT them some. Nice 4 yo, 8pt. Good hunting!

Thanks! And to be honest, I was pretty bad a few years ago and have learned a lot as far as being a sportsman and hunter since then. I have actually gotten away from the AR platform the last 12 months except for when hog hunting. The rifle I used here was the Ruger American predator bolt action 6.5 Creedmoor 143 grain precision hunter. He ran 20 yards. Video to come soon. Thanks for the feedback, and honestly I am grateful for even the haters comments on here, becuase a lot of them have really helped me grow over the past few years. I take a lot of unnecessary crap on this forum, but a lot of it had merit as well.

Seems that you are getting ample opportunities for your filmed hunts, are these paid hunts by you or your show's sponsors or are these ranch offered to be on your show? More curiosity than anything else.

This deer was on the personal lease of one of our show sponsors. We now have a budget to do paid hunts, mainly why the quality of the show is going up. No longer trying to find only bartered hunts. We do a combination. Our latest episode that aired today on pursuit channel was on our own 10 acres.. Turned out really well.

Remind me JT, you were a Web.com or PGA former caddie? I'm a golf enthusiast and a fair stick. Have a buddy that kicked it around on the Hogan/Nike/Nationwide tours for about 8 years winning once on Nike.

good job, some people say glass half empty, some half full

I used to caddie at the Ritz Grand lakes Orlando resort and TPC Sawgrass for about 3 years. Loved it and got to play every afternoon for free. Was a pretty good gig.. then my son was born and I had to get a real job haha

Thanks Colt! it was just yesterday you were inviting me to go do some public land hog hunting with you. too bad I never got to go before I moved out of the DFW area.

I was mule deer hunting with my sons in Wyoming.....I had a chance to hunt on a nice property. Shot a decent deer and he ran....my son is doing play-by-play....."he's running....he jumps in the river.....he's swimming to the other side......he's stopped and drowned in the river." He was 3/4ths of the way toward the other side. If my sons hadn't been there to spot him I'd have never found it. There wasn't much of a blood trail at all. We had to drive about 15 miles to get to a bridge and back to the other side of the river. They thought to put a pin on their phone maps or we wouldn't have found the spot. The closest we could drive was about 500 yards. By then it was dark and getting cold fast. We found the deer about 15 feet into the water. We tried to lasso the antlers but no luck. My son stripped to his underwear and crawled in and tied him so we could pull him out. Then we had to field dress it and drag it uphill in the dark 500 yards through thick brush. Even field dressed it was pretty heavy. That was the deer where I swore I'd never try to shoot to save meat again.....I'll blow out the shoulder and let them drop.

Getting away from the AR platforms and going to the Ruger American Predator was a great move. A very nimble, accurate rifle and the 6.5 is a great caliber. A clean kill at almost 300 yards is not an easy task when spot and stalking.
Congratulations!
Adios,
Gary

The older I get the more inclined I am to break them down so I go for a shoulder shot. I figure loss of the front shoulder or shoulders is better than no meat at all.

Yeah. Looked brutal.

great recovery, good job filming