Thought I would share with the group a mid-season report and how the harvest went. Apologize in advance for the long message!

My wife's family has approximately 200ac in Rusk County Texas, but we moved to Atlanta, GA eight years ago. Prior to moving, I have hunted this property but never had a good plan of attack and it was always over Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've taken some good bucks and does over the years but never really put my heart and soul into it. Last year my son who is now 28 got more interested in hunting even though he has been around it for many years and has taken some decent deer at a friend's place in south Texas. in 2023 we decided to travel the 700 miles to Texas to hunt opening weekend and Christmas but only harvested two does and did not see any bucks that met the 13" inside spread restrictions. After 2023 season was over, we sat down and made a plan for 2024. The plan included marking out on a map of the property where I have killed some good bucks over the years and where we have seen the most activity as far back as my memory would allow. We identified the location but needed a new blind, so we researched and purchased one that we could transport the 700 miles since the mother-in-law is now 84 years old and could not take delivery for us. We scheduled and drove to Texas in mid-August to assemble and get the blind in place a few months prior to opening weekend. It turned out that we hit the heat wave (104 degrees) during the day, so we spent the overnight hours working on the blind but accomplished the task and headed back to Georgia.

Now I know everyone is going to question my blind placement on the edge of a field and not in the woods, but it was strategic based on the past sightings, kills and movement. in 2023 we only hunted three days of opening season so this year we decided to hunt Saturday thru Wednesday giving us 5 days of hunting with the hopes of timing the rut perfectly which with luck we did. Arrived in Texas on the 1st of November, hunted the 2nd and 3rd only seeing a small spike, couple of does with fawns and a basket 8pt. Monday morning comes around and the basket 8pt shows up chasing a lone doe into the field on our left and my son makes a perfect shot and down she went after running about 30yds. Hunted that evening and the next morning in the heat with so sightings. Now we are on the evening of the 5th (Tuesday) when two does and two fawn come out from the far end of the field about the same time the coyotes start howling. The four deer exit stage right about the time a coyote enters from the right crossing the field to the left, decided to take the shot and dropped the yote at 150yds. Thinking the evening was over we begin to regret shooting the yote but not 5 minutes later after the shot, a buck with a good body size appears at the same place the does came from and continue into the field. I sized him up through the binoculars and determined he met the antler restrictions but had bad genetics for antlers as compared to his body mass. Decided to take the shot at 125yds and down he goes after a 20yd sprint. Got to him for retrieval and loading and suddenly got concerned on the width. Measured his inside spread with a tape measure and with luck he was 13.5" inside but had a broken brow tine along with a broken G2 on the same side, should have been an 8pt but ended up being a trash 6pt. He was not great trophy but h he was my buck this year.

The last day stresses arrived as I wanted my son to finish the trip with a buck. The morning of our last hunt, Wednesday the 6th my son and I are getting settled into the blind (I enjoy hunting with him in the blind) 15 minutes prior to official shooting time. It's warm with a light fog, started drinking our coffee and settling in for the morning hunt when I look to my right and see a buck entering the field at 25yds from us. I softly tell my son to get ready and we are both struggling to see and judge the deer. The buck walks from our right heading left nearing the gravel road that leads to a gas well pad, stops 20yds out but never gave us a view to judge his width but we both new by the body size he was big. The buck turns right and is now walking away from us headed into the middle of the field. My son is on him looking through the scope, I'm checking him out with the bino's while also looking at what time it is. Lucky for my son it was legal shooting time. This buck has worked his way away from us out to about 100yds and suddenly stop in the middle of the field. I tell my son he's good to go when he has a shot, I'm back on the bino's and notice that the buck starts to step to his left, takes two more steps and is now broadside so I give a little "Bay" and simultaneously my son takes the shot. Buck kicks and runs left towards that gravel road and drops after a 15yd sprint. We celebrate, sit back and enjoy our coffee till the sun is fully up and head down to check out this buck. He was a slick 7pt that never grew a brow tine on the right side and had a 17" inside spread.

All the planning, spending money, sweat working and time traveling worked in our favor as we accomplished our goals. Next step was to set-up a new feeder in that field (yes, we harvested three deer in three days with no prior feeding) and setting up a new cell game camera. Got all of that done-on Wednesday afternoon and then drove the 700 miles back to Georgia on Thursday. Long story short is that the memory of this year will live on forever between the both of us. Now we will head back at Christmas and spend time hunting hogs as it only took them about 5 days to find the feeder and start showing up regularly on camera. I have included some pictures below for those that took time to read this long-worded post.

I hope everyone has enjoyed deer season this year as much as my son and I have. Be safe out there and luck combined with persistence be with you.

great memories with the fam

Good job.