Posted By: TX TCAT
Saturday Morning Success - 12/07/20 09:59 PM
The story starts when this deer showed up on camera for the first time 2 weeks ago. He got there mid-day on a Saturday, ate for an hour or so, then moved on.
As things typically work out, I arrived at the ranch the day after he was was caught on the camera. I hunted that blind all day, but he never made an appearance while I was there, leaving me with 2 weeks to obsess over the game camera pictures and wonder if he was still around or if he was just a buck stopping for a bite on his way to chase a hot doe in some other pasture. Either way, I wasn't going to hunt anywhere else this weekend. I got to the blind early on Saturday morning. 6:30 am, an hour before sunrise. Conditions were perfect. Temperatures in the low 30s, winds out of the NE at 3 to 5 MPH, and clouds building on the horizon for what would be an overcast day. At about 6:40 the sun started casting light on the horizon. It was one of those sunrises that, no matter how the hunt turned out, it was going to be a good day because you had been able to see it. I pulled the camera out and took some pictures.
That's venus rising with the sun, which I thought was pretty cool at the time and still do. After taking the sunrise pictures, I settled into the blind, focused really hard on every shadow that looked like a deer and waited for the feeder to go off. At 7:20 I heard the sound that no hunter wants to here. "Whiirrrrr..." The feeder went off, but the sound of corn being flung by the spinner was absent. I was beside myself. How could I let the feeder go empty at this point in the season? It was the longest 2 minutes of my life until 2 does walked out of the brush looking at the feeder pen, wondering why there was no corn on the ground. I thought to myself that I would wait for them to move on, then go get the rattling horns and take a different approach. Not another 2 minutes went by before my buck came charging out of the brush, nose down, hot on the trail of these does. I took one look through the binoculars and knew it was him. As he pushed these does around the field for another minute or 2, I got the gun up and waited for the shot. He gave me one broadside at 130 yards, and I made it count. The old warrior tried to run, but only made it 10 yards or so before his shoulders gave out and he took a dive. The whole thing was done by 7:35.
I haven't put the tape to him yet, but feel free to throw out some guesses as to what you think he'll go. He's very easily my biggest buck ever. I sure do love a big 8.
As things typically work out, I arrived at the ranch the day after he was was caught on the camera. I hunted that blind all day, but he never made an appearance while I was there, leaving me with 2 weeks to obsess over the game camera pictures and wonder if he was still around or if he was just a buck stopping for a bite on his way to chase a hot doe in some other pasture. Either way, I wasn't going to hunt anywhere else this weekend. I got to the blind early on Saturday morning. 6:30 am, an hour before sunrise. Conditions were perfect. Temperatures in the low 30s, winds out of the NE at 3 to 5 MPH, and clouds building on the horizon for what would be an overcast day. At about 6:40 the sun started casting light on the horizon. It was one of those sunrises that, no matter how the hunt turned out, it was going to be a good day because you had been able to see it. I pulled the camera out and took some pictures.
That's venus rising with the sun, which I thought was pretty cool at the time and still do. After taking the sunrise pictures, I settled into the blind, focused really hard on every shadow that looked like a deer and waited for the feeder to go off. At 7:20 I heard the sound that no hunter wants to here. "Whiirrrrr..." The feeder went off, but the sound of corn being flung by the spinner was absent. I was beside myself. How could I let the feeder go empty at this point in the season? It was the longest 2 minutes of my life until 2 does walked out of the brush looking at the feeder pen, wondering why there was no corn on the ground. I thought to myself that I would wait for them to move on, then go get the rattling horns and take a different approach. Not another 2 minutes went by before my buck came charging out of the brush, nose down, hot on the trail of these does. I took one look through the binoculars and knew it was him. As he pushed these does around the field for another minute or 2, I got the gun up and waited for the shot. He gave me one broadside at 130 yards, and I made it count. The old warrior tried to run, but only made it 10 yards or so before his shoulders gave out and he took a dive. The whole thing was done by 7:35.
I haven't put the tape to him yet, but feel free to throw out some guesses as to what you think he'll go. He's very easily my biggest buck ever. I sure do love a big 8.