Post by mbogo on Feb 3, 2008 17:26:02 GMT -5
My hunting partner and I traveled to southern Texas for a management whitetail hunt at the Chaparral WMA as part of the Texas Public Land Hunting program. The hunt we were drawn for allowed us to take two management bucks with 7 or less points apiece plus unlimited hogs and coyotes.
We arrived early on Friday the 25th for the pre hunt orientation after a 19.5 hour drive from southern Indiana. During orientation we learned that the abundant rainfall the previous year had provided the deer with plenty of food which made it less necessary for them to leave the impenetrable brush to feed. The rain and now abundant higher quality food sources also increased antler size leaving fewer bucks with 7 or less points, making our hunt even more difficult. Nonetheless, we were both still cautiously optimistic.
The hunting began very slowly at first with only three bobcats and a javelina being spotted between the two of us on the first evening hunt. I'm sure the unseasonably cold weather played a role in the lack of game movement that first evening and the activity picked up the following day as temps. returned to a more normal level. My partner and I both decided to change blinds for the morning hunt, with him hunting a new blind and myself hunting the blind that he had hunted the evening before. The change worked out well for both of us, as I saw a buck and two does cross a sendero I was overlooking and my friend saw two bucks and two does cross his sendero. Unfortunately, neither one of us were able to get a shot or even a good look at the bucks, his because they crossed too quickly and mine because it was more than 500 yards away.
After the morning hunt, my friend and met to discuss our strategy and what we had seen. I was ready to try another area but my friend insisted on sticking with this one since he had seen two nice bucks that morning. We then decided to head back to town for lunch and pick up some corn for bait while we where there. During orientation we had found out that baiting was allowed on our hunt but since the biologist had told us that it hadn't been very effective that year, we had not bothered to waste our time baiting. After the morning hunt though, we both decided that some strategically placed corn might help to stop the deer in the senderos long enough for us to look them over and get a shot.
We returned in the early afternoon for the evening hunt, my friend returning to the same blind he had hunted that morning and me to the blind I had hunted the previous evening. It didn't take long for the action to begin that evening, I saw one javelina while spreading some of the corn around and more appeared within an hour of entering my blind. The first thing I saw after entering the blind that evening was a roadrunner that came out of the brush briefly to steal some of my corn before spooking when I went for my camera. It didn't take long for a herd of seventeen javelinas to discover my bait either and they spent the better part of the next three hours keeping me entertained and busy with my camera.
After seeing all the javelina and another bobcat I was very optimistic that I would see some deer before dark that evening and sure enough a doe appeared half an hour before dark. After watching her for a few minutes I caught movement to my left and turned slightly to see a young doe running a zig zag pattern in short bursts toward the bigger doe. The young doe no more than reached the older doe when I again saw movement to my left and caught the flash of antlers out of the corner of my eye. I immediately went for my binoculars to determine if it was a legal buck and after watching him for a few seconds was convinced he didn't have a G3 on his right side. I picked up my rifle and got into position as he zig zagged his way within 150 yards. Then I patiently followed him with my scope until he got to about 100 yards where I stopped him with a grunted.
The buck's back end fell immediately as I squeezed off the shot but he was able to regain his feet by the time I cycled the bolt for a follow up shot. He broke into a run as my crosshairs found him the second time and I swung the crosshairs ahead and took the shot which dropped him in his tracks. The first shot had been through the rear of both lungs, certainly fatal, but the second shot, hitting the base of the neck and one shoulder, had saved me some tracking.
The first thing I noticed upon walking up to it was that it had a broken, not missing G3 and that it would be very close to being an 8 pointer. Indeed upon measuring it at the check station the biologist determined that the broken point was slightly more than an inch but would not count as a point because it was wider than it was tall as per B&C rules. He was aged at 5.5 yo and weighed 110 lbs. field dressed, which is of decent size for a post rut buck in south Texas.
My friend had seen another buck that evening, possibly the same one I shot, but was unable to determine if it was legal or get a shot. The following morning, the last of the hunt, I was hoping my friend would get a chance at a buck but neither one of us saw any deer so he returned home empty handed. We both had a great time on the hunt even though we only brought back one deer.
We arrived early on Friday the 25th for the pre hunt orientation after a 19.5 hour drive from southern Indiana. During orientation we learned that the abundant rainfall the previous year had provided the deer with plenty of food which made it less necessary for them to leave the impenetrable brush to feed. The rain and now abundant higher quality food sources also increased antler size leaving fewer bucks with 7 or less points, making our hunt even more difficult. Nonetheless, we were both still cautiously optimistic.
The hunting began very slowly at first with only three bobcats and a javelina being spotted between the two of us on the first evening hunt. I'm sure the unseasonably cold weather played a role in the lack of game movement that first evening and the activity picked up the following day as temps. returned to a more normal level. My partner and I both decided to change blinds for the morning hunt, with him hunting a new blind and myself hunting the blind that he had hunted the evening before. The change worked out well for both of us, as I saw a buck and two does cross a sendero I was overlooking and my friend saw two bucks and two does cross his sendero. Unfortunately, neither one of us were able to get a shot or even a good look at the bucks, his because they crossed too quickly and mine because it was more than 500 yards away.
After the morning hunt, my friend and met to discuss our strategy and what we had seen. I was ready to try another area but my friend insisted on sticking with this one since he had seen two nice bucks that morning. We then decided to head back to town for lunch and pick up some corn for bait while we where there. During orientation we had found out that baiting was allowed on our hunt but since the biologist had told us that it hadn't been very effective that year, we had not bothered to waste our time baiting. After the morning hunt though, we both decided that some strategically placed corn might help to stop the deer in the senderos long enough for us to look them over and get a shot.
We returned in the early afternoon for the evening hunt, my friend returning to the same blind he had hunted that morning and me to the blind I had hunted the previous evening. It didn't take long for the action to begin that evening, I saw one javelina while spreading some of the corn around and more appeared within an hour of entering my blind. The first thing I saw after entering the blind that evening was a roadrunner that came out of the brush briefly to steal some of my corn before spooking when I went for my camera. It didn't take long for a herd of seventeen javelinas to discover my bait either and they spent the better part of the next three hours keeping me entertained and busy with my camera.
After seeing all the javelina and another bobcat I was very optimistic that I would see some deer before dark that evening and sure enough a doe appeared half an hour before dark. After watching her for a few minutes I caught movement to my left and turned slightly to see a young doe running a zig zag pattern in short bursts toward the bigger doe. The young doe no more than reached the older doe when I again saw movement to my left and caught the flash of antlers out of the corner of my eye. I immediately went for my binoculars to determine if it was a legal buck and after watching him for a few seconds was convinced he didn't have a G3 on his right side. I picked up my rifle and got into position as he zig zagged his way within 150 yards. Then I patiently followed him with my scope until he got to about 100 yards where I stopped him with a grunted.
The buck's back end fell immediately as I squeezed off the shot but he was able to regain his feet by the time I cycled the bolt for a follow up shot. He broke into a run as my crosshairs found him the second time and I swung the crosshairs ahead and took the shot which dropped him in his tracks. The first shot had been through the rear of both lungs, certainly fatal, but the second shot, hitting the base of the neck and one shoulder, had saved me some tracking.
The first thing I noticed upon walking up to it was that it had a broken, not missing G3 and that it would be very close to being an 8 pointer. Indeed upon measuring it at the check station the biologist determined that the broken point was slightly more than an inch but would not count as a point because it was wider than it was tall as per B&C rules. He was aged at 5.5 yo and weighed 110 lbs. field dressed, which is of decent size for a post rut buck in south Texas.
My friend had seen another buck that evening, possibly the same one I shot, but was unable to determine if it was legal or get a shot. The following morning, the last of the hunt, I was hoping my friend would get a chance at a buck but neither one of us saw any deer so he returned home empty handed. We both had a great time on the hunt even though we only brought back one deer.
