Hunting
Stories
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Hunting
Stories
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Buck On a
String
| by Jim Autrey
Deer seldom do as you would like, but this one did! Robert Hoague and I had been invited to hunt with Oran Hill Outfitters of Burnet, Texas. Upon arrival, Brenda Lacy showed us several stand locations and allowed us to pick the best for us, being a bowhunter and a cameraman. We selected a spot that was Brenda's personal stand and they set up a ladder stand to be used in conjunction with the existing quad-pod. That afternoon, Robert and I took to the stand with great expectations. There was a cold front on the way and many times this is a triggering mechanism for deer movement. Brenda had told us that this stand was good for deer, turkey and feral hogs, so we settled in to see what would come. What would come turned out to be nothing, but there is always tomorrow. The next morning the cold front had moved in and it was in the 20's with a pretty good breeze. There was a lot of squirrel and bird activity early, which means other critters will soon be around......sometimes. Well, that wasn't the case this morning and we returned to the house where Brenda had cooked up an excellent breakfast of bacon, eggs and biscuits. It was decided over breakfast that we would go to another ranch that Oran managed for the afternoon hunt and after loading the truck, we were on our way. Once there Oran showed us a pecan bottom with a natural spring and more deer sign than I have seen in a concentrated area in a long time. There was a buck rub on a tree that had to be close to six inches in diameter, with a scrape right beside it. This looked great. So, Oran and Robert positioned a couple of stand for the afternoon hunt and after a short lunch break, we were back on location in the bottom. We had been in the stand about an hour when several deer came running down a hill to our location. This is something that I don't see that often. Usually, the deer sneak in or walk in but it seemed in this location that they were always running, kicking and playing like a bunch of baby calves. The deer came right up to within 20 or 25 yards of us but one of us moved and they were off and running again. Robert said, "well that's all for this afternoon" but being the optimist that I am, I assured him they would return and they did, running but not stopping. It was about 5:30 or so and I looked up on the opposite hill and saw a buck "walking" down the hill in our direction. I motioned to Robert to let him know what was coming, so he too could share in the awesome beauty of this approaching animal. He was a beautiful 8 pointer with a nice wide rack and I knew that he would probably do like the last bunch and pass within 50 yards on our location and be on his way. As we watched, the deer got to the bottom turned left and came straight at us and he kept on coming. I hope you all start taking your cameras with you to the stand but, when you do, you will quickly learn it hard to judge the distance a deer when you are looking through a view finder of a camera. It was becoming clear even to me that the deer was getting pretty close and when I peaked around the view finder and learned the deer was no more than about 12 yards away, head on, not giving Robert a good shot. The deer stayed there for about five minutes, not allowing a decent bow shot but allowing us to view up close and personal his amazing grace and beauty. Then suddenly another buck came down the hill and was seemingly challenging the first deers apparent ranking in the pecking order. Deer like many animals have an established pecking order, but there is always another trying to take the top spot. In this case the smaller buck didn't have a chance, but he did cause the larger buck to turn and walk away from us without allowing a shot. That's okay.
We were not allowed the shot, but it is always nice to see at least part
of your plan come together
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