It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and it had been raining all night
and
was misting somewhat throughout the
morning and I was cold and wet and was tired of sitting in my stand so I
decided to get out and walk around and do some scouting of a place I wanted
to hunt over Thanksgiving. I decided to walk down a fence line that
bordered some salt cedar thickets and I found a game trail leading into the
thickets. The salt cedars are so thick in places a human would have to
crawl around just to make it through the thickets. Most of the deer tracks
on the trail we full of water, but there were some fresh tracks that didn't
have any water in them so I knew a big deer had walked down this trail
recently.
About twenty yards into the thicket the trail ended and the brush was so
thick I thought I'd have to crawl to follow the trail. About that time I
heard something to my left. At first I thought it was a hog because the
animal made so much noise. I adjusted my scope to its lowest setting and
about that time I looked up and the deer walked out from behind a cedar and
was facing me at 10 yards. All I could see was a huge body and huge horns.
Believe me, horns on a deer look very big at 10 yards. I froze, he froze
and it seemed like we stood there facing each other for an eternity.
Amazingly he took two or three steps towards me and I was afraid he was
going to try and run me over. I pulled my gun up, put the crosshairs just
below his chin and pulled the trigger. He hunched up and then jumped into
the thicket and I heard a lot of crashing of limbs and then heard a big
crash and said a prayer that the big buck had gone down for good. My
instinct was to rush into the thickets after him, but I decided it was best
to wait. I looked through my binoculars into the thickets to see if I could
spot the buck, but it was so thick I could not see anything. All I can say
is that it is an amazing rush of adrenaline to be face to face with a big
buck at 10 yards.
I called Brian Hargrove on his cell phone who was hunting about 500 yards
from where I shot the buck and told him I thought I'd shot a nice buck and
that I needed some help locating him. It took Brian about 20 minutes to get
to me and we went into the thickets in search of the buck. About 40 yards
in I spotted the buck on the ground. Brian was very helpful in clearing a
path to help me get the big buck out. I was on the phone calling my
hunting buddies and my Dad to tell them the news and I appreciate Brian's
help. It would have taken me about two hours to pull the buck out myself,
but with Brian's help we got the buck out in less than an hour.
Buck weighed between 185-200lbs and according to the taxidermist should
score close to 150 B&C.
was misting somewhat throughout the
morning and I was cold and wet and was tired of sitting in my stand so I
decided to get out and walk around and do some scouting of a place I wanted
to hunt over Thanksgiving. I decided to walk down a fence line that
bordered some salt cedar thickets and I found a game trail leading into the
thickets. The salt cedars are so thick in places a human would have to
crawl around just to make it through the thickets. Most of the deer tracks
on the trail we full of water, but there were some fresh tracks that didn't
have any water in them so I knew a big deer had walked down this trail
recently.
About twenty yards into the thicket the trail ended and the brush was so
thick I thought I'd have to crawl to follow the trail. About that time I
heard something to my left. At first I thought it was a hog because the
animal made so much noise. I adjusted my scope to its lowest setting and
about that time I looked up and the deer walked out from behind a cedar and
was facing me at 10 yards. All I could see was a huge body and huge horns.
Believe me, horns on a deer look very big at 10 yards. I froze, he froze
and it seemed like we stood there facing each other for an eternity.
Amazingly he took two or three steps towards me and I was afraid he was
going to try and run me over. I pulled my gun up, put the crosshairs just
below his chin and pulled the trigger. He hunched up and then jumped into
the thicket and I heard a lot of crashing of limbs and then heard a big
crash and said a prayer that the big buck had gone down for good. My
instinct was to rush into the thickets after him, but I decided it was best
to wait. I looked through my binoculars into the thickets to see if I could
spot the buck, but it was so thick I could not see anything. All I can say
is that it is an amazing rush of adrenaline to be face to face with a big
buck at 10 yards.
I called Brian Hargrove on his cell phone who was hunting about 500 yards
from where I shot the buck and told him I thought I'd shot a nice buck and
that I needed some help locating him. It took Brian about 20 minutes to get
to me and we went into the thickets in search of the buck. About 40 yards
in I spotted the buck on the ground. Brian was very helpful in clearing a
path to help me get the big buck out. I was on the phone calling my
hunting buddies and my Dad to tell them the news and I appreciate Brian's
help. It would have taken me about two hours to pull the buck out myself,
but with Brian's help we got the buck out in less than an hour.
Buck weighed between 185-200lbs and according to the taxidermist should
score close to 150 B&C.