David2011
11-09-2015, 04:38 PM
A nice 10 point whitetail has been posing for my game camera for a while and I've had the opportunity to watch him for several hours in the two weekends prior to the opening day of adult rifle season in Texas. I've been going to sleep at night with hopes of taking him. He's very large for the area but nothing like the big Midwestern whitetails. Probably 150 pounds and his antlers are about as wide as my 55 gallon feeder barrel, so nice for the area. The feeder went of precisely at 7:00 AM as expected and in 15 minutes the deer were wandering in. Then a nice blackbuck blasted through the area scattering the deer. He repeated that two more times. The fourth time he took a stand in the middle of the feeding area and ran the deer off. Enough! He was much nicer than the one I took a few days before so I carefully took the shot. He ran into the brush but I knew he wouldn't be going far.
Problem solved. Sit and wait for the deer to come back in, which they did within 10 minutes.
Still waiting for the 10 point buck. Friends that heard my shot decided I must need help so they came in about 25 minutes later. OK, give up on the buck for the morning. He'll be back if nobody gets him.
The friends, a father and his offspring from 12 to 22 came and helped me locate the blackbuck. We were taking pictures (sorry, left the camera in my camper, will retrieve it next weekend). It later measured 17-1/2" so while not massive, was still a nice animal. We were all kind of loud and enjoying ourselves. The 12 year old daughter had taken a nice buck earlier, her first. We were all in a pretty good mood over our success. The father noticed the 10 pointer standing about 60-65 yards away, boldly watching us. I had seen a couple of weeks before that this deer did not scare away easily. I didn't feel like I needed to take two very nice animals on one morning so I asked the 15 year old son if he wanted to take that buck and offered him my rifle. His older brother bent down to make a rest for the rifle and the 15 y.o. took the shot. It was a good chest shot. The buck jumped and buckled, then recovered and turned for a nearby fence where it could have escaped onto someone else's property. The older brother, a champion trap shooter, grabbed the rifle, racked another round into the chamber and shot it in the neck in somewhere between 2 and 3 seconds. It dropped immediately.
Both of the kids' deer were taken to the taxidermist as was the blackbuck. We all were pretty jubilant all day.
David
Problem solved. Sit and wait for the deer to come back in, which they did within 10 minutes.
Still waiting for the 10 point buck. Friends that heard my shot decided I must need help so they came in about 25 minutes later. OK, give up on the buck for the morning. He'll be back if nobody gets him.
The friends, a father and his offspring from 12 to 22 came and helped me locate the blackbuck. We were taking pictures (sorry, left the camera in my camper, will retrieve it next weekend). It later measured 17-1/2" so while not massive, was still a nice animal. We were all kind of loud and enjoying ourselves. The 12 year old daughter had taken a nice buck earlier, her first. We were all in a pretty good mood over our success. The father noticed the 10 pointer standing about 60-65 yards away, boldly watching us. I had seen a couple of weeks before that this deer did not scare away easily. I didn't feel like I needed to take two very nice animals on one morning so I asked the 15 year old son if he wanted to take that buck and offered him my rifle. His older brother bent down to make a rest for the rifle and the 15 y.o. took the shot. It was a good chest shot. The buck jumped and buckled, then recovered and turned for a nearby fence where it could have escaped onto someone else's property. The older brother, a champion trap shooter, grabbed the rifle, racked another round into the chamber and shot it in the neck in somewhere between 2 and 3 seconds. It dropped immediately.
Both of the kids' deer were taken to the taxidermist as was the blackbuck. We all were pretty jubilant all day.
David