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11th Hour Buck
My wall will be bare no more! I finally took a wall-hanger. I'm still in a fog, right now... My opportunity came at the very last moment possible, at the Truman Lake Managed Deer Hunt for the Disabled (Nov. 9th & 10th). |
I took him at 5 O'clock, last night. It was one tough hunt... We hung him overnight, took him to the taxidermist this morning & I just don't have any energy left. I did have to at least post the photo ~ I'm on cloud 9( and the 10th, 11th & 12th cloud, too). |  |
The weather didn't cooperate at all, on Saturday. I actually have a sun-burned face to prove it.
It was a tough hunt, and we hunted hard. Actually, it seemed more like a comedy of errors. I forgot my shooting stick on Saturday, so my guide made me one. When I did remember to bring the shooting stick the next morning, my wife accidentally left it leaning against the truck. Yep ~ I ran over it while backing out of the driveway. I never even got to use it ~ not once!
Then, my scope base came loose.... Of course, I found out the hard way ~ I had shot at a nice 8 point Sunday morning, and it was a clean miss. I thought my hunt was over, after inspecting my Encore. I thought it was going to be a repeat of last year ~ skunked.
Since I was hunting with a handgun (because of my shoulder), I didn't have a back-up. A friend loaned me his back-up rifle (a single-shot NEF Handi-Rifle in .243), which saved the day.
There were 10 hunters left on Sunday, so we came up with a plan. We would fill all the blinds in one area, and the volunteers would do a drive. They only jumped 4 does, which I saw run directly away from my blind...too far to shoot.
Me & my guide decided to go it alone. We returned to an area in the park where there wasn't anyone in any of the blinds. My guide did a one-man drive, and failed to jump anything. I had one last card up my sleeve....with only 45 minutes left in the hunt.
I suggested we go to a blind that overlooked a food plot ~ a perfect evening blind, IMHO. On the way to the blind, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were does everywhere, in the same area of the blind we were heading towards. I kid you not ~ there were at least 20 does lining the road, the ditch & the tree line along the road. We tried not to spook them, but it didn't work out that way. BUT ~ they all spooked/ran towards where the blind we were heading to was located. We hurried and set up, with only minutes to spare. The herd of does made their appearance, and I chose the largest one. I put the cross-hairs behind her shoulder, and started squeezing the trigger. She flagged all of a sudden, and trotted off. I picked another doe, and had just got ready to squeeze the trigger, when my guide whispered, "Buck ~ BIG BUCK"!
I couldn't see him... I turned ever-so-slightly towards my guide, and mouthed, "Where"? He just nodded towards the does. I looked through my scope again, and caught a glimpse of antlers. That's as long as I dared to look at the rack ~ I've made the mistake of looking too long, before. My guide said he was a "shooter", so I took his word for it.
Just as I put the cross-hairs behind his shoulder, he started to leave. I followed him, and the buck decided to turn and take one last look at us. I saw his eyes, followed his throat down to his chest, and squeezed the trigger...
I hit him hard! He hunched over, and took off running with his head hanging down. That ever-so-deafening silence followed, with my heart in my throat. I looked at my watch ~ there was only 20 minutes of legal shooting light left... That's why I call him my "11th hour buck"....
We waited 20 minutes before tracking him. My guide turned towards me, when he reached the spot where the buck had been standing. He motioned, with his hands 6" apart, the direction & width of the blood trail. It looked like the buck was painting the center stripes of a highway ~ it was a good hit. Now all we had to do was find him... It wasn't five minutes later, when I heard what I needed to hear ~ "Here he is ~ I found him"!
My guide drove me to the spot where the buck was laying. I could see some antler sticking up above the tall grass. When Adam (my guide) picked the buck's head up, I went into shock ~ literally... I had no idea he was so HUGE ~ his rack & body! I've heard of "ground shrinkage", but this was quite the opposite... I felt as though my throat was swelling shut ~ it was getting difficult to breathe. For once in my life, I was totally speechless...
When we returned to camp, everybody gathered around my tailgate, and cameras started flashing. The director of the managed hunt told me this was the biggest buck ever taken at the Truman Lake hunt, in all the 12 years it's been held. Plus, since it was the biggest buck of the hunt this year, I had just won a free shoulder mount. Now I was not only in shock, but I entered this "haze".
Everything happened so quick, I still wasn't able to absorb all of this at once. It's been 2 days now, and it's finally starting to sink in. I've been told that the rack will probably score somewhere between 130-135. The buck weighed around 220-230 lbs...
I've always said that I'm a meat hunter~ but if a trophy buck ever walked out in front of me, I'd take him. I never thought it would happen, let alone in the near future. Now that it has happened, I'm at a loss of words to describe the feelings I'm going through. All I can say is, I've been blessed with a memory of a lifetime. Who 'da thunk...
BTW ~ The taxidermist confirmed it was the largest buck ever taken at the Truman Lake Managed Deer Hunt for the Disabled in the entire 12 years it's been held.
You're right, Hustler ~ the picture doesn't do it justice. The picture of the buck, me & the guide makes the antlers look skinny, because it's so dark. Sorta the same way he looked when I saw him in the darkening treeline. The close-up photo (follow my link in the second post) is more like it. Mucho Grande'....
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Mrs. Chairman
My wife's first deer...ever! We've been hunting together, for 6 years now. I was beginning to wonder if she had what it took, to shoot a deer. This is the first time she had a shot that she would take. She always said she'd do it when she was comfortable with it. By gawd - she did it! I'm SO proud of her! A neck shot, at 70 yards |
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Missouri Defector
John and I hunted together with our dads long ago here in Missouri. It was a high adventure to the Ozark mountians far back a Marktwain Forest service road for a full day of squirel hunting. One thing that stuck out in my mind was John and his dads tip for getting stick tights off your clothes. Use a strap type oil filter wrech. It brushes them right off. Career needs and the fact that his dad and mom moved to Texas took this
Missouri native down south. Nice buck John, Thanks for keeping
in touch, hope we can get together with our sons one of these days.
Tommy, how you been, here's a picture of a typical Texas Hill Country
deer I
John Nixon, CSP
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