After 2-yr. lull, I finally get a deer.... [View all]

[Eleanors38]

Last Friday, I finally took a nice buck in Coryell County, Texas. I had to move from two previous posts due to changing wind direction. Finally got a decent spot overlooking an intersection of jeep trails and oak mott. There I enjoyed the golden early evening light and many monarch butterflies, after spooking at least three deer in the process. But the rut is a forgiving time for clumsy retirees. With less than 30 mins. left of legal light, I caught movement over my "off side," which turned out to be a nice doe. My intent was to shoot her, but she wove through brush and trees and went out of sight before I could maneuver around and get a brace on the oak I was sitting against. I kept my eye on where she first emerged, and sure enough, a legal buck slowly revealed himself.

I got a sight picture, but the buck was single-mindedly dogging her same path. Then he stopped. He never turned his head, toward me or anything else. Somewhere ahead and out of sight, he was fixed on that doe who probably was sniffing out my old scent trail along the jeep lane before signaling to the buck all was OK. Most of his body was obstructed by brush, save for the front quarters and antlers. I just managed to get the cross-hairs over his right lower shoulder as he stood transfixed on the invisible doe. At the shot, he leapt backwards and disappeared. The only movement was the re-emerging doe who flashed into the open, then back into brush.

I was somewhat confident of my 100 yd. shot through the little "tunnel" I had for visuals, so immediately struggled up, grabbed my pack, and traced a bee-line for where I last saw him. Sure enough, he lay on his side only a few feet from where he once stood, with a lung through-and-through. He trembled his last, and I thanked him and bade him farewell. Then the work began. A week later after red neck aging in the ice chests, I finally had him boned out and dropped off at Hudson's Processing in the heart of hep-cat South Austin. God, I think this may be the last kitchen sink de-boning job I do! But 52 pounds of sweet, solid, well-trimmed meat will be returned as breakfast sausage, burger, link sausage, ham steaks, etc. It's a relief in many ways.

Happy hunting to all of you who deal with eating straight up.