Marginal Madness - My Biggest Bow Buck Yet

It was the start of another hunting season and the excitement filled the air. Everyone gathered in camp ready for a great season. We are blessed to hunt a beautiful low fence Texas hill country heaven that has plenty of great game and great bucks for everyone, every year. 

For the last 2 years I had killed my 2 biggest bucks growing in size each year. This year would prove to be no different but with a grand jump up in size presenting a superb surprise. 

I had only seen Unibrow once in front of me and I didn’t shoot him as my focus was on a management buck that peaked the interest of everyone. The following weekends proved to be difficult with either no shows or more frequently, bad winds. 

This past weekend (October 17-20) proved no different with the wrong winds for the setup he frequented. Finally, on Monday night I was able to make my way to his hangout area. The spot was also home to some groups of hogs and does and I was ready and willing to shoot any of them or all of them!

I settled in and nearly immediately had a lone lady skirting around the area. She didn’t want to commit to bow range and just when I thought she had settled down enough to come closer, the cows moved in right in front of me and her! The margin had closed on her quickly!

I could only laugh because if you have ever hunted a place with cattle, they WILL mess up a hunt for you guaranteed! So, as the slab of beef moved directly in front of my blind, completely blocking any shot at the doe, I sat back and relaxed and waited. This wasn’t my shot. 

As the hunt continued I noticed off to the far left not only a target management buck and a doe, but also Unibrow...my target buck! I watched as he lifted his head to a licking branch and scraped beneath the tree. He was in charge of the area, the dominant buck, and was in no hurry to move in closer. 

After some meandering around he started working his way in closer, as well as numerous other deer that had shown up. My heart started racing as I tried to calm myself and avert my eyes from his gorgeous rack and prominent face markings. 

I kept praying asking for God to guide my arrow, calm my body, enhance my skill, and to basically help me through this because I tend to doubt my skill level on nearly every hunt. Like I’ve said before, bow hunting is hard, and there have been many lows that shatter my confidence and soul and the climb back up is difficult. 

Unibrow came in to bow range, 19 yards to be exact, but there were multiple other deer blocking him or too close for comfort to thread the needle, especially those closer to me than him. They would react first and change his reaction as well. 

Finally, they cleared enough where I felt comfortable and he seemed calm as well. I drew back and began to settle the pin, breathe, lower, breathe....he lifts his head and turns away from me. So I held. There was stifling silence and I knew letting down would break the sound barrier and send them running. 

So I held. He never moved his back legs but turned his head almost completely around reminiscent of an owl rotating their head. I held. Shaking. I held for what seemed longer than I should but was merely a few seconds. My hands were sweating. My eyes began to sink into tunnel vision. I held on longer.

He turned back to broadside and I resettled my pin and as everything seemed to become blurry, I released. I released the arrow, my breath, my heart and my anxious body. It hit. Not where I was hoping. It was forward. And the arrow was hanging out of him as he ran. Oh my. What just happened? Did I just mess this up?

I watched as he acted like a running dead buck in his body language but my eyes and the arrow provided much deception. As he neared the edge of the hill I saw something disappear as well as the rest of the deer that were around darting and vanishing over the hill. Did he just fall over or did I just lose sight of him over the hill? The margin of error was the worst it could have been. Dead or a fatal wound I might never find!

If you’ve followed any of my adventures, you are aware of my poor vision and I truly wasn’t sure what I had just witnessed, but I had to get a closer look. I abandoned the wait rule and got out of the blind with my bow just in case he was wounded and needed a follow up shot.

I saw blood. Good blood, but no arrow. Daylight was fading so I hurried past some blood to look if my eyes had deceived me or not and there, right there, about 70 yards away, he lay under a tree with his back to me and gorgeous antlers on display. I dropped to my knees in the middle of the rocks and cried. I couldn’t even go up to him right away. I sat and cried because I knew he was grand and I needed to be ready to experience that moment. 

After I stopped crying, well after the crying slowed down to be honest, I stood up and walked over to him. As I circled around behind him I was facing West and the sunset was magical. I knelt down and thanked God for guiding me through this hunt because once I saw the shot placement I knew God was 100% in charge. 

The shot was forward and actually went through his leg near his elbow, into his cavity and punctured lungs. My fixed blade broadhead was another blessing to blow through his leg bone and still manage enough penetration into his vitals to execute a deadly shot and quick expiration. Another margin that could have lead to completely different results between heartbreak and healing my soul. 

There was a moment of beautiful solitude that resonated in my soul as I knelt down and touched him. There was a connection that existed between him, myself and God and I will forever remember that moment and feeling. 

Texting, photos, congratulations, skinning, and all the necessary procedures commenced. It was late and I have never worried much about the score of a deer, so that process was pushed until the following morning. 

We scored him. And I didn’t believe it. So we measured everything again, triple checked our math and confirmed he was my biggest buck and one heck of a deer with his long tine length and incredible mass. 151 was the magic number. A Texas Hill Country free range/low fence deer that grew to be my proud moment, meat in the freezer, and memories to last. 

Hot Mess Express - Doe Kill 10/11/2020

It had been slow hunting for me and the weather had changed by 40 degrees since the last weekend. Opening weekend was nice and cool for Texas with highs barely in the 70’s and now we were topping highs of 102 degrees in the afternoon. This pushed everyone out of the hot box blinds into tripods, trees, or even the porch of camp with a cold beverage!

 

I opted for a tripod that accommodated our dreaded westerly winds but also provided some shade. I had never hunted this tripod before and it showed. As I climbed in I fumbled with my pack, my camera, my bow...nearly everything you could think of. I dropped my camera, broke a strap on my backpack and was just downright frustrated with everything and the heat wasn’t helping either. 

 

I settled in finally thinking that if I saw any animal tonight it would be a miracle after dropping everything, climbing down and up again and just being a hot mess. 

 

God knew my frustration and quickly calmed my spirit by sending in 3 jakes that were extremely talkative and even let loose some gobbles that made me smile inside and out. It was exactly what I needed to remind me to just sit back and enjoy being there after numerous frustrating hunts over the last 2 weekends. 

 

After the jakes cruised on through, it was just a few minutes later when a solo lady popped up from my right that I never saw coming in. She looked rather calm, which for a Texas Hill Country doe just means you have a few more seconds before she freaks out about anything and turns into a ninja. 

 

She was barely 10 yards in front of me nearly straight down. I was nervous with her being that close and already doubting if I could pull this off. She popped her head up a few times but never looked up, only gazing intently off in the distance behind me. After a few times of her looking past me I knew I had to take my shot soon. 

 

I managed to get the camera on which was only clipped to the seat of the tripod and thus moved anytime I did! The wind was working in my favor blowing a few miles per hour which hadn’t been the case the last few hunts. 

 

I was able to get drawn back and lowered my pin on her and released. It zipped right through her so fast with the short distance I wasn’t quite sure what happened. She reacted as if it was a vital shot with a mule kick and nearly flipping over herself but I watched her run off over 100 yards and then start walking until I lost her in the brush. 

 

My heart sank because my initial reaction was that the shot was too low with the height angle and I may not have hit vitals on the entry or exit. I reviewed the video in the tripod and still had conflicting data. The entry looked low but the dust kicked up behind her on the exit showed otherwise. The mule kick seemed good, but the distance she ran didn’t seem right. 

 

As I sat there texting the other hunters beating myself up like always, I received positive responses from them of support and encouragement from what little they could see on the phone recorded video. I pulled my binoculars out to look for blood on the ground or my arrow. After some searching, I saw my arrow sticking up as it had kicked up and stuck in the dirt. I saw blood on it which presented a good feeling but I still wasn’t sure. My mind was a hot mess as well. 

 

It was early so I stayed in the tripod and waited for another possible chance at another target. Nothing else showed up and I decided to climb down a bit early to look for blood in the daylight. I pulled my arrow out of the ground and confirmed it had good blood on it. I looked around but didn’t see a lot of blood and decided to just walk in the direction I last saw her before it got dark. 

 

I took a knife, my deer drag, 2 flashlights, my phone and some water. After the frustration I had in the tree, I wanted to be prepared! As I was walking I casually looked for blood but mostly looked in the distance. My eyes darted to something white...but was it just some rocks? As I inched closer I saw a white belly and 2 white ears!! There she lay right where I had last seen her! 

 

I was beyond elated, did a little jump for joy, and shed a few tears for being thankful for her and the meat she would bring. I attached the drag to her legs and headed back; she ran a little over 100 yards. After I loaded her on the hitch rack I paused for a moment to reflect on the hot mess that began when I climbed into the tripod and the one that exists in my mind. 

 

I’ve been told I beat myself up, I am too hard on myself, and I always second guess my skills in the field. And maybe that is partially true, but anyone that has picked up a bow, made many mistakes and had some successes, it will always be a battle because dang it, bow hunting is hard! As for me in my mind, until I see the concrete evidence laying in front of me, I rarely believe the success is true!