Like you I’m beginning to sense the coming fall. And quite frankly I can’t remember a time in the past, more years than I’ll admit in print, that I have looked more forward to a coming whitetail season. With all the rain we’ve had throughout Texas and northern Mexico, this fall could be one of the best antler years we’ve ever had. This too in part due to excellent fawn survival rates during the past few years, especially four to six years ago.
What reports I’ve gotten in the past few days from ranchers, ranch-hands, and deer managers (finally they have gotten onto their properties once again), it could what several have described be a "scary year". What bucks they have seen were described as "monstrous".
I’ve personally not gotten to spend much time in the field lately. We just finished our 2007 annual LOS CAZADORES, which is now on sale at our store in Pearsall, and will be on the website shortly. I’m convinced it’s our best to date, all 176 pages of up, up nearly 50 pages from last year.
This year everyone who enters the Los Cazadores Deer Contest will receive a copy of our annual as part of their membership package. That said it is sign-up time once again.
We also have a new wrinkle in our Los Cazadores Deer Contest. This fall we have a new shall we say Division…Los Cazadores North America. For details please go elsewhere on our website to find the details. It’s not quite like our traditional Los Cazadores Deer Contest, but it’s taking us beyond the Texas and Mexico borders. If you’re reading this and you hunt in your home state or province, you’ll have a chance at winning a Los Cazadores Awards Jacket, with a deer you take there. Also if you’re like me you hunt several states for whitetails, so suddenly your chances are greatly increased.
Lots of things have gone on this summer, and that’s one of the reasons for my being tardy with this column. Among other things I’ve agreed to do a new all whitetail show for 2008 on Versus (used to be OLN) tentatively titled "World of Whitetail". As such I have several hunts set up in Texas and Mexico, but I’ll also hunt some of the Midwestern states such as Kansas, Kentucky and Illinois. While I’m looking forward to hunting those other states, I’m excited about hunting Texas and Mexico this year. As we work out the final details I’ll let you know what time the show will air…again this for 2008.
In remembering hunts in South Texas’ famed Brush Country there are several which stand out. A couple of those hunts took place on an old friend of mine’s place…the Bowman Ranch, owned by McLean Bowman. It was on the Bowman that Jake, my oldest grandson, shot his first whitetail, a doe. That was a hunt neither he nor I will ever forget. But there was another hunt as well, one we filmed and which has appeared on numerous television shows and networks. On that hunt I was hunting for a particular ancient 10 point buck that according to both McLean and Rob Kerr his foreman was practically a ghost. Thus we reached an agreement regarding price of the hunt, and the best time to hunt him. I decided to hunt that particular buck to the exclusion of all others.
Before telling you about how the hunt played out which you likely have seen anyway, let me say, I screwed up by making the decision I did. During several days of hunting I passed up numerous……no, make that many, bucks that would have scored 160 and better. And this was at a time following a dry antler growing season. Many years earlier I had done some management work on the ranch, and thought I knew the potential, and again I had been wrong. Because, the potential as I realized when I hunted there was considerably higher based on the quality of the bucks seen.
I saw at least three bucks on that hunt that I think could well have exceeded the 170 minimum listing for the Boone & Crockett record book, and they were young. They were literally babies that with a bit more maturity truly could reach monstrous proportions.
I literally kicked myself several times and the cameraman volunteered to do so as well, literally, for crazily saying I was going to hunt the old 10 point to the exclusion of all other bucks.
As the hunt was about to end, on the last afternoon, I got permission from Rob to walk from one food plot to another. There were three in relatively proximity of each other. I found the old buck at the last one. I was able to take advantage of the wind and get to within 170 yards of him. There from a solid rest I gently tugged the trigger on my old T/C Encore .30-06 pistol. The buck dropped in his tracks.
That was three years ago...Come to think of it, those monstrous 3 and 4 year olds I saw while hunting that buck are now 6 and 7 years olds, likely at their prime. This especially due to all the rain we’ve had this antler growing season. Think I’ll contact Rob Kerr at huntbowmanranch@yahoo.com to see if he’s got any openings left this year to hunt a big buck. If I can’t get him there his contact (cell phone and website, etc.) information can be found on our Los Cazadores Outfitter/Guide pages on this website. This time I won’t make any foolish decisions or talk!
Hopefully I’ll see you there!
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