"It's a matter of inches!" came the voice from behind a cloud of gray smoke arising from the late September campfire.
"Size does really matter!" said another seated to my left.
Off in the distance of the Kansas darkness a coyote yapped his comments. Although I wasn't exactly sure, I suspect he agreed as well.
 Thankfully it's that time of year, the time all of us who enjoy whitetails and who hunt look forward to and wish our lives away to return each years. Whitetail season is upon us, archery and early muzzleloader in some places, and Managed Land Permits here in Texas as well.
Summer with me essentially ended when I climbed on a plane and headed northward to Newfoundland for woodland caribou for a T/C Game Trails show. I had hoped the weather would be cool, but it wasn't. Indeed it was cooler than South Texas temperature in early September but not by Canadian standards. Even so the camp on Loon Lake was a absolute blast. I hunted hard for four days walking eight or more hours a day in the bogs that woodland caribou seem to prefer. I wore rubber boots the entire time and once again confirmed most rubber boots are water proof unless you step in a hole taller than the boots you're wearing. Then they also become waterproof from the inside and don't let water out.
Just when it was not looking good for this Texas visitor as the hunt was drawing to a close the two guides, cameraman Jeff Parker and I spotted a distant bull. It took us a while to get to him rather behind him, to take advantage of the 50 mph wind that was blowing. But finally we did and spotted him standing in a small ravine, making him look like he was bedded. I took careful aim using my BOG Pod shooting sticks to steady my aim. Thankfully the new .308 Win, T/C Icon bolt action rifle shooting 150 grain Supreme Elite XP3 was up to the task and I was able to kill an extremely nice woodland caribou.
From Newfoundland I travel to Kansas to hunt early season muzzleloader whitetails with Stan Christiansen with Kansas Trophy Outfitters on Stan's farms in Stafford County. Kansas allows some early whitetail hunt with muzzleloaders but doesn't allow the use of scopes, it's open sights only! As I was driving up to Kansas I tried to remember when I had last hunted deer with an open sight gun. Best as I could figure it was somewhere back around 1961, some 46 years ago. That was back when I could still see reasonably well and frequently shot open-sighted guns. But that was no longer the case. I wondered how I would fare shooting an open sight T/C .50 Triumph muzzleloader. All I could think of, "Hope the shot is going to be extremely close!"
That's how I came to be sitting around a Kansas campfire that conjured up thoughts of great buffalo herds from days of yore, and more recently ghostly images in the smoke of giant whitetails for which Kansas has become known. Sleep came hard that night after the campfire session that regaled bucks seen, taken and most often only glimpsed as we discussed antler size.
I saw several young bucks the first morning. But it wasn't until just after sundown that I saw my first mature bucks. He appeared at the edge of the soybean field far beyond my open sight muzzleloader range. My first guess was he would score at least in the 140s. Just past legal shooting light (a half hour past sundown) he walked in closer. As he came toward the cameraman and me I mentioned to Jody Boone seated in the ground blind just to my right where he manned the camera, "I may be wrong he could easily score in the 150's." The buck came closer in the rapidly fading light…
"He's got long tines, he could actually be a 160," I commented to Jody, "Maybe high 160's." But there was little we could do about it but watch in what little light remained. Then I happened to look to the right and saw the form of a deer, a buck no doubt, mature with a sizeable frame. Although by now it was so dark I could only see his frame. "That buck is bigger than the one in front of us. I think he'll probably…" just then another buck walked through what I could see in the extremely dark and poor light conditions. He was a good bit bigger, taller and appeared to have an even bigger frame that the one I was about to describe to Jody.
About that time Stan came to pick us up. As his headlights swept across the field, I glimpsed the last two bucks. Both were monstrous, the last one I had seen looked like he would easily exceed B&C minimums.
Needless to say that night I dreamed of big bucks.
The next morning proved fun in watching young bucks but that was it.
The evening hunt period arrived and we headed to the blind about 4 in the afternoon. But, nothing appeared until just as the sun was setting and full moon was rising in the east. All we had seen to that point were does. I was beginning to think it was going to be a doe evening.
Then with about 10 minutes of legal shooting light remaining I spotted an extremely tall though narrow buck far to our right. Earlier in the afternoon I had put out a bunch of Buck Bomb scent only about 50 yards in front of the ground blind.
The buck stopped on the edge of the soybean field, then suddenly started running in our direction, although at one point it appeared he would come in behind us, which would have been disastrous because the wind was blowing in our face. Then for whatever reason he changed directions and headed to exactly where I had put out the Buck Bomb. I waited until he stopped to sniff where I had sprayed it on the soybeans about 50 yards distant, then checked one last time to be certain there was still legal shooting time left (there was) before I nestled the front bead between the two back beads just behind his shoulder.
I lost sight of the buck in the dense gray cloud of smoke that erupted from the muzzle. But then over the cloud saw the buck running, but faltering as he went. He died within about 30 yards of the shot.
There was not doubt the buck was extremely tall and long main beamed and that he was mature based on body confirmation. But it wasn't until I walked to the deer's side that I realized he would likely weight very close to 300 pounds live weight and that my estimate of his antlers the evening before (he was the same buck that had shown up after legal shooting hours the day before) were somewhat larger than what I had thought initially. I was besides myself with joy.
The following morning back at camp we scored the buck and grossed him at 173 and some change, that with only a 15 inch inside spread. He should net about 167 B&C or so, not a bad start to the 2007 whitetail season, nor to the filming season for our new WORLD OF WHITETAILS which will debut on Versus in August of 2008.
I can only hope other hunts will go as well, not only for me but certainly also for you.
As I write this I'm also packing for a caribou hunt in Quebec, this during the caribou breeding season. I've been told by some northern friends they believe caribou at this time might be "rattled up". I'm going to give it my best shot and will let you know here how that hunt comes out.
I've got other whitetail hunts set up on Kentucky, Iowa and Illinois and then of course numerous here in Texas, this for the new WORLD OF WHITETAILS show. I dearly love hunting those other states, but will also tell you I can hardly wait to hunt Texas this year. Based on all the reports I'm getting, South Texas and much of other parts of Texas could be "plum scary".
Lots of things happening at Los Cazadores, naturally the Texas/Mexico Los Cazadores, but also the new Continent Wide Los Cazadores and we're also raffling off two new T/C Icon Bolt Action rifles in the new .30 TC chambering, you can get your chance at one of these two guns, plus some other great items at the Los Cazadores store.
Till we get a chance to visit again travel safely and enjoy October.
Here's wishing you the best of hunting seasons!
|
|
|
