South Texas Deer Hunt

[KahrMan]

(I got this hunt through the Sako forum.  It was used as a way to raise money for the site.  I wrote this for that site but thought I would also post it here.)

 

My first decision to make was deciding on what rifle to take.  Spaher offered up one of his Sako’s if I did not want to bring my own.  The choice came down to either my Finnbear in .338 win or my M995 in .30-06.  I though the .338 was a little much so I opted to bring the M995.  This would be the M995’s first hunt.  I have a bad habit of buying guns and putting them into the safe and not shooting them.  Time to go to the range and sight this beauty in.  The M995 is topped with a Swarovski Habicht 6-18x50 scope.  My local indoor range has a 75 yard rifle range.  I didn’t have time to get to the outdoor range so 75 yards would have to do.  The first three shots were cloverleafed at 75 yards about 3” inches left and 1.3” high.  I adjusted the scope and  got it shooting dead on right to left and still about 1.3” high at 75 yards.  That should give me a dead on hold out to approx. 250 yards.  I was shooting Federal Premium168 grain Vital Shok with Sierra Gameking BTSP bullets.

 

The plan was to arrive on Wednesday around noon. We would have a light lunch, go verify zero on the rifle and then head out for an afternoon hunt.  I had decided to drive down.  I am the kind of guy that likes to drive straight through instead of splitting the drive up and getting a hotel.  So I took off from Nashville and drove straight through till I arrived at the ranch.  Spaher was running a couple of errands so he had one of his buddies meet me at the gate. The first thing that I noticed was how well maintained the road was leading down to the kitchen and bunk houses.  We get to the bunk houses and park and that’s where I met his ranch manager.  Super nice guy.  He got me set up in a room and showed me around the main camp area.  We were having lunch when Spaher came in.  He instantly made me feel welcome.  We sat and talked for awhile.  Not only is Spaher into deer and land management but also history.  It was fascinating learning a lot about the lands history.  After verifying zero on the rifle it was time for our afternoon hunt.

 

Spaher does a lot to manage his property.  He does supplemental feeding with corn and protein for the wildlife.  Just understand that these deer are 100% wild deer.  It is not high fenced, there are no pen raised deer or anything like that.  Spaher does a lot of culling to make sure he has the right mix of bucks to does and the correct bucks that have potential to grow into giants.  They run a lot of cameras on the ranch so they can keep track of the deer from year to year.  That way they know what needs to be culled and what needs a chance to grow.  The brush can get a little thick on this property.  It is full of cactuses and other thorny plants.  Because of that Spaher asks that you shoot the deer right through the front shoulder.  He does not want the deer to be able to run very far.

 

That afternoon we went to a blind that was beside a pond.  It was not long before a fawn came out to feed and play.  Not long after more deer kept coming out of the brush to feed and drink.  There was a pretty even mixture of does and young bucks.  Where I hunt it is a good day to see a couple of deer.  I had a blast just getting to watch all the deer.  There were 5 young bucks between a spike and up to a small 8 pt and 7 does.  About 20 minutes before dark another buck comes out and you can instantly tell he is a mature deer.  The ranch manager glasses him for a minute and say that is one on our hit list.  I have not seen him in over a year.  After a minute or two he says aren’t you going to put your rifle up and shoot him.  Not sure why but for some reason I had it in my head that I was going to be shooting cull bucks.  So I say I can shoot him?  He responds that’s why you are here.  Well then the buck fever hit me.  This was a beautiful 14 pt.  He was a perfect 6x6 with split brow tines.  I put the cross hair on his shoulder and pulled the trigger.  He bolted off into the underbrush.  We wait a few minutes and then go look for blood.  We get to where he was standing and can not find any blood.  My stomach just drops.  I get that sick feeling that I made a bad shot.  A few minutes later the ranch hands show up.  They are expert trackers.  One of the hands found a piece of hair with a little meat attached to it right where he was standing.  Still not sure how I missed it.  They head off into the brush tracking the deer by his footprints.  About 60 yards in they found a couple of drops of blood where it looks like the deer stopped and stood for a minute or two.  I was not a lot of blood.  It was dark now so they decided to pull out and look again in the morning.  After talking it over the with the ranch manager we think I shot low and hit the deers’ leg.  Nothing I could do now except hope we find him in the morning.  So we head back to camp and get cleaned up for dinner.  

There is just something magical about sipping on bourbon while steaks cook over a live mesquite fire.  We had a great dinner and then off to bed.

The next morning the manager and I go a different blind.  We are sitting there in the dark waiting for it to get light when he says hear all that crunching.  I am like what is that. He says that is a bunch of javalina.  They are very loud eaters.  As it got light enough to see I could make out 20-30 javalina feeding off to our right.  I am watching the javalina when the manager says he sees 2 deer at the end of field.  We can 2 bodies through our binoculars but can’t make out if they are bucks or does yet.  After a couple of very long minutes we can make out that they are both bucks.  We watch them for about 10 minutes and the manager says lets take the one on the right.  He is an older mature deer.  He looked like a solid 8 or maybe a 10, I was not positive.  I ranged him at just over a 100 yards.  I took my time, put the cross hairs right at the top of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger.  I saw him hunch up a little and then take off into the underbrush.  The manager says I head the bullet hit him.  We message the trackers and then head up to where the buck was standing.  We start looking around and again we can not find any blood.  I am thinking what the hell is going on.  

The trackers get there and we show which way the deer went.  They follow the tracks pointing out where they could see the deer turn but still can not find any blood.  After another turn or two one of the trackers yells found him.  Talk about a sense of relief.  We head over that direction and find him piled up next to a tree with broken branch laying across him.   First thing I did was look for my shot placement.  Sure enough there was an entrance hole right in the middle of his shoulder.  I hit him right where I was aiming.  He was standing broadside when I shot him.  The weird part is there was also an exit hole but it was 4-5”s back near the back of the rib cage.  So we have an entrance and exit hole but not one drop of blood could be found.  As soon as we moved the deer and its body shifted, blood started flowing out of the exit hole.  It was then I started looking at the rack.  We have all heard about ground shrinkage but this was the opposite for me.  The rack looked a lot bigger than what I thought it was.  It turned out to be a beautiful 11 pt.  I was estatic.  The deer in my neck of the woods are a lot smaller.   We load the deer up and head off to the processing shed.  

 

The ranch processes a lot of deer every year.  Over the years they have devised a very efficient system for getting the deer from field to cooler.  The first thing we do is weight the deer.  They have a hoist attached to a rail system like you would see at a butcher shop.  After it is weighed it is slid over to these angled holders.  The deer is put into the holders.  There is a big rubber bucket at the end of the holders.  The stomach is sliced open.  The pelvis gets split with an axe and all the gut are pulled down into the rubber bucket.  The deer gets pulled back up with the hoist and slid over to outside the cooler.  It is then hosed down inside and out.  All the mud and blood is washed off the deer.  Then it is pushed right into the cooler to hang.  This cooler can hold over 100 deer.  The whole time from weighing it till it was in the cooler took less than 5 minutes.  I am not kidding when I say this is an efficient operation.  After the deer was in the cooler we went back to have some breakfast while the trackers went back to look for my deer from the night before.  After searching some more they could not find any more sign from the deer.  We are assuming I grazed the leg and the deer will survive.  At least I did not leave a mortally wounded deer out there although I am still sick about making the bad shot.

 

After lunch we make our afternoon plans.  Spaher decides to take me out and we go back the blind where I missed the 14pt.  Knowing he is injured we are hoping he comes back to the pond for water.  We see a lot of deer that evening but nothing mature.  

After dinner we retire to the Spahers Cigar Bar.  The back of the kitchen is one of the coolest man caves you will ever see.  Spaher has a couple of humidors, several nice leather chairs and a bar.  There are a lot of beautiful deer taken from the ranch mounted on the walls along with other trophys he has gotten.  This is where you sit around, smoke cigars, drink whiskey and tell lies.  It is a great way to end a long day of hunting.  

 

Next morning the ranch manager takes me out again to a new spot.  Not long after light we start seeing deer.  Again it is a good mixture of fawn, does and young bucks.  We are watching the deer feed and mill around.  In the mix was a nice 8 pt and a real nice 10 pt.  The 10 pt was a young deer probably 3.5 yo.  He has good potential.  The ranch manager, after comparing the older 8 pt to the younger 10 pt, decided he wanted to cull the 8 pt and told me to get ready to shoot.  This was about a 90 yard shot.  I had to wait till the deer behind him cleared out of the way.  I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger.  Another solid hit but again he took off into the underbrush.  I walked up to where he was standing and looked the way he took off.  It was fairly open in that spot and I could see him on the ground about 35 yards away.  This time there was good blood spray all the way to him.  The strange thing is that the  bullet performed exactly like the last one.  He was standing broadside and the bullet entered the center of the shoulder and exited about 5”s back at the rear of the ribs.  The trackers soon showed up and we got this 8 pt back to the processing shed.  This deer was 4.5 yo and weighed 196 lbs.  One of the rules the ranch has for culling deer is if a deer reached 4 yo and is only an 8 pt or less he is culled.   The ranch manager explained it like this.  Since they want to keep a good mix between bucks and does they have to decide which bucks to take.  He would rather put time into trying to grow the young 10 pt into a monster instead of hoping the older 8 might get bigger.  The younger deer just had more potential so the older one gets culled.   After the 8 pt was in the cooler we all head to a local spot for a late breakfast/early lunch.

 

For the final evening hunt Spahers friend took me out.  We went to a spot that was more open field and light underbrush than the other spots we had been hunting.  About an hour before dark we started seeing deer.  Young bucks and does but nothing mature.  All of sudden something spooked them and they took off running.  We are looking around and then we hear the distinctive call of the sandhill crane.  4 large sandhills land right where the deer had been feeding.  They fed for a few minutes and then took off.  As soon as they left the deer came back out to feed. Right before dark another buck came out.  I was told to get ready to shoot but wait for the ok.  I get my scope on him and he is a pretty, symmetrical 10 pt.  After what seemed like forever I was told to go ahead a take him.  I squeezed the trigger and he dropped in his tracks.  Whew, we did not have to track this one.  Growing up when I would think about what my ideal deer would look like it was always a symmetrical 10 pt.  When I walked up to this guy and got a good look at his rack you could not wipe the smile off my face.  This guy was thick as well.  I think that is why the racks always looked bigger once I got to the deer.  The body size is so much larger than I am used to that the racks don’t stand out as much compared to the big body. This guy weighed in at 236 lbs.

 

 

When I bid on the hunt I had no idea what a great experience this would turn out to be.  Spaher is an interesting fellow and a great host.  It is rare to find someone as knowledgeable, as gracious and as willing to share what he has with a stranger as Spaher.  I can not thank him enough for the experience.  For the longest time I have been in the mode of acquiring stuff whether it be guns or whatever.  Now I am at the stage of life where I want to get rid of some of my “stuff” and replace it with memories. I sold a couple of rifles I never shoot and purchased this trip.  What a great trade off.  I got rid of something I never use and replaced it with memories that will last me a lifetime.