USA: 22 / 23 Season Follow Along

[AustinL]

Well it’s time to start this years season long thread to chronicle the adventures of me and my son. He has been going and sitting in the blind with me since he was 4 years old and harvested his first deer at the age of 7. From that point on I have mostly acted as guide, skinner, and camp chef.

opening weekend of our general season here in Texas found us up at a friends ranch on our annual father son hunt. Me and a group of close friends hold this hunt every year and converge from across the state on my friends ranch for a weekend of good time, hunting, fishing and good food. This hunt is the epitome of its not about the catch or the kill but the time spent.

While historically this hunt has yielded great success for the kids, this year was much different with the early drought conditions and late season rains put ample green tender browse in the pastures coupled with a later than normal acorn crop and the deer and hogs were not in their normal pattern. Regardless lots of fun was had by all and the weekend as always was a huge success.

Between several family owned parcels, and properties owned by close friends opportunities will be plentiful.

Follow along as I will try and keep this updated throughout the season.

 

[AustinL]

On our way home from the father son hunt I made a slight detour by a small 60 acre property we have to pull trail camera cards and update feed times on the feeders due to daylight savings time.

That evening as I was reviewing the cards there was one buck that really caught my eye. I quickly text some of the pictures to my dad who is retired and the plan was made for him to drive down in the morning and hunt the buck over the course of that week.

Full moon conditions had morning hunts showing little to no activity and evenings hunts while better were still slow but it would only be a matter of time. On Wednesday evening as I was wrapping up at the office the text I had been waiting for all week came through. BBD!!! This deer while not a giant by many’s standards is the largest whitetail my dad has killed and I couldn’t be more happy that he was able to get it done.

 

[AustinL]

The second weekend of our season found us hunting close to home on the ranch of a close family friend this property is a sizable high fenced ranch that we shoot alot of does and culls for.
Again between the rut, the full moon and acorn crop it was tough hunting with below normal deer sightings and most of them not sufficient enough to get a proper estimate on age and score.

With the slow start to the season we were looking forward to meeting up with my parents for an early thanksgiving and the opening weekend of mule deer season here in Texas. Me and my son both took great deer two years prior so our standars were set pretty high but hogs were going to be in trouble.

In total for the weekend we laid 8 hogs to rest. Saw a good number of muley does and some young bucks but nothing worth hanging a tag on. The highlight of the weekend though was when we spotted a small herd of Aoudad about 3/4 of a mile off and a big deep canyon between us. We put a plan together and we’re able to close the distance and got within 75 yards of the herd. Unfortunately it was all ewes and a few young rams so my son lined up on this nice ewe and made a great shot. Now that he has his first we will be holding out for a good ram.

 

[Tally-Ho HUNTING SAFARIS]

enjoying this so far
love it when kids are out hunting

 

[AustinL]

Our next weekend had us hunting a property close to home that we cull and harvest does off of. Saturday morning turned out quite cold and dreary so my son elected to sleep in. Upon arrival at the ranch the wind was not doing what the weatherman said and was no good for the stand I intended to hunt. That being the case I quickly switched gears and headed to a different stand we had not yet hunted. I was hopeful that the wind conditions held. There was a lot of activity including on 4.5 year old buck that checked the management criteria. So I grabbed some good pics through the Bino’s and sent them to the landowner. He concurred with my assessment so the plan was set I would be heading back that evening with my son in tow. Now for the north wind to hold.

Mason luck would have it that evening things cleared up but the north wind held so 4:00 found us getting settled into the stand. A lot of the stands on this ranch are 4x4 in size and with me and my son they are tight quarters but we make it work.

that evening started slow after the feeder slung we had a small buck work through and then finally a doe and her two fawns. We were contemplating taking the doe but I held him off and finally the buck we were waiting for came out of the brush and settled in.

I watched the buck for a few minutes being sure to catch all angles so I knew 100% this was the deer we were looking for. I quietly whispered to my son that this was our buck and to get ready. At this point his breathing became noticeably heavier and the fever was setting in. I talked him through his breathing and getting settled into the gun. When the buck finally turned and offered a broadside shot I whispered take him when your read….boom I don’t know that I ever got the last word fully our. The buck jumped head down tail tucked all the signs of a good hit but he was soon out of sight.

My son shots a 6.5 Grendel with handloaded 100 grain Barnes TTSX bullets and they are down right lethal. What they are not good at is leaving any sort of significant blood trail. I know this but also know as long as he did his part the deer won’t be far. I gave the deer 20 minutes and as light was failing we slipped out to check for sign. I wanted as much light as possible for tracking purposes. No blood where the deer was standing when shot no surprise there. As we had had moisture his tracks were easily detected as he made his exit, we slowly followed. 15 yards into the bush we looked forward and there right where it opens on the edge of the brush lay the buck as usual he made is less than 50 yards with a shot through the top of the heart and both lungs.

 

[AustinL]

Well it’s about a wrap for this year I just realized we got busy with basketball and I forgot the last couple of updates.

The week before Christmas I had a few days off and me and the kids went up to spend a few days with my parents at the lake and get in a couple of hunts. This also coincided with a big (for central Texas) freeze

On this property we have a buck we called half tail for obvious reasons. We have watched him for a couple of years I even passed him the last weekend of the season the year prior and in that time he never really put on any size. That said he was one of the target bucks I had for my son in this property.

As luck would have it he was our first visitor on our first afternoon sit and my son lined up and made a perfect shot the buck made a quick dash and piled up in 60 yards.

The fun came two days later when I had to skin a deer that was frozen solid. After much effort the help of some channel locks and lots of cussing he was skinned and I fortunately had a cooler big enough to squeeze the whole carcass in. Took another two days before he was thawed out enough to debone.

 

[AustinL]

The PTA at my sons school puts on a big fall carnival fundraiser in October of every year part of that fundraiser includes what the call a super raffle. One of the prizes on the super raffle is a hunt. This year the hunt was for a cow bison.

Imagine my surprise the night of the raffle when they drew the winning ticket and lo and behold it was a ticket my mom had purchased. We set about making plans and had the hunt set for the Sunday of Presidents’ Day weekend. My parents came down early Saturday morning to watch both my kid’s basketball games that day.

Saturday afternoon they asked my son if he wanted his birthday present early to which he of course said yes. After a few minutes of him trying to guess what it was they finally broke down and told him that he would be hunting the buffalo. Once he came to his senses again we loaded him up and ran out to a private range to let him take a few shots with my dads 7mag. At 100 yards he was shooting good groups so we were set for the next day.

We meet the outfitter the following morning and headed out to the ranch we would be hunting. It took a few hours but we finally located the target cow and we positioned to get the wind right and slowly moved into position. My son took his first shot at about 100 yards and made a great lung shot. The buffalo took off and we were in pursuit moments later we were back in position and my son took his second shot this one a perfect heart shot. The bison cow made it another 20 yards and piled up

 

[gillettehunter]

Your son had a great season. Thanks for sharing. Congrats to you and your boy.
Bruce