2024 Texas Whitetail

[npaden]

Well, I've been somewhat chasing this deer for 3 years now and things finally lined up for it to happen. Got quite a history with him, at least 4 years worth of trail camera pictures. He was my #1 target buck last year but I ended up shooting a different buck that I just couldn't pass on, but then he was my son's #1 target buck and we weren't ever able to get things to work out.

I'm going to go back and forth between my computer and my phone so I can upload pictures so bear with me as I get this story posted.

 

[npaden]

Here’s the first pictures I have of him on my phone from 2022.

I remember seeing him in 2021 also but don’t have any of those on my phone.



The bottom picture helps to show just how big of a body he had. Camera angles make it harder, but he was always the biggest bodied deer no matter what other bucks were around. Pretty sure the buck in that picture with him was a 2.5 year old. I know he was at least 3.5 in this picture, but probably 4.5.

Just found another picture of him from 2022.

 

[npaden]

Last year watching him grow out got me pretty excited. He was the biggest bodied buck I think I’ve ever seen on the property in 17 years I’ve owned it.

 

[npaden]

After being super consistent all summer once he stripped his velvet he became very sporadic. He would go weeks without showing up on camera

I hunted for him with my crossbow and one time I saw him moving through the mesquite toward the feeder but he hung up and must have smelled me or just saw something that he didn’t like so he backed out and left. It was just a week later when I shot the buck I did which ended up being the biggest whitetail of my life.


I thought we had a chance for my son to connect with him with the rifle but after quite a few trips down there we never could get the timing right. We would get daylight pictures of him when we weren’t there but he never showed up when we were there.

Toward the end of the season he broke off a chunk of his main beam and I’m not sure what happened too him but I’m thinking it could have been a car accident.

Working on finding some of those pictures but here is a picture of him from this summer where he still had the scrapes on his back. I was worried that he might not grow out normally this year but he ended up being fine other than some scrapes. When I shot him it was completely healed over.



Found the pictures of him broken off and the fresh scrapes on his back.

 

[npaden]

So after not getting him last year he for sure stayed at the top of my list this year. Again this summer it was great to watch him growing and he looked a little bigger but not much.




View attachment 342598

 

[npaden]

Of course he was super regular all summer and then again once he stripped the velvet off he became pretty sporadic again.


I started practicing shooting my crossbow and wasn’t getting very good groups but I polished it up a little and waxed the strings really good and shot the best group of my life at 33 yards. Amazing that I didn’t break an arrow, I couldn’t have jammed them in there any closer if I had tried.




I really need to get the higher resolution pictures of a few of these. That one of him with the stripped off velvet would be great in high resolution. (EDIT - Put the better resolution pic in)
I pulled the cards and if I get a chance I will try to get that done and change them out if I'm quick enough before the edit time is over.

 

[npaden]

So opening morning of archery season rolls along and I am running around on Friday night after work like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything setup and loaded in the new trailer and get it hauled down there before dark. I fail at the before dark part but get it pulled down there and setup. I haven't been getting regular pictures of him and the camera on the feeder that has the archery blind quit so I'm not sure what to expect.

Last year I was just going to go down there and shoot him like a duck on a pond (obviously that didn't happen) and so I kept making trips with the truck and sleeping in the bed. This time I decided I would pull the trailer down there and just leave it for the duration.

I set the alarm for 6 since shooting light was at 7:00ish and I wanted to be in the blind at least 30 minutes before that. Everything goes smoothly and I am in the blind a little early and get everything setup. I probably looked hilarious hauling a chair, shooting sticks, cooler and the crossbow in a crazy strapped up fashion but I got everything there in one trip. Of course once I got in the blind I had left a chair in there so I didn't need to bring the extra chair.

On the way in I realize that the wind is perfect, just a very light southwest breeze. I set this blind up because that is the predominant wind, but it seems like last year the wind wasn't always very cooperative so it was nice to have the wind right.

I wait in the dark and eat a bagel and drink a diet coke and play on my phone a bit with the screen brightness set all the way down.

Shooting light rolls around and it is an absolutely gorgeous morning. Quail are calling, some road runners are doing their thing and some cardinals and dove as well. This place has some great birds to watch. One of the road runners comes and climbs/flies the tree right next to me. I should have taken his picture but I was just enjoying myself.

I'm enjoying the morning and I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. The blind windows were all shut except the 2 in the front and there was some dew so I couldn't see out of the others very well, but I could tell it was a deer coming to the feeder from the side. He comes around the side and it is him! He is following the script like an NFL referee at a chiefs game!

The only negative is that the feeder hasn't gone off so there is nothing for him to eat. He keeps coming and walks up to the fence around the feeder (I put a fence up to keep the pigs out of it, supposedly it makes the deer feel more comfortable and it keeps the pigs from eating all the corn every time). Since there isn't anything on the ground in the feeder enclosure I'm not sure what he is going to do.

He is at a quartering away angle looking into the feeder enclosure and I'm not going to wait to see what he is going to do. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeeze the trigger. There's the noise of the crossbow going off and the immediate thwack of an arrow hitting something and he turns and runs off. No big back kick like he is lung shot, just turns and runs off.

I'm shaking and super excited but immediately start second guessing myself. I shouldn't have been so impatient. He probably would have stuck around a bit longer, did I hold at the right angle, why didn't he kick back like a lung shot? All those questions and more started flooding through my brain.

I texted a buddy and let him know that I had shot him but was second guessing myself. I pulled the binoculars out and ranged the shot (22 yards) and looked for the arrow. I found the arrow on the ground in the middle of the feeder enclosure but the lighted knock wasn't lit so that was another thing to wonder about. He said that since I'm not sure on the lung hit I should wait at least an hour.

I tried sitting and just enjoying the morning but the suspense was killing me. After about 20 minutes I got out of the blind and went over and at least checked out the arrow. It had blood but no bubbles. It was broken but I wasn't sure if it could have hit the fence on the other side of him and that might have broken it or what. I smelled it and wiped the blood off with my fingers and felt that it was for sure body cavity type blood but not sure I could tell anything more than that

 

[seeth07]

So opening morning of archery seasonView attachment 342607
View attachment 342608
View attachment 342609

Am I seeing damage to that bolt from the shot?

 

[JV842]

U definitely had better luck than i did this morning!! B

 

[JV842]

 

[noharleyyet]

View attachment 342620

Just after everything looks like a deer…would taste better tho

 

[npaden]

Am I seeing damage to that bolt from the shot?

Yes. After the post mortem I'm not sure if it was broken while still in him or if it hit the fence behind him and broke. I will try to remember to pontificate on that when I get to the as they lay pictures.

 

[npaden]

Okay, I scarfed down lunch and will try to keep this rolling.

So I completely go bonkers second guessing myself on every possible scenario as I'm sitting there. I forgot to mention that like a minute or two after the shot a deer starts blowing in the direction that he ran. Probably just 30 or 40 yards away. This goes on for 10 minutes. Finally I hear one last blow off to the north (the deer ran pretty much due east at the shot). I'm thinking even if I only got one lung the deer can't have enough capacity to make a blowing noise like that can he? In retrospect there is no doubt that it was another deer probably trying to figure out what the heck just happened to their buddy but I was still in the freak out stage and had no idea.

I am sitting there waiting patiently and another buck shows up. He wanders around but since there isn't any corn out he ends up leaving after a bit. I took some decent video of him with my cell phone. I might try to upload it but I think I have to put it on YouTube first.

I'm still waiting patiently and then the feeder finally does go off. The buck that had just left comes back and hangs around eating corn for a while. I'm still trying to wait before going after the buck I shot so it is a nice distraction. I think this is a 3.5 year old buck that should be a really nice buck next year if he makes it. His brow tines kind of fold back but looks like they are broken off on one side for sure.

 

[JV842]

Just after everything looks like a deer…would taste better tho

Oh, soooo true

 

[npaden]

So he finally leaves and it's been a little over an hour maybe closer to an hour and a half since the shot and I decide I'm going to go try to find him. I @#)(# the crossbow but don't put an arrow in and leave the blind with just the crossbow and leave everything else there. I go over to where I shot him and there isn't any blood anywhere. I look on the ground in a circular pattern and can't find a drop. There are a few trails leading away from the feeder kind of like spokes on a wheel but I go down the one I thought he went down and don't see any blood so I back up and walk down the next one a way and don't see any blood. Uh oh.

I'm new to the archery thing and really haven't gotten my confidence up on how lethal an arrow can be. I know there was blood on the arrow so I keep looking for blood in a widening pattern. I check another trail thinking maybe I was wrong and can't find any blood there either. It's a very nice morning so I'm not worried about spoiling but I really want to find him.

He had been headed in the direction of my pond so I just walk down one of the trails (still looking for blood) and look around. Nothing. I go back and forth a little looking and try another trail. I still haven't found a single drop of blood and I'm starting to get worried. It has only been maybe 5 or 10 minutes but I was really expecting to at least see some blood.

I go back to the pond and look around and see the white patch of a deer belly maybe 20 yards past where I had been looking. There he is, dead.




How in the world he could be bleeding like that and I couldn't find a single drop of blood after looking for 10 minutes I don't know. Maybe it filled up his entire body cavity before coming out his throat and mouth? I always try to learn tracking by going backwards once I find an animal and that surprised me. He must have ducked through the deepest thickest brush on his way out and didn't follow any of the trails. I still didn't find any blood until around 15 yards away from where I found him (he went about 50 yards) but when I did find the blood trail it was coming in from a different direction than I expected.

So he was quartering away and I shot him on the right side. The throat is the exit. When I walked up to him I didn't remember that he was quartering that hard that the exit would be out the front like that. Cutting him up his left shoulder was a complete mess. Like bloodshot from a rifle. I think the arrow went in and through his lungs and then since it was already at an angle it ricocheted off the left shoulder from the inside and came out his throat. I meant to do a post mortem opening him up and checking his organs but I got sidetracked and once I had him cut up and in the cooler I forgot to open him up to check inside. That left shoulder was a mess though.

 

[JV842]

Oh, soooo true

and Of course, then blind i didn’t sit at

 

[JV842]

So he finally leaves and it's been a little over an hour maybe closer to an hour and a half since the shot and I decide I'm going to go try to find him. I @#)(# the crossbow but don't put an arrow in and leave the blind with just the crossbow and leave everything else there. I go over to where I shot him and there isn't any blood anywhere. I look on the ground in a circular pattern and can't find a drop. There are a few trails leading away from the feeder kind of like spokes on a wheel but I go down the one I thought he went down and don't see any blood so I back up and walk down the next one a way and don't see any blood. Uh oh.

I'm new to the archery thing and really haven't gotten my confidence up on how lethal an arrow can be. I know there was blood on the arrow so I keep looking for blood in a widening pattern. I check another trail thinking maybe I was wrong and can't find any blood there either. It's a very nice morning so I'm not worried about spoiling but I really want to find him.

He had been headed in the direction of my pond so I just walk down one of the trails (still looking for blood) and look around. Nothing. I go back and forth a little looking and try another trail. I still haven't found a single drop of blood and I'm starting to get worried. It has only been maybe 5 or 10 minutes but I was really expecting to at least see some blood.

I go back to the pond and look around and see the white patch of a deer belly maybe 20 yards past where I had been looking. There he is, dead.

View attachment 342622
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Very nice!!! Fat boy!!!

 

[Sam Colt]

He’s a hoss. Nice work. Way to hang in there! That doubt can be crushing.

 

[npaden]

Field photos. I was by myself and forgot my little camera tripod so I had to get pretty creative to get a setup to take pictures with my crossbow leaned up against a tiny mesquite tree substituting as a tripod and some sticks and rocks to hold the phone on the binoculars case at the right angle. Not the best but they capture the moment.

 

[noharleyyet]

Good buck, good story.