After patiently passing buck after buck for years, my Dad surprised me last week. He called and said he had taken a pretty nice buck. Knowing his restraint, I suspected the deer was probably pretty special.
My mom has family near my Dad's Northwest Texas lease, and they had gone for a visit and dad had slipped off to do a little hunting. We had enjoyed a couple of the best days I have ever spent hunting on this ranch last year, seeing numerous nice bucks and one really good deer with broken brow tines that Dad passed on. In two days of hunting, we rattled in deer, killed 7 or 8 coyotes, whacked several hogs - including two doubles where we lined up on two different hogs and did the 1,2, 3 - shoot and busted them both. The weather was perfect and the game was moving unbelievably and it was a couple of the best days we have ever spent together.
Well, I haven't been able to go with him this year, so I will just pass along the story of his hunt as he told it to me.
He was having a great day and had rattled in a buck that was a shooter early, but was unable to tell anything about him as he faced him. When he finally turned showing him ten long points, it was to leave and dad didn't get a shot. Dad backed out and went to glass another hillside - an incredibly fun way to hunt this country as one can drive to a spot and slip out of the truck to the lip of a hill with the sun behind and glass very effectively after the first freeze knocks some leaves off the brush.
As he picked apart the hillside, he spotted a really nice buck and decided to try to get closer. He backed out and circled a bit getting the sun directly behind him with a favorable cross wind. He was able to sneak within range undetected and found the buck to be every bit as good as he thought. He got a steady rest and squeezed off a shot, but the buck did not seem to react. A little alarmed, dad cycled the bolt on his Model 700 270 Win and touched off another shot at around 200 yards. This time the buck loped off.
My dad is one of the most confident shooters I have ever been around. We cull lots of does together and have a lot of fun trying to outshoot each other, and he is always just brimming with confidence. We'll see a doe at 300 yards, and he'll immediately quip, "You want me to shoot her in the head, or just break her neck?" If he happens to miss (not often <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />), he is utterly astonished and his usual reaction is, "You've seen a miracle. There runs a dead deer." We really have a lot of fun together.
Despite his usual confidence, he was not sure whether he had hit this deer from the buck's reaction. As he eased up to where he had seen the deer, he was relieved to see him laying less than twenty yards from the spot of the shot. He had two bullets through his lungs and was very dead. He was exactly what Dad judged him to be, scoring in the mid 160's - an outstanding buck with mass like I have rarely seen. Dad was by himself and had a blowout trying to get to the buck, so he didn't get any field photos. Accordingly, we had to be a little creative trying to get some "field" pics a couple of days later after the buck was caped.
![[Linked Image]](http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c150/djtex/FaithFreeedomTourPlymouth2006Sun-2.jpg)
The buck is a 12 with near 6 inch bases, split brows, and several kickers off the bases at the rear that you can't see in the photos. He had another kicker broken off his G2, and a small matching kicker on the other side. Overall, an absolutely beautiful deer.
![[Linked Image]](http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c150/djtex/FaithFreeedomTourPlymouth2006Sun-1.jpg)
I'm sure tickled for him - just wish I could have been with him on the hunt.
DJ
