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My son was drawn for a youth hunt through Texas P&W this year. Thought I'd post a little breakdown of how it went. We camped on site and hunted an afternoon-all day-a morning. 7-08 with 140grain Fusions.

First afternoon.

We got there early, set up camp, got checked in, and started hunting at 1. After about an hour a little buck came out and we watched him for quite a while. Then at 2:40 this guy stepped out. There wasn't any question of if we'd shoot him or not and the trigger was pulled at 2:41.

We waited 20 minutes and walked over to where the buck was standing and found a lot of blood then waited 10 more minutes and started tracking. The kid did all of the tracking, which wasn't hard, but he was finding the little stuff along with what was obvious. After about 50 yards we found him bedded down, facing away from us. He was stone dead but sure looked like he was ready to get up and run.

Where he was bedded with his antlers caught in the brush.










The shot was at 35 yards and he was quartering at us at a very steep angle. The shot entered the shoulder, broke two ribs, penetrated the heart and one lung and there were two holes in the stomach. I dug around for the bullet but couldn't find it. It didn't make it to the ham.

Since it was so early in the afternoon we field dressed him, got him back to the checkin station, skinned, and in the walk in cooler with an hour left to hunt. So, back out we went.

Just before dark this hog came walking down the same trail as the big buck. He knew something was up and stopped, looking right at us. With not much to aim for the kid just shot him in the face. It was effective. The bullet didn't exit but we gave the hog away to someone else and don't know how far it penetrated.

The morning of Day2 we went back to the same spot, hoping for axis, but willing to settle for more hogs.

We watched a nice buck for 40 minutes, got hungry, and headed in a little before 10.

There was another kid at the hunt we had met the night before who was pretty young and told us about his hunt. The other kid had picked what should have been a really good spot but hadn't seen anything but a doe. As we were walking out my son suggested that we find the kid and trade spots with him, so he could try to shoot the buck we'd been watching. I was thinking the same thing but was sure proud to have him bring it up.

That afternoon the other kid saw two bucks and shot a really nice one.

Good deal!

Congrats on a great hunt.Where were y'all at?

On the afternoon of Day2 we hunted at the other kid's spot. It was dead for about 4 hours and then everything came alive.

We saw this axis doe at 147 yards. Every time she was broadside she was covered in brush, then she'd feed back into the open, facing us. Finally my son had enough and took his shot as he head was down feeding, facing right at us. The shot entered at the base of her head, broke several vertebrae, traveled the length of her neck and when we were skinning the bullet fell out from her armpit. It was a lopsided mushroom and didn't lose anything obvious.

As we made our way over to the axis we saw another doe milling around. My son really wanted another axis but passed up on several shots because he wasn't sure he could make them cleanly off the sticks. I was impressed.

Interesting thing we noticed.... The axis numbers are way, way down from a few years ago. We hunted here in 2017 and saw around 200 axis. This year we saw 2. I think the freeze we had earlier in the year really hurt them. This doe's ears had nearly frozen off, something we've seen with our neighborhood whitetails.





We drug her closer to the road, took pics and then hurried back to the blind for the last hour of hunting.

Within just a few minutes we saw three hogs moving through the brush at 85 yards and they made the mistake of pausing just as they stepped into the open. My son shot the middle hog through the shoulder and he dropped. Hog #1 took off but #3 ran in a small circle and looked back, trying to figure out what was going on. Kiddo put a shot through his heart and she made it about 15 yards before piling up. Both bullets exited.

The time stamp difference between axis doe pics and hog pics was 16 minutes.

The morning of Day3 had a hard stop of 10AM for us. We had to get checked out, pack up camp and back on the road in time to make it back to church with the rest of the family.

We hunted right up until 10 but the wind kept everything laying low. We saw one whitetail doe that he passed on. Then we packed up camp, headed to the processor, then the taxidermist, and home for a hot supper and showers.

In three weeks this kid shot 6 deer and 3 hogs with 10 shots. I'm pretty proud.

Congrats to the lad for the deer and hog. The hero photo deer does not look like the one in the brush, but then I could be wrong.

South Llano River SP. The staff there puts on a great hunt. Nine kids hunted and there were two other buck very similar to this one shot as well as a handful of hill country basket bucks.

Thanks.

I think you are, lol.

Check out the wiggly G3 on his left side.

Well congrats to your son. That is a nice buck. The axis doe and hogs were a great bonus. Congrats again to your son and you.

Looks like a great time, congrats to both of you.

That kid has got the briar in his eye! As the old timers used to say! What a great story and hunt! Thanks for sharing! Congrats all way around!!!

That is quite a bag in a short time, maybe there is something to this Texas hunting thing. Where did that kid learn to shoot so well?

Congrats to both of you.


mike r

I was noting the right side. No mind, love to see the lad do all that shooting.

That great!

So glad to see this... The more young folks we can get afield and pass our heritage down to, the better!

He was prepared and knew how to shoot.

Great story and hunt. My favorite part is your son's thinking of the other kid after his early success. Speaks volumes for him and his raising.

Ditto!!!

Outstanding!!

A killing machine! Nice going 😊