HUNTER TESTIMONIALS

I left the house on a Saturday about noon and headed out to Bastrop to see if I could find a hog and locate a buck for my son, Logan, for the upcoming youth season. The ranch I was headed to is located in Bastrop County on the Colorado River and consists of 10,000 acres of prime cattle and have numerous protein feeders throughout the place. This also makes it prime hog country.

I drove around checking feeders, and most were empty. Heavy rain had kept the Purina trucks out of the ranch. It was plenty hot and humid after all that rain. I found enough feeders with feed to make a good night of hunting so I was ready. Right before dark, I drove up on a hill overlooking Wilbarger Creek bottom to see if any deer were out, and that’s when I saw a black spot about 400 yards away next to an empty feeder. I checked it out with my binoculars, and saw that it was a big black hog. From this range I couldn’t tell if it was a boar or not.

It was messing around and not in any big hurry. I grabbed my Bow out of the back seat and headed towards the hog at an angle. By this time, it was walking toward a yaupon thicket about a quarter mile away and I was getting pretty close by then. I could see now that it was a big boar, and he was partially hidden by the chest-high goat weeds. I slipped up about 25 yards and he knew something was going on. I went ahead and drew and smacked him with a going away shot, and he headed for the hills. I watched him run for about 200 yards, and he was going strong. It was nearly dark so I left him alone, and went and got my truck and a light.

I looked for a little while where I last saw him, but saw no sign of blood or tracks in the weeds and grass. I went back the next morning about 8:00 a.m. and started looking again. I still didn’t find anything, so I went to the fence line at that yaupon thicket and started checking trails. There were two deep gullies, and the first one I came to had water standing on the other side of the fence. I saw something shining in the water. I crossed the fence, and there he laid, one big, dead stinking hog, the arrow went in low behind his ribs, angled forward, it had done the trick.

I shot him with one of Larry Zimmerman’s Wensel points. I got my Toyota to the fence line and drug that big hog to the nearest tree with a low limb. I got block and tackle on him and finally got him loaded. It was already noon, so I hung him overnight and headed south the next day. The last week of doe season, my son shot a boar that would have dressed out at about 180 pounds. We thought he wasn’t big enough for the contests, so we didn't hail him.

It was the last day of deer season and my uncle took me out to my tripod about 4:00pm. I was very worried that nothing was going to come in because the feeder had not gone off yet and there was about 2-3 feedings of corn on the ground already. My uncle asked me if I wanted to sit somewhere else were the hunting might be better, but I decided I would just sit there. Anyway, I climbed up the tripod and waited for a big one. I began to get really nervous as the time past by and nothing came in. finally around 5:15 pm two does came in and not far behind them was a six point buck. Now I really began to get nervous, started shacking, and waited for the right moment to draw back. Finally, around 5:45 I drew back and took my best shot. I was pretty sure that it was a good one, but I wasn’t going to believe it until I found him. So, around 6:00pm I called my uncle to let him know the good news. He came out and helped me trail my buck, we found him about 70 yards from the feeder. I was so excited this was the biggest buck I had ever killed.

My name is Cailyn Wilson. I am 8 years old. I would like to tell you about my first buck hunt ever on our ranch called the Wilson Whitetail Ranch near Sabinal Texas. The rifle my Dad let me use was a Remington 222 that he and my uncle both used when they were really good and my dad said I was ready to hunting. It took about three day to find the buck I was looking for. I saw lots of deer and I wanted to shoot more than one, but my dad said no.

Finally a buck came out next to a waterhole and I got the ok to shoot. I loaded the rifle and spent a long time looking trough the scope because my heart was pounding. I shot and the deer bucked and ran about 40 yards. My legs were shaking and my arms were shivering. I was so happy! I ran straight over to the buck and grabbed the antlers.

5:30 a.m. January 16, 2005. Time to get moving. I don’t drink coffee, so I got my thermos of hot chocolate, grabbed my back pack and my Renegade Bow. When I stepped outside it was cold, damp and very foggy. I got on my four-wheeler and headed out for my Bow blind. I arrived at my usual parking spot about a quarter of a mile from the blind. Gathered my gear and began my walk to the blind. I was pretty damp; my eyelashes were so wet I could hardly see. I arrived at the blind, got settled in and waited for daybreak.

I was watching some young bucks playing around in front of the blind. There are several of these that are my regulars. Every year I have most of the deer I see regularly, named. Most of their names come from the way they act. I’ve named a set of twin bucks, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb, a doe with a scar above her shoulder blade X wing and etc. While being entertained I could tell by their body language that a new corner was around.

They stopped what they were doing and began walking out toward the brush. About that time a four and a half year old eight point came in from the north with his hair standing up. That is when I heard a snort wheeze come from the west out of my line of sight. I got my Renegade Bow up and waited for what might be coming in. it was still very hazy and had just broke daylight so I waited to see what was behind that snort wheeze.

After several minutes an older buck came walking in. He stopped facing into me. I waited; I waited for him to come in to give me a little better look and to give me a shot. At this time I still had not drawn my Bow, but I was willing to wait until I had the right shot. I always say a little prayer asking the Good Lord give me the ability to make a clean kill. In my years of hunting I’ve passed up a lot of good deer because they were not mature enough or for other judgment reasons. I remained calm while I waited.

Well, the time was right. I had a fifteen yard broadside shot. I took a deep breath while I drew my Bow, said my prayer and released my Beamon arrow with the 100 grain Thunderhead. Lung shot. He spun around back to the west and then headed to the east into the brush. I knew I had a good hit. I watched him until he was out of sight and into the brush. I started breathing again and sat back down to wait before exiting my blind. I waited for 30 minutes and exited my blind. I took my Bow with me and went to the location where I shot the deer. I found his running track and then good blood. I knew I had a lung shot by the blood. I followed the blood trail until I got to the brush. I decided I would wait a little longer and so I took the opportunity to call my husband Hap. Hap told me he would be there to help me in a few minutes. Hap my son and my daughter in law showed up.

We found the deer not too far Out in the brush. As 1 thought, I had made a good lung shot and we had no problem finding him. He was a good aged deer and was a good one to take.

It was opening weekend at the Bar-A Ranch in Sabinal Texas. First day, my husband Larry, and I went to our separate stands. As the morning went on I ~ saw a few doe and that was about all. Our friends picked me up and we talked about our deer stories. Larry said he saw “the big one”, he didn’t shoot him because he told me since he got his “big one” last year, I could shoot one this year. After all, I worked just as hard as he did getting the lease ready. Larry told me to come to the stand with him for the evening hunt....well I did and of course “the big one” didn’t show up but we did see a few small bucks and doe.

The next morning I returned to the same stand with Larry from the evening before. We watched and waited, the same small bucks and doe showed up again. The small bucks were pretty close (less than 50 yards). Soon I see this deer walk across the pasture in front of it was still kind of dark, and my binoculars are not the best, so I wasn’t for sure about him. I watched… he came under the feeder, which is about a 130 yards. From the stand, I asked, “Larry, hey is this a good one? He looked at and replied with a very excited voice…“that’s him…get your gun”. I got my 35 year old Remington .270 with a new Nikon scope (which belongs to my father-in-law) ready and slowly stuck it through the blind window.

I was a little nervous because the small bucks were still close by and I was afraid they would see me and run then they would spook the “big one”. He was a ten pointer! Larry and I watched the hunting shows on TV and Larry was drilled me on exactly where to shoot, so I wasn’t worried where to shoot, but just that I might miss…imagine that. I also didn’t want to go hunting in the bushes for him, if I didn’t get him good enough.

Well the time came. He was in good position…I took a deep breath and boom! I watched him through the scope and saw him run. I said, oh man I missed him. Larry, breathing harder than I was, said “no, you got him, I saw his tail down”. We waited about 5-10 minutes, which seemed like forever, and then we went to look for him. This was about 7:15 a.m. We first went to the feeder, and then went in the direction he ran… I was nervous about having to hunt him. Larry was walking ahead of me and after we went a short distance, he said here he is. I couldn’t believe it. He had only run about 45 yards. I said “Your uncle would be proud of you, he fell right on the jeep trail”. My uncle had a thing about shooting the deer in an area easy to get to.

We took pictures and waited ‘for our friends to come pick us up. It was still early so we didn’t want to mess with their hunting time. When they family came, I did get the dance of joy for them and they knew I got my buck.

As we sat in the blind, we watched the twenty-two point trophy munching on the corn. My Dad and I carefully analyzed him, wondering if he was old enough or not. When it got close to dark we decided that he was too young. We got up early the next day and went to a blind in a different pasture. Later in the afternoon we decided to go back to the other blind to kill the huge hog we had seen the day before. When we got there we saw the huge hog munching on what was still left of yesterday’s corn, but he was too far to shoot with my 223 rifle. Then, not far in front of us, the monster walked out again. We studied him carefully once more and my Dad, still not sure if he was old enough said he was the one. He walked off the road and into the brush on our left side. Still able to see him, I aimed my gun where I knew he was going to come back on the road. In one shot, he was down. We waited as long as we could stand it to see if the big hog would come back out. We gave up when it got close to dark, deciding we’d better go ahead and gut my deer and take pictures while there was still light left. Walking closer to the magnificent buck, we realized he was much bigger and older than we thought and called home to spread the exciting news.

My name is Cleo Moody. I am lucky to have a feedlot in which to hunt. During hunting season, unless the weather is really awful, I hunt every day. In the evening I hunt in a blind; but in the morning before work we (my husband & I) drive around the yard to check things out & hunt hogs. We also have hog traps that we bait & set everyday.

On this particular morning about 6:30 a.m. my husband phoned me at home and said if I wanted to win the hog contest I needed to get to the feedlot right away. I jumped into my truck and headed straight to the lot. When I arrived I was met by my husband who handed me my 25/06 and told me that the gun was loaded I just needed to put a shell in the barrel. I jumped in his truck and we drove behind the lot where the traps are located.

There I saw caught in one of the traps a young sow in heat. Circling around outside the trap quite infatuated and completely oblivious to everything around him (as only the male of every spice can be when in the presence of a sexy young female) was a boar. He never noticed when we drove up. You might say that oar hog was in a trap as surely as the young sow in heat. He just would not leave her regardless of the danger he might be facing, it took one shot right behind the ear to bring him down. Just goes to show you the power of a woman on either side of the gun is awesome!

For the last 3 1/2 years my husband Kenny and I have been married we have made quite a few attempts to hunt together so that I could shoot either a buck or doe while he was guiding me. Needless to say, every attempt has failed. Finally, in the fall of 2004 we had gone hunting several times and one evening our bad luck ended.

A good 10 point buck walked out into the oat patch, but kept his distance for quite sometime. Trying to stay patient and not get too nervous we waited it out and he edged his way closer. Final1y I was able to get a shot within range of my comfort zone, about 130 yards. To my surprise he ran about 20 yards and fell down. Little did I know that what I had had just shot was a pretty impressive 155 7/8 buck.

Kenny, who is a certified big game awards scorer for the state of Texas, knew the whole time what I was shooting at but didn’t lead on to me the caliber of the buck so that I wouldn’t get too nervous. He was so excited to see my face as we walked up on him. When we left the house that afternoon to hunt, I never imagined I would be bringing home a buck that size. I’m not sure who was more proud, Kenny or myself.

The 2004 deer season started off slow. 1 was not seeing many deer. I have hunted this lease since 1996, and would usually see 5 to 10 mature bucks by mid-November, but this year I had only seen one or two mature bucks.

I knew which deer I was looking for because I had seen this really good quality deer at least one time each year during the past 5 seasons. At one and a half years old, he had 10 typical points and a fork on the G3. Every year after that, he was a typical 12 point with a fork.

During the 2003 season, I had seen this deer off and on for about a week and he was the best deer I had ever let go. He was a typical 12 point that I had roughly scored at about 166. Because we have been under MDL level 3 for the past 3 seasons, I felt that the deer needed one more year to fully mature and insure he would meet the requirements of our management program. I had to just hope that he would still be around the next season.

Our deer season started on the first Saturday of October this year and I normally would hunt every weekend until Thanksgiving. After roughly seven weeks of hunting, I finally saw the 12 pointer on November 20, 2004 and quickly made the shot. This deer ended up grossing 178 3/8 and had 12 typical tines and forks on both G3s. Since I had been watching this deer for several years, it was a relief to actually have the opportunity to take him at his maturity.

I first saw this deer during the 2001-2002 season. It was the first weekend of the Early Managed Lands Permit season. He was still in velvet as he walked across a sendero and stood in the brush. The only thing I could get a good look at was his antlers and they were fairly impressive. He did not stick around long and was gone after just a quick look. I did not see him again that weekend. About three weeks later my oldest son was hunting another blind on our lease and saw him there. The surprising thing was my son told me that he thought the deer was only 3 ½ years old. I could not believe this, so I sat with him the next hunt and the deer showed back up and he sure did look like he was only 3 ½. I even had our lease manager sit with me on one hunt and he too thought that the deer was only 3 ½. He had 15 scorable points with an estimated Boone and Crockett score of 145.

The next season, 2002-2003, I was sitting in the blind where we had seen him the most often the prior year and he was one of the first deer out on opening morning. I had begun supplemental feeding in that area with some homemade protein feeders we had made and it seemed to have paid off. This year at 4 ½ he had 17 scorable points with an estimated Boone and Crockett score of 165 to 170. Even though he would have been the best deer I had ever taken, I made the decision early to let him go another year. Most of the guys on our lease thought I was crazy for letting him go. They still think I am crazy, now they think I am lucky as well. The deer was pretty regular during the season up until the start of the rut, and then he disappeared. He did not show up again until the last weekend of doe season. I was the happiest person around when he showed back up. My son was sitting with me at this time and he had recently reminded me that when the deer walked off I said we could get down then, as I had seen what I came for. I had no idea where this deer had been, as no one else on our lease had seen him during this time.

The homemade protein feeders we had were always either clogging up or running out of feed before we could get back to fill them. I made a decision to replace them with a feeder from Big Horn Metals that would hold 2,000 lbs. and was fairly clog proof. I also decided to start feeding immediately after doe season rather then waiting until May, as I had done before. The third change I made was to switch to Purina AntlerMax®.

I greeted the 2003-2004 season with great expectations for this buck. I could hardly wait for opening day, which for ranches under the Managed Lands Program was September 27th. When it finally arrived, I was as excited as I had ever been on an opening morning, so excited I had a hard time sleeping the night before. Saturday morning of opening day, I saw some deer, but this buck did not show. The same thing Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. I was not too disappointed, as I had not seen any other mature bucks that weekend. I also had a 150 lb. sow worrying the deer. She was there every time I was out. Sunday morning she ran every deer off of every sendero. Sunday night she was in my freezer.

When I left that Sunday, I told my fellow hunters that I would not be back until after October 15th. I am a CPA and that is the income tax extension deadline and I had a lot of returns to complete. During the following week, that Friday, October 3rd, remained open with no appointments. Wednesday I told my wife that I was thinking about leaving Thursday night and hunting Friday and Saturday morning, if I had no appointments on Friday. On Thursday I called several clients who had not brought in their information and everyone told me they would have their information in on Monday, nobody wanted to come in on Friday.

About 4:30 Thursday afternoon, I walked into my wife's office, she is also a partner in our CPA firm, and told her I was going. She said she would see me at home. I told her, "No, I am not going home. I am going hunting.” I had nothing packed, but I threw my stuff in the truck and was off in about an hour. It was about 11:30 before I went to bed and slept very well as opposed to my opening weekend experience.

The next morning found me up in the blind looking for this buck. It was barely light enough to see, around 7:15, when I looked to my right and saw four bucks. I did not need binoculars to tell me that one of them was the buck I was looking for. I did pick up the binoculars just to confirm that it was him. About that time something spooked them and off they went, along with my heart. I had a few anxious minutes before they decided to return. The good thing about their running off, was when they came back, they came closer to the blind than they had been before. It took every bit of self control to deliberately set up for the shot. I did take one last look at him through the spotting scope before I laid my rifle on the steady rest. I slowly squeezed the trigger, and he dropped immediately. After calling my wife and my son, I went down to see my trophy. As I approached him, I realized that he was truly worth the wait. He was aged at 5 ½ years and had 20 scorable points. He was “green scored” at 207 5/8’s gross and should make the “Book” as a non-typical with a net Boone and Crockett score slightly in excess of 200 after the mandatory 60-day drying out period.