I don't know why the pictures won't work, so I've turn them into URL's.


So the hunting escapades of THellURider and Cold's MURDER INC continue....

For those of you with your heads in the sand, the 1st Saturday of November is opening day of deer season, which in this beautiful state ought to be designated a holiday.

Cold and I headed out to my lease in West Texas at Thursday night arriving at approximately 2:30 AM on Friday morning. We pitched the tent and took a 2 hour nap before getting up. We loaded up in the truck and I dropped off Cold where he could scout for Turkey, which also opened on Saturday. I, then, went to my stand to see what would wander by to get some idea what I might be seeing come Saturday morning. I should digress here so I will...

I am not a fan of stand hunting in general. However, since my lease is primarily a deer lease, opening weekend the property is packed with hunters which doesn't allow me to do my typical glass & stalk method of hunting. We had an advantage though, we were there early and we're hardcore. I should add that this was going to be, unfortunately, the one and only weekend I was going to be able to hunt deer on my lease this season, so needless to say I was going to get my money's worth. We were going to hunt until we dropped.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and hit 90 F on both Friday and Saturday, and 89F on Sunday. To say we were a little rank is an understatement, but we found a coin operated shower at the RV park in town and freshened up for our meeting with Bambi's dad later in the weekend.

So anyways, we headed off into the dark on Friday at oh'dark thirty...
I got into my stand, watched a couple of does for a few minutes browsing then promptly took a 3 hour nap. Very comfy.

Cold, however, had a very interesting morning. No turkey's, but everything else. Coyotes, a good size buck, a bobcat. So 2 MOP's (Missed Oppurtunities) , however Cold was determined. He would not go away from this trek empty handed! NO sir! Walking along on a road he saw a fleeting glimpse of a fairly large hog. A short stalk later netted this: (For more details click HERE)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v204/Cold1/000_0002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v204/Cold1/000_0009.jpg
Shown here is typically unphotogenic, but not this time, Cold stradling his hog, which looks surprisingly a lot like a girl he brought home once...<owe!>[]

Friday was relatively uneventful otherwise, we just watched, with long faces, as hunting camp began to fill up. Nice people, and even some wierd ones but somewhat like moderators, they limit your freedom. [}]

Saturday morning at oh'dark thirty Cold and I sat in our perch and watched the sun come up. Blurs of dark colors against darker, and in some cases, lighter backgrounds slowly began to take shape and low and behold we were staring at a couple of nice bucks. 1 spike, 1 WIDE 8 point who was probably 2-3" past his ears on either side, but little mass. There was a tall, but narrow 10 pt with decent mass. Also 2 doe, but who cares right? We kept watching them and studying them until the decided to wander off. That concluded the morning's activities.

We went into camp where Cold whipped up some of his famed breakfast burrito-type things. Then we figued we'd head into town and seek shelter from the midday heat. This, ladies and gentleman, is where the pace picked up a little...

You see, we've been hunting out there almost weekly for 2 season's now together, and I've been on it for 4 years and had never seen a rattlesnake out there. Everyone we met asked if we saw a bunch and we had no clue what they were talking about. We had never seen one until on the way out lying in the middle of the road is a 4.5 ft rattler sunning itself. Cold is out of the car faster than a smack talking meth head at a traffic stop and puts a load of #4's into it with his beautiful, and handy, .410 lever gun.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB050010.jpg

In town we grab a shower, and a lunch of Chicken Fried Steak and fixin's.

Back at the ranch...

Driving around a few hours before its time to take up positions at the perch again we're commenting how we haven't seen anything yet.....works everytime! Pack of hogs on the left! We unass the vehicle and tag team 2 of them. A "Wail and Bail" as Cold would say. (Anyone seeing a trend here?)The 458 SOCOM leaves one of them floored as I perform a labotomy on the other with my .300 Weatherby Mag. Cold: "A bang, flop situation". Sorry no pics of the actual kills, but a little hack and twist later we were left with these:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB040007.jpg
As you can see I wish I could find two dates as willing eager, and braindead as these two. (Pictures taken later)

Back at the stand, we study the SAME bunch of deer a second time as I decide to be choosy. At last light, we see what may have been a HUGE atypical cross the road. No further sightings.

Sunday we're in the stand at about 5:30 AM (I didn't know there was a 5:30 AM until this weekend) as I've decided to shoot if I see that 10 point. It's cooler this morning and the chill puts us both to sleep for 10 minute spurts. 3 hours later and I haven't seen a damn thing. I poke Cold, and inform him to saddle up, as we're moving out and going on a little walk. I had earlier determined where the other hunters were going to be hunting and we could safely walk the ridge. the weather is beautiful, maybe 65F and clear. Walking along, rifle slung... it's very pleasnt. I'm scanning but damn if he didn't sneak up on me! In front of us, at about 40 yards, just off the road on the right is a pretty decent size buck looking right at us. Oh shit..... now what? I'm froze, he's froze; its like the OK corral except he'sa deer and doesn't have a gun. A doe, which was behind a bush crosses the road, and the buck moves to cross the road, not overly alarmed. As soon as he is covered by the bush and can't see me my rifle swings off my shoulder, the safety comes off, and a I drop to a knee. I swing my rifle, determine he's as good a buck as I was going to see, and pull the trigger just as he crosses the left side of the road at a run.

We both saw him lurch, and then run. We go and look for blood and find a bunch. A definite fatal hit. This much blood, I figure, means he couldn't have gone too far and won't be able to. So instead of waiting to let him settle and die, we push on tracking blood. This was a mistake. We find a huge pool of blood where he must have lain down only to be urged on by our approach. We push on, almost losing the trail at one point. But it looks like a murder scene...

Suddenly we see him, he's down but his head is throwing back and forth as he tries to get up. He's in a thicket, which upon later examination must have been a bedding spot for several deer. No clear shot, so we have to wait him out. We walk around to the other side and this is the sight that greets us:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB060020.jpg

A little elbow grease later and a very happy me gets this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB060028.jpg
Not the biggest deer I've killed, but a damned fine specimen IMHO. He's 13 pts, the left side was stronger than the right, and also had a small 2" kicker on the back of the base.

For those interested the wound looked like this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB060031.jpg

A little too far forward; however his left shoulder was broken. The rifle was a .300 Weatherby Magnum barreled Blaser R93 with a Zeisss Diavari 3-9X40 and the ammunition was Weatherby loaded 165 gr Nosler Ballistic Tips. Effective ammo, if not messy on thin skinned game. Will be going to 180 gr Barnes X next weekend. This was my 1st true game animal not to have dropped on the spot; however, I'm happy with the shot considering it was on the run.

Later that day as everyone is leaving to be able to be at work on Monday we have the place virtually to ourselves again and return to what we call "Hog Country". We gave chase to one pack only to lose them in some incredibly thick thorny brush. On the backside of the mountain we spot one up ahead feeding on some cactus. After a little discussion, we decide that I'm just going to pick him off from there. Thinking this was a longer shot (200+ yards) and that it was a relatively large pig, I hold on the top of his shoulder and pull the trigger. I fire from the prone position, off hand. Cold says that he's down and I rack another shell in and we go to check him out. Well it was a short walk.... probably about 125 yards. And there's a TON of hogs to our left with at least one 400 lb bruiser. Alas, they all got away from us but it did net us this perfect eating pig of probably <75 lbs:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/THellURider/PB060033.jpg

Later that evening we decided 4 days in a tent was enough and we packed it up.
Final kill numbers:

Pigs - 4
13 pt deer - 1
Rattle Snake - 1

Stay tuned next week for a report of our Mule Deer trip in Nebraska!

ahhh very nice sum up!!!

looks like a good time to me--congrats...chris

Very good post.
Great reading.Better pics.
Thanks.

Nice Buck!!