Mid November was approaching fast and I still had not managed to score on a deer here in Texas.  Even though the Texas deer season was almost half way over, I was not too worried yet.  I still had several hunts booked in the coming weeks.  One of those hunts would be at Brazos Archery Outfitters near Newcastle, Texas.

Brazos Archery Outfitters primary hunting operation is a day hunting operation on the Johnson Ranch in Young County.  This ranch is several thousand acres in size and is all low fence.  Brazos Archery Outfitters has managed to produce 6 Pope & Young bucks over the past few years and several border line bucks that would make any bow hunter happy.

You can tell the management program that John Shelley and Johnny Johnson have started is really working.  If you hunt with Brazos Archery Outfitters you have a good shot at killing a book buck!

We arrived at the ranch Friday night.  John and Johnny welcomed us and introduced us to all the hunters that were already in camp.  We got settled in as quickly as possible so we could sit around and shoot the bull with the other hunters in camp.  I also wanted to hear some more of John Shelley’s stories.  John can tell some great stories and is a great host!

After talking with John, we decided to hunt the red stand.  This stand had a two-person ladder stand and would be perfect for filming our hunt.  Once we had our hunting location nailed down we hit the sack.

We were in our stand by 6 A.M. Saturday morning.  It was a little warmer than I was expecting, 50 degrees, but that would change soon.  Just as the sun came up, a cold front moved in and the temperature dropped! 

I was the hunter Saturday morning and Donna was running the camera. 

The sun came up and the feeder went off.  Shortly after the feeder went off I saw movement to our right at the edge of the tree we were sitting in. 

The wind was blowing in our face at 10 to 15 mph.  There was plenty of noise to cover our movement.  Donna got the camera rolling and we waited for the deer to show itself.

After a few minutes, two button bucks made their way to the feeder.  They were extremely jumpy and it took them several minutes to settle down and start eating some corn.

We watched the two button bucks for 20 minutes.  While I was watching the youngsters, I mentally practiced my aiming by picking spots to shoot at on the little guys when they presented a shot.

During the middle of my day dreaming session, I hear Donna say, “Buck!”  Luckily the wind was still blowing and the deer did not hear Donna.  I reached for my bow just as a young 6-point buck cleared the limbs of the old Oak we were sitting in and walked out right under the feeder.

This juvenile buck began grunting and chasing the button bucks around.  Once the 6-point realized that the little deer were actually bucks, he began eating some corn.  I guess the 6-point did not trust his first inspection of the smaller deer, or he was really desperate, so he began chasing the button bucks again grunting with his head down.  I guess he finally realized that his nose was telling him the truth and went back to eating some corn.

By now I had placed my bow back on the bow holder and was watching the show.  I have been hunting whitetail deer for over 26 years and I have never seen this type of behavior before.  I guess that is what can happen to you when you are just a weekend hunter!

The 6-point was eating right under the feeder when I saw movement to my right again.  The 6-point looked up in the direction of the movement then cowered down and ran off in the other direction.  In came walking a huge bodied buck all bristled up.  He walked right out under the feeder and began eating.  You could tell by the body size of this buck that he was an older deer.

I slowly grabbed my bow from the bow holder just in case!

This big-bodied buck did not have much headgear to speak of.  This buck had a modest 4-point rack on his right side and then had a spike on his left side with three points jutting upwards from where his eye guard should be.

As we were watching this cull buck, Donna noticed another buck back behind us that was at least an 8-point but she was unsure of his size.  We waited and hoped the other buck would come in but that did not happen.

I discussed shooting the cull buck with Donna and I decided to go ahead and take him out.  It was the first morning of our hunt but if I took out this buck, it would really help out the management program at BAO and Donna would get to hunt the rest of the weekend.  This buck really needed to be removed from the breeding herd so the decision was made.

The buck was standing broad sided under the feeder when I drew my Mathews LX bow.  Just as I found my anchor point, the buck turned and was facing away from my.  I held my bow at full draw for a few seconds and the cull buck turned to the right and was quartering away from me.  I picked my exit hole and placed the twenty-yard pin of my Trophy Ridge sight on the buck’s rib cage.  One last final check of everything and my Carbon Express arrow was on its way.  I do not even remember squeezing the trigger of my Tru Fire Release!

I watched as my arrow hit it mark.  The buck just stood there and took it.  He did not drop like most Texas whitetails do upon the shot.  My Rocket tipped arrow went all the way through the buck and fell to the ground.  Once my arrow found it’s mark, the buck shifted to high gear and ran straight away down the hill towards some thick cover.

I could see my arrow lying on the ground under the feeder and it was bright red.  I knew I had made a good hit!  Donna had done her part too and captured the whole thing on film!

We exited the stand and began following the blood trail.  It was a short tracking job, the buck only made it 70 yards before expiring.  Once we found the buck we marked the location and went to get the truck.

On the way to the truck, we jumped a huge 8 point buck that was outside his hears and extremely tall.  He saw us and went the other way.  After seeing that huge buck, I kind of had shooters remorse!  That is when you shoot something and then later wish you had not.  After talking with Donna, she reinforced how I had just helped out the management program at BAO and how she was now going to get to hunt,  the shooters remorse went away.

We got the buck loaded up and met up with John and Johnny at camp to show off my buck.  John and Johnny were glad to see this buck on the ground!  Next came pictures, processing, and lunch! 

Just after lunch it started raining and did not let up all afternoon.  We were back in the stand by 3 PM, Donna was hunting and I was running the camera. 

We saw one huge buck about 150 yards off going in the opposite direction.  He was limping on one of his front right legs.  I grabbed my doe bleat in a can and gave it a few turns and stopped him in his tracks.  A few more turns of the can and he was headed our way, unfortunately he never showed himself.

Sunday morning it started raining just after the sun came up.  We had 1 buck and 5 does come in to the right of us but they did not show any interest in the feeder.  We sat on the stand until around 9:30.  Donna said her fingers could not take any more so we packed up and headed back to camp.

We had another great hunt at Brazos Archery Outfitters!  We saw a total of 12 deer with at least 3 other shooters beside the cull buck I took.  Keep in mind we were only there for a day and a half hunt.  Just imagine what we would have seen on a much longer hunt!  We will be headed back to BAO in two weeks to give Donna another shot at getting a buck on film.

If you are looking for a great place to hunt for whitetail, then you definitely need to take a look at Brazos Archery Outfitters.  Give John Shelley or Johnny Johnson a call!

James Ferguson

President

Bowhunting North America, LLC

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:  

Mathews, Inc. Bushlan Camouflage, Carbon Express,

The Gean-Edwards Company, Rynoskin, Trophy Ridge, VMASS, North Starr Tree Stands, 

Shed Hunter Co., Fieldline, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp., Rocket Aeroheads, Quake Industries, Limbsaver, Bushnell,

Huntin' Hoist

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