Whitetail Tale

Six years ago I married a man that hunts.  Six years later he turned me into a hunter.  I knew that when I married my husband I would be single during hunting season, my freezer would be stuffed with deer meat, my house would be decorated with deer heads, we would have a house full of guns, and a closet full of camo, but I didn't know that I would come to love the sport too!  Now, I am no longer single during hunting season, I love wild game, the more deer heads the better, a quarter of the guns are mine, and the camo has made its way to my side of the closet.

A couple of years ago I finally came to terms with hunting and got quite excited about it. My first hunt was in Uvalde at a small ranch.  Unfortunately, I never saw anything worth shooting, so I came home empty handed and frustrated. After that I had to skip a season of hunting, because I was pregnant. Then, this year we purchased 30 acres for hunting and a future home site, so I was excited once again for hunting season to arrive.  We had the feeders, a blind, a pond, camo, and a 260 rifle, but no deer.  You can say I was a little anxious, after only one weekend of hunting on our property I told my husband I wanted to go to a hunting ranch. I couldn't stand one more year of not seeing or shooting anything.

This year my husband went on a Red Stag hunt and raved about the ranch. I told him that is where I wanted to go this hunting season. He told me that the ranch was booked, but we would probably be able to go next year. Well, while he was still at work I decided to take it upon myself to email John Hopkins, the owner of Live Oak Ranch. It doesn't hurt to try! And it just so happened that he had an opening....boy did I get lucky!

Before Christmas my husband and I packed our bags and hunting gear, and headed to Live Oak Ranch in Uvalde, TX. We arrived about 1pm and met the owner, Mr. Hopkins and both guides, Ivan and Audrey. We first took a tour of the huge ranch and were able to see some really exotic animals. I felt as if I had been transported to Africa. When we returned it was time to head to the stand for the first evening hunt. My husband wasn't hunting, so he sat in the stand with me. Almost immediately after we were dropped off at the stand a few young Whitetail deer stepped out of the brush. We watched them for a while hoping a big one would venture out. A group of Axis deer were eating around the furthest feeder from us and then they disappeared. A few minutes later past that same feeder my husband saw a nice size 8 point buck about 200 yards from our stand. By this time all of the younger bucks from the closest feeder had made their way toward the buck we were watching.  Slowly, that 8 point buck made his way closer to the feeder, which was about 150 yards away. At this point, I was looking through my scope watching "my" deer and getting nervous with anticipation. As soon as I thought I might get a shot at him he would drift off into the brush, then reappear and then disappear again. I was so frustrated with this buck. My poor husband had to keep reminding me to be patient and just wait a minute and most likely he would make his way closer. He said "bucks don't get to be that old by accident." Basically, this buck was sneaky. Anyway, as my deer made his way closer to us, so did the other young bucks. It was as if that buck had bodyguards. They had completely surrounded him and left me with absolutely no shot. Then, finally the other deer gave me a break!  I had an open shot. While, looking through my scope and with my husband in my ear saying “shoot, shoot now, shoot,” I finally took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. My heart lumped up in my throat and I felt my eyes well up with tears from excitement. It is amazing how at the time you pull the trigger you don't think about anything and you don't hear a thing....pure peace.

When Mr. Hopkins and the guides arrived I was still in shock.  Or maybe floating on air?  Now, all I wanted to do was find "my" deer. It was getting dark, but we still searched for him. We first found a little bit of blood and then two large pools of blood. He had definitely been hit and fatally, now where was he? Ivan and Audrey went on the hunt for him deep into the brush, but they didn't have a good trail. Ivan heard breathing, but it was getting dark and we didn't want to push him deeper into the brush, so we ended the search till morning. I literally felt like a little girl who had been given the prettiest doll in the world, but then someone said you can't play with her right now and you may never get to see her again. Once again, I fought back tears of excitement from the hunt, nervousness from the search, and disappointment of the possibility of us not finding him.

7:15am the next morning we went back to the spot where I had shot the deer and started our search again. We looked for a good hour and maybe more, but never found him. The brush is so thick he could have been right under our noses and we still may not have seen him.  During our hunt for the buck I became brave and decided to venture of a bit to look on my own, but always staying within ear shot of my husband.  I yelled, “Chad” and got no response, but I still thought I was heading in the right direction to the main road.  I realized I was wrong when I could no longer see the sky, because the brush had become so thick.  Panic had officially set in.  Was I going to get bitten by a Rattlesnake?  Attacked by an aggressive Red Stag?  Or just left to starve to death?  Then, like music to my ears I heard Mr. Hopkins start up his tractor!  I ran full speed ahead until I had reached him. I tried to act like I was ok, but what really crossed my mind was how I might have been the next story in Mr. Hopkins’ scouting report, “The Girl Who Went Looking For Her Deer And Was Never Seen Again.”

After all the excitement of shooting that buck and the disappointment of not finding him, Mr. Hopkins was kind enough to let me hunt again that evening. This time my husband and I sat in the stand closest to the house, where there seemed to be lots of action. During this second hunt I was more nervous than ever with the pressure of getting a buck. It was about 3pm when we climbed into the stand. This time we had scouters and they were determined to get me a deer! Audrey and Ivan sat in one house with binoculars and Mr. Hopkins in the other house. We tuned our radios to theirs while we listened and waited. Almost instantly deer came out and wondered along the feeders and road. Just to make things more exciting a bee started to swarm me in the stand, and to add more fun to the situation I just recently found out I am highly allergic to anything that stings!  Thank goodness my mind was more focused on the deer than the bee, because otherwise, I would have been screaming and running out of the stand. Anyway, once the bee had decided to leave we looked down the road and saw a couple of  small bucks and then a tagged Whitetail buck, number 718, stepped out of the brush and started to walk up the road. My husband nudged me to take a look. I definitely liked what I saw and he was coming closer. He called on the radio to see what they had thought about tagged deer 718?  They said it was a go, and then all of a sudden another nice deer stepped out onto the road. My husband told me to wait a minute, so we could see what the other deer looked like. He was another tagged Whitetail buck, number 717, and a 9 point. The other deer was a 10 point, but just looking through the binoculars 717 had a wider and heavier rack, so he asked me which one did I want to shoot?  I told him it didn't matter just whichever one I could get an open shot. By this point the guides thought I was going to shoot number 718 and number 717 wasn't even in their view. I looked through my scope and waited. Finally, 717 had opened up and I told my husband I was taking him. Once again, I took a breath and pulled the trigger, and once again....peace. I looked up and saw the buck mule kick and run into the brush. My first thought was "Oh no not again!" As all of this was taking place the guides in the house thought I had missed the deer, since they had their eye on number 718.  They heard the shot and saw 718 look up and trot off.  They later told me that they were yelling "Shoot again! Shoot again!" Not sure at what point they realized I had actually decided to shoot number 717, but pretty funny to think of them yelling and stressing, because they thought I had missed.

As we waited for them to come pick us up out of the stand I had a horrible feeling that I had missed the deer even though I had seen him kick. I was now more nervous than ever, and it felt like deja vu as we went to search for the deer.  There ended up being no need to stress, because there was a great blood trail that led us straight to him. I found out that tracking your deer is just as much fun as shooting one, especially when it ends in finding him. The guides found him first and sweet Audrey yelled "Girl come get YOUR deer!" Once again, my eyes welled up with tears, but this time they came with pride. I finally had MY deer and he was beautiful!

When I first started to write this it was going to be short, but reliving the hunt was almost as fun as the actual hunt.  So, this turned out a little longer than I thought...sorry PETA and anyone who this might offend :)  Now I can wear my camo with pride and know that I am officially a HUNTER or maybe a HUNTRESS?  I want to thank everyone again at Live Oak Ranch for making my first hunt so memorable. 

www.Live-Oak-Ranch.com 

The main entrance

The sunset the day I shot my deer.  If you click on the pic to enlarge it you can see a deer at the end of the road.

Mr. 717!!!!  9 point, 135 4/8 B&C, 158 lbs 

Chad was so proud of me!

Here is his tag

Measuring to get the B&C score



Ivan, Audrey, Me, and Mr. Hopkins