A Couple Free Range Central Texas WT Bucks

FOsteology · October 24, 2013, 11:01:17 PM

A couple mature bucks that have been captured on camera the past few days. Special youth rifle weekend is this weekend (general/rifle season begins Nov. 2)! I'm hoping 250Savage has an opportunity to connect on either buck.

HuntnCarve · October 25, 2013, 06:46:22 AM

Good Luck to 250Savage. Looks like you guys will be set up in the right area. Be safe.

Dave

Okanagan · October 25, 2013, 11:31:25 AM

Niiiice bucks! Good luck to 250Savage.

I bought a whitetail tag on spec the other day and hope to get to hunt them. I'd LOVE to get a whitetail the size of one of these.

Hawks Feather · October 25, 2013, 12:07:21 PM

Good hunting 250Savage. I would take whichever one shows up first.

Jerry

nailbender · October 25, 2013, 02:13:36 PM

Nice bucks! Good luck!

Dave · October 25, 2013, 05:02:49 PM

Just knowing they are around should keep 250 on high alert. Hopefully he tags one!

FinsnFur · October 25, 2013, 10:32:03 PM

Mannn you guys DO produce some nice racks down there. Take that however you like.

FOsteology · October 26, 2013, 10:29:04 AM

Texans like their deer like their women...... petite, but with BIG racks!

Actually, they're just average bucks. There's much larger out there. Although my place doesn't have the genetics and food sources to produce the monsters.

Aaron and I sat out this morning. Saw several doe, their fawns, and a handful of young bucks. We'll go back out and sit under the oaks this evening.

HaMeR · October 26, 2013, 12:26:24 PM

Very nice Bucks!! Best of Luck Aaron!!!!!

FOsteology · October 28, 2013, 10:00:52 AM

Well, the buck from the first and second pictured showed up last night a few minutes before legal shooting light ended. Aaron wasn't quick enough, and the buck was moving through quickly, but stopped almost a couple hundred yards away to freshen up a scrape, which I wasn't aware of (otherwise we would have been positioned differently).

With the failing light (pretty dark under the oak canopy and less than 5 minutes of legal time remaining) and distance, my son said he wasn't confident in making a shot..... so we sat and watched him do his business, and then he went about making his rounds.

Fortunately the buck was oblivious to our presence. We'll try again at a later date.

250Savage has been invited to hunt a ranch out near Cotulla Tx this weekend. Right on the edge of the "golden triangle". We'll be hunting for a mature cull/management buck. A cull/management buck is one that is typically under 10pts, and doesn't have the genetics (number of points, tine length, and mass) the ranch wants, so they're killed in order to keep them from breeding and passing on their "undesirable" genes. Or sometimes, it may be an old buck that's on the decline and already passed on his genes for a few seasons.

Sorta ironic (at least to me), as anywhere else I've grown up and hunted, these same bucks I would consider a trophy! An 8pt buck that will gross mid 130's to low 140's B&C is a heck of a nice buck IMHO. Heck, an old mature deer (5.5yo and older) no matter the headgear he sports is a trophy in my book!!

Okanagan · October 28, 2013, 01:19:48 PM

Good for Aaron and you for the discipline shown! Good luck on another buck in the days ahead.

Quote from: FOsteology on October 28, 2013, 10:00:52 AM
Heck, an old mature deer (5.5yo and older) no matter the headgear he sports is a trophy in my book!!

A big + 1!

There are some marvelous bucks with antlers that don't score for beans but are wily mature trophies as hard to tag as any buck anywhere. Mature experienced hunters recognize such deer as worthy trophies. Some geographical areas simply don't have the genetics to produce book antlers. Any hunter who tags a buck as big as they get in his area is a skilled hunter, especially if he does it regularly year after year. If you are consistently tagging the biggest deer in your area, you can't hunt better than that: you can only pay more and start hunting non-locally.

I have a couple of cousins and a son who regularly and consistently kill huge blacktails and benchleg bucks in Western WA State. Also a friend on Vancouver island who consistently kills huge Island blacktails, with almost zero chance of ever having one make the B&C book. They just don't get that big. My son has a huge bench leg (mule deer/blacktail hybrid) buck that has a number of odd points on a heavy but basically 2x2 frame. He has larger antlers, but the savvy experienced local hunters always pick out that buck as the most significant buck on the wall. He tracked and killed a weird tall racked benchleg buck last Fall in the snow, not even close to any record book but as relatively big and fine and difficult a trophy as they come.