Monster 7 Point White-Tail Hunt

Dave's Report --- January 3, 2015

White-tail season is alive and well in South Texas. We're in the middle of the rut, and the hunting has been on fire.

My great friend Tim Teal and I were looking for a big bodied management buck to harvest off the ranch. We wanted to make a stalk and cover some territory and see if we can find a buck to take. 

It was a crisp morning when I showed up on the ranch, and Tim knew where a bodied seven-point was located and thought he might be bedded down in the grass with some ladies. Tim planted oats earlier in the year, so we had some really beautiful green pastures. That's exactly where we found him.

He was laying down in the grass. We had the wind on him, but unfortunately, the wind was probably blowing over 25 miles an hour. He couldn't hear us, smell us, or see us, but he was a good ways away. 

Tim is a great friend of mine, and he's enabled me to put myself in different hunting conditions, allowing me to stretch and learn to do things I haven't done before. Tim was manning the TV HD video camera, and he said he'd work his way down the fence line to get video of the deer. He asked me to set up along the fence, get down on the ground, put the gun up on an old corner post, and get ready. I used the old corner post as a rest, and I settled in to see if we can get a shot on this nice big-bodied buck.

Tim gave me the go-ahead to take the shot. The doe were bedded down and so was this nice seven-point. What we were hoping for happened pretty quick. Both doe got up and started across the field. You know what happened next -- the big seven-point got up and headed their direction.

The thing that dawned on me as they were moving was that they were already a good distance from us to start, and now they were moving even further away. Remember, we're in the rut, so this buck was chasing doe. They finally stopped walking, and I ranged it with the Burris Eliminator Scope on the Remington 700----280. The awesome thing about this scope is it will calculate the drop based on the yardage and put a red dot below the crosshairs; that's where you hold on your target. The scope said 537 yards, and my heart started to beat a little faster than normal. I figured with that kind of distance, I should go for a double lung shot -- it's a bigger target on the animal.

I looked over to make sure that Tim was rolling the video, and he gave me the signal --- Take the shot. One thing most people don't have to deal with is the fact that I have to make the shot, and he has to make the shot with the camera at the same time.

I took a deep breath, let out about half of it, and started to work on that trigger. Remember, that darn Rangefinder Burris Scope said 537 yards.

Here again, Tim is putting me way outside my comfort level but that's what gets you fired up in life....doing things you haven't done before.

I was waiting for the recoil; it seemed like it took an eternity. Finally, the old 280 kicked me in the shoulder. 

All I heard was the report of the gun, and you know what I was waiting for --- that thump. I heard it. I hit him. He didn't drop like a sack of potatoes; instead, he jumped nearly 3 feet in the air! I heard Tim as he was video taping from across the way. They were the words I wanted to hear:

"Perfect Hit!"

Tim's my coach. When I heard a compliment on a shot like this, I felt really, really good about what we did. The deer traveled across the field, made a half-moon circle, hesitated for a few moments, and he's fixing to go down.

We gave him a few minutes and went over to check him out. He was an awesome big-bodied Seven-Point, and he was wide -- we aged him out at 5 1/2 years old.

I would not have taken the shot had I not had the Burris Rangefinder Scope. I knew the wind was a factor, but we made a nice clean kill on this buck on the Teal Ranch in McMullen County.

White-tail season's not over yet. More to come.

We'll see you in the Wide Open Outdoors! --- Dave