No More Passes

In October on the opening day of Texas Archery Season, I was filled with hope of finally getting my opportunity to harvest “Gimpy.”  After all, I had seen him morning and evening on numerous occasions just 10-20 yards from my stand beginning in August (this was going to be easy I thought).  This being the opening day, surely he will be there like clockwork?  Well, out of three days of hunting the opener, he never showed up.  However, I did encounter a 2.5 year old spike buck that I had seen before and had captured on camera prior to the season. 

At Gurra, we have a lot of spikes caught on camera throughout the year and try to cull them out whenever possible but I let him walk in hopes of arrowing Gimpy.  After three days of hunting and never having an opportunity besides the spike I passed on, I went home empty handed. 

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I was back on Gurra Ranch this time it was now General Season (Rifle) but I still wanted to take a deer with my new Horton crossbow.  I had not seen Gimpy or any other deer for that matter seems they all went nocturnal by now.  Then on one morning that same spike showed up again early in the morning before legal shooting time so I watched him, glassed the other avenues and waited for the sun to come up some more.  He did look back as if something else was coming and I was excited that maybe a bigger deer would come out as well.  I waited another 15 minutes and nothing else came in, the spike was still there and I decided I was going to not pass on him again.  He had been broadside to me for almost 10 minutes; I steadied my stick, took aim, checked my wind flag and let it fly.  I could see the bright green nock pass right through him and stick in the ground just behind where he stood.  Unknowingly he was about to meet his end, he kicked up, bolted 25 yards, stopped turned back and looked up directly into the blind as if he always knew I was there,  he then walked off down a trail and into the brush; "I’ll give him an hour I thought" as I watched him with the binoculars.  As I began to calm myself down, I looked over and a 6 or 7 point saw what was going on and nervously turned and walked back into the brush; I was not prepared for a followup shot.  I decided to wait for that buck to return while I waited the clock down before I went looking for the spike.

The larger buck never reappeared and I found the spike down the trail, it wasn’t hard to track him, the broad head had done its job with a through and through of both lungs.