Remember Your First Buck

For those of us that are deer hunters there is probably no feeling that is much greater or emotional than the thrill of putting your first buck on the ground.  I still remember fifty years later the old Texas classic basket horned eight point that followed a doe onto a cactus flat where I was hunting near Round Mountain, Texas.  My grandfather had put me in the blind well before daylight and told me to shoot right behind the shoulder if the old buck he had seen several times before showed up.  I now know that grandad had passed the old buck up just so one of us kids might have a chance at it as I often pass bucks today in hopes my daughter or wife might have the opportunity to harvest it at our place.  The old buck heard the safety catch click as I took it off to shoot and looked right at the blind.  I put the cross hairs right behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger.  At the crack of the .243 the buck whirled and ran quickly out of my sight.  I was horrified, I must have missed.  Being eight years old I did not realize that a lung shot buck could run quite aways before expiring.  I put the rifle in the corner of the blind and left it as my grandfather had directed me to do and started the long walk back to the ranch house.  I dreaded telling grandad that I had missed a buck.  About five minutes down the road I met the old truck coming down the road to meet me.  I did not know at the time that grandad had been sitting in the truck at the pasture gate about 500 yards away waiting to hear my shot.  I explained what had happened and waited for my lecture.  Instead grandad told me we would go look and see what happened.  When I showed him where the buck was standing he studied the ground and took off in the direction the buck had fled.  After a few feet he pointed at the ground, looked back at me and grinned ear to ear.  There on the ground were several drops of blood.  As he followed the buck the blood trail became heavier until he stopped and pointed.  There about fifty yards away was the old buck piled up in a cedar.  The shot had been good.  That old hill country buck was a tremendous trophy to me.  I will never forget that buck or the wisdom and soft heart of my grandfather, Eddie Thomas.  Thanks for the memories.  Wild Ed

I have a good friend in Georgetown, Texas that had the chance to re-live that first buck feeling through his grandson this last week.   I congratulate Clayton and also Dennis for being a grandad that just created a memory that will last a lifetime.  Here is the sequence as Dennis related it to me.

Eleven year old Clayton Andrews of Georgetown had quite a first hunt. He harvested the heavy horned seven point with an eighteen inch spread on the first morning of Youth season at 7:45 in the morning. Clayton dropped the buck with one shot. He was hunting with Dennis Chapman, his Grandfather, on the Chapman Ranch west of Georgetown. He was using a 222 caliber rifle with 50 grain soft point ammo.

Watching the buck work his way through brush for five minutes Clayton never got buck fever, but Grandad was a nervous wreck hoping on hope that the deer would step out of the brush so Clayton could get a shot. Yes, Grandad is having the buck mounted for Clayton.

 

The TexasAntler Restriction and Ethics

 

I have struggled with writing about this as I know it will make some people mad.  The Texas Antler Restriction Rule has been around long enough for everyone in those counties effected to be aware of the rule.  There are still too many violations of this rule and hunters should be helping to enforce the rule by reporting those that break it.

 

Report Game Violations

1-800-792-4263

 

We had around nine, year and half old eight points coming to our feeders last year.  None of them would have been legal shooters under the antler restriction rule.  By the end of the season we could find none of them on our game cameras. I made sure my kids and family knew the antler rule and would not shoot anything but a legal mature buck, a doe or cull spike. I watched two of these young eight points crossing a road easement last year and jump over the fence on to a neighboring place with lease hunters.  I heard multiple shots and someone then yelling for help to find a deer.  I talked with a hunter last year that told me it was so close to 13 inches that he was pretty sure it was a legal buck when he shot.  My answer was that if it is that close why would anyone shoot it.  If you can not tell let it walk.  If a buck is too little to kill this year just remember how big it will be next year.  I also saw a neighbor and his grandson with a buck in the back of a truck that would not meet the 13 inch rule, so I mentioned it just to make sure he was aware.  He said it was a big buck to his grandson so he let him shoot it. What a great chance he blew to have let his grandson pass on the buck and then explained about deer management and that a true hunter doesn’t break the law or kill everything that they see.

 

 I am giving notice to all in this article that from now on I will be calling the game warden and reporting any antler violations I see, so will most of my family and friends.  So should you.  "Why" some will ask?  It is the law number one; number two is that we have only a few legal bucks on the place this year coming to the cameras.  It makes me mad when I think of all the promising young bucks of last year.  There would have been a pretty good group of nice bucks for the girls to hunt this year if not for the thoughtless shooting of illegal bucks by others last year.  In fact all of the hunters in the area would have had a chance at bigger bucks.  All of our would-be-bigger bucks were killed before they had any chance of growing a decent set of antlers.  I would bet that none of those eight points were mounted or even the antlers kept as a trophy as the largest might have had a twelve inch spread.  What is the point in killing them when a legal doe or spike could have been taken for meat?    The problem with management on small tracts is  that your neighbors have to manage the deer also.  Making sure they follow the law will help in managing the deer herd in the area.  I would also urge parents and grandparents to explain to kids and grand kids about management and help them hunt a cull or get a legal buck and then make sure they understand that the Texas Antler Rule helped grow the big buck for them to harvest. 

 

Remember I’ll be out there watching and so will others, I hope you will be too.  Wild Ed

 

Report Game Violations

1-800-792-4263

 

 

For counties with Special Antler Restrictions, a legal buck deer has:

1.       at least one unbranched antler, or

2.       an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. The inside spread requirement does not apply to any buck that has an unbranched antler.

Not more than one buck with an inside spread of 13 inches or greater may be taken.

The following picture shows how to judge if a buck is legal or not.  If you can not tell he is not big enough to shoot, let him grow one more year

 

Ears in alert position
are approximately
13 inches apart and
may be used to judge
the inside spread.