I spent 6 days in Terrell County at our deer lease in West Texas. We hunt 10,000 acres of free range Trans-Pecos desert country that is populated with about 50-50 whitetail and mule deer. Our lease rules allow us to take either 2 whitetail bucks or one whitetail and one muley buck with all bucks having to have 6 points or more.
For me personally, this is a Specialty Pistol ONLY hunt and I chose to take my Remington 700 Specialty Pistol with 13" barrel and in .308 Win.
Before the hunt began my goals were to of course fill my buck tags, but also to get a fox (which I had a ton on my game camera) as well as a javelina which I rarely see.
Day 1
First morning in the stand was cool, but not cold and I could make out the deer moving before shooting light. As it got lighter, I watched a 4 and 5 point pair of muley bucks make their way across the flat I was hunting, and then watched a small 6 point whitetail begin to chase does. A few other young bucks came out to either eat or chase does and by lunch time I had seen over 40 deer total. There was never a time when there wasn't at least 8 deer in view and at one point there were 24 that I could count. At 2pm I was watching a longhorn spike whitetail when I caught movement to his left. I watched as a beautiful fox went to within feet of the buck and began to eat deer protein from the ground. This fox had an amazing tail and I decided to take him. Ranged him at 195 yards and sent a 178 grain AMAX through his front shoulder, dropping him in his tracks. I recovered the fox and got back in my blind and continued to see deer until dark. By the end of day one I had counted 82 deer, which I'm sure many were the same does returning to eat throughout the day, but one great time on the stand and one animal knocked off my bucket list.
Day 2
Day 2 began with drizzle rain and much lower temps than the day before. A strong north wind was blowing due to a cold front that had just arrived. As shooting light approached, I could see deer moving below me in the flat I was hunting. I watched as 2 small whitetail bucks chased does back and forth. Some does were eating while others were being chased by scrub bucks, but in a split second all deer looked to the brush line as a doe emerged with a nice 8 point whitetail in pursuit behind her. The buck came out at 300 yards but never stopped until he got to 150 yards where I had a small pile of corn. The buck had dark chocolate colored antlers with white tips and totally made me smile when I saw him. He was extremely skittish and would never turn broadside. I watched him for what seemed like forever, and realized he wasn't going to turn. He then quartered towards me and I decided that would do just fine and took the shot. There were approximately 8 deer around him when I fired the 308 and all took off in a variety of directions. In the confusion I lost the buck, so I gave him a few minutes and then went to check for blood. When I got to the spot where he was standing when I shot, I could see him laying behind a bush about 15 yards away. The AMAX had crushed the front shoulder , continued through him length wise and exited just in front of his rear hock. The slower moving AMAX seemed to hold together just fine and penetrate extremely well.
1 buck in the cooler!
Day 3
I was on Cloud 9 when I got into my blind. I knew my hunting spot didn't have any 6 point muleys on camera, but you never know what might come out and the thought of the possibilities with the whitetail rut going on, just added to my excitement.
As light began to appear, my two small muley bucks came off the mountain behind me as well as a group of muley does. 6 whitetail does were in the flat feeding and a longhorn spike was running one of the does. I had made up my mind that I would only shoot a better buck that my first, and if that didn't appear, then everything else would get a pass. The muledeer bucks were feeding and all of a suddenly raised their heads, looked to the brush, and then ran off in a hurry. As soon as they were gone, 2 shooter whitetail bucks came into view together.
I studied them thru my scope and saw that one was a nice 9 point and bigger than the buck I had taken the day before. He walked to the exact spot my buck the day before had went to and stopped to eat with the does. He turned broadside and I sent an AMAX thru his shoulder and out the other side. This buck dropped in his tracks and didn't take a single step.
SCORE # 3!!!
After cleaning the buck at camp, one of the others hunters in our group told me of a large group of javelina he saw the previous day. He told me where to go and I spread some corn out at lunch in the area. I returned about 3 pm and parked my quad on top of a hill about 95 yards behind and above the corn. I sat in a foldout chair besides my quad and laid my Specialty pistol over my quad seat. I hadn't been there 15 minutes and a slow rain began. I got my poncho on and as soon as I did, I could see the javelinas approaching thru the brush. The largest of the group came out and I put a round thru her left shoulder, dropping her as well.
SUCCESS X 4!!!
Got the javelina back to camp and cleaned, all before 4:30. I decided to season one of the javelina backstraps and threw it on the grill. Wasn't half bad!
I had the hunt of a lifetime and am going home with a ton of meat, 3 skulls to European mount, and a fox to full body mount!
Absolutely love the performance from my Specialty Pistol and the AMAX.
God is so good....
- CODY
