It seems you hear a lot about hunters that harvest game on the last day of their hunt at the last possible second. That is exactly what happened to me on the last morning of a 10-day adventure at the Busy B Ranch in Jefferson, Texas.
November 9, 2007, was our last morning to hunt at the Busy B Ranch owned by Jason and Shannon Bonner. Jim and I had hunted with them two years earlier and couldn’t wait to get back to their ranch which is home to exotics and whitetails alike.
We had been up early and hunted late every day of our adventure in search of a Red Stag Jason had been telling us about. One of the things we love about the Busy B is they will allow you to spot and stalk. Stalking has to be my favorite form of hunting. There is something about being on the ground, weapon in hand, playing a game of cat and mouse where you do not have the upper hand. You are on their terms, in their living room, so to speak. If you can make a stalk come together you have a real sense of accomplishment.
Jim and I were up early again on the morning of our last day heading out at 5:45am to hopefully see the Red Stag and get a shot. I had been hunting the Stag since the first day we arrived at the ranch. I had pursued the Stag with my bow until the last two days. Stalking within bow range was impossible. Texas is in a drought which means you sound as if you are walking in a bowl of corn flakes with every step you take. Hunting from a tree stand had proven to be fruitless as well. I quickly found out that the Stag liked to stay in the thickest areas of the piney woods on the ranch, which meant he heard me long before I would catch a glimpse of him. On the rare occasion when I did spot him, he would disappear into the briars and bramble and there was no way to pursue him. I did however, manage to get within 50 yards of him a few times and would have taken a shot; if there had been a clear shot. We practice religiously out to 60 yards with broadheads. You learn a lot stalking but you have to be a willing student because you are going to get schooled.
We spent a lot of time glassing from different vantage points as well. Jim and I both use Nikon Monarch 10x42 binoculars; there is no eye strain and they perform great in low light conditions at dawn and dusk
After a week of hunting with my bow and having only one more day to hunt before we headed home, I decided to pull out my rifle, a Thompson Center Arms 25-06. I ordered it piece by piece to get exactly what I wanted. It has the Pro Hunter Real Tree AP Camo forearm and rear thumbhole stock along with a stainless barrel and action. The rifle is equipped with a Nikon 5.5-16.5x44 Titanium Monarch Scope. I shoot Winchester .117 grain ballistic tipped bullets to complete this little jewel set up. It fits like it was custom made and has very little recoil.
The last morning we decided to set up in a tower blind on the edge of a thicket where we had caught a glimpse of the Stag. Jim had harvested a Sika deer the day before with a Weatherby Vanguard .300 WSM topped with a Nikon Monarch 5.5-16.5x44 scope. The Silk had been running with the Stag almost every time we had spotted him.
Jim and I rarely hunt together, but he decided he would come along as cameraman. Jason decided he would come as well and if nothing happened by mid morning, we could change set ups quickly without having to wait on him to return.
We arrived at the tower blind well before first light and as quietly as possible got set up in the stand with fingers crossed. We didn’t have to wait long for the action to begin; a huge dark coyote came by the stand just as it was getting light. He was well within range but we didn’t want to take a chance on ruining our hunt for the Stag, so he just walked on by. Jim was having second thoughts, his trigger finger was itching but the only thing he had to shoot was the camera.
We sat on stand for about two hours and Jason was getting antsy, he said he was afraid that we had made a mistake on our location. I am a very patient hunter, sometimes too patient, but asked if we could stay there another thirty minutes to see if anything happened. He reluctantly agreed but said no more than thirty minutes; we may need to change our location more than once and he didn’t want us to run out of time.
At 8:10am, we were watching a young whitetail buck chase a doe without any success when I caught a glimpse of something to my left. Apparently I was not the only one, as I slowly turned my head; we all identified it at the same time. It was the STAG! As I began to get the rifle situated Jason said: “It’s the Stag, take him when you’re ready”
I quickly used my Nikon 400 Range finder to get the exact yardage on him. The Stag was magnificent, standing there with the sunlight making his dark red coat seem to glow. I steadied the rifle and put the crosshair right behind his shoulder. I was trying hard not to look at his antlers but there was no way around it, he was massive. I could hear Jason's breathing getting faster than normal and tried to get my breathing under control as well.
I settled the crosshairs and began to squeeze the trigger; the Stag was broadside at 163 yards. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was half way through the squeeze when the Stag turned his head to scratch an itch, his antlers were covering his vitals, so I had to ease out of the trigger. I did not want to shoot his antler, take a chance on making a bad shot or spooking him. I could hear Jason and Jim both holding their breath. I know both of them were thinking “don’t shoot, don’t shoot!" I waited; he finally turned his head back to the front and I again began to squeeze the trigger on the Thompson Center 25-06. I was half way through my squeeze again and he turned his head back around to scratch his rear with his antlers, so again his vitals were covered with nothing but antlers. I again eased my finger off the trigger and waited.
I would have loved to been a fly on the wall about this time. There I sat behind my rifle waiting patiently on the perfect spot to place my shot. I am sure Jason thought I was crazy for taking so much time and that the Stag was going to bolt to the other side of the ranch at any second and we would never see him again. Jim sitting there in a knot, talking to me telepathically “ok, squeeze, squeeze, no, no, not now; don’t shoot the antlers! ok, you're set, squeeze, squeeze, no, no not again! he can’t turn his head again, don’t shoot, don’t shoot!"
Once again he turned his head forward and that was all I needed: I squeezed the trigger and heard the sound of the bullet hitting. The big Stag humped up and headed for his sanctuary, right through the middle of the thickest, heaviest cover he could fine. I sat there motionless listening and praying that I would hear him crash…….
It seemed like an eternity before I heard him go down. I lowered my rifle and turned around to look at Jason and Jim. We all came unglued! We were giving each other high fives and laughing. What an awesome hunt! Needless to say we were all ecstatic; I was glad that Jim and Jason were both there because they would have never believed that story in a million years
I know all of you that hunt are very familiar with “buck fever.” For me buck fever is a little different. I can control myself before and during the shot, but after I shoot and I hear my quarry go down, it’s all over for me. I fall apart; you would think that I had no bones in my entire body. If I were standing in Siberia in a pair of shorts and T-shirt in the middle of winter I would not shake any harder. This is the reason they say to stay in your stand for 30 minutes after the shot. It’s not to give the animal time to expire it’s to give me time for the noodles in my legs to turn back to bone.
Jason looked at me and said that he was going to go get the truck and when I was able to walk, Jim and I could get down and go track the Stag to his final resting place. Jim and I sat there a few minutes collecting ourselves.
We climbed down and walked to where the Stag had been standing when I made the shot, we followed the blood trail to the edge of the woods and just as luck would have it he had taken the path with “all” the resistance. Those three inch long briars didn’t stop us; in we went. Tracking the Stag through the briars and brambles was not an easy task; we took it by quadrants since we could not get through some of the places the Stag had busted through. I had the TC at the ready due to the fact that he could be laying waiting on us. Jim and I split up to cover more ground after about 10 minutes of searching I began to make my way through another section of the thicket and got caught in the briars. I pulled free and took two steps when I saw antlers gleaming in the only place in the thicket the sun could get in. I yelled for Jim and told him I had found the Stag.
What an awesome animal! He was beautiful to say the least, his antler tips polished ivory and there was no ground shrinkage at all. Jason made it back with the truck and was calling to us to try to locate us since there was no way to see us through the cover. Jason came crawling through the thicket to where we were standing with the Stag. After more high fives we all got tickled at the realization of getting the big Stag out of the thicket. Just before the Stag had expired he decided he would take out his last bit of aggression on a sapling that was encased in briars, therefore his antler were entwined from base to tip in thorns.
We finally managed to get the big Stag out of the tangle of undergrowth and took pictures. Jim scored him and his massive antlers scored just over 266 (Record of Exotics).
I can honestly say that I have never had anyone work as hard as Jason and his Father, J.D. to make my hunt a success. They are fantastic to hunt with and treat you more like family than clients. We are already booked for a 2008 Christmas Buffalo hunt with a bow. I can’t wait to get back to the land where everything bites, sticks, or stings. You never know what you might see on the last day in the last minutes of a 10-day hunt.
