Tuesday morning found us in Kerrville. We made our way to a 30 acre property after our business lunch and set up shop. On this afternoon hunt, two does came together to an opening about 90 yds away. Jack and I were both aiming but the does were standing one behind the other. As we were aiming, a buck ran up from out in the field. I whispered "buck, buck, buck". Jack has never shot a buck before. He aimed in with the 30-30 but said "oh scrap I can't see the sights good enough". I quickly but quietly pulled another levergun out of its case, loaded and handed it to Jack. This 243 had a scope on it and was ready with 100gr Nosler Partitions. Jack asked if I was ready and I told him to go ahead and shoot the buck and not worry about me. He shot the buck and it jumped up and started running. Jack said "Don't let him jump the barbed wire, shoot!" I let a round go from the 375 as the buck scrambled towards the property line. The bullet slam dunked the deer into the ground. Upon further inspection Jack's shot was fatal and has pierced the heart and cut the aorta and windpipe as it travelled forward inside the deer. His first buck, a small 5 point, is on the way to the taxidermist. I was ready to go get the buck and Jack said "Hey lets wait until it's too dark, it is still legal shooting time and you might still get one". I thought the chances of that were nil, but with 2 minutes legal time left a mature doe jumped the barbed wired and crossed in front of us. The rangefinder said 236 yds, so I held right on her neck as she faced me head-on. At the shot I lost sight and asked what happened. Jack said nothing had run either way so it must be down. We walked out and recovered the buck and then the doe - which was about the same size as the buck. We cleaned up the deer and headed south to D'Hanis.
In D'Hanis in the morning we were hunting on the Gunn-N Ranch for deer. Mr. Gunn told us to shoot does, spikes or cull bucks that did not have the antler class or conformation for their age. At 7:40 I spotted a deer moving to my left. It continued in and I saw it was a buck. Upon closer inspection with the binos, it was a 3 point with a long spike on one side and a fork on the other - perfect cull buck. At 124 yds I hit him in the shoulder with the 375 and he was down and out. We didn't move and just sat still. Within 10 minutes a doe worked her way towards us. At 80 yds, Jack settled the 243 crosshairs on her earhole. Wham-thump! Another one bites the dust.
Thank goodness Texas is generous with the deer tags, plus LAMPS and MLD tags (for quality deer management). We donated 4 deer to Hunters for the Hungry and kept one each. After lunch we headed to Rio Medina to the I.R.R. Bragg Ranch. Here we were paid to cull certain animals. We were told of each animal and it was described to a "T". We then set out to get 'em. It took longer than I figured but this ranch is 20,000 acres.
First we had to find a white Dall ram that had it's hips showing and was broomed off unevenly. It took an hour of glassing rams all over to find him - a lone ram out in high grasses. We snuck up to him and at 50 yds we simultaneoulsy fired the 30-30 and 243. Down he went. Either shot would have been fatal but the combo punch was to avoid having to look for him or potentially wounding him.
Next we set out to take an Addax female that was carrying her right front leg and limping on the left one. We found the Addax about an hour later and deciphered which we needed to cull. At somewhere just over 150 yds ( I didn't rangefind this one) Jack shot the 243 first. The whack indicated a hit but the Addax ran just over 100 yds and stood. I shot the 375 and down she went with not even a quiver. The 243 broke a shoulder and took a lung. The 375 went in the ribs and out the other shoulder, expanding to half dollar size upon exiting.
Last but not least we were to find a white fallow buck that was heavier on the left antler than right and "acting crazy". We debated several white fallow bucks but finally realized the right one. He was bucking for no reason, knocking heads with other animals, ramming trees, etc. Weird behavior to say the least. We got about 80 yds after a long crawl. Jack hit him a little high and back with the 30-30 and he started running and turned straight away. After he got the around the 125 yds mark (only about 2 or 3 seconds) I shot the 375 at his tail. I hit him right up the butt hole and he dropped. The bullet exited very low just behind the heart. The reason he was "crazy" was because he had over 8 feet of barbed wire caught around his antlers, low around the pedestals. The wire had cut through his skull right behind the horns and was making light contact with his cranial matter!
As a "Thank You" Bragg told me I could shoot one of whatever I wanted. I said thanks but no thanks because I thought I had already taken one of every species on this ranch. After hearing the list I said "wait, what kind of Sika Deer do you have"? Well they had Dybowski Sika, which I had never taken. I had taken Japanese Sika, a smaller sub species of Sika with a different conformation. We went out about 3PM and walked through the tall grass for an hour. I spotted some antler tips sticking up over the grass. At 100 yds the wind swirled and a real nice sika buck got up and ran. He made a mistake at around 160 yds when he stopped and looked back like a mule deer. The 260 gr NP caught him just in front of the shoulder and cut the jugular vein while breaking his neck. This one is a nice trophy and will be good eating!
Good friends, good rifle (leverguns and classics), native game and exotics - and we got our work done too!
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