West Texas hunt.

I decided to take a break, sit down and make a post on here. The last few days have been pretty fun. My friend Mario, his step-son, Tyler, and I went hunting out in Dickens county (Afton, TX) on Buster’s land. Mario and I work with Buster.

Caution!!! This is not a full novel, but it is classified as a short story. So read on, laugh and enjoy.

Last week Mario and I went out to Buster’s place so he could show us his property and where we could hunt. He has a lot of really nice land. My favorite place is Crotan. It is 1200 acres of land with a creek on two sides. It has some beautiful canyons, mesquite flats, and open fields. I think I could walk around out there everyday.

While Buster drove us around that morning, we saw plenty of deer, a coyote, bob cat, and a hog. I took a shot at the hog while he was on the run, but shot high and missed. So we decided we needed to sight the rifle in.

We dropped Mario off and Buster and I headed back out to his home place. We sat up a target on some hay bails and I took a couple shots. From about 50 – 60 yards out it seemed to be hitting just a little to the left. I decided it was fine though and left it alone. It was Buster’s fathers rifle, so I did not really want to mess with the sights. Buster told me he was using 100 grain 243 shells. After I purchased the 100 grain, I compared them to the one left that Buster gave me. It turns out they were 80 grain. So I thought it would not matter much.

We rode around more that evening and I shot a coyote from about 200 yards out. I dropped it dead in its tracks. So I felt the rifle was on and all was good. We counted over 40 deer that evening. I got to meet Buster’s son, Casey, and then I headed on my way to Lubbock.

I met Mario in Lubbock and we went to Academy where we purchased rifle rounds, cover scent, and some rope. I also looked at the TC Pro Hunter I am going to buy.

I worked the next four nights. We only had two days to hunt with the three of us together. So when I got off work Thursday morning, I headed straight to Afton. I met with Mario, and Buster gave us a quick brief on how to start his four-wheeler if we needed it. Then we were on our way to hunt.

Mario and I hunted Crotan that morning, seeing a couple deer, but only does. We decided to pass on them for now. We took a couple shots at a bob cat and two coyotes, but both missed, shooting high. We were kind of disappointed. I even had shooting sticks.

So at lunch we headed into Lubbock again to get Tyler. Tyler had to go to school half a day for finals. He is 14 years old and this will be his first time to go hunting. He was pretty pumped and loved the deer jerky I had brought back from Ohio. He had a few questions, and seemed ready to go.

Once we made it back we told him we would stalk hunt the area. See if we could spot anything or jump anything. No deer. Just a coyote, which again we missed. I was starting to get pissed in my shooting abilities, but stayed calm. LOL

We called it a night and went back to the camp house (Buster’s father’s old home place). We ate some sandwiches, which were not as good as back-strap would have been, and told some stories. Talked about how we would hunt the next morning and then hit the sack.

The next morning we were up and ready. Headed back over to Crotan for the morning hunt. We drove Tyler down to the south east end of the property line and walked him out to a point over looking the creek. He had a good spot there and an awesome view. We told him we were going back to the north about 1 mile and would start walking back toward him. Maybe we would at least push the deer to him. The wind was coming out of the east and we used this to our advantage.

Mario and I started our hunt, slowly working our way back toward Tyler. About 30 minutes of walking we came to a point just across the canyon from where we had spotted the deer the morning before at 9:30 AM. Being that is was 9:00AM, we decided to stay put for a while to see if we could spot anything. About 20 minutes later, I spotted them coming down the ridge from the east 300 yards off. We watched them with our binoculars for a while. Then we stalked about 80 yards closer. I got my shooting sticks ready, Mario was ready and Boom! Boom! – we fired. …and missed again. Shooting high. As we started heading toward Tyler, I fell in a frozen creek. LMAO Thank God for Under Armor. I did not get cold at all.

So, as you can tell, things are not going well. We made our way back to Tyler, who saw a doe, but did not get a shot. He did say he fell asleep while sitting there. LOL

Then it was off to the house to change clothes and hang the others up to dry. Then to Dickens for a warm meal at the local cafe. Met an older gentleman there who talked with us for a while. Asked us if we had got anything while hunting. He told us, “You’ll get something this evening.” I did not bother to tell him how well we had been shooting though. LOL

After lunch we went over to Buster’s house and sighted the rifles in….AGAIN. I was shooting high and to the left. Mario high and to the right. We sighted them in, and had some tight groups. So no excuses for the evening hunt – the last hunt for us.

We let Tyler fire Mario’s 44 and my 45. It was fun to watch his reactions. I love watching younger people shoot and hunt. It helps me remember different things that happened to me on my first times. LOL

Then it was back to the house to get ready for the last evening of hunting. I changed back into my hunting clothes – that were now dry. We had our plan. Leave Tyler over at Buster’s watching the corn feeder. There had been fresh tracks in there of hogs and deer. So we were betting he would get something.

We went over the safety stuff one more time. We did not want him to get hurt. Went over what he could shoot, and what he could not (cows) LOL. Then Mario and I headed over to another 80 acres that Buster just purchased.

We made some ground blinds between two small mesquite trees and used some tumble weed for extra cover. The wind was hitting us from the south west. We knew they were crossing here in the evening to go to an adjoining alfalfa field. So we were watching the ridge line to our south west. Just like clock work, at 5:30 (on my watch) I spotted them. I told Mario, since he was in front he would shoot the one to the rear, and I would get the one to the front. Five deer came down the ridge about 200 yards from us and started running across the field toward the alfalfa.

We waited for them to stop, but it did not look like they were. So I did my best doe bleat I could. (Thanks Uncle Jim! LOL) “Baaaa” No stopping deer. Louder this time “Baaaaa!” The front doe slams on the brakes, I have my sight picture, look at Mario’s deer…still moving….it stops….we fire! BOOOM! BOOOOOM! Down goes Mario’s, mines hit but runs a few yards. I see another….I fire. Boom! It turns and comes toward us, then crashes into the ground.

While we do a little high five. Thank God that we killed something after all the missing and start heading to locate them all…. we hear Boom! in the distance. It was Tyler. He calls us on the cell phone a few minutes later to say he killed two doe. We never heard another shot, so it must have been while we were shooting.

Now, here it is 5:38PM, almost dark….and we have 5 deer to dress out and quarter. LOL To wrap things up. Mario and Tyler left right after the deer were finished and I left about 45 minutes later. I got home at roughly 1AM.

It was a good hunt….more especially at the end when it actually became successful. I have been butchering deer all night last night, and I put the rest in the fridge in bags. I will finish them after Christmas goes by. I did get a lot done though, and I even have some jerky curing right now.

Enjoy the pics. I am sure I’ll have another story next year. Everyone have a Merry Christmas and may God bless you and yours this new year.

James