2014 Early Season Whitetail Adventures – Central Kansas & South Texas

David Morris and I started off our 2014 seasons in Central Kansas in mid September, hunting big whitetails with outfitter Larry Ellis of Extreme Wildlife Adventures. Our early season muzzleloader hunt with Larry was terrific! And it was capped off by David and me both taking great bucks on the next to the last day of the hunt with our Traditions Striker Fire 50 cal muzzleloader rifles. In addition Bubba Belk of Sheridan Montana took a true world class giant of a buck on the last afternoon that taped out at over 232” gross B&C. All the action was captured on Tecomate TV!

My Leupold rangefinder called the distance to my heavy beamed Kansas 6 x 4, 150 yards, so I held on center of the broadside buck`s heart/lung area while taking a bench-rest style brace on two Bog Pods in my ground blind, rock solid! Try it you`ll like it. The Traditions Smack-Down 250 grain bullet propelled by 110 grains of Blackhorn 209 muzzleloader powder hit its mark precisely. Great hunt!



Next, my early season bow hunt in the pristine South Texas brush country was another outrageous adventure and a dream hunt come true. This season I was booked by my gracious host to hunt a wild and wonderful area of the brush country while bucks were at least a bit predictable and doing business in their early fall feeding patterns. My friends at Jerry`s Indoor Archery Shop in Ocala Florida, Shayne Wilemon and Gary Bozeman, both expert bow hunters, tuned my new Hoyt Carbon Spyder 30 to perfection. And they both attempted to tune me in at the range at Jerry`s with great shooting instruction and assistance. Thanks for the help Shayne and Gary!

My new Carbon Spyder 30 is complete with a Hoyt drop away rest and a Hoyt quiver full of carbon arrows tipped with razor sharp Rage 2-Blade SlipCam broadheads. This is a perfect close quarters shooting rig. I would bow hunt from tripods and ground blinds in Texas. Did I mention that my new Hoyt is a pleasure to shoot? Smooth, accurate, quiet, forgiving, and easy to handle, all good!

Regardless of one poorly placed shot on my part, that was certainly buck-fever induced, that was later overcome by only the grace of God, I was a happy hunter to return home with two great old South Texas brush country bucks in the bag.

And for the second consecutive hunt of this 2014 season I believe that I hunted in Texas the entire time while remaining undetected by any whitetail due to scent, all in the very close quarters of bow hunting set-ups. The reason, my Ozonics HR-200 ozone generator did its job. I just got it last month while in Kansas on the muzzleloader hunt. And I was glad to have had it along in Texas for my bow hunt. I am convinced that the Ozonics HR-200 made a huge difference in my bow hunt. On the morning I took the great 140 class trophy 8 pointer I could feel a light breeze steadily blowing on the back of my neck – a breeze blowing directly toward the buck from my open tripod stand just before I arrowed him at 12 yards. He did not smell me. That was my good shot of the week and my first buck taken with my new Hoyt! The old 8 pointer only went 50 yards before expiring in the brush nearly within sight.

My two bow shots of the week in South Texas, both at great bucks, came at 12 yards and 15 yards. Hard to imagine I could foul up either after weeks and hours of practice, right? But I did. I blew an easy first morning shot at 15 yard at the great 179 6/8” gross B&C 10 point main frame South Texas monster that I was fortunate to catch up with two days later. With the Lords help all is well. The hunt ended well! Thank God for miracles!

Posted by David Shashy