The Bucks of Tecomate 2009 Season Hunts - V
My Best Buck Ever!
Starting on December 15th, I began an epic hunt for what I thought might be one of the biggest bucks I had ever killed and one of the biggest I’ve ever had on El Cazador Ranch. My head guide, Pete Gunderson, had videoed a remarkable buck very late one afternoon in early December. Though the video was dark and brief, I could tell he was a monster. I was pretty sure he was a buck I had seen two years earlier, when he was 4½, on a late-season Max-Attract food plot and then again the next August at dusk on a lablab food plot when he was in velvet. If it was that deer, he would now be 6½ years old (our minimum age to shoot as a trophy). And even though Pete’s video was dark, I knew he was even bigger than he was when I saw him in velvet the previous year on the lablab plot ... and he was a Boone & Crockett then! This was the buck I was going after.
I had no idea of the ups and downs I would face in my pursuit of that deer over the next month! During my chase, I almost swore off ever filming another big deer hunt. You see, I saw that buck four times in shooting light ... but NOT filming light. He was a nocturnal deer. Before I finally shot him, I did see him twice in shooting light, but he would not stay long enough to get both gun and camera set up for a kill shot. It was one of the most frustrating hunts of my filming career. I went through four cameramen over the month-long hunt, and finally, it was my daughter, Jennifer, who actually filmed the kill. This is one hunt I know cannot be fully told in a 30-minute show, but I promise it will be interesting, even in its abbreviated form! Oh, by the way, he was my biggest buck ever – a 200-plus 16-pointer!
More to come on The Bucks of Tecomate 2009 Season Hunts ...
Starting on December 15th, I began an epic hunt for what I thought might be one of the biggest bucks I had ever killed and one of the biggest I’ve ever had on El Cazador Ranch. My head guide, Pete Gunderson, had videoed a remarkable buck very late one afternoon in early December. Though the video was dark and brief, I could tell he was a monster. I was pretty sure he was a buck I had seen two years earlier, when he was 4½, on a late-season Max-Attract food plot and then again the next August at dusk on a lablab food plot when he was in velvet. If it was that deer, he would now be 6½ years old (our minimum age to shoot as a trophy). And even though Pete’s video was dark, I knew he was even bigger than he was when I saw him in velvet the previous year on the lablab plot ... and he was a Boone & Crockett then! This was the buck I was going after.
I had no idea of the ups and downs I would face in my pursuit of that deer over the next month! During my chase, I almost swore off ever filming another big deer hunt. You see, I saw that buck four times in shooting light ... but NOT filming light. He was a nocturnal deer. Before I finally shot him, I did see him twice in shooting light, but he would not stay long enough to get both gun and camera set up for a kill shot. It was one of the most frustrating hunts of my filming career. I went through four cameramen over the month-long hunt, and finally, it was my daughter, Jennifer, who actually filmed the kill. This is one hunt I know cannot be fully told in a 30-minute show, but I promise it will be interesting, even in its abbreviated form! Oh, by the way, he was my biggest buck ever – a 200-plus 16-pointer!
More to come on The Bucks of Tecomate 2009 Season Hunts ...
Posted by David Morris
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