keano44
Member
High Game Fenced Ranches...What do you think?
An unexpected opportunity came up for me last week. A company with which I do a fair amount of business with in my job, called and offered me a hunting trip to a high fenced ranch (400-450 acres) in Texas, west of Waco, 100 miles south of Dallas. At first, I was going to decline, because I had promised my son to take him on the youth hunt, which was going to be the same weekend, at my hunting lease (Louisiana), and he would have a good chance to kill his first deer, as we've been seeing does out of my box stand every time we go. But the guy said, "Bring your son, too." Hard to pass up an offer like that.
I must explain, the guy offering the hunt is also somewhat related and a good friend of my family (my first cousin's husband.) When another person canceled on the hunt, at the last minute, my father was invited to take his place. Wow, a dream come true hunt; three generations on a once in a lifetime hunt.
The first morning of the hunt, a great nine point buck came to the feeder we were watching, and after the "go ahead" from the ranch owner, my son shot his first deer, which ended up scoring 124+ B&C gross. I was able to get it all on video. Two or three hours later that morning, while driving around in the jeep looking for a certain 10-point buck the owner had in mind for me, we topped a hill, and there he was. I shot a beautiful 157 B&C gross, typical, out of the back of the jeep, resting my rifle on the roll bar. Later that afternoon, in another blind overlooking a feeder, I videoed my father's kill, an awesome 9-pointer, 141+ B&C gross. "Big D", our host had also got one that afternoon, a 10-pointer, 142+ B&C gross. These deer, which he would allow us to shoot, were all 5-1/2 yr. old, approximately 220 lb.
Getting to the point of this long story; for me, who has been deer hunting my whole life (40 yrs. old), I mean really having to hunt, this was more of a deer "shooting" than hunting. Although the buck I shot is the best I have ever taken, and very possibly the best I will ever take, there have been does and even button bucks which I've killed in the past which have more meaning to me, because of the challenges of those hunts where it was my wits against theirs, or a bow kill, or my first handgun kill with my own reloaded bullets, etc...
However, the experience of being on this hunt with my father, who had never killed a buck, and my 14 year old son, for his first deer, was like a dream come true. (I have always hoped to be with my son when he got his first one. And to top it all off, I was able to video both of their kills. This is something I will never forget. I plan to have all of the heads mounted, so we will all remember the occasion of our "big time hunting trip."
An unexpected opportunity came up for me last week. A company with which I do a fair amount of business with in my job, called and offered me a hunting trip to a high fenced ranch (400-450 acres) in Texas, west of Waco, 100 miles south of Dallas. At first, I was going to decline, because I had promised my son to take him on the youth hunt, which was going to be the same weekend, at my hunting lease (Louisiana), and he would have a good chance to kill his first deer, as we've been seeing does out of my box stand every time we go. But the guy said, "Bring your son, too." Hard to pass up an offer like that.
I must explain, the guy offering the hunt is also somewhat related and a good friend of my family (my first cousin's husband.) When another person canceled on the hunt, at the last minute, my father was invited to take his place. Wow, a dream come true hunt; three generations on a once in a lifetime hunt.
The first morning of the hunt, a great nine point buck came to the feeder we were watching, and after the "go ahead" from the ranch owner, my son shot his first deer, which ended up scoring 124+ B&C gross. I was able to get it all on video. Two or three hours later that morning, while driving around in the jeep looking for a certain 10-point buck the owner had in mind for me, we topped a hill, and there he was. I shot a beautiful 157 B&C gross, typical, out of the back of the jeep, resting my rifle on the roll bar. Later that afternoon, in another blind overlooking a feeder, I videoed my father's kill, an awesome 9-pointer, 141+ B&C gross. "Big D", our host had also got one that afternoon, a 10-pointer, 142+ B&C gross. These deer, which he would allow us to shoot, were all 5-1/2 yr. old, approximately 220 lb.
Getting to the point of this long story; for me, who has been deer hunting my whole life (40 yrs. old), I mean really having to hunt, this was more of a deer "shooting" than hunting. Although the buck I shot is the best I have ever taken, and very possibly the best I will ever take, there have been does and even button bucks which I've killed in the past which have more meaning to me, because of the challenges of those hunts where it was my wits against theirs, or a bow kill, or my first handgun kill with my own reloaded bullets, etc...
However, the experience of being on this hunt with my father, who had never killed a buck, and my 14 year old son, for his first deer, was like a dream come true. (I have always hoped to be with my son when he got his first one. And to top it all off, I was able to video both of their kills. This is something I will never forget. I plan to have all of the heads mounted, so we will all remember the occasion of our "big time hunting trip."
