In 2017, I took a trip to Texas with my beautiful wife to celebrate our 15th year anniversary. What is a great way to celebrate your 15th year anniversary, you might ask? To answer that question, I would answer, let’s go on our first hunt for Barbary sheep! Needless to say, we were successful and that is what led to my addiction to Texas hunting and the exotic animals it has to offer.
Since I think going to Texas and hunting is a great way to celebrate milestones, I decided to take my son on an epic adventure to Texas to follow me along to see if we could harvest some more beautiful animals for his 14th birthday. When I told him about my plans, he was stoked! I actually told him on Christmas Day that we were going on a hunt to Texas and it was going to be over his birthday. At that point, we had about six months to wait and July 28th could not come soon enough.
As time usually does, it flew and it was time to head out. Once again, we were going to hunt with West Texas Hunting Organization. Owner Mike Mckinney and guide Tyler Wilson were going to guide us on our quest to take an Axis buck, black buck, and hopefully a couple of Axis does. From what I heard, the Axis deer are great eating and I was hoping to take home as much meat as possible. We met up with Tyler on the evening of the 27th and sighted in our .270. Everything was dialed in perfectly, and we were in full anticipation for the next morning.
The alarms sounded off at 5:00 a.m., and we hopped out of bed, ate breakfast, and got ready to go. The heat had been unbearable the last week or so. Temps had been topping out around 110 degrees the week before, and this week looked like highs would be in the 100s. We figured our best bet would be early mornings and later afternoons to catch a good buck on his feet. Unfortunately, that morning was a bust. We did see some animals but no good bucks. We were after a buck that would be pushing 30”, and nothing of that caliber showed. We did see a great chocolate Fallow bucks that morning, but I had come for a great Axis buck and that is what we were after.
As the day progressed, the temps were rising. We glassed and went through the mesquite brush, checking waterholes, hoping to spot a good buck. As we were going along, we ran into a group of Axis deer, and the first one to pop out was a great buck. I settled the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeezed off a shot. I knew I had hit him perfectly! After a short blood trail, I was taking harvest photos of my very first Axis buck. It was a dream come true! The day was still young at this point. It was about 3:00 p.m., and with the heat, we quickly took care of the meat.
Now that we had our Axis buck, we were after a 20” or better black buck. Tyler had been seeing a big black buck on an adjacent property, so we headed out to see if we could glass him up. It didn’t take long before we spotted a couple of great bucks, but not the dominant one we were looking for. We kept looking and soon we spotted a herd of does. There were probably 20 of them, and not far away was the big buck we were looking for! He was bedded up just a few yards away from the does. We were about 250 yards away at this point, and finally, the big buck got up and started pushing his girls further away. I was set up for the shot, and we let out a yell to stop him. He turned and looked back, and the .270 barked. Less than a minute later, my black buck was down!
After our first day, we had two great trophies down and we were on cloud nine! My son, Gavin, was pumped. Tomorrow would be his birthday, and he was going after his first Axis doe.
The next morning, we were off. We got onto a high point to glass, and we could see for a long way. We were after a good doe, but all we could see were bucks. A couple of hours later, a buck chased a doe to within 50 yards and Gavin made a perfect shot. It was a great experience for him, and he was so happy. What could be better than shooting your first Axis deer on your birthday?
That evening, we were going to try to find another doe for me. We were glassing for does but weren’t seeing much. With a couple hours of light left, Tyler asked me if I would be interested in going after the big chocolate fallow we had been seeing the last couple days. After about two minutes of thinking it over, I said, "Heck yeah! Let’s see if we can glass him up!"
We headed off to the last place we had seen him. That night, we could not find him, so it was off to bed with only visions of that big fallow dancing through my head.
Our final day of hunting was upon us, and we were after the big fallow once again. At first light, we saw several different fallow bucks, but none of them were the big chocolate we were after. This was the only buck we wanted. The heat of the day started to creep in, so we decided to get moving, checking waterholes and under thick shade. Finally, when I thought all hope was lost, there he was! His big dark chocolate, velvet antlers were sticking above his head. At about 80 yards, we had to act quickly. He turned to look at us, and at that point, it was too late for him. The bullet was on the way, and at impact, he dropped in his tracks!
This was a trip-of-a-lifetime for my son and me. I was hoping to be successful, but we had experiences that I could only dream of for us. It was a time of getting away from it all and just getting lost in what we love to do. I hope and pray that this will stick with my son for the rest of his life. I will never forget the time we spent together in the brush country of Texas, and I thank our great God for the opportunity experience this with my only son!
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