I missed going down to the deer lease for two weeks, the first week for a district meeting on a Saturday and a Christmas party, and the following weekend because I was delayed leaving Houston. This weekend made up for it though.
Friday night my brother and I went down to the pasture and saw a couple of deer, however I was uncomfortable with any shot I had. So Saturday morning we went out and I sat in one of our three stands. I took a shot, but missed. I saw the dirt kick up underneath and was pretty pissed off about it. So we left and were heading back to camp. We drove by another stand, there were a few deer there, I wasn't going to stop, but decided to sneak in and see if they were still there.
I got up in the stand and the only thing left there was a small buck. However, in the distance I saw a doe coming in. At 9.40 I took the shot. The deer ran 15 yards and died. After we cleaned her she weighed in at 58 pounds. After we got back to camp we drove into town and got some ice and laid her in the shade so we could go hunt in the afternoon.
In the afternoon we started at the same stand where I missed my shot early that day. There was not a single deer when we got there, and not a single deer came in for 2 hours. My brother, in his infinite wisdom suggested we head to another stand.
On the way up to that stand I told Andy that we should leave that night and that would allow us to get back so we had Sunday to hang out in town.
So, we went to our third stand and as we walked up, my astute brother noticed a deer in the feeder pen. We sneaked into the stand area and I got up. The deer in the feeder turned out to be a pretty big buck. I watched him for around a half our inside the pen and recalled a story Andy told me last year where he shot at a deer in the feeder pen and it hit the fence and missed the deer. So I wasn't shooting, I was waiting for him to get out of the feeder pen.
While all this was going on, and was on the ground and as it got darker he was thinking, "Maybe after seeing that buck Nick will want to stay through tomorrow morning to see if he is here then." I was in the stand thinking "If he hasn't left the feeder pen by the time the sun hits the hills, I am going to risk a shot through the feeder pen."
The sun hit the hills, Andy was still thinking about coming back the next morning, and I shot. We both watched the deer fall to the ground inside the feeder pen and then Andy stood up and yelled "You Mother Fucker". The deer never took a step. He was pissed that I had shot such a big deer and his was not that big this year.
We loaded him up in the truck and took him down the hill and cleaned him. Then headed into camp weighed him, 112 pounds. We drove back into Midland last night.
Overall it was a really good weekend.