If we are being completely honest, “Deer Hunting” doesn’t quite adequately describe the hunting efforts this year, as although deer were the primary target of my hunting excursions, this season brought new game animal opportunities outside of just deer that I had not really anticipated.
As I previously wrote, I tried my hand at archery hunting this year, although by almost every measure, that proved fruitless. That same weekend would, however, present the first opportunity for a little variety in hunting exposure: Feral Goat.
After the morning archery hunt, I was driving back from my stand with the ranch owner, Brenda, when I spotted what appeared to be three goats scrambling around the high hills near the hunting cabin. After a quick check through binoculars, we determined that they were indeed Feral Goats, and decided to drive closer in order to take a shot with the rifle in the back of my truck. The rifle in question was my Bravo Company Manufacturing Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle clone that I had built with my deployment money.
As we rounded the last turn, we would discover that what had appeared to be only a small handful of goats was really a couple dozen goats, all standing in the trail leading up to the top of the hill. I made a expedited, excited egress from the truck and settled behind the rifle while Brenda spotted for me.
“Ooh, do you see the brown one? Shoot him, he has crazy horns.”
Squeezing the trigger, I sent a round into the prescribed goat, and started dumping bullets into the rest of the herd as they scattered off the trail and away on the rocks. The brown goat that I had fired at would also escape, but only momentarily. Brenda and I drove up to the top of the hill, and started looking for blood, and eventually ended up further back on the trail, where the brown goat and another, smaller black goat were walking. Quickly jumping out of the truck, I fired two rounds in quick succession into each goat, dropping the larger, brown goat, while the black one escaped onto another property.
As an aside, Texas has, for whatever reason, an issue with feral animals, whether they be hogs, goats, sheep, or exotic animals from far off lands like Africa or Eurasia. This is an issue for the local ecosystems because non-native animals, especially hogs and goats, tend to reproduce rather quickly and will crowd out many of the native species by placing a higher ecological burden on the available resources in a given area. What that means for the hunter is that you are more or less obligated to shoot these feral animals when you see them. Plus these goats get huge.
After a couple weeks off of hunting in Texas, I was ready to get a crack at it again. This time, I was taking an old friend of mine hunting for his first time in quite awhile. Neil and I had met when I was attending USAFA, and we bonded over a mutual love of the shooting sports. In fact, he took me to my first USPSA match in Colorado. After a recent deployment, Neil had gotten his hands on a Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout (SRS) rifle in .338 Norma Magnum. For those of you scratching your heads on either the rifle or the caliber, do not worry, as I had to do some Googling as well. Suffice it to say that the rifle was accurate enough (supremely so, actually), and the cartridge is something that Neil more or less has to hand load for himself.
Our first morning hunt would only yield a Mule Deer running way too fast and too far away for either of us to get a shot off. Relocating to a new spot, we had a small spike buck walk up on our stand, but run off again when we tried to draw a bead on him. Poking our heads over the ledge of a nearby cliff to investigate the activity near the other feeders down in the draw, I discovered a small herd of deer hanging out in a clearing. Calling Neil over, we tried to line up a successful shot on one of the larger does, but as the light was fading quickly, we were never confident enough to pull the trigger.
Bright and early the next morning, we returned to our evening perch, and patiently waited. Sure enough, a larger herd of deer were milling around the feeder. As we settled in and counted antlers (zero), I noticed that the does were all acting rather nervous. Advising Neil to wait, I started scanning around with my binoculars. Within minutes, a small buck came crashing out of the brush. Quickly glassing the newcomer, I determined that the buck was a spike, albeit with rather long, curved antlers. As Neil finished making his adjustments, I noticed that even this buck seemed nervous, as we kept looking back over his shoulder. Again, I advised Neil to wait. Our patience would pay off, as a rather large buck came stomping out of the brush.
Due to Texas’s antler restrictions, we spent the better part of thirty minutes observing the buck to determine whether or not his antlers went outside of his ears at “alert.” Eventually, we determined it was a legal buck, and as Neil lined up a clean shot on him, I started deciding which of the does I would try to shoot, as the smaller Spike Buck had been chased off shortly after the larger buck had come on scene. I spotted for Neil as he took his shot, and saw a clean impact on the buck, which sprinted off into the brush. I quickly lined up a shot on the Doe, and pressed the trigger before she could bolt.
After cleaning up our perch, Neil and I made our way down to the spot where the deer had taken off from. Following the blood trail, we found Neil’s buck after a short, but rigorous track through the thick brush in the valley. My doe, which I had thought I missed, turned out to be both a very small buck, and gut-shot. Luckily, although it was not an ideal shot placement, the shot did take the small deer down rapidly, and we found him rather quickly as well. The deer was, unfortunately, so small that I was able to pick him up one-handed and put him in the bed of my truck. Luckily, the fawn did not have any spots, which saved my ego from further bruising.
After cleaning the two deer, Neil and I wrapped the weekend up by taking a couple of long shots from the top of the same hill on which I had shot the goat. Neil’s incredibly precise rifle made shots at 375 yards about as easy as breathing, and shots at 500 yards only marginally more difficult. It was dangerously exhilarating.
Upon returning home from a successful weekend hunt, I set about processing the meat from my small deer, which only took about an hour due to the marginal size of the quarters and back-straps. After that task was completed, I began preparing for the next weekend’s hunt. Which would surely end up being a memorable one.
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