Write up from a deer hunt by a friend? It Is long, you have been warned.

"Ol Turkey Spurs"

I've been pretty worried about how my deer season was going to pan out this year. In years past I've had 5-14 days at a time to run cameras, figure the pattern, get the right wind and get set up on a deer. When the oil field crashed I lost that luxury and had to get a Monday - Friday gig. I did stack the odds in my favor a little when a lease that I've visited for 15 years finally had an opening.

I'm also a competitive tournament bass fisherman and fish several different trails on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend. That takes up a tremendous amount of time. My wife still laughs when I tell her I'm going to the lake for a practice day. It's foreign to her that you have to "practice fishing". We usually have a lull after June in the tournaments, but this year the local tackle shop, Tri Lakes Outdoors, put on a summer series and USA Fishing Trails continued the Bass-N-Bucks series on Sam Rayburn. So to say I was pressed on time would be an understatement. I was behind on lease work and opening day was coming in a hurry.

I borrowed the Fecon mulching head and a skid steer from work for a weekend and put that sucker to work! Man you talk about cut your time way down! What once was a tangled grown up mess inside a pine thicket was now a beautiful pear shaped meadow, 85 yards wide on the south end, 200 yards long, and narrowing as it goes to the north. A deep sided creek paralleling the west side and an in-service railroad track on the east creating a really nice funnel in between the pine thicket and a grown up clear cut leading to a thick understory in an oak bottom. Early in September we finished all the mowing and discing. We waited on the forecast to show some rain and the guys got to planting. Fortunately I have some fantastic friends that planted for me while I was fishing a tournament.

Once all of the regular season tournaments were finished, we'd qualified for a Championship on Cedar Creek and an Invitational on Sam Rayburn. Great right? Except for the dates of the tournaments. The Championship was October 22-23, and the Invitational was November 5-6. Talk about a buzzkill...

This hunting only on the weekend thing sucks! Opening weekend I managed to kill 2 coyotes and the only deer I saw was a stud crossing the pipeline while I was hunting my buddy's stand. I had a sponsorship obligation to do a media event for the release of Cost del Mar's new lens color which actually turned out to be a really good time. I felt cheated a little though. I was already only able to hunt weekends and had to cut opening weekend short and be off the stand by 8:30am! My number one target buck was at my stand at 7:32am that Sunday morning. I had elected to hunt Shorty's stand so I didn't have to drive by all the other members on my way out early. A fortunate hunter on the neighboring lease killed him and he scored 164"!

The next weekend I killed a doe and the next weekend I killed a bobcat. Deer sightings were getting better but the weather was hot and the mature bucks were moving mostly at night.

Thursday October the 20th we left Lufkin at 5:30am and headed to Cedar Creek. It poured rain most of the morning and the wind kicked up to 25mph out of the north. We looked around where we could and found a few fish. Friday the weather was cold and clear but the wind relaxed. We ran across several good groups of fish and felt confident about our weekend. Saturday the 3-5lbers we'd found turned into 12-13"ers and by weigh in we found ourselves completely out of contention. That was good and bad news. We're both deer hunters so we called calf rope on the tournament and headed back south.

I rolled in late and almost talked myself into packing up and heading to the lease but decided I'd be better rested if I crashed at the house and drove in the next morning. I pulled through the gate at 5:30am and visited with the other members at camp, had a cup of coffee and a biscuit, and headed to the stand.

The weather was almost perfect. My temp gauge said 44 and there was the slightest breeze out of the south east. My bow stand is set up for a north or north east wind. Anything out of the south would ruin it by blowing my scent directly to their bedding area. Being a MLD III lease I elected to get in my pop up with my .280 and send a little air mail if needed. There was just enough east in it to work, but it would be the definition of "hunting the edge of the wind".

At about 8:25 the first deer showed. Two grown does came out of the bottom, surveyed the food plot and headed west. I'd set a feeder up on this stand to keep some corn in the area while I was gone during the week. I'd mowed a lane that paralleled the creek where it bends back hard to the west. I can't see this lane from the stand, but I put the feeder where if a buck was cruising the creek and does were at the feeder he would possibly come investigate them where otherwise I wouldn't have seen him. What I didn't plan on was hunting from a pop up, and being an All Season Stand and Fill its absolutely right in my way. When the does stepped behind it I made a mental note to move it 20' further to the west so my shooting lane would be void of obstruction 200 yards away.

I was enjoying the morning and the stress free atmosphere when another doe stepped out nervously at the end of the shooting lane. She surveyed the food plot for a short moment and exited to the west again, the same at the 2 before her. Again I cursed my decision to put that feeder there in my way and started focusing my attention to the tiny openings where the doe had come from. About 30min later I looked up from eagling a Par 5 on the Hazelton and watched as the sun caught the horns of a stud coming up out of the bottom!

My heart jumped up and I snatched at my binoculars. I instantly recognized the matching kickers coming off of his G2's. For a moment I reminded myself that I wasn't going to shoot him with a rifle. I had Covert pics of bigger deer and thought that another year on him wouldn't hurt a thing. The moment he turned west and got behind the feeder, this thing is going to be the death of me, I thought about what an idiot I was! Quickly I reminded myself what the criteria of a shooter buck is in my opinion.
1. Does he meet the lease management rules? Yes.
2. Is he mature? Yes
3. Does he get you excited? YES YES YES!!!
Then I instantly started cursing myself for letting him get by me. I tried to steal one last glance before he fell off into the creek and gone for good when I saw his legs under the feeder walking towards me!!!

There's the shakes again. It's been a while since a buck got me this excited with a rifle in hand. I grabbed my youpon stick that I'd cut too short, jobbed it on top of my backpack and hooked up on top of it. He veered just enough east that he cleared the feeder but was facing head on to me. He locked up hard in his tracks and spooked back to the west. DANG IT! I was searching through the scope on that side again and he stepped broad side back to the east. Just his shoulder was clear of the feeder, but that was plenty enough. I centered the crosshairs and sent a Barclay hand load his way. When I recovered from the recoil I could see legs kicking and dirt flying! This deal was done!
All of the particulars that go along with killing a mature deer followed. Lots of pictures, high 5's, phone calls, texts, social media updates etc. All of the things that I'd really missed about having a deer lease. We got him taped out and in the truck. 137 1/8" of piney woods bone crossed the Neches River and took a ride back to Angelina County.