2014 Whitetail Hunt: My Split Drop Tine Mystery Buck

With bow season about to open here in Texas my head starts to shift gears away from dove & teal and into deer hunting and I often think back on deer I’ve shot in the past. One of my favorite hunts is the buck I took back in 2014 on opening day of rifle season. It wasn’t the biggest buck nor was it the longest shot but it was one of the most special and unique hunts I’ve had. The first reason it was a special hunt was that it was the very first hunt in the blind that I built with my kids. We framed it up on our garage, hauled it out to the ranch in the truck and put it in position. After that we threw up the walls & roof and then the best (and messiest) part we painted it. It was a great way to get the kids involved and even my oldest daughter that doesn’t hunt had a blast rolling on the green paint and blasting it was camo spray paint. They still talk about it today and are ready to build another blind!

Already feeling pretty good about hunting out of the new blind I made my way in the dark out to to my spot and got setup & ready to wait for shooting time. The morning was a little foggy and I knew there was a chance I might not be able to make out the details of a deer over 100 yards away with the fog & low light conditions. I was going through the game camera pics we’d looked at the night before and mentally double checking the list of bucks we agreed to let walk and the deer we’d agreed that were shooters. Game management is a huge deal for us being a small property surrounded by agriculture and it’s key to make sure we are all on the same page regarding the deer we are seeing on camera. My hope was to get an older buck or a doe since I didn’t have any success earlier that year during bow season and I was mainly hoping to fill the freezer.

About 30 minutes after shooting time I saw a buck coming in from my right. The fog was still in the air and with my Eastern view I couldn’t make out any details of the antlers or get an idea if it was a shooter or not. The buck ran by at about 75 yards out and then circled back to my left stirring up two small does that had been bedded down not 40 yards from my stand. Thinking I had missed my opportunity for the buck I starting to turn my eyes towards the does. As I did the buck came running right back into view about 50 yards out. I was able to see the buck and to my surprise this was a deer that had never shown up on camera. Even as I watched him circling the does he was always away from the camera and could have been through here countless times without us knowing. I ran through my mental checklist, eyeballed the antler width to make sure they were well outside the ears (we are in a antler restriction county) and got ready to take the shot.

A few seconds later I knew It had been a clean kill with an easy 60 yard shot and saw the buck go down about 20 yards away. I waited about 30 minutes and then headed out to find my deer. He had gone down in some pretty thick stuff so I had to almost get on my knees to get in there to drag him out. That’s what I saw the biggest surprise of the day – this buck had a split drop tine on the right antler like I’d never seen before! It was an older buck and the right antler looked like it had a lightning bolt going through it. The rack was funky and not symmetrical by any means but it was one of the coolest deer I’ve taken recently for many reasons. Oh and just to round out the morning I managed to get my truck stuck in the mud and my buddy happened to be in a rental car since his truck was in the shop so it was a hunt to remember on all levels.

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