Best whitetail to date taken in Texas panhandle
a3dhunter
12/28/09 5:53am
I shot this buck near Canadian,Texas on thanksgiving weekend. I have seen bigger on this ranch that is owned by a good friend of mine but this one presented a shot at 80 yards, no way I could pass it up.
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6,866
Used to live in Dalhart many years ago but never had my sights rest on a buck of that caliber.
I have an old shipmate of mine that has been bugging me for a few years to come down to TX and hunt his family's ranch with him. I really need to take him up on that offer one of these years.
That looks like some very open country, can you give us details of your hunt?
I hunted this ranch last year and took a smal buck and a doe. Nothing special but I was still learning the ranch. This ranch encompasses about 960 acres in two seperate tracts of land. Most of the land is wide open, no trees just some ravines and gullies. There is enough sage brush and plum thickets to hide a lot of deer, so they can be hard to find.
I started hunting this year in bow season and couldn't get anywhere close to make a shot. Hunted every other weekend on this ranch and passed up several bucks that were nice bucks but not what I was looking for.
The weekend before I shot this buck I saw a nice buck with a 10 point mainframe, with an 8" droptine off the right mainbeam that looked like a teardrop.
I headed back out looking for that buck.
I parked the truck on an oilwell platform and was planning on taking my pop up blind down a ridge about 200 yards and setting up. As I got out of the truck I took my Vortex Razor binos and starting glassing all the ridges and cuts. As I came all the way around to my right a doe popped out of a ravine, followed by a small buck, then this big buck.
My rifle was still in the truck and unloaded, I grabbed my rifle and shoved some shells in it, then turned around to look for the buck. He hadn't moved 10 feet, he was following the doe (full rut) and would not leave her. When he turned broadside at 75-80 yards he looked at me and I dropped him.
I then watched the small buck take up right where the big boy had been, he started following the doe right away. They both stood there and looked at the big buck for a few minutes before walking off.
I first saw this buck with the rack broadside and saw the good tine length, but I saw that he wasn't a ten point and thought I would let him walk, then he turned and looked at me and there was no question. With that frame and the width, I instantly fell in love with this buck. He will have a place on my wall for sure.
There are some true monster bucks in that area, but a lot of smaller bucks as well. There is about 5,ooo acres around this ranch that isn't hunted at all, but south of this place there is an outfitter that books hunts.....I sure wish he would go out of business! lol
Already put 11,000 miles on it since I bought it from you in....April (I think)....although I have had one trip to the body shop thanks to the "friendly" Colorado rocks while archery elk hunting.
I guess they call it a "rocker" panel for a reason! lol
Kevin