I felt a slight nudge on my left elbow as I “worked the horns” in an attempt to draw in a whitetail buck out of the oak thicket.

I turned ever so slowly, then followed Craig Archer’s pointing hand.

“Buck, three-year old!” whispered he. The buck was charging in jumping low growing shin oak shrub. He slid to a halt less than ten yards away, backlit, drool stringing from his lower lip, eyes bugged. The buck stared momentarily then started circling to get downwind. I grunted a guttural “eckkk”. He stopped and immediately stared hard, but his ears pointed behind him. Looking beyond him, I saw another buck charging in, this one a bit bigger in terms of antlers, but no less young than the one looking at us.

The second buck ran in behind the first one. As he got a bit close, the smaller racked ten-point turned, raised high his head and lowered his ears down and backwards in a threatening manner. The larger of the two ten-points immediately did the same and the two bucks both, with hair raised, started circling each other. I quit rattling and watched.  It looked like the two were about to get into a scrap. Three seconds later the larger racked buck’s hair on his back laid down, his ears came back to a normal position. He turned away from the the smaller racked buck….

I resumed rattling.  Both bucks circled directly down wind and started walking away. I grunted, then snort-wheezed (natural voice), “fit,fit,fit,fffffeeeeeee.” Both bucks turned and came back our way.

To our extreme right I caught movement. A third buck was approaching, this one more cautiously. This buck’s neck was swollen almost to the width of his shoulders. As he walked our way I could see his hocks were darkly stained, usually a sign of a mature buck. The two younger bucks, seemed to suddenly lose interest in all but avoiding contact with the mature 8-point buck, obviously the dominant buck in the area. As he got closer to where Craig and I were, our backs against a “bull” mesquite, Craig whispered.

“Know that buck!” Craig whispered. “Was a huge 10-point last year.  Must have rutted too hard last fall and did not recover. Let’s leave him for next year. Got a feeling he’ll be a big ten again!”

I nodded and let the hammer of my Ruger Blackhawk .44 Mag back down to safe.

I “messed” with the big 8-point for about three minutes, throwing a series of natural voice grunts at him. Finally, the big-necked buck tired of challenges and walked away. I looked at Craig who is the hunt manager for Hargrove Hunts. He was all smiles!  “Love it!  Talk about fun!  Let’s walk down the two-track for about a half-mile and see what else we can rattle in.” I liked how he thought!

Before the sun was directly overhead and we headed back to camp for a very quick meal and then out again, we rattled in three more bucks, youngsters all. Actually, to me, it did not make any difference what size bucks responded to our rattling efforts. I was simply glad rattling was working the way I had hoped and truly expected. Craig and I had planned my hunt based on arriving the latter part of the pre-rut, just before bucks started chasing does. From what we ended up seeing on our hunt, I likely scheduled it a bit late. Most of the bigger mature bucks, especially those with big racks, seemed to be “locked up” with does. That said we did see two Boone & Crockett contenders, unfortunately when we saw them they were a hundred yards beyond the perimeter fence. In spite of my best rattling efforts, they refused to budge. Both were with hot does!

The expansive Hargrove Ranches are situated in the lower part of the Texas Panhandle, between some of the forks of the Brazos River. Most of the property does not really look like the prime whitetail habitat it truly is.

In some ways it looks much more like rolling, sandy prairie covered with shin oak, so named because much of it is about shin-high to the average human. The low growing brush, along with some taller trees in the low spots, along with an abundance of high-quality forbs (weeds) which grow throughout the region make for ideal whitetail, quail and wild hog habitat. Plus, in the rough and rugged “breaks” alongside the various forks of the Brazos, the area also is home to a fine and growing population of mule deer.

After a quick, delicious meal we headed back for the afternoon’s hunt. We stopped our pick-up at the south end of a relatively narrow, taller brush creek bottom. A chilling wind was blowing steadily out of the north.  Our intention was to hunt slowly, still-hunting into the wind, stopping to rattle at spots where it felt right to do so, or where I had a “hunch.”

Over the years I have come to rely heavily on hunches when looking for a place to rattle. I look for places that “feel right” or “speak to me.”  Not really anything weird. I think my hunches are nothing more than taking in what I see, and when I see the right things, rattling there.

This amounts to seeing rubs, scrapes, escape cover and wind direction, then being able to set up in a place where I can break up our outline. I also need to be able to see downwind with shooting lanes to the left and right where bucks have to cross before getting directly down wind. I tend to do this without going through a physical checklist. I suppose I do this mentally without really thinking about what I am doing.

The first set up of the afternoon we rattled in two young bucks. The second session we rattled in two more bucks. One of those was the best antlered buck, outside of the two B&C Contenders, we had seen during the three days I had been hunting. That included rattling, still-hunting, driving to different hunting areas, and sitting in a stand watching food plots.  I did not shoot even though he would have likely scored better than 150 B&C points. He had a thin neck, baby face, straight top and bottom lines, and his hocks were buff colored, rather than darkly stained. I bid him “adieu”, wished him well and invited him to put in another appearance next year, as he walked away.

Later that afternoon we rattled in four more young bucks. Then my rattling horns seemed to lose their magic. We headed to a tall blind over-looking a huge expanse of shin-oak as well as about a three-acre wheat field. The afternoon passed quickly as we watched numerous does and young bucks.

Just at dark a big bodied deer appeared. Obviously too, he had a tall, wide massive rack.  I looked back at my cameraman sitting behind me. We were filming the hunt for an episode of our “DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon” television series on Pursuit Channel. He was shaking his head in a negative manner, “Way too dark!” I nodded and grudgingly unloaded my Ruger M77 6.5 Creedmoor. The 143-grain ELD-X Hornady Precision Hunter round would have to wait for another time to perform its ultimate mission.

I awoke early the next morning and was in the kitchen waiting for coffee to finish brewing, when Craig, who had started the coffee a few minutes before, walked into the room. “Today’s the day!  Got a feeling!” said he.

“I have the same feeling!” I said, “You mentioned hunting the breaks. Let’s head that way this morning and see if we can rattle up a buck, and if not, then head back to the shinnery country this afternoon. If that’s OK?”  In so saying I had an idea that was Craig’s plan, when he started smiling.

We spent the morning exploring the breaks, shot a coyote, saw numerous mule deer bucks and many does and fawns, chased some wild hogs and rattled in a buck we never got to see. He stopped in a juniper thicket where we could hear him thrashing his antlers against limbs, and, then walk away. When we got up to leave, we walked to where he had been. There in the reddish sand was a huge track.  If the buck’s body and rack matched the track, he was one of the monstrous book deer Craig had seen before the season opened.

That afternoon long before the sun headed toward the western horizon we were in a blind, where previously Craig had seen several mature bucks. We did not have long to wait before the first buck showed – a really good young buck. Next came some does, then more does, more young bucks. A nice buck appeared on the edge of the brush, next to the food plot. He had a really nice rack. I readied for shot. As he stepped into the field I steadied my Trijicon AccuPower scope’s crosshair on his shoulder, but then looked at the deer’s body.  He was obviously a year or two shy of being mature. I lowered the rifle and watched him through my binos.

The sun seemed to sink suddenly to the horizon, precious camera light was ticking away. Two more bucks, both nice but young, appeared.

The sun all but sank behind a screening of shin oak. Just then I saw movement to our extreme right. It was a buck. A big bodied, swelled neck, darkly stained hocks buck. No doubt he was mature, likely six or more years old. I peered at his rack through the Trijicon scope. He was a darkly stained antlered 8-point with a kicker point. To my immediate left I heard Craig whisper, “Shooter!”

At the same time, I heard my cameraman say, “Wait until I get footage.  I’ll let you know when I’m ready for you to shoot!”

For what seemed like an hour I waited and watched, tracking the magnificent buck in my scope.  Finally, the cameraman said, “OK!”  That was all I needed.  I pushed the Ruger’s three-stage safety to fire, let out what air I had in my lungs, steadied the Trijicon’s crosshairs on the buck’s shoulder and finally let the Hornady Precision Hunter round do its lethal job.  At the shot, the buck jumped and kicked high. I immediately reloaded and followed him as he ran toward the field edge. I was just about to send another round when the buck fell and did not again move.

I was ecstatic! Finally, I had taken a great Texas shin oak whitetail buck.

At the buck’s side we took numerous photos, then loaded him for the ride back to the ranch’s cooler, where I field dressed him, then caped him to be delivered to Double Nickle Taxidermy on my trip back home.

That night we celebrated with rib-eye steaks that looked more like roasts. Later I was to learn the venison from my buck came pretty close to the beef we had that evening.

Before leaving I scheduled my 2019 fall hunt to Hargrove Ranches.  Love hunting whitetails in the sand and shin oak!