Fallow Buck - Patio Ranch - Hunt, TX - 10/1/16

[nomad636]

I had the privledge of hunting at the Sturmburg Patio Ranch in Hunt TX this weekend. The goal was to take a Fallow Buck with my bow or as a last resort with my Alexander Arms 6.5 Grendel.

My friend Ethan and I arrived at the ranch late on Thursday night. The drive from DFW to Hunt TX took longer than expected.... we had to make a pit stop in Luckenbach for an evening beer and some live music.

We pulled into the ranch and met our guides Daniel and Mitchell. They asked that we verify zero with our bows prior to the morning hunt so we spent half an hour bull-CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-ting and throwing some arrows down range to the hay bale targets they had set up for us.

Friday morning came and by 6:15am I was sitting with my guide Mitchell in and old corral. We had a beautiful Addax cow come in but she wasn't comfortable coming into bow range. She stuck around at about 75yds for 2 min and then she was gone. We didn't see anything else that morning and got out of the hide at around 10:30.

Mitchell and Daniel had a rifle range set up so Ethan and I went to verify zero on our rifles. Ethan was shooting a Weatherby 7mm Mag and I was shooting my 6.5 Grendel. Below you will see a picture of my three shot group at 200yds. I pulled the first shot high but the second two shots had a nice group.

That evening Mitchell and I sat in a pop-up blind with my bow and my 6.5g. We had several Aoudad come to the feed we had put out and we had several nice Fallow deer (Bucks and Doe) stand off at about 150yds. I had my heart set on taking on with a bow so I passed on shooting with my rifle that night. They decided they wanted to come to the feed we had out... but the Aoudad Ram wasn't having any of it. He ended up running them off and I thought really hard about putting an arrow through that old rams heart. Unfortunately the cost on an Aoudad Ram was an extra $1k over the Fallow cost so I held firm to my goal of a Fallow Buck.

Saturday morning dawned bright an early with Mitchell and I getting to the blind by 6:00am. The sunrise was absolutely spectacular and I knew deep down that I was going to get it done. The same Aoudad came into the corn we poured out that morning and I was keeping my fingers crossed that the Fallow would come in. One lone buck came in at 10yds but he never presented me a shot with my bow. The Aoudad ran him off again and he decided it was time to boogey. He made a beeline directly away from our pop-up blind and stopped on top of a hill at approx 140yds. He was facing away from us but turned his head to look back at the Aoudad and gave me a STEEP quartering away shot. Needless to say, I pulled the trigger and layed down the hammer on him. He jumped sky high as the SST bullet entered just behind his shoulder. Mitchell my guide slapped my on the shoulder congratulating me on a successful shot.

We decided to give him a few minutes to expire prior to walking up to where he disappeared over the hill. The Aoudad scattered when I pulled the trigger, as I shot just over the tops of their backs. Scared the snot out of them as they had NO clue we were less than 20yds away from them. We walked to the top of the hill... and my buck was nowhere to be found. The grass was about 2' tall and my heart sank. About that time Mitchell grabs me by the shoulder and high fives me while pointing about 20yds down hill to where he had crumpled behind a tree.

The projectile entered just on the lung/heart side of the connective tissue in his chest cavity, obliterated his heart and liver but never exited. We took some great pictures of him and called the other guide to come pick us up. He weighed in at 237lbs.

We got back to the barn and got him strung up so we could start the hard work of breaking him down, skinning him out and getting his cape ready for mounting.

I sent pictures to my wife, and followed them up with a phone call asking whether she wanted a shoulder mount or a European mount. She said she wanted the European mount. Started the gutting process and had sliced about 8" down the neck from the jawline and my phone starts BLOWING up. It was my wife saying that she had just received the pictures of him and that she wanted a shoulder mount... well it was a little to late for that as we had already sliced down his neck... and the taxidermist would have to stitch up the slice... no-go for me so we ended up going with the European mount.

This buck had the most tender meat of anything I've ever killed. As we were pulling his hide off, the flesh and muscle started coming with it. It took a lot longer than a typical Whitetail as we had to constantly trim the connective tissue between the hide and the flesh.

I wasn't able to get pictures of the necropsy but I will say that his heart was gone. Liver was pure mush... and lungs were destroyed. We never found the bullet and there was no exit wound... so I'm thinking that my grinder will most likely find it when i'm grinding his shoulder meat for sausage.

[nomad636]

Some additional pictures.

[huntinaz]

Cool hunt, looks like a great time. Congrats!

[Jack O'Conner]

I've admired fallow deer for a long time. We observed them at Point Reyes Park in northern California many years ago. Your buck is a dandy with lots of mass and many points. Getting it mounted? Thanks for sharing!

Jack

[Ol Tex]

I used to live and ranch in Hunt. Great place and the Patio is well known for great hospitality and excellent animals.

[Art Eatman]

Fun country. I used to visit Charley "Three" Schreiner at the YO; couple of buddies were hunting guides there. Back around 1970.

[2damnold4this]

Nice write up. Looks like a fun hunt.

[mwal]

Looked like a good hunt. Thanks for posting the photos.

Mwal

[IndependenceRanch]

Nice! We mainly have hog hunting Hog Hunting here in south central texas. But lately have seen quite a few Fallow, although a bit expensive for my tast.

[Iwanttoshootbettter]

Cool story n pics thanks for showing very nice fallow.