This past weekend I went to Junction, Texas for a TYHP hunt.
Before this hunt I had only harvested 2 does, but now I’ve harvested 4 does and 1 buck! Hunting with my two favorite hunt masters, Arthur and Carol, is always amazing. I have been to every hunt on this particular property and I’ll be going to another one there in 1 week as a volunteer! Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep the streak up for next year as well.
On Saturday morning, I was in blind 3 with Carol. We were out at about 6:45 am since sunrise was around 7:15 am. We had awhile to get ready for the feeders, which all go off at 8 am. We had a few whitetail deer hanging out around 7:15 to 7:45 waiting for the feeder to go off. However, once it finally went off, they, along with another small herd of does, came out. It didn’t take long for us to hear antlers entangling just a little into the wood line. Soon, a young 6 point ran out right to the left of the blind and then an older 8 point ran out chasing him. I decided to wait before taking him though. After 20 minutes another buck came out, he was also an 8 point. Since he was so young, it was an automatic pass for me. He was about the same size as the does which wasn’t very large. I looked back at the other 8 point, he was eating around the feeder. He started walking under it and I followed with my scope on the point of aim, and as soon as he stopped, I took the shot. But of course, as I always do, after every shot I ever take, I started shaking. He was my first buck at exactly 100 yards away and my longest shot ever.
Now only does remained. We had been watching them the whole time between everything else. The biggest doe had twins! One of them was right out of spots and the other still had some! I found the perfect doe and took the shot.
When we were cleaning my buck, we found an arrow near his spinal bone. The arrow hit and then ended up breaking the edges and sheering some bone. Once we all finished everything, we had some awesome food and then hung out.
On Saturday afternoon I was out with my dad in blind 4. An hour in we saw a whitetail doe for a few seconds. After a few more sightings a few does went out to the feeder and soon after a buck joined them. However, my dad and I were waiting for an axis, we didn’t pay them much mind to him. While we were waiting for an axis, I saw a house cat and told my dad about it. It didn’t take him long to start taking a video of the cat. The cat walked right beside our blind and ended up stalking and catching a huge rat. We weren’t the only ones hunting that evening!
Then about 10 minutes before shooting time was up, we decided that if a doe came out, I would take her. 4 minutes before time was out, a doe walked out! It only took us about a minute for my dad to get out of his chair and kneel so I could let the forearm of the stock rest on his shoulder, aim, and take the shot. It was quite a feat because we had to do it very quietly. We were proud of pulling it off.
Once we got back to camp, we decided that Sunday morning would be just for axis and hogs. We finished cleaning and all the girls started helping with dinner. We talked about horror stories and many other things while we cooked and ate.
I was in blind 6 with Carol on Sunday morning. It was of course still dark when we got into the blind. When the sun came up, we had an awesome view! We watched whitetail come and go throughout the morning, but no sight of anything more. Neither my sister nor I got anything for Sunday morning. Sometimes sitting back and watching the deer is more rewarding than harvesting one.
So now we had a total of 2 bucks and 3 does, which was from both my sister and I. Lets just say we had a lot of processing to do when we got home!
We all had an awesome time this hunt! I can’t wait to see what happens at the next one!
Emily Cunningham 