My guide, John Mayer, spotted the dark-horned buck just as we were exiting our ground blind from the morning hunt. He was across a net wire fence, tending a doe near a cattle water trough. Before we could slip within range, the pair slipped back into the thick cedars and oaks beyond the water tank. “I’ve seen him there before,” John told me. So a plan was hatched.
The date was December 8, 2010. That’s close to prime time for the rut in Central Texas. And this buck was clearly starry-eyed, goofy in love for that one skinny doe. He’d be back.
It was dry and dusty there in west-central Texas. In fact, the last good rain the Vatoville Ranch had received was back in August. Hunting water is always a viable tactic in that part of the country, but especially during the rut, regardless of air temperature. Because both bucks and does are expending more energy, chasing and breeding, it makes sense that they would visit water more often.
So John and I setup a pop-up blind near the water tank. We covered it with cedar and oak limbs until it blended perfectly with the landscape. We got comfortable and waited.
Two does came out first at 3:05 pm. They headed towards the water. John blew on a grunt call several times, in case the buck was hiding just beyond sight in the trees. Minutes later, the same chocolate-horned buck we’d seen that morning stepped out. When he passed the main shooting window at 18 yards, I eased my Hoyt to full draw. One of the does caught the movement. The buck trotted back for the security cover, unsure of what spooked the doe. When he stopped in a clearing at a laser-ranged 38 yards, I swiveled to the blind’s side window and bracketed my 30 and 40 yard pins for the broadside shot.
When I touched the release, the 390 grain Gold Tip Pro Hunter 55/75 arrow tipped with a 2-blade German Kinetics broadhead flashed away, crashing through his ribcage. Sure of a solid hit, John and I followed a great blood trail 75 yards till we found the buck. It was 3:40 pm.
He was an old one, 6 ½-years-old was our best guess by tooth wear. What we both thought was a big 8-point was actually a 9-point. He had a small kicker behind his right brow tine.
Brandon with his 2010 Texas buck
We saw more deer at that same water tank later that same evening and the next day. If your patient, and water is in short supply, it’s a good tactic for the rut. True whether you’re hunting whitetails or muleys, in Texas or New Mexico or other western states. Water simply works.