It was Thanksgiving weekend in 2001 I had been invited to hunt West Texas on a privately owned ranch. I had never hunted and was a little apprehensive about what to expect. We arrived Wednesday afternoon we had a surprised greeting by the ranch owner who informed us he had just purchased land next to the ranch making his ranch over two thousand acres. He invited us to take a ride after we got settled in to look at his new property to see if we wanted to hunt on it or on his older property. He said the new land had not been hunted on for a few years because of illness to the past owner and there may be some big surprises on it.

We were then taken to the bunkhouse that would be our home for a few days, after we unloaded our things I was taken out back given a safety talk about safe hunting and handed a 308 rifle, after a safety lesson on safe usage and care I was told to shoot at the target which was a paper plate with a x marked on it. I received step by step guidance as I amid and took three shots, two on the right of center and one to the left all within a 1 1/2in circle. I must say I was disappointed on missing the center a little pride thing with several experienced hunters watching; however, I was declared ready to hunt and we were told to meet at the truck and bring our rifles because you never know what you might see. I was told to set up front so could receive more safety information they wanted to help me to make sure I had a good time, learned the safe way to hunt and take home some meat.

We drove around the older property seeing beautiful White Tails and Axis bucks, we also saw a lot of Fallow, Axis and Whitetail does. We then started to look at the newly acquired land; we had driven around about fifteen minutes as we started making a right turn we all froze. Just off to the right about seventy five yards in a clearing were five large bucks circling with a doe in the middle. At first they did not see us; the doe was trying to find an opening to run however every time she moved the bucks countered by making the circle smaller. They were acting like a pack of wolfs slowly circling the pray. The doe notice us first turning her head; two buck directly in front of her turned their heads to see what she was looking at. That was all the opening she needed. She darted between them before they could react. Four of the bucks flinched looking at her then back to us, the fifth one never moved.

Finally one of the bucks turned to chase the doe with the other three following. The fifth buck a big 8 point was still standing frozen. I was told to slowly rack in a bullet and to slowly get ready to take a shot. Everyone was frozen watching with anticipation on my first attempt to shoot a deer. I was talked through each movement and finally took the shot. The buck lurched forward and took about twenty steps then dropped. My heart was pounding as we approached the deer, everyone had remain quite until we stood there looking down at this magnificent animal. Finally the silence was broken when someone said you're hooked now and I think you lying about not ever hunted, that was a good shot. We all laughed but could not believe what we had just witnessed and to have that buck just stand there as if he was saying here I am waiting on you take your shot. They were right I was hooked by the time the weekend was over.

We had a great weekend with each of us killing several deer. I killed a fallow and white tail doe and missed a shot at a turkey. I took a lot of kidding that weekend about not being truthful about not ever hunting. Although it is hard to beat your first hunting experience I always looking forward to my next hunt and what surprise it may bring.

Labels: texas whitetail deer, whitetail buck hunts, whitetail deer hunts, whitetail doe hunting