Posted By: Katy Tigers
Val Verde County Buck - 01/17/14 08:14 PM
After Christmas, my sixteen year old daughter had an opening on her social calendar and decided she would go to the ranch with me. I had my doubts we would see any "shooters" due to the rut had come and gone around Thanksgiving. We got up the next morning to a cold misting rain. It was just getting daylight when we made it up the hill to the stand and I could see deer at the feeder. I looked through the binoculars and to my surprise there were 3-4 really nice bucks and the biggest one was running a doe who obviously didn't get bred the first go around. I handed the binoculars to her and whispered that a really good buck was down there. Once she saw him she became excited, telling me to give her the shooting sticks, which we discovered I had left in the truck. This particular stand is 245 yards from the feeder and we were able to get in the stand without spooking the deer. As luck would have it by the time we got situated in the stand the buck had chased the doe up the side of the hill, well out of range for her and we had lost sight of them behind some cedars. I had her get the gun out the window and get a comfortable rest in the event he came back. Thirty minutes later I see the buck making his way back towards the feeder and I told her to find him in the scope, put it behind his shoulder and squeeze the trigger. In the meantime I ranged him at 227 yards and he stopped and she smoked him. She shot him with my 7mag which she had never shot before. Needless to say, when he dropped we were pretty excited. 
