10 Point Buck

I've been back in South Texas for a few weeks now, and after a few hunting trips of watching the wildlife walk by (lots of doe, a bobcat, some rabbits, and two trespassing teenagers), I got my first shot at a buck in about 9 years. Dad and I were sitting out in a blind on his lease about 45 minutes away from Harlingen at the end of a rainy, gray week. Luckily, we didn't get stuck in the mud this time, and the weather had warmed up to the mid 60's by about 4:00pm, when we got to the blind. We were only sitting there for about 45 minutes when we saw a small doe walk out from the right side of the shooting lane just under the feeder, about 100 yards away. She moved back and forth, and was finally joined by another doe. At this point, Dad turned to me and whispered "We have meat in the freezer - you don't have to shoot a doe....unless you just really want to." On another lease last week, I'd chosen just to let the doe walk by, enjoying nature and waiting for something better. Fortunately, I made the same choice yesterday - the two doe had not even been gone for a minute, when a 10 point buck stepped out onto the lane! He wasn't out for the sparsely scattered corn; he was following the girls - and he'd have disappeared after them if there hadn't been some quick action. Dad grabbed his deer call as I set my rifle on the rest, my heart thumping a hundred miles an hour. I don't remember him blowing the call; all I remember is looking through the scope to see this buck stop, turn broad side, and look up at us - and then cross-hairs on his shoulder, and the shot. I looked up to see that he'd dropped right where he stood.