Callahan County Big Ocho?

A whitetail hunter’s pleasant surprise

By Trey Bonner

As I worked in the pasture last October, my phone rang. On the other end of the line was my old friend Chase Greenville. Chase is a seasoned outdoorsman, and a well-traveled cameraman. Chase reminded me about an invitation I extended to him last August while visiting my booth at the Hunters Extravaganza in Houston. I told him he was welcome to come out to Callahan County and film a low fence hunt on Bear Branch Ranch. Chase suggested a filming date in early November. With a quick reply, I said yes and began visualizing my own idea of a video. Instantly, I was back on the phone with Chase, sharing my idea. “Chase, why don’t we let one of my sons, Carson or Clayton, be the hunter?” And with a laugh, he replied, “No problem. I didn’t want you on film anyway.”

Setting the dates

The next task was making the hunting dates work out for all parties. With a quick call to my wife Suzanne, we realized the dates would not work. You see, both sons attend college, and the hunting dates were in the middle of testing periods. Sure enough, trying to be the problem solver, I said to Chase, “The hunt dates do not work for the boys, but the hunt is still on and I will be your hunter.”

The ranch has been our family since 1877. Located on the Rolling Plains of Callahan County, the resident wildlife includes whitetail deer, Rio Grande turkeys, hogs, bobwhite quail, mourning and white-winged doves. The ranch’s landscape has a good mix of elevation reaching 130 feet with long draws and creek bottoms. Annual rainfall is 24 inches, if we’re lucky. Earlier that fall, Clayton and I scouted new hunting locations, and found a nice oak thicket to place our pop-up blind. The blind faced north, and would be used on our morning hunts. The afternoon hunts would be spent in a newly constructed ground blind facing the southwest end of a large mesquite flat. Both locations provided good cover, game trails, and antler fresh rubs and scrapes. Our plan was to hunt during the pre-rut activity. We would hunt from the stands in the morning and afternoon, and do some antler rattling between hunts.

Off to a rainy start

Once Chase arrived, we were ready to hit the brush. The weather was in the mid 70s with a three-quarter moon. The afternoon hunt was a bit slow, but we had high hopes, knowing the rut was only one week away. Our first morning, we awoke to the distant rumble of thunder, and not long after, the pounding of rain hitting the roof. The temperature quickly dropped to 45 degrees and the rain hung around until shortly after lunch. Being impatient sportsmen, we decided that rain or shine, we would not miss the afternoon hunt. After all, we were on a big buck mission.

The bad news: unlike some properties where the ground is sandy and makes for fair driving conditions, our ranch has a mix of red and black dirt. That means one thing—slick and nasty driving. Plus, the area we were hunting is 3 miles off the pavement. By the afternoon, the rain had decreased to a slow drizzle, and our hunt went into motion. We dressed in our rain gear, stuck a piece of tape over my muzzle, piled our gear in the truck, and off we went. Our hunt went as expected. The roads were a mess, we had a slippery three-mile drive to our hunting location, and after our walk to the blind we had as much mud on our boots as on our truck tires. The hunt went slow, and the bucks were not responding to the grunt calls or antler rattling. Day one ended with no trophy buck. But we gave it our best, and shortly after dark, headed back to the ranch house.

“Bluebonnet” afternoon

The following morning was still wet, so we hunted at the oak thicket in our pop-up blind. Eventually, a few does and small bucks came to visit the area, along with a mature buck. He had a good spread and mass, but he would not come out in the open. We watched him move in and out of the brush as he disappeared to the west. The morning ended as we rattled up two young bucks on the way back to the truck. We didn’t get the buck we were looking for, but had a good ending to our morning hunt.

Our plan for the afternoon hunt was to have lunch, a short rest, and be in the ground blind by 1:30 p.m. As the afternoon came, the temperature stayed in the mid 40s but the sun was out. While we loaded up for the hunt, we decided to bring along our tracking dog, “Bluebonnet.” She’s a 3-year-old, Catahoula cur, weighing a whopping 38 pounds, and with a solid recovering success rate. After entering the pasture gate, we found some mesquite cover and parked the truck, leaving Bluebonnet resting in her cozy bed. We made it to the ground blind at 1:30 p.m. sharp. But only minutes after getting situated, Chase whispered to me, “We have company headed our way.” Sure enough, I looked behind us and saw Bluebonnet. She decided to leave the comfort of her warm bed and tracked us to the ground blind. “Oh, well,” I said. “She makes good company.”

Our plan to get to the blind early was right on the money. The combination of cool temperatures, blue skies, and pre-rut activity, had the deer moving.

Familiar feelings

I’ve been guiding hunters for more than 25 years with hundreds of hunts under my belt. Yet, I have not been on a buck hunt for myself in almost 17 years. Sitting in the stand, I had a lot of thoughts going through my head. First off, how can I help make a hunting show worth my salt? You know, good footage, a good storyline, finding a buck worth taking, then making a clean shot. I’m thinking about how this would end. Will this end with a high five or a slap on the back with me saying to Chase, “Maybe we will have better luck next time?” These are the same type of feelings I help my customers with while we’re waiting for their chance at a buck of a lifetime. I sat there talking to myself through the highs and lows of hunting. Isn’t it funny how a hunt can get inside your head and mess with your confidence?

Our afternoon looked promising compared to the last few hunts. We had cool weather, good skies, the camera ready, and Bluebonnet resting. We had a couple does out in front of us, and one young seven-point buck. After feeding and a little pre-rut chasing, the buck and one of the does disappeared in the bush. Just as I settled in to my resting position, I looked over at Chase and saw his eyes grow twice their normal size. He whispered to me, “Look at the buck moving through the brush.” So not thinking much of it, I raised my binocular, and sure enough, 180 yards out stood a monster framed buck moving through the brush. Sights, camera, action

The surprise ninth point on Trey’s buck

Immediately, my heart started to blast off, and with a smile I looked at Chase and said, “Do you have him in focus?” With a quick response, he whispered, “Yes, we are focused and filming.” I will have to say I felt like a little kid with excitement. My first experience with this emotion was at 8 years old when I had killed my first whitetail deer. My grandfather was my only witness. From that day forward, I have spent my life studying, hunting and guiding for whitetail deer. After watching this buck check a doe and rubbing his antlers on a distant mesquite limb, he walked into full view. We witnessed the largest, free ranging buck that either of us had laid eyes on. He looked at least 25 inches wide with 25-inch beams and eight long tines we could see. I looked at Chase and said, “I need to take this buck.” Chase replied, “I was hoping you would say that.” Thankfully, I made a solid shoulder shot from 130 yards. The buck turned and ran straight towards our ground blind. After a short but anxious wait, I turned Bluebonnet loose and she quickly recovered my huge buck. We hurried to the deer and rolled him over. That’s when we saw the small odd point at the base of the left beam. “Well,” I said to Chase, “our big ocho has turned into a big nueve.”