By Jason Casey
Texas is no stranger to whitetail deer and Hans Hodell is no stranger to hunting. Even before moving his family to New Braunfels in the 1980s, Hans taught himself to shoot small game on the Oklahoma prairies around his hometown of Lawton. After being stationed overseas as a United States Marine, he moved to Tulsa where he trained reservists. It was there when one of his fellow Marines first took him out to hunt deer. Since then, he has hunted deer in Texas for more than 40 years and traveled the country as far as Pennsylvania, Utah and Idaho for hunts.
One of his personal highlights was taking his oldest grandson to Namibia for their first overseas hunt. On that trip, Hans first set his eye on bagging a leopard. Slow, tenacious persistence led him back for a second and third time before he finally got his prey, which is now mounted on his wall and lives in his memories. “Still,” Hans said as we talked over lunch one day, “this year’s hunt takes the cake.”
“I first spotted the deer as a fawn in the fall of 2015,” Hans said. “There was something different about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.” He didn’t get any photos of it that year, but he could tell its coloring was darker. The next year, the fawn came back, now as a buck, and Hans had photos. Those first photos showed a dark coat, almost black, covering the young four-pointer’s body.
Hans had been leasing the 70-acre property southwest of Bastrop for several years and knew it well. Because it wasn’t a high-fenced property, Hans knew there was a chance the young buck could travel. This would be a long, slow hunt. In 2018, Hans stumbled on an article written about melanistic deer referencing two professors from Texas State University, just 15 miles up I-35 from his home. Hans tried contacting them on the phone, but they had retired.
He was disappointed, but he knew what he saw as his game cameras continued capturing his prey. This was what biologists call a melanistic deer. It’s a condition where the deer’s body produces more melanin than normal, which produces much darker hair, skin and retina pigmentation than most whitetail deer.
Unbeknownst to him or anyone else he spoke with about it, the article confirmed Hans lives within the most concentrated area of melanistic deer on the planet. Even so, their appearance is an extreme rarity. According to Hans’ taxidermist and friend, Jon Wilson, “We have had thousands of whitetail deer come through our doors over the years. Only six of those have been melanistic.”
That hunting season was a good one for Hans. He shot a 14-pointer that measured over 172 inches, but he kept dreaming about the melanistic buck.
In early 2019 while attending a show in Dallas, Hans approached some Texas Parks and Wildlife agents and inquired about the possibility of darting the rare deer and moving it to a preserve for protection and observation. While admirable, he was told it wasn’t possible. By Texas state regulations, it had to remain in the wild. Texas’ deer belong to its residents. So, the hunt was on.
Hans is a teacher by nature and one of his greatest thrills in hunting isn’t pulling the trigger. It’s taking kids into the wild with him. As we talked, he named his grandkids and the kids from church and the neighborhood who he had taken with him. He teaches them about safety, how to manage the land, why we hunt, and about how it fits into the bigger picture of conservation and ecology.
Even during the summer of 2019, Hans made preparations by placing cameras and feeders, moving blinds and planting grass. Bastrop County requires the inside measurement of any buck’s antlers to be 13 inches, so Hans was eager for pictures. In late summer, the buck returned and the photos showed he had grown. So did Han’s excitement. It was big enough.
As summer turned to fall, Hans continued to watch and prepare. He became certain the buck wouldn’t make it through the season alive. He knew any hunter worth his salt wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. He would have to take him during bow season. With this in mind, he began sighting-in and practicing with his Barnett Ghost 410 crossbow.
The season opened as one of the hottest on record. Hans had set up two blinds facing the area where the deer came to feed. He chose the Octagon ground blind and got himself into position with the help of his friend, Justin Payne. For a few days, he watched animals come to feed, but his target would come in later, just as it became too dark to take the shot.
On Sept. 29, Hans had his crossbow loaded and ready as the buck came into view. Boars were around as well, which kept the buck on the outskirts. By the time things started to open up, Hans wasn’t comfortable. Again, it was too dark. Hans could see well enough, but he knew the buck might run. Hans hadn’t waited this long only to lose the buck in the dark.
He went back the next day and got into position again. Hans wiped his brow because he was sweltering. The temperature read 105 degrees inside the blind. Then the buck emerged. His dark fur made him easy to spot. At 7:15, Hans exhaled and pulled the trigger, letting loose the broadhead bolt. It flew true. Buck down.
The melanistic buck weighed 120 pounds. He had a 10-point rack. For some reason, melanistic deer are renown for having short brow tines. However, it wasn’t the antlers that set this beautiful creature apart.
Hans said he would have a full mount done. I was with him when he consulted Jon at his taxidermy shop, just north of New Braunfels. He said it would be mounted in a way to show off its unique coat and it would make the rounds at shows and conventions. “Hans has been sharing photos of this buck with me over the last four years, waiting for it to mature,” Jon said. “I am so happy for him and look forward to returning a stunning mount for him to reflect on for years to come.”
A smile crossed Hans’ face. It wasn’t from showing off. It wasn’t for bragging rights. He smiled because he could picture the hundreds of kids that would walk by and ooh and aah. He smiled at the thought the mere sight of the buck might inspire even more youth to get involved and catch Hans’ love of the outdoors.
