I was inquiring about a fun hunt to do before I went overseas with the service. So I spoke with Mike Schubach, my hunting consultant. I did a guided elk hunt through him in the fall of 2020. I had a blast on that trip to Craig, Colorado. My party filled our cow elk tags, and the food and lodging were awesome.
Mike asked me if I wanted to hunt free-range axis deer in the late spring in Texas. I convinced one of my older friends to sign up. We loaded up the war wagon and headed south. After arriving at our destination, we met up with our guide Tate. He is a man of few words but was an awesome guy to hang out with. He was quick with a joke, and before we knew it, we were chasing axis deer in the Hill County.
Our party hiked up to the top of this ridge, overlooking parts of the ranch. We saw whitetail does and fawns within 30 mins. In the hour, we spotted some axis deer. I was surprised at how hard they were to spot. Tate, my guide, spotted a mature buck over a half mile away, and we put the chase on. We had a shot opportunity, but God had bigger plans for us. I found an old horseshoe, and Tate was trying to cheer me up and said I was destined to shoot a bigger buck. We enjoyed the sunset and made our way back to camp.
The next day we hunted and saw lots of deer but no luck. Finally, on the second night of our trip, we looked over the valley, and I spotted a deer, but we could not find him. When we were about to give up, Tate found him, and I made a shot over 240 yards at an angle of 45 degrees plus and managed to put two bullets in that wonderful buck. I was hunting with a Browning X-bolt chambered in Remington 280 with some 139 grain Hornady bullets. Tate and I were jumping up and down, hooting and hollering as if we had just won a gold medal.
Tate took awesome pictures of this old fat Master Sergeant and made sure I was taken care of at every turn. He ensured my deer made it to the best taxidermy man in Texas. Thanks for an awesome adventure. I am now hanging out overseas, where temperatures are over 115 degrees. Sounds like fun. Can’t wait for the next adventure!
Jesse M – hunter from Minnesota