Bill was hunting on his family lease and had carefully placed  his tripod on a dear trail in extremely heavy cover.  Suddenly around 4.00 pm on the late December afternoon in 1974, a tremendous buck fight started not 40 yards from Bill.  All Bill could do was sit  tight and hope to see what the combatant looked like.  Catching only a glimpse of a tail or piece of fur, the bucks fought a little closer in the thickest of brush.  Finally the loser broke and run under Bill’s tripod.  Bill says, “His rack was a typical 10 point of about 19-20 inches wide.  I believe he was a solid 150-155 buck with nice long tines.  He ran under the tripod nearly hitting of the legs and as he ran by, his rack hit a broken mesquite limb that forked.  It sounded like a gun going off and the forked limb, crashed to the ground.  There was no chance for a shot.  “Bill realized that the  victor of the fight was trotting up to the spot where the mesquite limb had broken off.  He was mad and was standing there with his swollen neck, grunting loudly at the buck he had just whipped.  Bill already had his riffle up and was ready.  No doubt about this buck.  Bills .270 handload hit the buck in the neck and down he went.  Bill went back to the get camp to get some help to drag this one out.  Once back to the spot to retrieve the downed “victor”, bill went up in the tripod with the tape measure and his friend Rick Hale holding the other end.  The distance from the muzzle to the fallen buck was 12ft.  Ironically bill’s friend Rick had see the buck just days before in the heavy brush and he still had his brow tines.  He did not give Rick a shot either.  Bill was fortunate to get a shot at the brawling buck.

Bill was hunting on one of his Mexico Ranches.  It was the middle of December and Bill was perched in his tripod in a draw and decided to rattle.  Bill put his sequence of rattling together and when he was finished, started glassing the brush for any movement.  Bill said, “I had just barely finished rattling when I spotted the tall racked buck coming toward the sound of the fight.  I studied his rack closely at 250 yards as he made his way cautiously toward me.”  After about 10 minutes the buck was now only 35 yards from bill and  his tripod.  I had determined the buck was in the 160 class and finally decided to take him.  At 25 yards Bill’s rifle took him and he added another buck to his wall.  The buck had a typical 10 point frame with another point growing off the main beam.  The rattled up buck grossed over 163 B/C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a rainy day in December of 1983.  Bill was perched up in his blind 15 ft up, watching a buck chase a doe that was ducking in and out of the brush.  The buck was a 140 class 10 pt.  He was intent on his love  chase and they stayed near Bill’s blind for around25-30 minutes.  Some movement down the  siendero on the opposite end, caught Bill’s eye.  It was a buck and he was just standing there.  mesmerized by the doe in heat scent that Bill had put out on the way to his blind.  The film canisters were packed with cotton and doe in heat scent and Bill had about half dozen out of the siendero.  Thru the binoculars Bill could only see the right antler of the buck.  It had 5 point on the right antler and it was very nice.  Bill decided to pass on the buck and the buck was only150 yards away.  bill was more intent watching the hot doe being worked by the buck in the opposite direction.  He was hoping that a larger buck would pick up the sound or scent of the buck/doe chase and try to cut out the smaller buck.  After 15 minutes Bill turned around and the lone buck was still in the siendero, smelling the  doe in heat scent from the film canisters.  “That buck just doesn’t want to leave”, thought Bill.  As Bill put up his binoculars to look at the buck again, he turned around and went into the brush.  The buck started to make his way toward Bill’s vantage point and worked his way to about 80 yards.  The buck stopped and finally Bill got a good look at the left antler.  WHOOOOOAaaaa now. 7 typical pints with 2 kickers on the left antler.  And he is about 20 inches wide.  Bill wasted no more time watching this buck.  His 270 loaded with 130 grain. Speer spitzers dropped him in his tracks.  As Bill walked toward his trophy, he could not help to think how fortunate  he was to have this buck give him so much time.  He had no idea that the left antler was so good.  Back at camp the buck caused quite a stir.  He ended up with a total of 15 points and scored over 163 gross points.  Had the right antler been like the typical 7 points, this buck could have scored another 15-20 B/C points.  The buck won one contest for most points though and go Bill a free shoulder mount.  Sometimes it just meant to be.