This morning I began in the ground blind and found the bucks getting ready for rut.


Still no Axis today. Lots of whitetail to share the morning with. A nice crisp morning that will warm up to low 70s. A perfect day to get some shooting in, down by the river. One of the guns I'd brought was Kelli's Hoss pistol with its new red dot sight. Here's Eric getting off a shot at a plastic target cube.

Eric agreed that the red dot sight was the perfect match for the pistol. Infinite eye relief, no centering and the red dot shows up well even in daylight. It also allows cross-eye dominant shooters lots of leeway.


As I was about to shoot, Marty and Sergio came riding down range on their utility vehicle. I thought they wanted to shoot some of the guns and it took me a while to understand what they were saying. THEY FOUND THE BLACKBUCK!!! NO WAY!!


This is the spot that Eric and I had walked by and thru at least 3 times in the past 2 days. It's hard to believe it was here all the time. This was not a small animal and has a white belly and big horns. It had not been touched by any of the many carnivores here on the hill either. Amazing luck.




THE PIC IS NOT BLURRED ON THE HUNT FORUM

We took lots of pics and were as giddy as school girls at the good luck. Always surprising what a new set of eyes can do.
That evening Eric sat on the top of the hill where we had repositioned the ground blind. A beautiful job if I must say.

I was in a camo covered chair in the valley. No Axis seen but these fellas stopped by to see what I was up to.

Kent



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2011 12:55PM by Cajun Justice.

Heck of a great pictorial. LOVE IT!

I've really enjoyed all your TEXAS HUNTING POST.

KUDOS!

Kent,

Glad you found it. What a shame it would have been to go home without closure.

2 animals, definitely a great hunt! Thanks for all the great pictures and video.

Tomorrow, when I'm cleaning my gutter 15' off the ground, I'll be daydreaming about a Texas hunt and................


Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2011 05:27AM by Bigbore.

Sergio is the second guys name who did the finding Kent. Don't feel bad for forgetting the name, I only introduced you to what, twenty people on the first day alone? You kind of got thrown into the fire.
Something Kent didn't mention here, as I'm sure he didn't want to step on any toes, is that Marty had a traumatic brain injury when he was younger. He's fairly high functioning, but you can tell for sure. It's dangerous to stop and talk to the man, as you're pretty well guaranteed to get stuck in "conversation" for an hour minimum. Anyhow, it made Marty's month to have helped find the Blackbuck. I saw him the day before yesterday and he was still beaming about it, retailing every detail of the find to me over, and over. I'm sure every soul in Mason knows about Marty, the great white Blackbuck tracker by now.

Great post. Enjoyed them all. Really glad you found your buck too. Yeah Marty! I think I heard someone here in town talking about this great buck finder in Texas. Could be the story is spreading!

Gary

iPhone

Kent, really enjoyed your 5 days of hunting, and the happy ending!
Gary, someone is out there with many Barnes guns, doing the business
Cheers
Neil

You are right, Neil. There are a lot of Barnes' guns out there. This hunt was a "perfect storm" of legal game to hunt, enthusiastic airgun hunters and a few Barnes' guns. We ended up with a pig, a blackbuck and an Axis deer for the effort. More importantly a ton of memories, new friendships and plans for future great times. Now this didn't fall from the sky. It took a leap of faith on Eric's and my part to want to come together over an internet introduction with Eric offering an invitation to a total stranger to his home and family. Eric is a private person and we had only talked by phone on a couple of occasions. He and his family, especially his wife, were gracious hosts. For my part, I traveled 700 miles to share prized possessions and place one on loan for a year. In the end the gamble for me has paid off beyond my expectations, and I don't mean that the trophies were the main reward. What has been a much more rewarding payout was making friends with a great group of like-minded people who will be lifelong friends. We are looking forward to our families spending time together at future "events".

This is just one more example of Barnes Pneumatic giving more than paid for, if the participants in this "program" are willing to be active and share.

Thanks to everyone who made this total experience possible!

Well said Kent.

I'm sincerely pleased that you enjoyed your experience. It's always quite amazing for me, at those occasional times, when I can look around and the thought strikes me: good grief ... all these people are enjoying an activity centered around items I made (one at a time) in my small humble shop. At events like Cuppa Joe where we had a great turnout and dozens upon dozens of Barnes guns being enjoyed. At the Cajun Cup Matches where people traveled quite a way ... and were busy day after day running relays via electric Bad Boy Buggy thru Kent's Woods Walk of reactive targets. Most of the time I'm quite busy - fluffing up one thing or another. Every once in a while, I find I'm standing there watching .... and it dawns on me .... "Good Grief ... I made all this stuff ... and they are enjoying it".

That's the best,

Thanks Kent, and Eric


I'm very much looking forward to my experience. Got a bullet in my pocket and everything. ;?)

Great times. Thanks for sharing with the awesome posts.

Couldn't have said it better Kent.

Thanks for posting this, it's great stuff! I'm glad that you found your beast, it would have been a shame to have it torn to bits by coyotes and the pigs.