My first trip to hunt whitetails in south Texas turned out better than expected. Stan and I traveled to Houston to meet up with Pam and Brian Zaitz of SHE Outdoor Apparel. We left single digit temperatures for the more appealing warmth of the region and I wondered why we had waited so long to plan mid-winter hunting trips to warmer climates. It will now be an annual priority!

We arrived in camp on December 18 early enough for Pam to get out for the afternoon hunt. We only asked for one cameraman to be assigned to this trip since everyone thought Pam would have a good chance at killing a nice buck within the first couple days. When she tagged out I would go hunting. Both our hunts were intended for SHE's Beyond the Lodge on the Outdoor Channel. "Super Guide" Lamar Smith would be guiding us both.

Stan would also be hunting and filming his hunt for North American Whitetail. And if he tagged out early, his son Timmy could also film me. So we had all the bases covered. Now I just had to wait for one of the two hunters to get their deer. In the meantime there was plenty of work to be done, which is always the case when there is Internet access.

John Burrell, the wildlife biologist for High Adventure Company happened to be visiting the ranch we were hunting. He had an HD video camera and offered to take me out that first afternoon. Needless to say I gladly accepted the offer and scrambled to get ready. As we sat in the blind exchanging stories, we heard a shot. We hadn't been on stand 10 minutes! It was Pam. She shot a gorgeous 12 point buck in the first 15 minutes of her hunt!

By the end of the first afternoon's hunt I was so hooked on hunting south Texas! I have seen TV shows that portray hunting from box blinds overlooking senderos in Texas and until now hadn't been too intrigued by the whole concept. We were hunting a low fence ranch that was intensively managed. The owners were focused on letting bucks mature to at least 4 years of age and in many cases 7, 8, or 9 years if they had multiple tined racks, favoring typical 12 pointers over all others. Any time I can watch big mature bucks age in their natural habitat and see their antler growth potential it is a great experience. And there was no shortage of monster bucks on this ranch!

They had seen many of the bucks multiple times and named some of them. The "Breeder Buck" was a tall tined impressive brute, the "Wide Twelve" was stunning. None of them were on the list for me to shoot this year, but just seeing them was a privilege.

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On the second morning Stan tagged a huge 12 pointer. Twelve seemed to be the lucky number for this hunt. I was hoping it would be mine too. We saw one big buck that I could shoot but he disappeared across the opening before we could get the camera and me coordinated.

The next day we went to another box blind and saw the Wide Twelve and the Breeder Buck again. A buck with split G-2s stayed out all afternoon, posing in every possible angle, but he was not on the list.  Finally a mature ten point buck entered the sendero and my guide Lamar Smith, gave me the ok to shoot. Light was fading fast, but my cameraman also gave me the ok. I had the safety off and was about to squeeze the trigger when my guide said, "Wait a minute, don't shoot!" When the buck raised his head and the sunlight caught his antlers we noticed small G-5's that actually made him a twelve pointer. Lamar realized it was a buck no-one had ever seen before. We decided to let him pass, take the footage back to camp and look him over carefully to make sure he was one the owner wanted to take out of the breeding population.

I have trouble telling the difference in the age of a mature buck once he gets past 4 years old. From 1 to 4 is pretty obvious and much easier for me to tell the difference. A closer look at the buck on film and some second opinions back at camp would help make the decision.

Imagine my surprise later that night when my guide told me this buck would go on the list. We would be going back to the same area the next day to hunt this beautiful mature twelve pointer that I honestly didn't think we would ever see again!

The morning dawned thick with fog. Really thick. A buck called "Wavy" and the "Split G-2" spent quite awhile along with several does milling around in the fog. Finally a short-tined wide 10-pointer entered the sendero. This one was a shooter. He was a great old buck and we decided to try for him. The buck was mixed in with several other deer so it took quite a bit of communication between me, the guide and cameraman to make sure the shot was clear and we were all focused on the correct buck. Every time the buck was broadside, other deer would step in front of him, or behind him. When the buck separated from the others he would be facing me, or looking away, not presenting a good shot angle. Finally he stepped to the right, Lamar said ok, the cameraman said, wait, wait, wait. As he pushed to the deer and adjusted focus, the fog rolled in so much thicker the deer actually disappeared in my scope. Seconds later it was as if a button had been pushed and all the deer left the sendero at once. I guess they didn't like not being able to see either.

An hour later the fog lifted as the sun climbed higher in the morning sky. A few deer came back out, but not our shooter.  We saw a nice old 8-pointer and had quite the discussion on whether to take him or not. He would only have scored about 115 inches and was one they wanted to take from the population, but he wasn't as impressive as the other 2 bucks we had almost tagged. So we finally made the collective decision to pass. I had one more day to hunt and surely my luck would change!

That evening we went back to the same blind where the "Gift Buck" had appeared the afternoon before. Would he be back? "Wavy" and a young buck with super long tines and main beams spent most of the morning showing off and chasing does. I spotted a heavy, short tined 11-point and was trying to convince my guide that perhaps we should give him a closer look. My guide wasn't paying attention because he had a buck spotted on the opposite side of the blind. I heard him talking to the cameraman but I didn't pay close attention to them either as I was glassing intently every move the 11-pointer made on the other side.

Lamar finally said, "There is a nice buck over here." I looked at the buck with the Nikons and immediately thought to myself, wow that is a nice, but I bet he is not on the list. When Lamar said,  "Take a close look, that is the Gift Buck and you can take him," I nearly had a heart attack. Next came the mad scramble to get chairs and camera tripod and humans quietly and quickly re-arranged so I could take the shot. The buck was over 200 yards away so I needed to make sure I had a good solid rest. Before I could get settled the buck chased the doe out of the sendero. We waited. Nothing.

After several minutes I spotted movement and the buck re-appeared broadside at 215 yards. My guide gave the ok, the cameraman gave the ok, and I squeezed the trigger on the TC rifle. It looked like a good hit as the buck raced into the brush. We finished doing all the required filming while Lamar went to check out the blood trail.

No matter how good the hit, if you don't see the buck go down in sight it is always stressful. When my guide came walking back he gave me a thumbs up sign! We had our 12-pointer, making us three-for-three on big mature six-by-sixes in south Texas.

My 2008 season started with Safari Nordik in northern Quebec for caribou and ended with a beautiful south Texas whitetail at High Adventure Company. Both hunts, and many more will be seen on SHE's Beyond the Lodge on the Outdoor Channel, Sunday nights at 10 PM EST and Thursdays at 4:30 PM EST during the first and second quarters.