The first game camera pictures from August showed these two bucks in velvet. One was Mr. Big and the other was the Old N.T., as this old Non-Typical was thought to be 10 1/2 years old. Both these bucks were semi-regular showing up at a blind tabbed as the Northwest(NW), in a low fence pasture of about 1300 acres. After my 2019 hunt, I had expressed an interest in a buck that would make the Boone & Crockett record book, which is a minimum net score of 170″. We thought Mr. Big, as a mainframe 11, with only two abnormal points might achieve this lofty goal. The best experts guessed him at 182″ gross and 172″ net, based on several pictures. After 6 1/2 days hunting during October and November not seeing Mr. Big, he was renamed Mr. No Show He was actually absent from any game camera pictures from October 24 until Christmas. When I returned in December, Doss Summers noted that the hunter that was hunting Old N.T. would not be able to return to hunt. “Was I interested in him?” I said, “Just let him show up!” We had briefly seen him about the 4th day of hunting, well before sunrise and only for a short time. He was not prone to hang around. That morning, he was the other hunter’s buck. At an estimated 10 1/2 years old, he was problematic to survive another year. With the extreme cold that all of Texas experienced in the middle of February, it is doubtful that he would have survived it. Exotic game, native game and livestock all died during this cold spell. The morning of December 15 was cloudy, overcast, and nearly foggy. So, at 10 minutes into legal shooting time(20 minutes before sunrise) and it was pretty difficult to see. He steps out of the brush and Doss immediately identifies him as the Old N.T.! I had my Joe Clayton Classic Ruger No.1 in 280 Ackley Improved with me. There was no seeing the reticule on the deer; just kind of centering him in the scope. I shot-and he ran off! Doss and I sat there a few minutes. Doss asked, “How do you feel about the shot?” “I don’t feel worth a damn about it”. I did not hear the impact of a hit, and as he ran off, I could see no indication that he was hit. It was dark though! Doss remarked that the run he observed appeared more of a startled run than an injured run. We sat there an hour and 15 minutes; talking very little. “Well, let’s go look!” When we got to where we thought he was standing at the shot-nothing! (We were
in the wrong place we saw later) It didn’t take long to find him piled up in a prickly pear patch, A near-perfect shot; he was able to run 40 yards, just out of our sight. To quantify the Old N. T., he is a mainframe 10, with 11 extra scoreable points and grossed 189 3/8″. I was still determined to hunt the B&C Typical. When Mr. No Show appeared on camera again, he had moved about a mile to a blind dubbed the Shooting Gallery(SG for short)We spent another 12 days hunting Mr. No Show at the SG and only laid eyes on him once. He was 475 yards away, in a road and mounting a doe! Doss and I just watched. We stayed in that blind near all day and he never showed again, He would be on camera the day before I arrived to hunt or the afternoon that I had left. In the end, he was back at NW. During all these hunts during January and February, a major pipeline was being laid about 200 yards from the SG. He moved back to NW and we hunted there until February 11 and I went home that afternoon. This was when the Texas Blizzard came through. It was the 22nd before I could even consider going back to Cotulla. We decided there was too much risk of him losing a horn(s)- shedding! By now, Mr. No Show has become Old SOB! He is showing up regularly now and has not shed yet. It is a Vendetta now and I will be back in October 2021!!
A Tale of Two Bucks
