Thanks everyone and it was a great time. I am no journalist or a professional writer so here is the condensed story.
We started Friday and about 5 pm and hunted until dark and saw some incredible animals but just did not see the one. I did see a slightly smaller black buck but passed on him or the hunt would have been over in 3 hrs from the start but I had to be picky. We hunted and crossed every bit of the ranch in search of the right animal and I almost got a huge axis in velvet but could not get the shot off.
On Saturday they put me on a large buck that was around 250 yards away but we were not sure and we were stalking on foot (hands and knees to be truthful) and did not have much room for extra stuff so I did not have my rangefinder to get a good estimate of range and I did not feel comfortable with the shot. I could not get steady enough on my sticks and not knowing how far he was was not a great combo so I passed to try to get a better shot at him but he bolted. Not sure how many of you have seen these things in person but they are JUMPY!!!!! and will bolt if the remotely think you are up to something. So Friday no harvest Saturday no harvest. The ranch had put me on several amazing animals but I did not take on so I had to stay another day and make this day count.
Sunday, wake up see tons on animals in the morning but was unable to get a clear shot and it was getting HOT! My guide set up a place for us to sit and stalk on an area that we had seen the larger buck at in case he came back. After several hours we saw a few bucks and then he came out. He was actually running straight for our blind and we were on the ground so we had to stop him. Keith was able to get him to stop just long enough for me to get one shot off at just under 100yards (close to 80 I think). I was very surprised that this animal was going to get that close to us but he did. The 300 win mag suppressed did a great job and he was down pretty quick. Shot placement could have been better (hence Texasleftys question about the red dot) but I had only so much time to get the shot off and make it count. I will post up a few more pics as soon as I can.
Thanks to everyone at the spanish gourd ranch and my guide Keith for making it a very memorable trip. If you ever have an opportunity to go to south Texas TAKE IT!!!! The place is beautiful and the animals are amazing. This ranch was 5000 acres of pure hunting grounds and let me tell you it takes some time to cover that area.
