Back in 2002 I made my first trip to Mexico. I would be hunting with one of the owners of an Outfitting service called Whitetail Adventures. His name was Bill and I had been on several hunting trips with him.

A little background Information to help this story:

Two weeks earlier we had been hunting in Saskatchewan for whitetail. We were hunting on an Indian Reservation so Bill had several tags he could use on this trip. The weather was very warm for October in Canada, it was in the mid 40s for highs. You just don’t get much deer movement when it is that warm. The next to the last afternoon we spotted an HUGE black bear in a cut oat field. I talked Bill into checking the bear out since we had a bear tag. The wind was perfect and we stalked to within 75 yards of the bear. 

Living in Eastern North Carolina I get to see plenty of world class Black Bears and this one was right up there with the ones we had back home so I tell Bill to get his rifle ready. I wanted to get some good, steady footage of the bear and then I wanted to get Bill to harvest the bear. Well, one problem, Bill didn’t want to harvest the bear. After a long drawn out conversation I could not get him to harvest the bear.

Long story short, when I got back to the lodge I showed the other owners of the outfitting business the footage of the bear Bill would not shoot and they were a little upset. One even told me if it happened again for me to grab the rifle and shoot the animal!!  By the way, the bear that Bill would not shoot ended up weighing 632 pounds and made Boone & Crockett. 

Back to the story in Mexico:

Like I said, it was my first trip to Mexico and it was our first afternoon to hunt. We were sitting in a couple of tower stands and had been watching several young bucks come in and out of the brush, when I looked up and all I could see were tines coming out of the brush! The deer came out at 325 yards and began to graze. 

Well as the old saying goes, you’ll know a good one when you see it!

I got Bill’s attention and he glassed the deer with his binoculars while I was getting some footage of the buck. The deer actually fed to within 80 yards of us while I was filming. Without looking at Bill, I told him “Shoot The Deer!” A few seconds went by there was no shot! Once again I said, “Shoot The Deer Bill!” Once again no shot!

I look over my shoulder to see Bill with his binoculars still in his hands! I asked, “Did you hear me Bill, SHOOT THE DEER!”  I was getting angry with him and I was raising my voice. I was scared we were going to scare the deer off, but once again Bill was not cooperating. 

He told me he wasn’t going to shoot the deer because he did not have any brow tines! Once he said that, I about blew a gasket. I told Bill that the chances of us seeing another deer that big on the trip was slim to none! Once again Bill said he won’t shooting the deer because he didn’t have any brow tines!

Finally I said, “Give me your rifle!”

Bill said, “Are you serious?”

I said, “Yes I’m serious, I will shoot that Buck in a NY second, GIVE ME THE RIFLE.”

Bill said, “Nope I’m going to shoot him.”

BANG!!!!!

Long story short, the deer scored 157″ as a 7 pointer and the next closest deer shot that year on the ranch scored 141″.  Bill told me he would have never guessed that deer would be that big! I told him he needed to take up picture taking, because he sure wasn’t a hunter!!!!

Here’s a photo of the deer Bill didn’t want to shoot!

When I’m home between hunting trips I don’t usually go hunting unless it’s with my son. I was stopped Christmas Eve by a friend and he wanted me to take his grandson hunting. The grandfather is not a hunter and he has been getting folks to take the young man hunting. So far he has not been successful in getting a deer.

I took Everett, age 13, hunting the Friday after Christmas. At 5:00 we had two deer come out and decided to take the larger of the two. Everett made a great shot and the tracking wasn’t far, but we did have to go into the swamp to get him out. Boy was he excited when we found that deer and it made me proud to share that hunt with him.

He made me a Thank You card a few days later and I keep it on my work desk. This is one of those hunting moments I don’t think I will never forget. Congrats on your 1st deer Everett!!!!! I hope we can do it again soon!!!!

Well my streak has come to an end in Saskatchewan. I’ve been having an awesome year and knew I would come back empty handed sooner or later. In all it was a long, very cold week. We were hunting near Pierceland, Saskatchewan and we saw plenty of deer. The problem was that they had a large winter kill last year and the deer we were seeing were 2 & 3 year old deer. My hunter was looking for a mature buck.

We had 2 mature bucks show up this week. One came up beside our blind and stopped behind some brush not giving us a shot and the other was a giant 8 pointer that had half of his right main beam broke off.

The best part about the trip is that for the first time in about 3 years I got to share hunt camp with my best friend and fellow videographer Chris Douglas. We put in some long, cold hours but we managed to get in a movie every night trying to wind down. Needless to say we only got about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep a night! By the way, Congrats Chris and getting that fine harvest on film the last day of the hunt!!!!! Boy did we work hard on this hunt!

The worst part of the trip was an hour drive by 4-wheeler (Quad in Canada) to the stand every morning. The warmest morning it was -4 F and the coldest morning was -27 F. Boy do those people have long, cold winters up there. The funny thing is that when I got back to Raleigh Saturday it was 69 degrees. I went through a 96 degree temperature change within 12 hours. Now that’s crazy!

The following are a few photos from the trip:

The Camper Chris & I stayed in

The area I was hunting

Chris & I the last night of the hunt, Can you see the joy in our face!!!!!!!!

Me outside of our ground blind we hunted, Check out the suit and moon boots!

All of the hunters in camp shot except us. Here are a couple of bucks from the hunt!

Well sorry this took so long, but here it goes!

 We go back to hunt where we hunted the first afternoon. We had seen plenty of deer and a very nice shooter, but that buck got into the cornfield before I could get the camera on him and Allen did not get a shot. We arrived at 1:00 p.m.

Instead of sitting in the shooting house like we did the evening before, we sat on the ground against some trees on top of the hill so we could have a good field of vision of the valley below.

We had not been there 10 minutes before a young 4 pointer came bouncing down the hill not 30 yards from us. Once he got to the bottom of the hill it started to rain. I quickly got out my rain gear and covered up my camera to try and keep it from getting “vapor locked”!

We sat there another 10 minutes in the rain and then it changed over to large fluffy white snow flakes. It was getting colder by the minute, but I was warm and dry since I had my Gortex bibs and jacket on.

The snow got harder and harder and it was getting hard to see the valley below. Allen tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out some deer coming out to our left. I get the camera on them as they are coming out of the woods. I film them (15 deer) feeding towards the cornfield when I hear Allen say, “There’s a shooter!”  I tell him I don’t see the buck. I listen through my headphones as he directs me to the center of the group. Then I say, “I’m on him, the wide 8-pointer with his head up right?” Allen confirms and then asks am I ready - We had already talked about if we saw a shooter we were going to try not to let it get to the standing corn.  Once I told him, “I’m on him,” he pulled the trigger on his .270 wsm and the deer scattered.

“Did I hit him, I couldn’t tell with the snow and the deer going everywhere if I got him or not,” Allen said. I told him he had made a good hit and that we needed to hurry down there and start tracking because we were loosing light and the snow was starting to accumulate.

We made the slippery walk down the hill (I only fell once) to where the deer was standing. At first glance it was obvious that Allen made a perfect shot, but we were getting worried because as we had feared the snow was washing away the blood trail and the deer ran into a very thick valley.

After a 15 minute tracking job we found his deer! It was a 19.5″ wide heavy beamed 8-pointer!

We are finally hunting a place where I can get an internet connection during the hunt. I arrived at the Madison airport yesterday at noon. Allen had drove up from Missouri so he picked me up at the airport. We loaded up the car and headed to a small town along the Iowa boarder.

 We got to the motel where we are staying at 2:00 and we were greeted by the land owner who was gracious enough to let us hunt his land. We threw on our camo, headed to the store so Allen could purchase his hunting license and then headed to the blind.

It was a good afternoon. It was cool, foggy and rainy. We got into the blind at 3:30 and got the camera equipment set up. Ten minutes later we had deer entering the field we were overlooking. We ended up seeing plenty of doe, and 3 bucks. One buck was a 145 class 10 pointer, but he walked into a small corn patch before I could get some good footage of him and did not come back out. 

This morning we went to a ground blind that was set up in a hardwoods bottom. We saw 6 deer and only one was a doe.

 It is now 1:00 and we’re getting ready to head back to the field. We are going to the same place we hunted yesterday afternoon. Maybe I will log on later tonight with some good news!!!!

I have not been on a hunt in Mexico since March 2004. Choppo was the cook at our camp down in Coahuila, Mexico. He was in his mid 80s and boy could he cook. I love Mexican food and when we were in camp in Mexico we got the authentic stuff all the way down to the Javelina and Rattlesnake meals!

Choppo could not speak English and we spoke very little Spanish, but we usually communicated by hand gestures. He was a jolly little fella and was always in a good mood.  We always tipped Choppo very good because he took very good care of us and we knew where he lived. I guess in Mexican standards he lived in a middle class house, but by my standards he lived in a shack. It was basically a tin house that was by no means water proof or wind proof, but atleast he had a roof over his head. He did not have running water or electricity, but who needs that when you didn’t grow up with it.

I spent New Years Eve in Mexico 3 years in a row. The second New Years Eve I was there, the outfitter go Choppo so drunk that he could not stand up. I asked him not to get Choppo drunk, but my plea fell on deaf ears. Choppo got so drunk that he did not come back to work the last week of our hunt. Fortunately they didn’t kill the little fella. He was back the next hunting season with that smile that he was known for.

Above is a picture of me and Choppo in December of 2003. Unfortunately I got word last week that the Ranch House that we stayed in (pictured in the Photo above) burned to the ground. That was my favorite place to hunt. A relaxing hunt and we always saw plenty of game!

We killed the rattlesnake above on New Years Eve of 2003. He was laying at the base of our tower stand! Of course Choppo prepared him for New Years lunch 2004!

Back in 1999 when I started full-time as a freelance outdoor videographer I knew I would be sacrificing my personal hunting time, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to take. After a long trip on the road, I usually come back home to catch up on things around the house and spend time with the family. I get plenty of invitations from my friends to go hunting while I’m in town, but honestly it’s the last thing on my mind when I have just a few days with my family.

I have only harvested one deer since 1999 and boy was he a dandy!

I had been to the Wright Ranch in Dilley, TX to film his deer a couple of different times. I was amazed at what I saw. Mr. Richard has some pretty awesome deer down there. South Texas had always been one of my dream hunts and after talking to Mr. Richard I decided to book a hunt.

It was December of 2004 and I was scheduled to do a two week shoot with Whitetail Adventures in Mexico. The host of the TV Show said he was going to stop in Dilley for a couple of days and visit Mr. Richard at the Wright Ranch and then head into Mexico for his hunt. I asked him If I could do my hunt while we were down there and he said “no problem!”

While I was home for Christmas I drug out my trusty Remington .280 and started doing some target practicing. It had been a few years since I had shot a rifle, but it was just like riding a bike. It took a few shots to get settled down and then I was hitting the target where I wanted to.

We flew out December 27th for the hunt. I was so excited I could hardly wait to get there. Once we arrived at the ranch we went down to the target range and made sure that the rifle was still shooting true. After we left the target range Mr. Richard wanted to go do some rattling. Talk about FUN!  We rattled in about 18 deer the 1st afternoon, but we did not see the one that Mr. Richard wanted me to harvest.

The next morning we went out for another rattling session. It was a beautiful South Texas Morning and we rattled in plenty of bucks, but again we did not see the buck that Mr. Richard wanted me to harvest.

After lunch Mr. Richard told me he was going to put me in a box blind looking over an oat field. He said he was going to show me a picture of the deer he wanted me to harvest and let me and the camera guy sit in the stand by ourselves that afternoon since it was a small box blind. He put a video tape in the VCR and told me he had something he wanted to show me. It was video footage of the deer he was hoping I would harvest. When he told me that and I looked at the TV screen, my jaw dropped. It was an awesome 8 pointer feeding in the oat field that Mr. Richard had been watching the past coulple of years and decided that he wasn’t going to get any bigger. I couldn’t believe it when he asked me would I like to shoot that deer. He surely dwarfed anything I had ever harvested.

Once we had viewed the footage I was eager to get to the stand and we headed out. Once at the box blind we sat there for about 30 minutes and then field started filling up with does and small bucks.  I was enjoying watching the deer feed when I looked up and all I could see were horns coming into the far end of the field.  I put my binoculars on him and realized it was the buck I was looking for.  That’s when my heart started pounding and the adrenaline was really kicking in.  The buck walked to the edge of the field and began to start feeding in the oats. I ranged him with the range finder. 298 yards. I flipped the safety off and eased my finger to the trigger. BOOM! The rifle went off and my target was true! The deer fell in his tracks. 

I called Mr. Richard and told him I had just harvested the deer he wanted me to and I wanted him to come pick me up and share the moment with me. Once he got to the blind we walked down to my deer. There was surely no ground shrinkage on this big boy. He was bigger and wider than he looked when he was standing out in the field. He was 18″ inside spread and scored 154″ B&C. 

That was a hunt I will never forget!