“Pheasant, behind!” shouted Cody Mohler. I turned, shouldering my 20 gauge Ruger Red Label, but before I could get on the long-tailed rooster another flushed. I swung slightly ahead of the cock and pulled the trigger. Off to my right I heard another shot, and then immediately my hunting partner Billy Shoemaker exclaimed, “Good shot!”

I watched as Cody’s retriever fetched the first and then the second pheasant. I love watching good dogs work, point and retrieve, but suddenly my watching was interrupted by Billy. “Point, other side of the bush from you!” Billy and I approached from behind, shotguns at half-port. Moving slowly forward three chukar flushed under foot, one flew left and two headed right. I heard Billy shoot as I was getting onto the second of the third birds. My first shot went right behind, but my second shot dropped the bird.

Cody’s pointer took about 10 steps before locking up again, so Billy and I moved in. Just in front of the pointer a covey of seven bobwhite quail flushed. I picked out a cock flying to the right and shot. He crumpled in mid-air, so I swung onto a second quail and it too, dropped at the shot.

“I thought you said you were not much of a shotgun shot”, commented Billy, who indeed is a fabulous shotgun shot at live game and clay birds. I smiled, frankly I was amazed at my shotgun prowess that day. While I like shooting a shotgun, I very seldom do. I spend my time shooting hunting rifles and handguns.

When I originally set up my whitetail hunt with Greystone Castle Sporting Club, I did not think about doing a bird hunt, even though I knew Greystone is known far and wide for their excellent upland game bird and waterfowl hunting. Before leaving home, I had called Billy to tell him I would be hunting whitetail on Greystone Castle, near the old Texas mining town of Mingus, a bit west of Ft. Worth. “Bring your shotgun and I’ll meet you there. I know you can take at least one mid-day off to do a bird hunt. Greystone’s upland game bird hunting is nothing short of fantastic!”

Billy had indeed been spot on with his evaluation. I had a fabulous time shooting birds and it rekindled my interest in shooting a shotgun.

After a quick yet fabulously delicious meal back at the well appointed castle-lodge, I exchanged my over and under shotgun for my Ruger Number 1 chambered in 300 H&H Magnum and a handful of Hornady’s 180 grain Custom InterBond and hurried to meet Cody for our afternoon’s hunt.

Our intention was to return to the area where we had seen several impressive bucks during the morning’s hunt, bucks with racks, which had I not been hunting on Greystone, I would have pulled the trigger on. One buck in particular caught my attention. We spotted him on our way back to the lodge, just prior to our bird hunt. He was a basic six by six typical, about 23 inches wide with a six-inch drop-tine on his left main beam. His antlers were majestic to say the least but he was small bodied and thin-necked, obviously young and not yet fully mature.

“How old do you think he is?” queried Cody.

Its times like this I almost wish I was not a wildlife biologist who spent many years convincing hunters to let bucks mature before putting hunting pressure on them… “I’m guessing he’s likely four years old. He could possibly be three based on body conformation. Either way, I can only imagine what his antlers will look like when he reaches six or seven, when he is finished growing body and any nutritional intake not required for body maintenance can be channeled into antler development. No doubt he’ll be way above 200 in the future.”

As we headed toward our afternoon hunting area, I hoped we would again run into that particular buck, as I really wanted another look at him.

“We’ll sit for a while and watch one of our food plots planted with Tecomate seeds, but then the last 45 minutes of the day I think we should hunt towards one of our bigger food plots, right next to a stock tank,” Cody said. “About a week ago I saw a buck I’d really like to look for. I saw him after dark when I drove through the food plot on my way back to the lodge. He’s not overly wide, probably only about 20-inches or so outside. He’s got 12 long typical points with some kickers. One of the more impressive things about his rack is one brow-tine looks like it’s 18-inches long or longer, the longest brow I’ve ever seen. He’s an older buck, probably at least six or seven. I hope we can find him. If we do, I got a feeling you’re going to really like him!”

From two o’clock until 4:30pm we saw several does, fawns and a double handful of three-year old and younger bucks. “Let’s head out. Where I want to go we’ll have the wind in our face and the sun on our back. I’d like us to be about a half mile from here at last light. We can hunt slow heading that way.” I nodded in agreement.

We had hardly gone 50 yards when we spotted a big slick 10-point. I glanced at Cody who wagged his head in a negative manner. I shrugged my shoulders and then followed him.

By the time we reached the edge of the food plot where Cody had seen the long brow-tine buck, we had seen six more bucks, as well as eight does and six half-grown fawns. We carefully glassed the field. A cold front had blown in mid-afternoon and the deer were anxious to fill their rumen for the coming, long, cold night.

We moved closer to the stock tank and again peered into the food plot. There were no less than 20 deer feeding in field, but we could not find the big buck Cody hoped we would see.

The sun had been down for about 25 minutes when I turned to look at a patch of tall grass on the tail end of the stock tank. Something in the tall grass looked like bare-limbed bush. Up went my binoculars. As the object came into focus it materialized into the giant rack of a whitetail buck. My jaw dropped. I pulled Cody around to look toward the tall grass. “It’s him! The buck we are looking for.”

“Too close to the end of legal shooting time (which in Texas ends 30-minutes after sunset)!” I whispered.

“You’re right.” responded Cody, after looking at his watch. “Don’t move, let’s see where he goes.” No sooner had my guide made that statement than the buck lowered his head and disappeared into the tall grass. We stayed and watched to see if he might slip out. He might have, but we did not see him do it. As darkness descended, we decided to return in the morning.

Morning found us sitting next to several oak trees where we could see about half of the food plot near where we had seen the big buck the afternoon before. We saw several nice bucks, and if the long brow-tined buck was there, we did not see him.

When deer activity ceased, we built a natural ground blind of limbs and logs near to where we had seen the big buck for the afternoon’s hunt, then headed back to camp for a quick lunch. An hour later we were back at the ground blind. Another cold front blew through our area. With the threat of freezing weather, I felt assured the deer would start feeding early and they did!

Within 30 minutes of getting set up we had no less than 28 deer feeding in the field in front of us, some less than 20 yards away. As the afternoon progressed, deer fed in and out of the field. Several excellent bucks came in and fed ravenously on the green forage. Two of them were truly impressive.

About an hour before sunset I spotted the upper tips of of a rack coming toward us from behind a rise in the field. I watched as the buck started appearing, able to see more of his rack and his body with each step he took toward us. There was no doubt it was the long brow-tined buck. He strode to within about 75 yards, then started feeding on Tecomate’s Greenfield blend.

My crosshairs were planted on the buck’s shoulder when he turned broadside. I gently squeezed the trigger on the Ruger Number 1 and the buck went down. I quickly reloaded then got back on the buck and waited for any sign of movement but he did not move again.

At the deer’s side, I could not believe the size of my buck’s rack. He was undoubtedly one of the better bucks I have ever taken. The next day we measured the long brow tine. It was over 18 inches long. I was thrilled!