Hunter: Curt Eckman
Points: 10 (5L, 5R)
County: Houston
Season: 2015-2016
Hunt Story
The morning of Sunday, November 22nd was an overcast drizzling morning about 50 degrees with a cold front soon to push through. My son Justin and I went to hunt over a 3-year-old clearcut. I dropped Justin off at his stand and proceeded to a stand that we call the pucker factor, the name came from the location of the stand on how high off the ground it is. It's located in a massive red oak tree approximately 30 feet off the ground overlooking the clearcut. In the off season, we bush hogged several lanes out through the clearcut for shooting lanes, like the spokes on a wagon wheel. The hunt started with almost no wind. As the morning progressed and the cold front was passing through, the wind started picking to 10 to 15 MPH and the temperature started dropping. I had a 2 1/2-year-old 8-point show up in the clearcut around 7:30 AM. He was heading out through the clearcut, and he was very spooky due to the wind. I watched him until he left the clearcut for a stand of planted pines. The morning was slow with activity, the temperature was dropping and the wind gusting up to 20 MPH. I texted Justin to let him know I was getting cold. I did not put on enough clothes. I was going to get down at 9 AM. At 8:45 am I started to unload my gun, I just happened to look over my right shoulder down at the very end of one of the bush hogged paths was a buck, walking toward the tree I was in. The bush hogged path is approximately 150 yards long. I threw up my gun on my off handed side and determined he was a great buck. I reloaded my gun, turned around in my stand for a right handed shot. The buck continued to walk straight toward me. I looked at his rack and started getting excited. I knew I had to focus on the shot. My fear was he would walk all the way to my tree and not offer me a good shot. When he got about 40 yards from my tree, he made a left turn and proceeded to head out of the clearcut to the planted pines. He had to cross a dirt road. I had to scramble to be able to get a shot on him when he crossed the road. When he reached the road, he was quartering to me. I placed the crosshairs on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I knew he was hit hard. He jumped ran about 40 yards in the pines. I saw him fall, but he disappeared. Buck fever set in, I had to stay in pucker factor for about 15-20 minutes so I could stop shaking to be to climb down safely. When I was able to get down, I went over to where the buck was standing, there was no sign of blood. My mind started running wild, did I make a good shot? Did I even see him fall? I stopped and gave thanks to GOD for the opportunity and placing this nice buck in my path, I asked him for the help in finding him. I went and picked up Justin, I was still shaking with excitement. We headed to camp to give the buck some time. After an hour passed, Justin, myself and 2 club members went back to retrieve the buck. We walked in the thick pines and started finding blood. I was getting excited, the buck was laying right were I had saw him fall. This morning would not happen if were not for the Glory of GOD!
