The Digital Log Of A Bowhunt With Venado Loco - by Robert Hoague

Venado Loco's Great West Texas Bowhunt
By email I received an invitation for myself and one friend to bowhunt with Venado Loco at his 6,300 acre deer lease in the desert near Del Rio, Texas. This is as far West as Whitetails go in the Southwest and Venado said that this bowhunt would be different from other deer hunts I was familiar with ... he wasn't kidding. 

Sunday, we arrived at Venado Loco's deer lease: 
The Duck (Don Beckwith) and I drove to Venado Loco's place and arrived a little after 5:00pm. His able directions  led us right to the camp. No one was there, which meant they were out hunting. After unloading our gear we sat on the large porch (we didn't want to drive around and mess up anyone's hunting) and as time passed we saw 7 deer. 

Darkness came and very soon we met our host, Venado Loco, and two other bowhunters: Kevin and Joe. Kevin had seen Wild Turkeys and "lots of whitetail bucks" at stand #23. Joe hunted #18 and saw a few does. Venado Loco went over the ranch map with Don and I and reminded us that any bucks harvested had to be at least 9 points. Also, he suggested we bowhunt stands #21 and #15 in the morning.
 

Venado Loco's Deer Camp

Monday, first day of the bowhunt: 
(Morning Hunt) The Duck dropped me off at #15. It was dark as heck but I managed to find some brush to set up in. I had brought a folding chair and set up in some brush. At 7:30 two deer came up and walked in front of me, a doe and a buck. The doe was close and I could have shot it, from the ground no less!! Another buck came and I slowly checked both of them out in my binoculars. A doe walked up a few yards to my left and noticed my movement. I held still and the doe walked around me to check my scent. Not to brag, but I do scent control real good and the doe never winded me even though I could have conked her with my bow. The first buck was a 9 point and the other was an 8. But the 9 was a young buck and I prefer to pass on them so they can mature. Two more does came by before the Duck picked me up.
 

The view from my make shift blind at #15.  That's the 9 point buck in the pic.

At #21 Don failed to see any deer but was snorted by a couple of unseen deer.

(Scouting) Venado Loco showed us several blinds and we set up on #23 and #24 for the afternoon hunt.
 

Robert Hoague, Venado Loco & Don Beckwith (the Duck).

(Afternoon Hunt) The Duck saw 7 bucks at #23. He used Kevin's ground blind and the deer had the spot pegged. Don saw a couple of 9+ bucks but all the deer avoided the blind.

At #24 I saw 16 deer and 7 were bucks. One was a big heavy horned buck. I had set up in some brush at the bottom of a long, sloping hill. I spotted a varmint of some kind in the low brush and cactus on the hill, it was a skunk. I focused my binoculars on the large buck and verified that he was a 10 point. I noticed that the skunk was on a trail that came very close to my blind. The buck was looking good but I didn't have a good shot angle yet. The darned skunk walked right into my blind ... I jumped to my feet to RUN !!! The skunk surprised me totally, he ran, and didn't spray, I couldn't believe it. 

How does the saying go, the good news or the bad news? The good news was the skunk didn't gas me -- the bad news was every single deer ran off and I didn't see any more that afternoon. And I had done a deerhunting no no, given away my position.

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