Texas Whitetail Bowhunt with Billy Don Van Cleave

ONLINE DEERHUNT 2004

Bowhunting With Billy Don Van Cleave at Wild Horse Prairie Ranch in the Texas Hill Country
Digital Logs Of Bowhunts With Billy Don Van Cleave - by Robert Hoague

The First Bowhunting.net Deerhunt - A Bowhunt In Progress
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Day #1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | To Group #2 & Next Hunts |

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Wildlife Research Center for sending a generous variety of Scent Killer and deer lure for every bowhunter on this hunt. And to American Whitetail Targets for sending the Cube and FPS 300 Compression targets for all the hunters to practice on.

Join Group #2: as the First Bowhunting.net Deerhunt continues with Roy Keefer, Chef Klaus, the Duck, Brooks Johnson & Keith Beam of Double Bull Archery. GO...

DAY 5: Wayne's Day
A Buck A Day Keeps Billy Don Happy
Wayne Dobson: Wayne hunted View Point and was "covered up with bucks." To Wayne's Hunt.
Tony Dukes returned to #23. But, today, the deer didn't.
George Tague continued his quest for wild turkey. A black buck went by in the distance. Some hogs came through and he saw another group traveling by in the distance. Some longhorn steers got close to the stand and George got down and ran the off. Then a group of rams and an Ibex came up and he got these pictures.
Robert Hoague: I set up a Double Bull blind at a place on the Pipe LIne and saw some deer and a huge wild boar gave me the last minute slip.

Don Beckwith cooks up another great breakfast for the camp.

George Tague starts the day out right.

Full Screen Computer Wallpaper for you of a buck I took pictures of today.
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Wayne Dobson practicing on our Cube target, courtesy of American Whitetail Targets.
DAY 4: George's Day ... All Day
MORNING HUNT
Dave Cole, Boyd Burbank and Tyge Floyd all returned home last night.
Wayne Dobson: An 8-point and a forky locked antlers and spared for 45 minutes. Some does watched. The fight drew a monster buck, it walked down the hill. He was an 8-point with long tines that were hooked at the end.
The two bucks stopped fighting and backed off. The buck was head on to Wayne and was very spooky and moved around quickly. Wayne decided to draw and made a noise. The buck spooked and the does went with him. The "big one" circled around 150 yards on the hill. The two other bucks returned but the monster buck didn't.
George Tague put the binoculars on the two bucks. The wide spread buck turned his head and George liked what he saw. He couldn't tell about the second one. They walked back into the woods and circled behind George, directly down wind. George was afraid they would smell him. To George's Hunt...
Tony Dukes: Tony walked another large buck.
AFTERNOON
Wayne Dobson: Wayne saw one black buck.
Tony Dukes: Tony was covered up with groups of hogs all afternoon.
George Tague hunted B&B hoping to get his first wild turkey. "It would be a real treat to get one with a bow." About 4:00 some turkeys milled through the woods and George never got a good look at them. Another buck passed by but never made his shooting lanes.
Later a group of wild hogs came up. George shot the largest one and it ran behind the stand.
Billy Don came to pick George up and we tracked the hog. Afterward George said, "I think Billy Don can track like a hound dog. He found little drops of blood that I didn't see."

Dave Cole with his big creek bottom buck.

Wayne Dobson

Buck Tony saw

Day #3 - Dave Cole's Day
AFTERNOON HUNT
Wayne Dobson saw 2 gobblers coming and got ready. He shot at one. The Tom hopped and Wayne's arrow went between its legs.
Later a mature 8-point showed up but Wayne passed a shot. The 8 was still in the area when Wayne saw a wide racked 10-point by his stand. This buck had a wider rack but the tines were not as long.
As he compared the two deer a group of wild hogs came down a trail and the bucks spooked. Wayne drew and double lunged the largest one, a big boar. The hog ran 60 yards and expired.

Wayne Dobson with his first wild hog
The Duck and Tony Dukes both saw big, mature bucks. The buck picture on the left is one of the bucks that Tony saw. He passed, waiting to see more bucks.
Tyge Floyd and Dave Cole stalked a wild hog and Dave got the shot. The hog ran right at them and Tyge shot it a few yards away and looked for Dave, who had prudently made a hasty retreat.
Then Tyge shot another hog (pic below). They both saw good bucks from their stands. Dave already has his buck and Tyge couldn't get a clear shot at one.

George Tague from Pennsylvania arrived today.
He hunted wild turkeys and saw one small group of Tom's but they were a little out of range.
MORNING HUNT
Dave Cole looked for an opportunity to shoot one of the 8-points walking through the trees around his stand. To his left he heard a deer's hooves clicking in the rocks of the near by creek bottom. Dave looked and saw the horns of an even bigger buck.
He immediately changed his plans. To Dave's Hunt
Wayne Dobson: 3 does passed though early. A sow and 6 young pigs were next. Then it wa quiet.
Tony Dukes: as daylight began to lighten up the dark a big 8-point stood 5 yards from his Double Bull blind. He came and went as it got lighter. Tony decided to pass the opportunity. A doe was next and then a second 8-pt walked through. At 9:30 a wide chocolate 10-pt chasing a doe ran in and out of the brush, running and grunting, full out. They raced passed the blind 3 times. Tony got this picture of the buck. Tony will return to this stand tonight.

Tyge Floyd hunted #18 and saw 2 does and 2 fawns at first light. A 5-pt was next. Two does hung around with the buck. A group of young hogs came through and Tyge shot one.
Boyd Burbank returned to his black buck spot. A flock of wild turkeys came through but he didn't see any gobblers. Three doe black bucks came to 28 yards and a buck came intercepted them and and they all left. Boyd cut through the trees 600 yards, crawled through a ravine, following the black buck with the intention of intercepting it.
Suddenly he noticed a water buffalo 80 yards between himself and the black bucks. This particular animal is known to have a bad attitude and has chased hunters before. Not knowing what to expect from the water buffalo, and hearing the worst earlier, Boyd turned back to the stand. He saw 17 texas sheep at 9:30. Several times he heard a red stag roar, a very similar sound to elk buggling.

Boyd Burbank

A buck walks under me
Day #2 - The Bucks Start Moving
Last night the following additional bowhunters arrived: Wayne Dobson, outdoor writer Tony Dukes, Tyge Floyd of TexasOutdoorsman.com.
MORNING HUNT
Tyge Floyd hunted saw 3 does at daylight. A sow bedded down nearby. Later deer winded him and ran off.
Dave Cole returned to last nights stand. Early on he saw 1 big black buck and a group of spanish goats. Later 2 mature bucks and a group of does passed through out of range.
Before daylight Boyd Burbank saw a black buck. Light came and he saw a sow with 4 pigs, 3 black buck does came in and laid around for half an hour. When they left a black buck came out of the nearby field and followed the does.
Wayne Dobson hunted at the Indian Mound stand and saw a bunch of does and a huge wild boar.
Tony Dukes saw 11 hogs and 3 does at #24.
AFTERNOON HUNT
Tyge Floyd hunted #21 and saw 7 aoudad, 3 does with a nice 8-pt in tow, grunting and chasing them. Later a doe and fawn winded him and blew at him numerous times.
Tony Dukes hunted #23 and saw 5 does, two 8-pts and 3 groups of hogs. He passed on the 8's. Here is the picture of one.

Wayne Dobson hunted near a creek. Five does chased each other around his area for awhile. Then a hog snuck around in the brush and left. After that deer and hogs continued to be in the area all morning.
Dave Cole hunted H stand and he saw a big buck with a split G2 traveling with 2 does. They were real spooky and Dave just couldn't get a shot.
Near dark Dave saw 4 bomber bucks coming down the hill opposite him. On the way they sparred, pushing and shoving, several times, as they moved closer. After dark they walked right under his treestand. Dave sat quietly until Billy Don picked him up.
Dave left his bow and fanny pack on the stand so he could slip in tomorrow morning and be ready right away.
Boyd Burbank saw the black bucks again but they stayed out of range. He got into a group of wild hogs and scored on a big one.

Boyd Burbank with his wild boar.

Robert Hoague starts the hunt off.
Dave Cole of BowFit

A buck walks under the Duck

After fighting another buck this nice buck walked right by my stand
Day #1
Dave Cole (owner of the BowFit Archery Exerciser) hunted #17 and saw 2 does and a fawn and lots of wild hogs. He wasn't interested in hogs today.
The Duck had activity also, he saw 2 does, 2 fawns, several wild hogs and 3 bucks. One of them is the 2nd picture on the left.
Boyd Burbank is hunting for a black buck and hunted # 21, an area that black bucks frequent. He saw 2 forkys, a spike, lots of wild hogs and an aoudad.
Robert Hoague: Daylight was coming on at #16.
A nice buck was 80 yards away. A second buck joined him.
Crash!!!
They locked horns and a heated fight was on. There was no way to know but I was seconds away from a magic day in Billy Don's woods. To my hunt...
AFTERNOON HUNT
Dave Cole saw 60-70 wild hogs, a monster boar, a dozen Corsican sheep, an ibex, 7 does, and one 8-point buck too far away to shoot.
Boyd Burbank pulled a stalk on two black bucks but they gave him the slip. On stand he saw a sow with 7 young pigs and a lone black buck 150 yards distant.
Donald Duck saw hogs and a 6-point before a large boar came by his stand. He shot it and the hog ran 45 yards. When we drove up he was standing by the boar. Here is a bigger pic of the Duck and his boar.

Here are a few pictures I took today.

A black buck walked under my stand and a nice 8-point buck gets within picture range.