Big buck update
The 2007-08 Texas deer season has been over for weeks, but we won't know how good it was for whopper bucks until after Saturday's deadline to submit paperwork to the Texas Big Game Awards program (TBGA).
The TBGA program is a cooperative effort between the Texas Wildlife Association and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department intended to recognize hunters who harvest quality big game animals and the land managers responsible for producing them. The main idea is to get more folks on the game and habitat management bandwagons.
TBGA program executive director David Brimager said scored entries continue to trickle in, and he expects to see more as hunters race to get scoring and paperwork completed by Saturday's cutoff date.
A quick review of the TBGA Web site indicates the deer season may have been as good in some parts of the state as many had anticipated.
Thanks to timely spring and summer rains, forage was plentiful at critical times. The abundance of natural food bolstered antler growth on bucks and carried does and fawns into fall and winter in excellent physical condition.
On the unofficial TBGA leaderboard, three bucks taken in Region 5 (Post Oak Savannah) score upwards of 200 Boone and Crockett points gross. Two of them came from Grayson County, an archery-only county in Northeast Texas.
The top scoring non-typical is a Grayson County 21-pointer shot behind a low fence on small acreage by archer Brock Benson of Sherman. The buck grosses 210 4/8 B&C points and nets 201 2/8, making it a lock for the record book.
Another great Grayson County buck shot by Donnie Herod holds the No. 2 spot. Herod's buck grosses 211 3/8 B&C points and 199 3/8 net.
The No. 3 Region 5 non-typical was collected on open range less than three miles from the Palestine city limits by Andrew Jimenez of Swanson Hill. Jimenez's Anderson County 20-pointer grosses 201 7/8 and nets 196 5/8.
There is a good story behind the Jimenez buck. The hunter works construction out-of-state and only had time to hunt one day last season. Needless to say, he made it count.
"I was on a job in Cheyenne, Wy., and I had been seeing a bunch of big ol' mule deer up there," Jimenez said. "I just couldn't stand it. I had 1 1/2 days off around Thanksgiving and knew I wouldn't get any more time off until after the first of the year. So I decided to drive 15 1/2 hours home, just to hunt one day. My wife didn't like it much, but I did it anyway."
Jimenez erected a pop-up blind near a cane thicket that was riddled with fresh buck sign. He sat there about 20 minutes when the big buck came barreling by on the heels of a doe in estrus.
"It was pretty obvious he had been chasing her for a while," Jimenez said. "Both of them were wore out. They were panting, and their tongues were hanging out. I started shaking like a leaf the second I saw him."
Jimenez's Anderson County buck, though impressive, doesn't overshadow the season hunters had in Grayson County.
Besides the Nos. 1 and 2 non-typicals on the Region 5 list, Grayson County also produced a couple of 180-class giants this season. Perhaps the most impressive is Jim Lillis' 10-point typical that grosses 181 2/8. Dustin Sandlin also took an outstanding non-typical that grosses 188 6/8.
The top scoring non-typical reported thus far in Region 6 (Pineywoods) belongs to John Smith Jr. His Gregg County whopper grosses 186 3/8 and nets 182. Randy Hurst took the No. 2 Region 6 non-typical in Cherokee County (174 5/8 gross, 167 3/8 net), while the No. 3 non-typical was killed in San Augustine County by Robert Mosley (170 3/8 gross, 167 1/8 net).
JT Parker shot the top scoring Region 6 typical in San Augustine County. Parker's buck grosses 160 1/8 and nets 156 7/8. Cody Gladden's San Jacinto County buck ranks No. 2 at 161 2/8 gross and 156 3/8 net.
Deer hunters in Regions 7 (Coastal Prairies) and 8 (South Texas) also harvested some outstanding bucks this season.
The top scoring non-typical reported from Region 7 was taken in Colorado County by Gregory Greer, whose buck grosses 191 2/8 and nets 186 6/8. James Seabolt shot the region's No. 2 buck in Guadalupe County (180 1/8 gross, 173 net), while the best Region 7 typical shot by Hugo Helmcamp in Colorado County grosses 175 3/8 and nets 167 3/8.
There are currently four bucks on the South Texas leaderboard with gross scores topping 200. The biggest is Marko Barrett's Webb County giant that grosses 275 7/8 and nets 269 2/8. Barrett's buck is the highest scoring non-typical ever entered in the history of the TBGA program.
Region 8's top scoring TBGA typical was shot by Rick Friedrich in Webb County.
You can check the TBGA Web site (www.texasbiggameawards.com) for additional updates and photos in coming weeks.
• Matt Williams' e-mail address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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