TBGA finalizes list of top scoring bucks from 2010-11
The Texas Wildlife Association released the official Texas Big Awards Program category standings for 2010-2011 on April 18, and there are some bruisers in the bunch that you may or may not have heard about.
TBGA is a popular conservation program hatched years ago as the result of a partnership between the TWA and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The program promotes quality game management practices by recognizing hunters that take quality big game animals in Texas, as well as the land managers who produce them.
TBGA divides the state into eight ecological regions. It has scored categories for whitetail deer (typical and non-typical), mule deer (typical and non-typical), and pronghorn antelope. There also is a first harvest category.
Minimum net green Boone & Crockett scores for program eligibility are as follows: pronghorn, 70; typical mule deer, 145; non-typical mule deer, 160; typical white-tailed deer, 125 to 140 (depending on region); and non-typical white-tailed deer, 140 to 155 (depending on region). Antlers must be scored by an official TBGA scorer to be eligible for entry in the program.
The final deadline for submitting scored entries this year was Feb. 15. TBGA rules require that the Top 5 animals from each region be re-evaluated by a certified Boone and Crockett records scorer before the results become official.
That's a good thing, because the B&C scorers sometimes discover errors in the original scoring procedure. Occasionally, scorers even find mistakes in arithmetic.
TBGA director David Brimager says a good example of why the Top 5 animals are re-evaluated surfaced this year. Brimager said the unofficial net score on one typical whitetail was found to be off (on the high side) by a full seven inches. The deer was originally thought to rank as the No. 3 typical statewide. Not anymore.
"Mistakes happen," Brimager said. "That's why we do it (the reevaluations.)"
Brimager said TBGA collected more than 1,600 entries this year, including new statewide all-time records in the typical and non-typical whitetail categories.
The new record non-typical was shot by Mark Barrett at the Las Racies Ranch in Webb County. Official score on the whopper is 307 1/8 gross, 292 1/8 net.
Archer Jack Brittingham collected the new all-time record typical at the Rancho Encanado. The Dimmitt County whitetail officially scores 213 7/8 gross, 196 1/8 net.
It should be noted that neither the Barrett Buck nor the Brittingham Buck is eligible for a spot in the Boone and Crockett record book, despite surpassing the required minimum scores. Both deer were shot behind high fence, which B&C does not recognize.
I always try to keep close check on the East Texas deer harvest each year, but it always seems like a giant or two comes to surface as the final entries trickle in ahead of the TBGA entry deadline.
D'Ann Adams, Walker County
One of the late arrivals belongs to 32-year-old D'Ann Adams of Coldspring.
A second-grade teacher, Adams takes her deer hunting more serious than most. For starters, she said she spent 84 hours in her deer stand after she spotted a whopper buck chasing does on Oct. 23 at her family's 5,500 acre low-fence ranch in Walker County.
The property has been under intense game management for several years. This allowed Adams to get in the woods early with a Level 3 Managed Lands Deer Permit in her pocket. She remembers her first encounter with the monster buck well.
"I yelled and did everything I could to get him to stop, but he paid no attention at all," Adams recalled. "I could have taken shot, but it would have been way too risky."
Adams hunted multiple times during the weeks that followed with no luck. She finally saw the deer a second time shortly after daylight, on the morning before Thanksgiving. The experience was almost a carbon copy of the first, only this time she got her buck.
"He came out on the heels of some does and left before I was able to get a shot," Adams said. "I thought I'd blown my chance and the he showed back up, about five minutes later."
Adams shoots a 7mm-08, and her shot was dead on at 251 yards. Recovering the deer was a family affair orchestrated by her husband and two daughters, ages two and seven.
"It was a pretty neat experience -- very rewarding," Adams said. "Our ranch has been under Level 3 management since the mid-1990s. To see it pay off with a deer like this is pretty special."
Adams' buck, a 16 pointer, was the top scoring non-typical reported in Region 6 last season. It grosses 200 1/8 B&C and nets 191 1/8.
Stephen Steakley, Shelby County
Another late arrival to the East Texas leaderboard belongs to Stephen Steakley of Austin. Steakley didn't mince words when asked to tell the story behind the big 14-point non-typical he brought down at the Bone Hill Hunting Club in Shelby County on the morning of Nov. 12.
"It was pretty much dumb luck," Steakley said. "I hadn't been on the stand very long when I heard two red birds making some noise in a bush behind me. When I turned to look, I saw the silhouette of this huge deer standing in some brush about 30 yards behind me."
Realizing the deer had him pegged, Steakley said he positioned for the shot as quickly as possible and squeezed off just before the deer bolted to run.
"If it hadn't been for those two red birds, he probably would have slipped right past me," Steakley said. "If that's not dumb luck, I don't know what is."
The official score on the rack is 187 1/8, 182 net. It ranks as the No. 2 Region 6 non-typical reported to TBGA last season.
Sharon Lane, Navarro County
Region 5's top scoring non-typical was one of those genetic freaks that suddenly showed up out of nowhere at a place where it was least expected, leaving hunter Sharon Lane scratching her head in total awe.
Lane owns 432 acres in western Navarro County that she cares for with kid gloves. She was sitting in a box blind at the epicenter of the property on opening morning when the huge buck suddenly appeared in the distance.
Lane said heavy brush obscured her view of the buck's body and prevented her from taking a shot, but she could tell from the buck's enormous rack that it was definitely something special. She nicknamed him "Points."
"Taking that shot through the brush would have been way too risky," Lane said. "It wasn't worth taking the chance of making a bad shot and wounding him. I decided to wait."
Lane hunted off and on throughout November without seeing the deer again. Figuring the buck had moved elsewhere, she was pleasantly surprised when it showed back up at her stand site early on the morning of Dec. 2.
The buck offered Lane a clean shot this time and she took it. Sporting 23 scoreable points, the big non-typical gained nearly four inches on its net score after re-evaluation by a B&C scorer. The deer grosses 202 7/8 and nets 200 2/8 -- easily surpassing the 195 minimum required to land a spot in the B&C record book.
"I've been hunting all my life and I have never seen anything that would come close," Lane said. "He's an amazing animal -- the biggest thing I've ever seen."
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