atthewall Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Thought I would share a little of the pre-season scene here in the Texas Hill Country. I spend a considerable amount of time afield chasing whitetail, sunsets, wildlife.....basically everything with my lens. These scenes are basically a local whitetail herd near my home that I've been blessed to follow for several years. Many of these bucks I've watched over and over as they grow and mature and as you can see in this sequence of photos, I documented many of them during the early summer in early velvet and continued to follow them as they grew that new bone. I hope to continue on into the season and capture many of them as they go into post-rut mode. Many will show signs of wear and tear as the season moves forward, they always do. The beginning of 2008.... This buck may be a little gnarly Busted! Now we are getting somewhere and the bachelors are running in their associated pecking order. Headless wonder Texas wide The old old man....this is a mature whitetail that has passed his prime. Check his wrinkles in the neck area and the old beat down spine in sway. 7-8 years old and even in his elderly age, he's still noble and proud. YOU GO POPS! Doubles. Man I like them wide. And roughly a mile away....another pair of doubles. These guys hung out all summer long. Even the younger crowd seem to double up in groups..... "Who's your Daddy?" The late afternoon drink 102 degrees, Texas hot, it's July and this old boy is staying cool. Note the open mouth.....Cool looking buck right here even though he's probably not feeling cool. He's headed to water and decided he had enough...time for a drink! This is the first time I spotted this guy. What a mainframe 8! He's got double's in the G1 area. Guess the G2's are growing right behind those little G1s? Still looks 8 to me but scores 10. Another cool looking buck. Old sneaky with kickers Triples...junior has aspirations or simply picking up bad habits I got setup on a well worn gametrail nestled in cedars (juniper). I knew the afternoon movement game was well underway. Picked a day with clouds, Hurricane Gustav was barrelling over Lousiana and our temps to the west dropped 20 degrees. So off I go hoping for movement and got ready. Sure enough he showed, eyeballing another buck off in the distance. This pic is my first snap..... right after the shutter triggered on my camera...it was Vaya con Dios!!! I can't leave out the Rio Grandes. Even though the spring season wound down many weeks earlier...some of these guys still like to test their vocal chords. Rio's are well known to gobble and work up loudly....cool birds! If you need a locater call, just slam the truck door Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Good stuff right there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clrj3514 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 awesome pics and story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun_300 Posted October 15, 2008 Report Share Posted October 15, 2008 Nice pics Rob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_lou Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Those are all great pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddyboman Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 those are some amazing pics!!! Great job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illinois59 Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 Thanks for the pics. Awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookieee Posted October 16, 2008 Report Share Posted October 16, 2008 fantastic pics thanks for sharing them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davetucker Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Nice pics!!I kinda thought with bone size those boys got and for texas they'd have bigger boddies!But really nice deer!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Uh,....ummm,........WOW!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chenango Dave Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Fantastic series. Pics don't get any sharper than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Great shots there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atthewall Posted October 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Thank you all! I kinda thought with bone size those boys got and for texas they'd have bigger boddies! I know what you mean and the whitetail's running in the Texas Hills are genetically smaller than their South Texas Brush country cousins as well as their North Texas Panhandle cousins. A good buck in the Hills weigh roughly 175 lbs live-weight where as bucks in the Brush Country to the South and further up North on the high plains go 200+ lbs. It's a pretty big State and the whitetail here do have different genetics inside the Texas State lines. There are 9 different and very unique ecological regions in Texas. Some of these regions are unique enough to play into the local whitetail genetics due to the habitat. Winters in South Texas rarely ever get below freezing for more than 2 weeks tops during winter where as the region further up North has snow and more days of sub-freezing temps. It's a big place down here and even I have a tough time trying to break out of my region and explore the others here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 True enough. To put it in perspective, remember that north Texas is at the same latitude as Colorado and south Texas is about the same as Miami, FL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andrea Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Awesome pics......what kind of camera/lens are you using????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atthewall Posted October 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 Thank you. Andrea I'm using a well worn Canon D350 and lean on an old 75-300mm Canon lens that essentially is Canon's first generation Image Stabilization lens. Being a first generation lens, the glass quality is pretty good. Canon typically uses good glass on first generation lens offerings, to ensure the picture quality is there with a new release but this lens has horrific auto focus. The auto focus drive motor is too slow to be reliable with wildlife shots afield so I lean hard on manual focus to bring out the best of this lens. I shoot all my shots handheld without a tripod. It's ironic, I shoot old school style (35mm film gear) with newer gear. I've blown way too many opportunities with this lens in auto mode so manual mode it is. Shopping around for glass in the 100-400 focal range now. Not sure if it's going to be Canon L series or Sigma yet. Also leaning hard on a Canon D40 or the new D50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kid Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 that awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pendog Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 Great pics!!!! Would love to hunt those wide boys in Texas someday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aujack Posted October 21, 2008 Report Share Posted October 21, 2008 those are great pics! ha im kind of interested in seeing what that 1st gnarly buck ends up looking like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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