It snowed in our part of Texas last night. Now Texas does get snow occasionally but Brazos County doesn't and last night it snowed all the way down to Houston. It was colder here that it was in Baltimore Maryland. I used to live up there and I can tell you that, while this wasn't a major snow storm, it was fairly respectable. It was definitely a pretty good snow shower.

I hadn't hunted whitetail on snow since I was a little kid with my dad in 1976, I called him to verify this, and he killed an 11pt buck that hunt. The problem was that this was a Wednesday and I had to work the next day. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I played hooky from work. I had to. Life is too short to worry about work when there is snow on the ground and it's deer season in TX. It could be another 22 years before I get this chance, if ever.

So I got up early Thursday, “called that shot” as we say in my line of work, put on my under-armor thermals, another layer and my overalls and went hunting. For Brazos County it was plenty cold. I've been in colder but not in this region. It was in the upper 20's and not much was moving. I'd past a few deer on the road on the way to the hunt and they were all bedded down. The sun came up and my feeder went off at 7am. Nothing. A few birds, some squirrels but no deer. At about 8am I saw a couple of does come in. My best guess is that these deer had never seen snow and were colder than normal so they didn't want to move much. In any event, I wasn't seeing the buck I've been hunting but I wouldn't have traded for the serenity of the moment for anything. I was bundled up, it was still, there was still some snow on the ground and I was out in it. Many people search a long time for a moment like this one. The stillness, the majesty of nature, the oddity of snow in our area. It was a beautiful hunt.

Around 9am or so I got out of the blind and decided to walk down to the river. I spot stalked for about a quarter mile or so when I spotted some does out on the bank. I stopped and stood still and let them pass within 50-75yards of me. I really didn't want to kill anything at that point. I've already killed more deer in my life than most people get to so I don't judge a hunts success on my kill ratio.

I saw coon tracks in the snow, I saw beaver sign, I looked up through the trees to the clear sky and thanked Almighty God that I was allowed this moment. I wouldn't have traded this day for anything.

One other time I was in an ice storm in Brown County, in a deer blind where I wasn't seeing game but being in the moment seeing weather, nature and God's own hand in play made the hunt more about being there than actually killing something.

If you ever get the chance to hunt like this, for the pure enjoyment of it, for the sheer joy being alive, I highly recommend it.

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I get them downloaded.

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