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Two Hunters Bag 12-Point Bucks This Season at Refuge

Posted on: Saturday, 24 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Tony Vindell

ight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 24--BAYVIEW -- The sport of hunting gives people something to brag about, but for Bill Barrick the 2005 season at the Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is probably a lifetime memory.

The 70-year-old Conroe resident bagged a 12-point buck during this year's archery hunt, and it's one of two monster bucks taken this season from the 40,000-plus acre refuge.

Another hunter, John Fernandez, from Katy, took another 12 pointer as big as Barrick's, also with a bow and arrow.

Both bucks scored more than 155 Pope & Young points.

Pope & Young is a club recognized as the official repository for records on big game harvested with a bow in North America.

Barrick, who on Jan. 3 will turn 71, said he got the deer at about 8:30 a.m. Dec. 3, the first day of the eight-day archery season.

"I was sitting on a three-legged stool when I saw the buck," he said in a telephone interview from Conroe. "He was only 26 yards away, but I held for 30 yards. The arrow went off and struck high hitting the backbone."

Barrick said the deer fell on his rear and as he tried to get up he let a second arrow go.

"That is my first deer at the refuge and the biggest one I have taken with a bow and arrow," he said. "This one will be a full-shoulder mount."

He said the buck had a 20 1/2-inch spread and weighed about 150 pounds on the hoof.

The two 12 pointers were the biggest ones taken from a total of 13 bucks bagged with bows and arrows. Hunters bagged 19 does, seven feral hogs and four nilgai antelopes during the archery season, which drew 600 hunters.

The modern firearm season, which ended Wednesday, yielded 34 bucks, 21 does, eight feral hogs and seven nilgais.

James Davis, whose family is from Brownsville, took a 10-point buck.

"It was a memorable experience," he said. "I got the deer 2.5 miles inside the refuge. I went to get a cart to haul it out but it was getting a little too dark, so I got help from a wildlife officer."

Davis, who bagged the deer on Tuesday, said he was still in pain Wednesday from all the work he did trying to get the deer to the check station.

Another refuge hunt, using black powder, produced two bucks, six does, three feral hogs and one nilgai.

Refuge officials said the 12 nilgais taken this season are a record number for the refuge.

The antelopes, native to India, were brought to South Texas in the 1930s and have since spread to the refuge. A few of these large animals have been seen as far south as FM 511, just north of Brownsville.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas)

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