The Rock King

July / August 1996 Texas Trophy Hunter Magazine

REY DE LA PIEDRA (ROCK KING)

By Andy Milam

For the first time in 5 years I decided to dust the cobwebs

off of my old Ruger 300 Mag. and head down South of the border. Through mutual friends I had located a wonderful group of hunters who had 33,000 acres of prime country leased near the town of Sabinas in the State of Coahiula, Mexico. When I first talked to some of the guys who had been hunting this ranch for sixteen years I was amazed to find that they had little to no interest in feeding corn on the place. They were quick to point out that you can do whatever you want but they had no interest and felt no need for feeding. They liked the feel of hunting the place in it's natural state and did no drive hunting either. Rattling and grunting, still hunting and stand hunting natural deer funnels were the favored methods Well, being a Texas boy, I figured a little corn couldn't hurt so I proceeded to set up tripods and corn areas on my first trip to the ranch in early December. My second trip to the ranch was to start December 16th and I planned on staying through till Christmas.

Mary and I headed down on the evening of the 16th and decided to stay in a motel at the border that night and head to the ranch early the next morning.     We arrived at the ranch at 10:30 a.m. and got right to work feeding the areas we would be hunting and finishing work on my tripods.

After driving into these areas I told Mary I felt it would

be better to wait until the following day to start hunting them I felt a relaxing evening with a few cold Coronas would be an enjoyable way to start the hunt so I suggested we ease out to a natural rock point overlooking miles and miles of Old Mexico. We had never been out on the point before but one of the hunters, Ron Hyatt had told me it was a favorite spot for some of the guys in recent years.

By the time we worked our way out to the point and settled in, the sun was starting to dip low in the western sky. It was a beautiful sunset and a wonderful way to start the hunt.

As we sat sipping our cold Coronas and whispering back and forth about how beautiful it was I pulled out my grunt call and blew a few tending grunts. I looked to the left, looked to the right, then back to my left and to my amazement saw

a buck trotting along the edge of the rocks in our direction. When I threw up the binoculars, Mary knew I saw something and whispered,     Is it a good one? ".     Good enough!!", I responded

as I yanked up the magnum an proceeded to empty it.     I scampered down the rocks with blood covering my face and blocking my vision from the scope cut over my right eye, feeding in a new supply of cartridges on the way. At the bottom of the rocks I hollered back to Mary that the hunt was over.

We were 7 hours into a nine day hunt and we were through.

While my buck may lack an impressive score he has all the qualities I desire. Heavy  chocolate antlers with some of the most impressive brow tines I've ever seen and taken on a relaxing sit with my wife. It doesn't get much better than that.

As an added bonus my buck won "Best Mexico 9 Point," earning a Prestigious Jacket at the Los Cazadores Deer Contest.

Being an avid bowhunter, myself and many others I know, sometimes have the attitude that it's easy to kill deer with a rifle.

Well, after one shot through the ear, one in the dirt, one in the back leg and finally a fatal shot, I think I'll be more careful about keeping those type of opinions to myself.