Hunting Reports Needed

[Horsefly]

Here it is,Weds. morning,and I haven't heard any good deer hunting reports.I'm sure ChasMike is down in Utopia for the week and will have a good story,but I know he's not the only deer hunter we have. I leave for my muledeer hunt down on the meskin border the first week of December,and have even started getting ready yet. Jerry

[AzRednek]

Wish I could report something. I didn't get picked for either Deer or Elk. I didn't apply for any exotic animal like Bison or Bighorn Sheep. Out of apx a dozen of us that hunt together, my son and I were the only ones to completly strike out on the lottery. The only good thing was getting an email notification last night that I've been selected for Javalina. I haven't figured out the area I was selected for yet. I do know I was chosen for the HAM (handgun, archery or muzzle loader) hunt. Hopefully I will be able to report something around March. Illness is keeping me from Quail season, hopefully I can make up for it during the second Dove season that starts in December.

[donmarkey]

I only got out once since bow season started here. All I got to see was a nice 6 point dance around just out of bow range. I'm trying to get work caught up so I can get out this weekend.

-Don

[roscoedoh]

Jerry,

 

I'm heading to Panola county this weekend to deer hunt with my dad. I'll give you a report when I get back.

 

Now, I've *heard* that this will be a good year for whitetails and that several people have already harvested Boone & Crockett caliber deer around this part of the state already. And rifle season just started. That has me excited because I didn't really see anything last year and really, really want to shoot a deer this year.

 

Anywho...I'll try to have you a report to read with your coffee Monday morning.

 

-Jason

[MarkTX]

Went to our place at Rocksprigs TX this weekend and got a pig with the Whelen I built with the help of ya'll. Isaw 3 small 8 pointers and a few spikes. Won't get out there till later this month as I'm going to Manitoba On the 18th With my Whelen. Let ya'll know how I do.

[roscoedoh]

Well,

 

Went hunting this weekend in Panola County, Texas. The area surrounding our blind was clear cut two years ago and replanted last year. Native grasses have sprung up everywhere, but since it has not rained lately, all the grasses and little trees are mostly brown. Additionally, the low spot that usually holds water 80 yards from our blind is dry so the deer cannot drink there right now. Lastly, we do not have a feeder up.

 

With all that said, the weather was nice this weekend. We sat in the blind yesterday morning and evening and then again this morning. It was warm but there were few mosquitos. Despite the lack of available water and feed, two does came into our blind last night but something spooked them and they disappeared in a flash. I'm pretty sure a buck scared them, but if there was one there, we couldn't see him.

 

I wish I could report I'd shot a deer but that was not in the cards this hunt. I'll try again next weekend; this time in San Augustine county.

 

 

[ChasMike]

Jerry,

I got a nice 8 point (by Hill country standards) on opening morning. I shot him with the 22-250 that Sonic and I just put together a while back. I'm pretty much a meat hunter so I prefer neck or head shots so as not to mess up much meat. Well I shot this one in the lungs hoping he would run a ways so that I could work my Blue Lacy tracking dog. Instead he dropped like sack of taters and didn't move a muscle. That 22-250 with 60 grain partitions did the trick.

I let him chill in the cooler a couple days and then made chili meat out of him.

The land owner had trapped a couple 50-60 # pigs and had been feeding them corn for 3 or 4 weeks and he gave them to us so I butchered mine while we were down there and iced it down and brought it home.

Saturday I got out the grinder and stuffer and some hog casings and made 25 lbs of german sausage using a package of german sausage spices that I picked up down at Fischers. Man we had ribs and sausage on the grill yesterday and I must say it was outstanding.

Now tell me about this lease you got down by Saint Jo. Did you get to go opening weekend?

[Horsefly]

Thanks for the reports fellers! I know the Texas hunting is going to be a little slow because of the rain we had and no frost yet,so it's tough to see much with so much folige.Jason,we discovered the last couple years hunting down in the Hill Country,that spreading corn down a trail an afternoon before a morning hunt worked better than a feeder.The deer would feed,and then lay down just inside the brush,and get up every now and then to feed some more.When our feeders went off,everything raced to it,cleaned it up,and your morning hunt was over.One bag,spread about 50 yrds. down a trail seemed to work the best for us.Before anybody starts raising hell and saying that hunting around a feeder aint huntin need to understand,that in the cedar(juniper) country,if you don't draw the does out of the brush,you'll almost never see a buck.That brush is so thick,you can't walk through it,much less see past 10ft.I've heard folks slam hunting in a blind near a feeder,but if not for that,the Hill Country would be almost impossible to hunt.

Mike,the St. Jo lease didn't pan out.My brother is dating to gal that owns the place,and they had a falling out right before season,got back together,but I figured it would be better to wait on my Big Bend hunt.Someday,I will have another lease though.After 16 years on the lease at London,I'm spoiled.I'd sure love to hunt the Hill Country again.The dudes I work with that use the Fischers pe-packaged sausage seasoning are making better sausage than Fischers sells.I'm glad you had a good hunt and bet you can't wait to get back down there. Jerry

[ChasMike]

Yeah Jerry I'm gonna go back down right after Thanksgiving dinner and stay for 8 or 10 days. Hope to shot two or three more and process them down there and bring them back already done. The land owner has a cooler and a place we can process our deer. Might even get lucky and get another Axis.

As far as hunting a feeder, I don't give a flying flip what anybody thinks. We feed year round and make three or four (800 mile) round trips each year in the off season and fill the large feeders we have set up. We probably feed 100 or more deer year round between the 5 or 6 feeders we have on the place and we only harvest maybe 12-15 deer a year.

The people that had the lease before us took there feeders down as soon as season was over and the land owner said that the deer starved to death by the dozens come January and February when it got really cold and there was nothing to eat. That country down there can not support the amount of deer that it has. There is just not enough native food for them.

I love the spot and stalk style of hunting but that is not much of an option in most of the Texas hill country. The guys down there that build the high fence hunting preserves have to bulldozer down all the cedars so the hunters can see those high dollar animals that they are paying to shoot.

Later,

Mike

[724wd]

i hunted the late buck hunt up here in spokane last weekend with one of our dogsitters and his dad. his twin brother scored a 3 point during general season. i was appalled! we road hunted all morning (it was torrential downpour) which was technically ok, but some of the areas we were traveling were actual neighborhoods! "saw a nice buck in that fella's yard last year"! later, a smallish 4 point ran toward the rig, running from other hunters on private ground, (both sides of the road were private ground) and this guy yells at his son to get out and shoot the buck! "get him when he crosses the road!" now, it was a gravel road, but that's still highly illegal and extra unethical since it was not a high-mountain, unihabited area... the kid got out, and i was saying to myself "dont shoot that deer! dont shoot that deer!" why didnt i say it out loud? well, not knowing where i was, and being a polite type, i held my tongue, but will no longer hunt with this man. i would love to take his kids out by themselves and instill some ACTUAL hunting ethics, and i know their mom is all for it. in fact, she asked the night before we left, "why can't you just take him, instead of going with his dad?" well, i have no knowledge of the area for hunting and wanted to find some public land to go. The kid did not shoot the buck, and when i told him later how happy i was he didn't shoot it, he stepped up and said he thought it was a really bad idea and didnt want to, but his dad was yelling at him to bail out of the rig. I do plan to go back out again, but not with that guy! i've taken his boys fishing, and they're good kids. 15 years old now, and will take them hunting any chance i get - to the public land i now know of, and off the road! oh, and did i mention we ended up in Idaho? that would have been tough to explain to a fish cop!

 

good luck to the rest of you out there...