My first trip to south Texas to bowhunt for whitetails

[tvc184]

Well, I made it to First Point Bow Hunting Ranch and back in one piece. What a lousy bit of luck to have picked those days to hunt almost two months ago. The foreman of the ranch told us that it had only rained 4 inches there in the last 15 months. Three hours after he said that, it began to rain, snow and sleet for three days. (I am about to send KFDM Coop a nasty letter about messing up our hunt-we know the weathermen are to blame for the lousy weather)

The trip is called a three day hunt but it covers four days. We went in at Noon on Monday and did not have to leave until Noon on Thursday. The nasty weather sure put a damper on our plans. The two other guys that I was with had planned on scouting and then setting up a couple of blinds each the first afternoon. I barely got one up (brushed in a pop-up blind) when it started to rain so I hunted that blind and never started the second (or third). It turned out to be my only blind. I didn’t want to keep coming back to the same blind over and over while bow hunting but really had little choice. The weather was just too nasty to work in. I had 5 deer come within 8 feet of me that first afternoon. One was a nice 8 point but not yet a shooter. He was a year and a half old whitetail and already had a good spread for his age (12â€) but they were thin beamed. He will be a nice one in three years (or more) when his rack spreads out and he gets some mass. I was in such a rush to get out that afternoon, I forgot my pocket camera. He would have made some good pics.

The only time that I did not hunt my blind was the next/first morning hunt. I didn’t mark my blind on the trail and it rained so much the night before that I missed my entry spot. They have a rule that you cannot be riding the 4 wheelers/pickups on the roads after 30 minutes before shooting time. That is to keep the idiots from running around and messing up everyone else’s hunt. If I would not have parked my ATV, I would have been one of the idiots. They have a rule that if you mess up someone’s hunt by breaking the rules, you pay for his hunt. You can be back on the road at 9:00am to go back to the camp, set up more blinds, scout or whatever.

Since I missed my spot and had no idea how to find it in the dark (and it was getting close to hunting time), I parked my ATV and looked around. You have to make sure that you are in the correct pasture and I figured (hoped) that I was in the correct spot. My assigned pasture was about 600 acres.  I walked a few yards and found a small clump of brush about 3 feet tall. I built a blind in a few minutes and waited there for daylight. I really didn’t think I would see anything but I was pretty much stuck so what the heck. I got two deer close to me in the next two hours before it started to rain AGAIN. It had rained most of the night but had stopped right about the time I was leaving camp (late-which is why I was not able to take time and find my blind). 

It then continued to rain/sleet/snow for about the next 44 hours straight. Actually it only rained for another 6 hours. Then it was snow/sleet/rain for the next 40-ish hours. The ground wasn't cold enough so only a little of it stuck. The rest just added to the mud. I wish the ground would have frozen to keep the mud down. I was so cold once the rain began to fall and I was in the open so I pulled my rain poncho over my head and sat there until it was time to be able to get back on the road and back to camp. I knew that I could not shoot with that rubber poncho so I just made it into a tent and sat it out until I could hit the road. Just before it rained, I had a six point within about 10 feet of me. He was a young deer but it was fun to be able to sit pretty much between two small clumps of brush and not have him spot me. I was camo’ed up pretty good with a face mask with those fake leaves blowing on them and it fooled him. I guess it is a lot easier to do with young deer.This is the 6 point. Most of the pictures came out a bit blurry due to the heavily overcast sky and the need for the camera to use a flash. Since I didn’t want to scare the deer off, I cancelled the flash.

The rest of the time (4 more hunts morning/evening) I went to my pop-up blind that I had brushed in. It was about 75 yards off of the sendero (roads cut through the mesquite/low brush thickets). I saw a total of 14 different deer that I could identify. Most of them came back more than once so I actually had about 35 sightings of deer within 10 yards of me but I could tell which ones were repeats.

I threw a lot of corn out around my blind at the suggestion of (setxsports.com) “gringoâ€. It worked and I got a lot of deer to come to my location. One of my partners did the same and also got a lot of deer coming to him. The other guy did not listen to gringo's advice and didn’t get nearly as many deer in his area.

After my second afternoon hunt, I scattered 25 pounds of dried feed corn in about a 20 foot circle. When I left the night before, it was snow and sleet covering most of it and it did not thaw until the next afternoon. By the next morning, the deer had pawed their way through the snow and ice and eaten every bit of corn.

On the afternoon of the third day (last afternoon hunt), I saw a 4.5 year old buck that I started to draw on when he first came into view. When I first saw him I knew he would likely be my only shot. I could see his main beam was fairly thick. He was not a trophy but at first glance, I thought he was at least a good 3.5 year old 130 inch class which would be good for that day hunt ranch. His G2’s were maybe 9†long. Then he turned toward me and I could see that his rack was only about 14†wide. At the time I didn’t even notice that he didn’t have brow tines. I assumed that he was an 8 point but he only had 6 since he was missing those brow tines. He was a nice deer body wise but he was a cull buck for sure. I took a pic of him about 15 feet away and showed it to the foreman of the ranch. I had other hunters saying that it was a young deer but I thought there was no way. They were looking at his horns but he was starting to get that fat gut, a thick neck and his face looked too short. The foreman said that it was likely 4.5 years old and that was my guess before I spoke to him. I tried to kill him the next morning (yesterday) but he came and stayed for about a minute and never turned to give me a broadside or quartering away shot. The first day he stayed and ate for 10 minutes. Go figure. Yesterday, I had six does eat for 40 minutes. He got there, ate a couple of pieces of corn and then followed them away. I guess he was more interested in following female companionship than in eating. What kind of guy is that?

These are a couple of the pics of him the first day I saw him. The photos are through the screen of my blind and it is too dark making for a slow shutter speed and also it is shooting through that mess camo screen.He was between about 12-15 feet away at these pics.

Anyway, I saw a bunch of deer but no shooters close except that cull buck. The guys I was with saw about a 170 class about 800 yards from my blind but he never came in to my area (or theirs). If it would not have been such bad weather I think we would have stood a much better chance at a trophy deer. Even if not for the rain and snow, the ranch was pure mud since it wasn’t cold enough to freeze the ground. We couldn’t walk for all of the mud that stuck to our boots and the roads were a real pain to get down. Our ATV’s were completely covered with about 3†of mud. This is some of the slop on the roads and that is not counting the washouts that were about 50 feet long and almost two feet deep in mud and water.

We had fun and I got to see a bunch of deer up close and personal. We learned a lot about hunting the south Texas brush country and what to bring and not bring next time.

The guys that I was with saw some good deer that could have been shot. One of them passed up a couple waiting on a larger deer, then by the time he decided to shoot, no more big ones came his way. My other partner had a very nice 145 class buck come to about 35 yards from him but turned away due to needing to cross high water (darn rain again).

These are some of the pics that came out as most of them were too blurry due to the shutter speed with the overcast and inside the dark blind:

This is what a 4 point looks like from about 8 feet. Also notice the snow/sleet on the ground it is not thick but it sure made for bad hunting conditions.

Ice, ice and more ice.....

[Guest Diva]

Glad you are back tvc!  Great pics by the way. ;D

[tvc184]

Glad you are back tvc!  Great pics by the way. ;D

I would have liked to have added one with a trophy buck with me posing for a picture or maybe an arrow sticking out of its side.

[mactiger]

I am sorry the weather was yucky but the story and the pictures are great.

[adminbaberuth]

If I was Chester Moore I would be worried ;D

Great story and pics TVC.

[tvc184]

If I was Chester Moore I would be worried ;D

Great story and pics TVC.

Thanks.

So I can give up my day job?