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Legacy -The 2023 Deer Season-

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Texas day #3

 

Am 

I put eyes on a stud 8pt at first light. Unfortunately he never made it close enough to even flirt with a shot. I did have a "cull" buck visit the set late morning also. 

One of the guys shot a doe and I spent 2 hours with the guide blood trailing her. After 500 yards the blood disappeared. We brought in a few other guys and did a grid search with no luck. Seemed like a flesh wound. Bright red blood but only drops every 4 ft. The hunter knew he hit her low and instead of letting her sit he jumped on the blood trail and immediately started trailing her on his own. Terrible decision. 

 

Pm

Insanity. I barely had the gun loaded and I had 2 bucks in front of me. At one point I had 8 bucks within 70 yards of the blind. Only one buck was decent. Solid wide 8pt (maybe upper 120s, lower 130s). The younger batch of bucks took turns sparring with each other. Very entertaining sit. 

 

After day 3 (5 hunts) 6 of 8 hunters have shot bucks. 6 does have been shot also and one pig. 3 more hunts to go.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Gill-T said:

Any opportunities for spot and stalk if you wanted or is sitting over bait-only?

 

Yes. I actually did some for does midday on Saturday morning but we were unsuccessful. 

They will do some spot and stalks for does and for bucks they stalk/rattle.

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Gill-T

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I will let you know about performance when I shoot a deer with mine. I have been too damn selective this year. I will tell you to hold on firmly when sighting in on bench, as the firestick packs a punch (red stick). First time I have ever scoped my nose. Kick is similar to a 12 gauge slug. 

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Texas day #4

 

AM

Covered up in 8pts all morning. All age classes but nothing to squeeze the trigger at. 8 different 8pts kept me entertained for most of the morning sparring, posturing, chasing each other off. I also saw two stud toms. 8"+ beards on the pair of them. They were roosted in the oaks directly in front of me so I got a chance to see them fly off the roost and strut for a bit.

 

PM

Once again just covered in bucks but once again nothing I wanted to throw ammo at. Another 7-8 crop of bucks of various ages. The biggest might have been a 120" but the dominant buck was a tall slightly older 6 pt. 

 

28 bucks in the last 3 sits. All on the same ranch but 8n three different sets. Very impressive crop of bucks. 

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9 hours ago, Gill-T said:

I will let you know about performance when I shoot a deer with mine. I have been too damn selective this year. I will tell you to hold on firmly when sighting in on bench, as the firestick packs a punch (red stick). First time I have ever scoped my nose. Kick is similar to a 12 gauge slug. 

Reminds me of an old Pat McManus story about borrowing his buddy's gun and being able to clap behind his back using his shoulder blades after sighting it in, but never getting up the courage to pull the trigger during the season - even when a big old buck presented a shot opportunity lol. My slug gun was my best buddy and worst nemesis. Since the advent of rifle hunting here, it's been either my MZ or .270, and I haven't shot a deer with the slug gun in years. I haven't missed it at all.

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Well we are making the loooooong trip back home from Texas. Honestly it was a great trip. If you have never done the Texas thing you need to. It is a totally different whitetail world. The longtime statewide management practices that we have read about forever are impressive and they have created a mecca of whitetail fair chase hunting. Everything you have heard is true. 1 to 1 doe/buck ratio is the reality in Texas and insane buck/deer numbers. In my 8 hunts over the course of 5 days I saw close to 40 bucks. The natural movement of these deer is unlike anything I have ever seen. I literally felt that any second, of any hunt, a stud could show up. These are not the vampire deer that we hunt in western NY but acted totally 100 percent unpressured. They moved freely almost all day Morning, midday, afternoon. It didn't matter.
 
So what's the ground we are hunting? It's west Texas Hill country. It's tough ground. It's rolling hills, rocky, and every plant has 9 inch spikes on it. Very unforgiving country. I spent time blood trailing a doe one of the guys shot and I'm still pulling thorns out of my legs and hands four days later. The amount of ground they have is so vast that I never sat in the same spot twice. The sets were box blinds set in some great looking spots. Surprisingly they dont run a lot of cameras during the season. While we were hunting the guides would glass and scout to try to put us on the deer. Usually it was that scouting that led us to hunting specific sets.
 
The agriculture around there is mostly wheat. And the noticeable natural browse was oaks, cedars, and natural grasses. Programmed corn feeders are a huge part of the process. I have hunted feeders in 3 states. The difference with Texas vs the others is these feeders are necessary to maintain the herd and supplement the herd where in Ohio and North Carolina the corn is like a drug addition. From the outside looking in I always believed that the feeders were the primary attraction to most of these sets however in Texas it was the natural grasses (almost food plot like) that were the number one food preference on these ranches. 
 
And these ranches... Wow these ranches are immense. 5000-6000+ acres and there is ranch after ranch for as far as the eye can see.  Miles and miles of deer habitat. One of the sets I was in was 6+miles from the hard road. Nothing could prepare me for the vastness of Texas hunting. There were two of us sharing the same guide and typically we were a mile or so apart. I cant even imagine where the next nearest human to us.
 
The outfitter was great. My only experience with guided hunts is with my Ohio outfitter so I dont have much to go off but they were great. The things outside of hunting were amazing and the way in which they do things is perfect. Their southern hospitality is a great thing to experience especially if youre from NY. It was literally a hunting vacation. They have cooks on staff that feed you three big meals a day plus snacks and bs. You were never hungry, ever! Great place to hang out and relax. Deer heads and pigs on the wall. They have a processing facility on site and every deer is weighed and aged, and the bucks are scored. This is all done for record keeping and the info is posted to the "scoreboard" to keep track of things while we are there. 
 
The short answer on Texas is that it is amazing and if you have the whitetail addiction you must get there to experience it.
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