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Hunting ‘23/‘24: Bag ‘em and Tag ‘em

686

By 686
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686

686 3447

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Time to start looking at the calendar and getting some dates reserved. Ordered my OTC Elk tag for Colorado today. Third rifle season, Nov 11-17.

 

Also looking at:

 

Central Zone Dove opener Sept 1-2

 

Teal hunt Sept. 16

 

Whitetail rifle opener Nov 4-5 (probably try to get the kids on does)

 

Probably do some hunting thanksgiving week and try to hit the rut around early December.

 

May try to tack on a crane hunt, big duck hunt, or nilgai in the spring (if I don’t get an elk and have freezer space).

 

Was driving on 77 yesterday north of Raymondville and saw a big nilgai bull over the fence, I really want to make that hunt happen soon.

 

Got out to the range over the weekend to function test my phoneskope and spotter, it worked well. My shooting was bad at first, but after the rust was knocked of it improved to not great/not terrible. Something to build off of and stretch out to 500+ with the help of real-time feedback of the spotter and spotting scope with video.

 

8579bd49986369d3a2e621a700c8cf56.jpg

 

 

Second group was sub MOA. Room for improvement.

 

cb4a406928a78c94a720977664830545.jpg

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Al Czervik
Al Czervik

Closing out the season unless the piggies start showing up. Interesting split brow tine, definitely my PB.  Blanco County. 

686
686

God is good. Not a giant, but Very lucky this morning. My partner has the whole thing on video. Huge herd walked in on us. It was incredible.

Izhmash
Izhmash

Back from the taxidermist already. Better picture of the horns.

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686

686 3447

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Why hit the rut around December? Is that not the secondary rut where you hunt? Mid to late November is where it is at out here.

Last year our biggest rut activity was early December, it was surprising. Chalking it up to changing weather patterns, etc. It was very dry at our place last fall (a little Sept rain but very dry Oct and Nov), and it has been extremely dry the last 6 months. If we don’t get fairly good rain starting in September I’m thinking it will delay things again, but who knows.
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Storm the Field

Storm the Field 5293

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I'm all in. After a disappointing '22 where none of my hunting plans actually came to fruition, I'm champing at the bit for '23. 

1. As I posted in last year's thread a few days ago, just joined a lease in East Texas with my brother and some of his buddies. Lotta work to do to whip that place in to shape, but I'm actually looking forward to having an outdoors project on my hands. I've gotten way too city-fied over the past decade.

Also, first time I've ever actually been on a lease as a paying member rather than having to wait to get invited.  Gonna spend a couple Saturdays out there this offseason filling feeders and clearing out routes to the handful of serviceable stands, drinking beer, and plinking targets.

2. Have a weekend of 4 dove hunts booked for South Zone opener after missing last season entirely. 

3. Standing invite to head to a buddy's hunting club down on the coast for a duck hunt this Fall. Just gotta figure out a weekend that works for both of us.

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cknight

cknight 184

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I jumped into the bow hunting game this year so excited to get out in October and see if I can get a big one on the ground before general rifle season starts. Bow hunting is like fly fishing; there is so much information out there it's almost overwhelming.

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686

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@Storm the Field If you can get some basic equipment in your east Texas lease you could probably have some good success food plotting if there are are any openings in the trees. Do any of the lease members plot anything? Is it allowed per the lease rules?

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cknight

cknight 184

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On 8/4/2023 at 2:33 PM, 686 said:

 


What bow setup are you shooting? Are you going to hunt tree stands or pop-ups?

Scent control /wind direction really matters.

 

Shot and handled a bunch of different bows and ended up taking home a Matthew’s phase 4; put a QAD fall away rest and a black gold 3 pin sight.

I’ll mostly be hunting tree stands and appreciate the advice. Excited to get a lot closer and hone my hunting skills. 
 

I definitely want to hunt the West before I get too old but right now just trying to narrow down my arrows and broadheads (fixed vs mechanical etc)

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686

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Shot and handled a bunch of different bows and ended up taking home a Matthew’s phase 4; put a QAD fall away rest and a black gold 3 pin sight.
I’ll mostly be hunting tree stands and appreciate the advice. Excited to get a lot closer and hone my hunting skills. 
 
I definitely want to hunt the West before I get too old but right now just trying to narrow down my arrows and broadheads (fixed vs mechanical etc)

What is the soil type where your tree stands are? Point being: if it is rocky/hard pan: an aluminum broadhead will probably not survive more than one shot. They bend and then don’t shoot straight. Not something that people talk about a lot with broadhead selection, but at $15 a piece, it’s irritating. Slick Trick has some steel heads (blades are a little thin and don’t always survive), along with G5 montec (not my favorite geometry but it has a record of success), and if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, you can read Dr. Ashby’s data and look at Grizzly Stik and IronWill broadheads. Heavy steel heads are really tempting, but it will really knock your speed down and shots over 20 yards will be dicey with the amount of ducking the deer might do.

Mechanicals can do amazing damage when everything goes right, but they are frequently a one shot deal (even if the shaft survives, the blades usually all bend), and you can loose confidence in them if you see the blades popping out of the retention device while your arrow is nocked (catching on tree limbs, etc)

Texas white tails are a very challenging archery quarry. Archery hunting is a roller coaster - awesome highs and despondent lows. I missed a short archery shot on a 140” deer years ago and didn’t get over it for a year. But when it all comes together it’s the best.
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686

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So a little Merry Christmas to me.  I ordered a few of the new Spypoint Flex-S cameras.  Good clarity on these BTW.  When the box arrived it was much bigger than what 2 cameras should be. I guess the packaging line lady was high that day because they included this.
Spotting Scope
 

That’s a hell of a happy accident! Do you have a tripod for it? Phoneskopes are great too.
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Da Fino

Da Fino 2775

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On 8/4/2023 at 11:35 AM, cknight said:

I jumped into the bow hunting game this year so excited to get out in October and see if I can get a big one on the ground before general rifle season starts. Bow hunting is like fly fishing; there is so much information out there it's almost overwhelming.

Aim for the exit and practice at the elevation/distance similar to your stands. Also if the wind isn't right, there's no reason to even sit at your blind. 

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686

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Aim for the exit and practice at the elevation/distance similar to your stands. Also if the wind isn't right, there's no reason to even sit at your blind. 

Maybe the most succinct and 100% accurate advice on bowhunting ever written. It is nice to have a setup that works for the prevailing wind direction and a setup for a North wind. I have a really high tree stand which helps take the wind out of the equation but it’s tough to make shots from due to the down angle. You have to bend at the waist for steep down angling shots.
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deadshank

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15 hours ago, Speedtrucker said:

As my first post of the thread…

Y’all smarter than me peeps, what’s going on with this bucks “hair loss?”

Normal, ticks, lack of food?

5680cd9f0f34e7473b9d6e75eabbef84.jpg

Compare that coat of hair to the average coyote this time of year and the buck looks like he's wearing the finest Sakowitz mink money can buy.

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Storm the Field

Storm the Field 5293

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On 8/4/2023 at 11:34 AM, Storm the Field said:

As I posted in last year's thread a few days ago, just joined a lease in East Texas with my brother and some of his buddies. Lotta work to do to whip that place in to shape, but I'm actually looking forward to having an outdoors project on my hands. I've gotten way too city-fied over the past decade.

Also, first time I've ever actually been on a lease as a paying member rather than having to wait to get invited.  Gonna spend a couple Saturdays out there this offseason filling feeders and clearing out routes to the handful of serviceable stands, drinking beer, and plinking targets.

 

Welp, like idiots, brother and I volunteered to head up to the lease tomorrow morning and check on things since nobody has been out there in a long while. Supposed to be around 105 or so. God help us if the window units in the camp house have crapped out or the fridge kicked the bucket and there was anything perishable in there. I've also got a strong hunch that I'll be needing a can of wasp spray or two. 

Wish me luck!

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Storm the Field

Storm the Field 5293

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On 8/11/2023 at 4:15 PM, Storm the Field said:

Welp, like idiots, brother and I volunteered to head up to the lease tomorrow morning and check on things since nobody has been out there in a long while. Supposed to be around 105 or so. God help us if the window units in the camp house have crapped out or the fridge kicked the bucket and there was anything perishable in there. I've also got a strong hunch that I'll be needing a can of wasp spray or two. 

Wish me luck!

 

Successful trip. Hot as hell, but got some work done without keeling over from heat stroke.  Super dry out there as I suspected, and currently a burn ban in place so couldn't have started up a fire even if it was cool enough to make sense. 

Good news was that everything at the camp house was in working order. AC, fridge, hot water....etc. Area around the camp was pretty overgrown, but we got it trimmed up. Based on the expiration date of some shit in the fridge, looks like last person to stop by was sometime in late March or early April.

On the bad side, out of 4 stands currently set up, there's only a single feeder/stand combo that's currently suitable and it's the furthest from the camp down a pretty tough road. 4WD absolutely required. 

The feeders at 2 other stands were in "rough but still usable" shape last year, but are now completely shot and need to be replaced entirely. The other feeder that's in probably the best situated location on the property appeared to have been the victim of some racoon shenanigans. Battery and control panel were ripped out and laying on the ground but it looks like we may be able to just re-connect them. Wires all still intact. The stand at that feeder is in rough shape. Can probably patch it up enough to be usable this season, but before long it'll need to be replaced entirely.

Turns out, if you actually want to have a functioning deer lease, you need people stopping by more often than once every few months in the off-season to do maintenance, land-clearing, filling feeders...etc. There has obviously been no consistent feeding going on for a long while. 

Gotta get a decent size crew out there for a work weekend soon if we want to have more than single functional stand come November. 

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BabaYaga

BabaYaga 15288

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1 hour ago, Storm the Field said:

Turns out, if you actually want to have a functioning deer lease, you need people stopping by more often than once every few months in the off-season to do maintenance, land-clearing, filling feeders...etc. There has obviously been no consistent feeding going on for a long while. 

Troof

This is why I had to bring on hunters a few years back.  Group of four.  They're good guys.  All DFW white-collar guys with deep pockets and are conservation minded.  They also bow hunt, so they're out early and I take the kids later in the season.  They do a ton of work with feeders, moving blinds, protein feedings, etc.  

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Kennythetiger

Kennythetiger 9375

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On 8/12/2023 at 8:27 AM, deadshank said:

Just in time for deer season prep our tractor’s clutch laid down.  Gotta take it in and have it split to replace.  
 

Imminent special members’ assessment 

Ugh. 

Mine crapped-out just when I had 500 oat hay bales to move. Mechanic’s very rough estimate is $16K. 
Ouch. 

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686

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Also, @686 I am supposed to start this thread each year on the 15th. All good though bro.

I got buck fever bad after I my elk tag went through, couldn’t keep my finger off the trigger; will try to do better next year
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686

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Anybody have an opinion about the digital licenses? Yay or nay?

Digital license seems convenient for upland birds and general fishing, but you still have to buy a physical federal duck stamp and still have to put some kind of physical tag on big game animals, plus have pictures and then I really lost interest when you have to create a harvest report online (or offline and then remember to upload it later). Nope.
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crimsonlonghorn

crimsonlonghorn 2306

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10 minutes ago, 686 said:


Digital license seems convenient for upland birds and general fishing, but you still have to buy a physical federal duck stamp and still have to put some kind of physical tag on big game animals, plus have pictures and then I really lost interest when you have to create a harvest report online (or offline and then remember to upload it later). Nope.

Thanks for the responses. Just ordered paper licenses to be shipped to my house in 7-10 days.

FWIW, I asked my brother just now as well - he is much more plugged in than me - and this is what he responded with:

image.png.0110296a059b431f082974ea7b3a6fb5.png

 

I find that to be totally believable and is persuasive for me not to buy a digital license.

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markstanco

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1 hour ago, 686 said:


Digital license seems convenient for upland birds and general fishing, but you still have to buy a physical federal duck stamp and still have to put some kind of physical tag on big game animals, plus have pictures and then I really lost interest when you have to create a harvest report online (or offline and then remember to upload it later). Nope.

All of this.  Where my deer blind is at the lease I cant even send a text out, and my phone says SOS for service.  I would totally forget to upload it and get a stupidity ticket. 

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Speedtrucker

Speedtrucker 2071

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The game warden thing never occurred to me.  We've always been on a first name basis with them and they having a standing invite at our table.  They have a tough job.

One of my group has a family member that works for TPWD and knows our GW well enough. We’ve seen him out around when they were shutting down a sketchy processor in Iowa park… and again at another joint.

We have never seen him around my land but we’ve talked to him when we started having poaching problems that started turning into near harassment issues a few years ago. He looked into it for us and shit straightened out. Haven’t had a feeder or stand fucked with since.

I’d imagine their stress is super high with hunter harassment issues since everyone is armed at all times
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crimsonlonghorn

crimsonlonghorn 2306

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Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of respect for game wardens and I 100% acknowledge how difficult their jobs are. 

That being said, showing up "randomly" in a way that appears to be correlated with data that they supposedly shouldn't have seems sketchy and unnecessary and feels like more of the virtual panopticon our society is turning into.

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deadshank

deadshank 24652

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9 minutes ago, crimsonlonghorn said:

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of respect for game wardens and I 100% acknowledge how difficult their jobs are. 

That being said, showing up "randomly" in a way that appears to be correlated with data that they supposedly shouldn't have seems sketchy and unnecessary and feels like more of the virtual panopticon our society is turning into.

What's wrong with you?  Never use words on this forum that are over three syllables.  

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