Skunked?

[springmom]

...in Texas. I've never seen mule deer down here and I don't think they exist here.

Springmom

[Art Eatman]

Yeah, I'd be sorta surprised to see a mule deer around Houston. Unless at a taxidermist's...

Mulies are west of the Pecos River, and on up in the Panhandle.

, Art

[mete]

Skunked ? well here in SullivanCo NY because of poor game management it's a disaster !! For example a club of 20 members hunting the first five days of the season got ONE buck !! I had lost my hunting land anyway so I went accross the border to Pike Co PA .The conditions are not good there either though not as bad as NY. No venison for me !!

[Long Path]

Yeah, I'd be sorta surprised to see a mule deer around Houston. Unless at a taxidermist's...

Mulies are west of the Pecos River, and on up in the Panhandle.

, Art

Yup. I was thinking the same thing.
http://www.terlinguagallery.com/id35.html

(H&H, he hunts where there's more mulies than white tails, but there are both at his TX hunting locale-- I've seen 'em [in May and without permission, darn it! ])

So, Art-- you gonna send digipics of those mulies from down there to show SpringMom? (Preferably with yours or Byron's tag on it...)

[Art Eatman]

Matt, we found a place down in Long Draw--not far from where you shot the pigelina--with a scrape and a fair amount of tracks. With the front coming in on (I guess) Sunday, tomorrow evening oughta be "good settin'".

Quail everywhere. Somebody oughta shoot'em; they've been pooping on my front porch, again. Javalulus coming up to the house, fer cryin' out loud!

, Art

[Long Path]

Quail everywhere. Somebody oughta shoot'em; they've been pooping on my front porch, again. Javalulus coming up to the house, fer cryin' out loud!

Well, I don't shoot at porch pets, but I don't suppose they'd be safe from being scared at by my shots if they got 200 yards from the house. Now all I've gotta do is get me 200 yards from your house!

But the bitty j-swine are safe from me now, I reckon. I've about had my fill of the knife-turning, smelly tamale-makin' critters.

[jonnyringo]

I have passed up about 50 deer this week on my property. Saw the big boy just once. Last year I saw him everyday. Problem is he is about 150 yards off my property. Probably take a doe tomorrow for meat in the fridge. Sorry part is my Dad used own all the property near me but I didn't buy enough.

[AdamGrier_atc]

I am in a 2 year drought. I haven't shot a deer since I bought my new rifle. I am beginning to think that the gun is jinxed. But I am sure that it is just me!!!

[marmark]

That pic in the other post that you said looked like your deer that got away was a 3x4 Mule deer.

[Daveydonut]

Not even a shot at deer or elk this year. I even missed a few shots for a coyote with a pistol.
Last year I put tons of meat in the freezer.
http://www.geocities.com/davey_donut/12-bags.jpg

[taylorce1]

I've been skunked on muzzle loader season on Plains Mule Deer the last two years couldn't stalk into range without being busted. Or all I've seen were bucks, can't seem to draw that tag and I have 4 Pref points goining on 5. Got a doe though because one of the neighbors had a land owner tag for rifle season and I have better range with the rifle I used over the old Hawken. Got a Cow elk last season and if I ever run out of meat I'll just go to the ranch and butcher me a steer.

[MeekAndMild]

This is getting pretty bad. I saw five deer on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. The only one big enough to shoot was exactly between where I was sitting and a neighbor's house. All the rest were what you call Playmate deer, i.e. when they are dressed out the meat will fit into a Playmate ice chest with plenty of room for ice.

[springmom]

I'm convinced. The deer in the Sam Houston National Forest have all beamed up to the mothership and gone to an alternative universe!

I have spent the last week or so following some good advice given here: reading, studying, looking at topo maps with the hubster, watching the weather channel like it was the only thing on TV, and taking a quick Ph.D. in scent control and stinky-stuff usage. I was so good, I had a bird buzz my ear as he flew by, he was so utterly unaware I might be a threat. I went back to my trail where I shot the buck, set up this morning after it had gotten livable out, was utterly quiet, sat there for seven hours. I got to watch birds, listen to an armadillo on the other side of a big scrub brush from me, listened to at least one young buck scratch his antlers on a tree not too far away, and saw........

NOTHING! NADA. ZIP. ZILCH. Unless you count the birds. At least I saw a couple of species I don't know. But deer? HA!

Tomorrow it rains, so I will be at my art table finishing a couple of icons for clients so I can maybe have a bit of money to actually spend on Christmas. Friday is a possibility, but it is going to be cold enough that there's no point in going up until mid-day. We're talking in the low 20's in the mornng, and yes, Capt. Charlie, for here that is WAYYYYY colder than usual. I think we are going up on Saturday, maybe with a co-worker of the hubster and maybe even Youngest Son. If between the four of us we can't come up with one deer, I'm going to go back to crochet for the rest of the winter

Springmom, who wouldn't really do that, I'm too hooked on hunting

[FirstFreedom]

I have passed up about 50 deer this week on my property.

Where is this?

Springmom, do you know anyone who will let you hunt their property, known to be well-managed? Because just 10 miles down the road in the same county can often mean the difference between virtually no deer and many, many, many deer. But I feel your pain; been there; done that.

[springmom]

I think there are a couple of guys at church that hunt every year, but so far we haven't been invited to join them. The hubster and I are decided that when we can afford it, we're going to get some land up north of here that will eventually be for retirement/family vacations/HUNTING (not in that order!) Being restricted to the public hunting lands, even as much land as SHNF is (well over 100,000 acres in a crazy-quilt arrangement covering parts of 3 counties) is tough. Not that I'm telling anybody here what they don't already know.

Hubster always registers for the Texas draw hunts too. He's gotten to bowhunt in Kerr County WMA twice (missed two years to illness altogether) but getting those is an exercise in patience on a multi-year scale.

The good news is, 100,000+ acres means that there's a WHOLE lot of national forest that we haven't even driven PAST yet, let alone scouted. I'm thinking of driving up to some of the little patches of NF land between I-45 and 59 maybe Friday (when it'll be too cold for ME to be out, I think) and maybe scout a bit if I find some likely looking land. Alternatively, there are some farther-out WMAs, like Robertson County, that might lack the intense hunting pressure of the only WMA near Houston that even allows deer hunting

Springmom: "NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER" (from "Galaxy Quest", where all the deer went....)

[marmark]

The fact that you heard the small buck is encouraging. Deer don't always use the same trail but will use a variety of trails,and the travel routes are generally the same. Out here in the mountains we try to hunt high in the mornings, and low in the valleys in the evenings.
If there is game in the area KEEP HUNTING, you never know what you'll find.

[Ohio Annie]

I'm just learning to use a treestand this year and after lots of scouting on private land have the perfect location. I took deer gun week off and got sick two days after Thanksgiving and was sick in bed the whole week! I think a deer coughed on me and gave me deer fever!

We are blessed with a long bow season so I will be there with my crossbow every day that I can.

There is a six-point buck that I have named Mr. Six-tine. He survived gun week. His rack is high and perfectly symmetrical. In a couple of years he will be beautiful. The first time I saw him he got a whiff of my acorn wafer smell and walked right up to the fence 5 yards from my stand. He hung around for a half hour, sniffing and looking on the ground for acorns. After 30 minutes he decided something was hinky and left. He kept looking at me but couldn't figure me out. I was wondering if he was going to throw rocks to try to knock that big acorn down. My friends now call me Acorn Girl.

The secondary rut must be on now cuz in the snow last week I saw a fresh scrape in one of the shooting lanes 17 yards from my stand. By the size of the tracks it was Mr. Six-tine and he has been seen by other people since gun week walking right under my stand. I hope he brings his girlfriends.

I want a small apartment-freezer-sized doe that I can handle by myself with my bad back and all.

Hope springing eternal,
Annie

[MeekAndMild]

Broke my dry spell! My state allows harvesting 2 deer per day and I got the 2 frying sized does which had been eating my little apple trees down to nubs. Kept one and gave the other to the local food bank program. No big buck for me this year.

[Fremmer]

Congrats, Meek. The does taste pretty good.

[springmom]

No venison for Christmas this year.

We went up today and spent from just before dawn until 30 minutes after sunset (legal shooting hours) and I think I can safely say the second rut is over, kaput, finis, done. We heard a few, saw two (road runners...you know, they dash across the road on your way in, and one that crossed the path we had hunted in the afternoon JUST AFTER WE FINSHED PUTTING AWAY THE RIFLES FOR THE TRIP HOME!!!!

Sigh.

Ah well, there is one more week of the season left...through January 1. After that it's rabbits and fishing until turkey season.

The only thing that almost got shot was some numbnuts tha didn't even know we were there and walked RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HUBSTER'S CROSSHAIRS. This was after he took a shot at something, with a gun that sounded REMARKABLY like a .22 LR. I can only hope that Darwin Award wannabe didn't hit a deer with that .22.

Then there was the Forest Service folks that decided to do a controlled burn today, and closed the road WHERE WE WERE but didn't bother to tell us as they drove by us and waved this morning.

It's been one of those days. On the other hand, a bad day in the woods beats a good day most anywhere else. And it got up into the high 60's which is a nice day for this time of year.

Springmom

[Wisby]

My Dad and Myself hunted SHNF for a few years but we lost alot of stand's...
They seem to just dissapear into thin air
So we started to get on lease's. For 500-600 bucks you can get on a decent lease for 1000 you can get on a good lease and for 1500-2000 you can get on a great lease in Bandera or surrounding area. This was the first year I've hunted that area Medina county I hope thats spelled right because thats how I put it on my Tag's. Theres a ton of deer everywhere and it's a 5 deer county. I shot my buck on the first morning I hunted. I think if I could have held out for a few more days I probally would have gotten a even bigger deer but when the biggest buck i've ever seen in my entire hunting career walks out in front of me well...
BTW I have limited experience with lease's the price factor listed above are what I have heard from fellow hunters and the lease in Medina cost 1700 a spot but theres Axis (I nvr saw one), Tons of Deer, Turkey and so many Hogs that I now hate them.

[duckman88]

I just got back from a 7 day trip to Virginia deer hunting on family land. I hunted 10 times while I was there and never shot my gun. worst huntes of my life

[Fremmer]

As stated by Springmom:

On the other hand, a bad day in the woods beats a good day most anywhere else.

Exactly right! No telephone calls, faxes, bills, endless chattering of the talking heads on the T.V., etc.

Don't give up, Springmom (I almost accidently typed "mom" )! You'll get your deer yet. And even if you don't, you'll still get to enjoy the outdoors. Good luck!

[itgoesboom]

I wouldn't say skunked, since this was my first year hunting, and I only got to go out for one day. And we were after elk. My odds weren't very good to start with.

But that's okay, cuz I learned a whole lot, and I have now been bitten by the bug.

This Christmas is going to be my "hunting" Christmas. Lots of gear under the tree for me .

2006 will be the year for me, hunting wise (I hope).

I.G.B.

[Jseime]

I've been stuck at college in Alberta so i only got back to good old Sask for two days all season. I took a couple of shots but nothing decided to fall over. i saw a white tail that was about six or seven a side and had the biggest rack ive ever seen im sure it woulda been a record of some sort or another i missed him........twice (you cant see it but im sitting here crying).