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Post by twice70 on Dec 20, 2016 9:39:29 GMT -6
Thanks y'all!! I know it sounds weird talking about it being a tough season when I'm tagged out lol, but it was. I hunted 60 plus times to kill a spike, an 8 point, and 2 does. I normally kill a couple does in bow season then kill a buck pretty early in November. Never had it drag out this long on our lease. I never even had an opportunity on ANY deer during bow season. I'm worn out, and honestly kinda glad I'm done for the year at this point!!
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Post by DCS on Dec 20, 2016 9:46:11 GMT -6
Where are you hunting?
I know when we hunted in Crockett, you actually had to HUNT! And, I loved it.
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Post by twice70 on Dec 21, 2016 0:23:00 GMT -6
Where are you hunting? I know when we hunted in Crockett, you actually had to HUNT! And, I loved it. I hunt out west of town just a few miles from the Trinity. East Texas hunting is something else!! I've been here all my life and hunted here since I was big enough to keep both ends of a gun off the ground lol. When I was a kid, I can remember hunting all season and maybe seeing 1 or 2 deer. Management was late catching on here!! Mostly the outlaw stories and "if it's brown it's down" east Texas stuff was VERY true up until just a generation or so back. But it's catching on now. Antler restrictions have really helped our bucks. I know some old timers that just quit hunting when it became the new law. I wasn't thrilled about it at first, and it's not a perfect solution, but after a couple years we started seeing more bucks. In another year or 2 we started killing some decent bucks. Now we're seeing some monsters and killing a few really good deer so it's getting better. And the doe seasons are a little more liberal so we're getting the buck to doe ratio a little closer to what it should be. With that said, these are the smartest deer I've ever seen. All the oaks drop acorns and corn feeders are useless sometimes. But even the public land is better. If you're on FB, search Deep East Texas Pineywoods Hunting forum and look at some of the bucks that came out of the Davy Crockett NF this year. It's unreal!! I've been fortunate too. My Dad leased the place I'm on before I was born, and I'm over it now. Our landowner is great, but I know someday I'll either have to work a new deal with her kids or find another place to hunt, and I'm not looking forward to that at all. I've grown up on this place so I'll be lost if I have to try to find something else.
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Post by TXHuntress on Dec 21, 2016 6:35:00 GMT -6
Start talking to them about it now, not all the nitty gritty stuff, but just let them know you would love to stay there long term for many years to come.
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Post by DCS on Dec 21, 2016 9:55:40 GMT -6
I would see a lot more deer during bow hunting season in Crockett NF then in gun season. The problem was there seemed to be 75 yards away all the time, I kept saying, "oh, you just wait until gun season". The problem then in guns season all I would see is doe's, sometime I was lucky enough to have drawn a doe tag, but not all that often.
The real problem I had with the NF were the idiots that hunted it and then after having some homemade ladder stands and tree stands stolen, I had enough. We then started tried the day hunting thing around Freer, Three Rivers, etc. looking for Muy Grande and that just didn't work out at all. We then started looking for leases and they all had such silly rules, the new guy got the worst blinds, some leases didn't allow women, my wife hunts harder then I do! After all that we just decided to buy some land and if it didn't work out we would just sell it and just fish or something. We drove all over Texas for about two years before we found our place. That was just about 20 years ago, we loved it then and love it just as much now.
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Post by twice70 on Dec 21, 2016 10:21:09 GMT -6
I would see a lot more deer during bow hunting season in Crockett NF then in gun season. The problem was there seemed to be 75 yards away all the time, I kept saying, "oh, you just wait until gun season". The problem then in guns season all I would see is doe's, sometime I was lucky enough to have drawn a doe tag, but not all that often. The real problem I had with the NF were the idiots that hunted it and then after having some homemade ladder stands and tree stands stolen, I had enough. We then started tried the day hunting thing around Freer, Three Rivers, etc. looking for Muy Grande and that just didn't work out at all. We then started looking for leases and they all had such silly rules, the new guy got the worst blinds, some leases didn't allow women, my wife hunts harder then I do! After all that we just decided to buy some land and if it didn't work out we would just sell it and just fish or something. We drove all over Texas for about two years before we found our place. That was just about 20 years ago, we loved it then and love it just as much now. Some of the other hunters are definitely a problem in the NF, and they'll steal anything they can get their hands on lol!! Hunting in Texas in general is just getting tough. Not so much seeing animals, but finding a good place that's not priced so high you have to sale a kidney to get on it. I'm working on the same thing you did, saving money to buy my own little place. If I can find the right 20-40 acre property that'll be all I need. Then I can mix in a couple day hunts or package hunts here and there and I'll be set. If you ever decide you want to hunt down here again, let me know. I can show you a couple good spots in the NF, and late season or during the week it's not so crowded. But you still can't leave anything out there unfortunately.
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