I went hunting in Glass Mountains between Ft. Stockton and Alpine with 3 friends this past weekend. We got there around noon Friday and went out hunting within a hour or so of getting there. We split up 2 and 2, one group went with the ranch owner and we went with the ranch foreman. Me and my buddy flipped a coil to see who was the first shooter Friday afternoon, he won the flip, so he had first pick Friday afternoon and then I would have first pick Sat. morning and the plan was to alternate each hunt. Well, about 5pm Friday we drive up on a huge buck, it jumps up and runs off and stops about 200 yds away. My friend says "is it a shooter?"..I said "yes, if you don't shoot im going to"...so he shot it and it scored 172. So after that it was my turn for the rest of the time. I passed on several good bucks since it was still early in the hunt, we were staying till Tuesday. Saturday evening we went looking for a buck that the foreman had seen the prior tuesday...he said it was a big mature deer and he had seen it around a particular protein feeder which was by a hill/small mountain in the flats. Sat evening we drove all around this area and never found him. About 9am on the Sunday morning hunt (it was windy as hell and we were not seeing much), I told the foreman that I thought we should go in early and eat, then go back out about 11-12 and just drive till dark instead of waiting to go out about 2-3. So we did that and we went back to this same area about mid-day. We went to the feeder and he saw fresh tracks and said he thought the buck had been there that morning and figured it was still in the area. So we start driving all over this hill, over it, around it, on the side of it, everywhere...we came around one side of it and that buck was laying by a bush at about 70 yds. He killed the engine on the buggy and i didnt even ask any questions, just shot it as fast as I could. This was about 1 pm. We took pics, loaded him up and went back to camp...got back and the other guys were still sleeping and had'nt gone out to hunt yet. Needless to say they were surprised.
We had a great time, saw lots of elk, lots of good bucks, and lots of aoudad. And almost got a mountain lion, see below....
Before we got there the foreman had found a 8 pt that was killed by a mt lion, he found it by noticing the drag mark on the road where the lion drug the deer across it. Friday afternoon, soon after we got there, we went to this area and the foreman set up 2 #4 steel traps to try and catch the lion. The deer it had killed was hidden in the bushes and the lion had covered it up with grass/dirt. The foreman told us to stay in the buggy cause he didnt want us walking around and leaving scent or anything that might keep the lion from coming back. He said he had trapped 20-30 lions before on the ranch over many years. So he set the traps. We come back the next day and drive up to the spot...the deer is gone (at least we cant see it)...the lion had drug the deer about 4 ft from the spot it was covered up and started to eat on it but it did not hit one of the traps. So, we went back and checked on Sunday about 4pm or so and the deer was moved again, and one of the traps was now gone. The traps have a big graple hook deal attached to them so that the lion would get hung up on a bush/tree, foreman said he could not tie the trap up to anything cause the lions are too strong and would get off. So basically the lion drags the trap around till it gets tired and hung up, so you have to track it and shoot it wherever it is found hung up at. So we roll up and notice that a trap is gone and the foreman is like "yall look out"...both me and my friend get pistols out and we all start looking around the area to track where it went by searching for destroyed bushes and stuff where we could tell it had been hung up. We were able to track it about 100 yds and then could not figure out which direction it went. We searched a large area and couldnt find anything. It got dark on us and we quit looking. Me and my buddy left out early the next morning to come home but my other 2 friends were still there hunting monday. They said the foreman went back to the area monday morning with his dog. The dog quickly found the trap and it had the mt lions foot in it very near the area we quit looking when we ran out of daylight. We likely would have gotten the lion had we checked the trap Sunday morning instead of late Sunday afternoon. It was pretty interesting searching for a mt lion that has a steel trap on its leg but was not attached to anything and we had no idea where it was at. I wish we would have had a game cam to set up on the dead deer, that would have been neat to see pics of the lion.
my buck
my friends buck
mountain lion kill
mountain lion foot in trap
beautiful country
[This message has been edited by aggzwin (edited 12/1/2010 5:50p).]
We had a great time, saw lots of elk, lots of good bucks, and lots of aoudad. And almost got a mountain lion, see below....
Before we got there the foreman had found a 8 pt that was killed by a mt lion, he found it by noticing the drag mark on the road where the lion drug the deer across it. Friday afternoon, soon after we got there, we went to this area and the foreman set up 2 #4 steel traps to try and catch the lion. The deer it had killed was hidden in the bushes and the lion had covered it up with grass/dirt. The foreman told us to stay in the buggy cause he didnt want us walking around and leaving scent or anything that might keep the lion from coming back. He said he had trapped 20-30 lions before on the ranch over many years. So he set the traps. We come back the next day and drive up to the spot...the deer is gone (at least we cant see it)...the lion had drug the deer about 4 ft from the spot it was covered up and started to eat on it but it did not hit one of the traps. So, we went back and checked on Sunday about 4pm or so and the deer was moved again, and one of the traps was now gone. The traps have a big graple hook deal attached to them so that the lion would get hung up on a bush/tree, foreman said he could not tie the trap up to anything cause the lions are too strong and would get off. So basically the lion drags the trap around till it gets tired and hung up, so you have to track it and shoot it wherever it is found hung up at. So we roll up and notice that a trap is gone and the foreman is like "yall look out"...both me and my friend get pistols out and we all start looking around the area to track where it went by searching for destroyed bushes and stuff where we could tell it had been hung up. We were able to track it about 100 yds and then could not figure out which direction it went. We searched a large area and couldnt find anything. It got dark on us and we quit looking. Me and my buddy left out early the next morning to come home but my other 2 friends were still there hunting monday. They said the foreman went back to the area monday morning with his dog. The dog quickly found the trap and it had the mt lions foot in it very near the area we quit looking when we ran out of daylight. We likely would have gotten the lion had we checked the trap Sunday morning instead of late Sunday afternoon. It was pretty interesting searching for a mt lion that has a steel trap on its leg but was not attached to anything and we had no idea where it was at. I wish we would have had a game cam to set up on the dead deer, that would have been neat to see pics of the lion.
my buck
my friends buck
mountain lion kill
mountain lion foot in trap
beautiful country
[This message has been edited by aggzwin (edited 12/1/2010 5:50p).]