When August rolled around I spent too many hours researching and applying for all the usual TPWD drawn hunts. Deadlines passed, drawings were held and the lone bright spot was a javelina hunt at Chaparral WMA that my son and I were drawn for in February 2021.
On Oct. 26 I received an email from TPWD. It was notice that I was drawn for the gun mule deer hunt at Big Bend Ranch State Park. While I had 17 preference points for the hunt category, I was still surprised to be picked during the second draw for the hunt.
The hunt dates were Dec. 7-10. I hadn't included my son on the application because of school, specifically finals. I wish he could have gone--he hunted BBRSP on a youth hunt in December 2017 and despite hunting hard for three days, we managed to spy only one deer off in the distance. While the hunt was a wonderful experience, at the same time it was humbling. A chance at redemption for him would have been great.
The moment I received the email the planning and prep work began on how to make this endeavor a success solo. I knew I'd be tent camping in order to maximize my time in the field, get some sleep and cut down on driving. The nearest hotels are in Presidio which is an hour and twenty minute drive from the park headquarters.
I also knew that if I was fortunate enough to shoot a deer, getting it to the skinning rack at park headquarters would require strategy all on its own. Deer are expected to be brought in field dressed to be weighed unless extreme circumstances require them to be quartered in the field. I bought new nuts, bolts and washers for an old game cart that was in a storage trailer at deer camp, never used for 10 years, and brought it back to life.
The Dec. 6 drive to Presidio was highlighted by a monster muley eating on the side of the road on 67 southbound just off I10 at 4 p.m., snow on the ground in Alpine and pronghorn in the pastures between Marfa and Shafter. The next morning the drive into the park coincided with the rising sun and some spectacular views.
But back to the hunting. My campsite was located in my designated compartment and I had access to walk into my hunt area from the park's main road and a " 4WD loop" that went through the unit. I'm guesstimating that the compartment was the neighborhood of nine to 16 square miles. I scouted a couple of areas on Monday following the orientation but didn't see any deer.
Tuesday morning, sat on a ridge side with the sunrise at my back so that I could glass a big area. I'm looking in a clump of brush that the rangefinder said was 360 yards away and I see white tree branches moving in the brush. But there wasn't any wind. This is a big deer, antlerwise, and he didn't move more than 10 yards in 20 minutes as he fed on leaves and stems and whatever he could find in the brush. Did I mention that the park has had 3 inches of rain this year? It was nearly impossible to walk without making some sort of noise, be it crunchy grass, rock or brush.
So after watching this big set of antlers move around in the brush for 20 minutes they stop moving as much so I'm thinking the deer has bedded down. No problem, I'm thinking, I'll just back out of the ridge that I'm on, knowing that he'll see me back out and since I'm 360 yards away he won't care. Then I'll go circle around and come in behind him, up high on a cliff and be right on top of him for a potential shot. Great plan, but it took me two hours to get above right where he was. Yes, was. Because he was gone. Tried a fawn bleat to get him to stand up, even tossed a rock, but no buck. He was gone.
Fast forward to Wednesday morning and I got up high to glass the general area where I saw the big buck the day before:
After a couple hours of nothing but scenic views I went halfway down the hill and turned and walked 100 yards east to glass a big brushy draw and the opposite hillside. By this time is was 9 or 9:30. Sun, no clouds, but a slight crosswind.
At 10 I'm still glassing and see a buck for about 5 seconds as he walks into the brushy draw from my right, about 200-300 yards away. And he disappears. I glass and glass some more, knowing that if he walks out of the draw from any direction I'll see him and possibly get a shot, unless he slips out the back of the drainage. I'm awkwardly sitting on this hill at a 45 degree angle and I've got rocks stacked up to level out one of the bipod legs.
Sometime during the 11 o'clock hour for a split second I see a white butt patch and tine while glassing through a window in the brush. At least he's still here, somewhere.
I would later realize that none of the brush he disappeared in was over my head.
Finally, at 12:38, he steps out of the brush. At this point I'm not looking at or evaluating the antlers. The hunt is winding down and I have an opportunity so there was no second guessing. The rangefinder says 258. Seems a lot further than that, but I'm trusting my equipment. Crank the old Leupold up from 3 to 4. Broadside although there's a scraggly bush...safety off...hold right behind the shoulder, remembering that I'm sighted in at 2"-2.5" high at 100 so I should be right on...and slowly squeeze to let the 130 grain .270 Remi CoreLokt fly
He looks around wondering what in the heck was going on. The sound didn't bother him too much and after a second or two he starts to thrash his antlers on a bush. I've got another clear broadside shot so this time the crosshairs are at the top of his back above the shoulder and again, slowly squeeze the trigger
He acts like he's hit and I'm thinking guts as he hunched up slightly and looks around for a couple of seconds. It quickly becomes obvious that he's not going down. Instead, he decides it's time to get out of Dodge and starts to trot off away from me. All I have is butt, back, back of neck and head. I aimed at where the back of his neck meets the top of his back as he's making tracks...
I was elated to walk up on my first mule deer. Sure there was ground shrinkage--I thought the rack would be bigger, and he wasn't the buck I watched the day before. But I was extremely happy with this one, considering all the work, prep, sweat, walking and patience that came into play. Shortly before first seeing him at 10 I almost bailed to hunt another spot, and the same thought crossed my mind more than once while he was hiding out in the draw. But waiting him out for almost 3 hours made it all worth it.
Then the real fun began. Gutted him, walked 400 yards to the road, then walked to camp, assembled the game cart, forgot to eat lunch, drove truck with game cart to access point, hauled game cart 400 yards into the draw, loaded deer, then hauled him 400 yards back to truck.
He weighed 107 according to the headquarters scale. Quartered him up, tore down camp in the dark then went to Riata Inn Presidio for a hot shower and warm bed.
TPWD BBRSP staff ran a great hunt--very helpful and accommodating. I ended up saving the hide to ship off to North Texas Tannery and a Euro mount or perhaps a skull plate mount will memorialize this West Texas hunt for me.
A few more pics from this past week out west.
On Oct. 26 I received an email from TPWD. It was notice that I was drawn for the gun mule deer hunt at Big Bend Ranch State Park. While I had 17 preference points for the hunt category, I was still surprised to be picked during the second draw for the hunt.
The hunt dates were Dec. 7-10. I hadn't included my son on the application because of school, specifically finals. I wish he could have gone--he hunted BBRSP on a youth hunt in December 2017 and despite hunting hard for three days, we managed to spy only one deer off in the distance. While the hunt was a wonderful experience, at the same time it was humbling. A chance at redemption for him would have been great.
The moment I received the email the planning and prep work began on how to make this endeavor a success solo. I knew I'd be tent camping in order to maximize my time in the field, get some sleep and cut down on driving. The nearest hotels are in Presidio which is an hour and twenty minute drive from the park headquarters.
I also knew that if I was fortunate enough to shoot a deer, getting it to the skinning rack at park headquarters would require strategy all on its own. Deer are expected to be brought in field dressed to be weighed unless extreme circumstances require them to be quartered in the field. I bought new nuts, bolts and washers for an old game cart that was in a storage trailer at deer camp, never used for 10 years, and brought it back to life.
The Dec. 6 drive to Presidio was highlighted by a monster muley eating on the side of the road on 67 southbound just off I10 at 4 p.m., snow on the ground in Alpine and pronghorn in the pastures between Marfa and Shafter. The next morning the drive into the park coincided with the rising sun and some spectacular views.
But back to the hunting. My campsite was located in my designated compartment and I had access to walk into my hunt area from the park's main road and a " 4WD loop" that went through the unit. I'm guesstimating that the compartment was the neighborhood of nine to 16 square miles. I scouted a couple of areas on Monday following the orientation but didn't see any deer.
Tuesday morning, sat on a ridge side with the sunrise at my back so that I could glass a big area. I'm looking in a clump of brush that the rangefinder said was 360 yards away and I see white tree branches moving in the brush. But there wasn't any wind. This is a big deer, antlerwise, and he didn't move more than 10 yards in 20 minutes as he fed on leaves and stems and whatever he could find in the brush. Did I mention that the park has had 3 inches of rain this year? It was nearly impossible to walk without making some sort of noise, be it crunchy grass, rock or brush.
So after watching this big set of antlers move around in the brush for 20 minutes they stop moving as much so I'm thinking the deer has bedded down. No problem, I'm thinking, I'll just back out of the ridge that I'm on, knowing that he'll see me back out and since I'm 360 yards away he won't care. Then I'll go circle around and come in behind him, up high on a cliff and be right on top of him for a potential shot. Great plan, but it took me two hours to get above right where he was. Yes, was. Because he was gone. Tried a fawn bleat to get him to stand up, even tossed a rock, but no buck. He was gone.
Fast forward to Wednesday morning and I got up high to glass the general area where I saw the big buck the day before:
After a couple hours of nothing but scenic views I went halfway down the hill and turned and walked 100 yards east to glass a big brushy draw and the opposite hillside. By this time is was 9 or 9:30. Sun, no clouds, but a slight crosswind.
At 10 I'm still glassing and see a buck for about 5 seconds as he walks into the brushy draw from my right, about 200-300 yards away. And he disappears. I glass and glass some more, knowing that if he walks out of the draw from any direction I'll see him and possibly get a shot, unless he slips out the back of the drainage. I'm awkwardly sitting on this hill at a 45 degree angle and I've got rocks stacked up to level out one of the bipod legs.
Sometime during the 11 o'clock hour for a split second I see a white butt patch and tine while glassing through a window in the brush. At least he's still here, somewhere.
I would later realize that none of the brush he disappeared in was over my head.
Finally, at 12:38, he steps out of the brush. At this point I'm not looking at or evaluating the antlers. The hunt is winding down and I have an opportunity so there was no second guessing. The rangefinder says 258. Seems a lot further than that, but I'm trusting my equipment. Crank the old Leupold up from 3 to 4. Broadside although there's a scraggly bush...safety off...hold right behind the shoulder, remembering that I'm sighted in at 2"-2.5" high at 100 so I should be right on...and slowly squeeze to let the 130 grain .270 Remi CoreLokt fly
He looks around wondering what in the heck was going on. The sound didn't bother him too much and after a second or two he starts to thrash his antlers on a bush. I've got another clear broadside shot so this time the crosshairs are at the top of his back above the shoulder and again, slowly squeeze the trigger
He acts like he's hit and I'm thinking guts as he hunched up slightly and looks around for a couple of seconds. It quickly becomes obvious that he's not going down. Instead, he decides it's time to get out of Dodge and starts to trot off away from me. All I have is butt, back, back of neck and head. I aimed at where the back of his neck meets the top of his back as he's making tracks...
I was elated to walk up on my first mule deer. Sure there was ground shrinkage--I thought the rack would be bigger, and he wasn't the buck I watched the day before. But I was extremely happy with this one, considering all the work, prep, sweat, walking and patience that came into play. Shortly before first seeing him at 10 I almost bailed to hunt another spot, and the same thought crossed my mind more than once while he was hiding out in the draw. But waiting him out for almost 3 hours made it all worth it.
Then the real fun began. Gutted him, walked 400 yards to the road, then walked to camp, assembled the game cart, forgot to eat lunch, drove truck with game cart to access point, hauled game cart 400 yards into the draw, loaded deer, then hauled him 400 yards back to truck.
He weighed 107 according to the headquarters scale. Quartered him up, tore down camp in the dark then went to Riata Inn Presidio for a hot shower and warm bed.
TPWD BBRSP staff ran a great hunt--very helpful and accommodating. I ended up saving the hide to ship off to North Texas Tannery and a Euro mount or perhaps a skull plate mount will memorialize this West Texas hunt for me.
A few more pics from this past week out west.
