Waitin' for November

[UncleShorty]

Here in TX it's either pouring rain or the heart index is 113.

So woodshop and brewery time are non-existent. It's too darn hot.

I've PMed and maintained all the fishing and hunting gear. My fly boxes are full. I even darned my huntin' socks and sewed up the holes in my long johns.

The only thing keeping me going is an upcoming trip to PA in early November.

Although I fish in PA several times each year I haven't hunted in the Commonwealth since 1981. My buddy's son is career Air Force. He's stationed in MO but was coming to PA to deer hunt this fall. The last time I hunted with the kid he was 12 years old. So I thought it would be fun to get a license and hunt w/ him and his dad once more.

Unfortunately he is being deployed to the sandbox for the FIFTH time.

The best laid plans of mice & men...

 

[HopBack]

Hope you found some private land to hunt on!

 

[UncleShorty]

Nah, game lands for me. We always hunted up the mountain. I saw plenty of deer up there last spring.

Although, unless it was the deer of a lifetime, I doubt I'd shoot one more than 100 yds from the truck. I'm not even sure I could drag one that far...

"The fun's all done when you shoot the gun..."

I bagged a 12 point in the Big Thicket National Preserve, public land in East Texas, in 1995. It's gonna take a pretty stout buck to eclipse that one.

 

[HopBack]

^ Don't get me wrong.... If you put some time in and do you homework you can still have a good chance at a deer on public land in archery season. You might get lucky on opening day of rifle season but after that, anything that is left has run onto private land. Your likely to see more orange per square mile then deer on public lands. It's getting down right dangerous out there anymore. I got a bow this year so that I can hopefully avoid the circus.

 

[UncleShorty]

I'm not looking for an argument, but, if I wanted to pay someone to allow me to hunt I could do so in TX. In fact, 95% of deer hunting in TX is on private land, from box blinds overlooking feeders.

Before I retired I went on a "hunt" with an equipment vendor. He told me not to bring any heavy clothing because the blinds were heated.

They drove us to the blinds a few minutes before 0700. The guy told me, "The feeder goes off at 0700. The deer will come out then. You can watch them for a while or shoot one right away. Then get on the radio and we'll send the "boys" out to collect your deer and cut and wrap it for your cooler."

I didn't shoot a deer on that trip. But when I got near home I stopped at a Kroger, shot the gun up in the air and went in and bought a chuck roast. Now THAT'S Texas huntin'

Donald tRump will re-grow his own hair before I hunt any "private land" in PA.

 

[foxfire]

Shorty, I've been invited to hunt a 9,400 acre "low" fence ranch in Tx to hunt whitetails (haven't accepted). Deer are free to go as they please - fence is merely to help keep Joe Six-Pack and poachers out. Must follow Tx game rules. No feeders, but they do create food-plots. Sort of how grandpap and his buddy's planted apple trees in Sproul 80yrs ago. Thoughts??

 

[UncleShorty]

Are you talking South Texas? There "hunters" ride in a "high seat" truck, being driven up and down ranch roads and senderos. They don't even get down on the ground, they shoot from the truck.

If it's East or Central TX they'll have blinds. Those blinds sit at the edge of the food plots. "Hunters" are not allowed out of their blinds, (too many drunken idiots who can't tell a man from a cow.)

It has been my experience, (for the last 32 years), that there are VERY few "Texas hunters" who know what a rub or scrape is, who know how to locate deer on open land and sadly, how to blood track a wounded animal.

That's why I hunt the public land in the Big Thicket National Preserve. No permanent stands, no blinds, no baiting. Get caught w/ a can of beer? $500 fine. It's free. And the rules keep the "Texas hunters" out.

I'm just fine w/ that...