Hunting West of Big Lake

Wow we are not seeing very many deer this year. Anyone have info

Kinda seems to be the norm in a lot of areas of West Texas.

Hunt 15 min south of big lake and haven't seen a whole lot of deer either. We have some decent bucks on camera but not seeing them yet in person.

I'm from Big Lake and here now. Warm temps and wind possibly. We hunt in Menard and have seen tons that direction. Is there a lot of oil field traffic and stuff going on where you are?

No oil field traffic. But a crop duster keeps dive bombing our feeders. No crops around lease for miles

I hunted just south of Big Lake (Bordering the Lake on the South / West side) for about 7-8 years when I was in high school, college, and just after. We would never see deer the first 3 weeks of the season. Warm, Wind, tons of cover, and plenty of food in good rain years. Thanksgiving through December was another story. We would see new deer every weekend and more deer as the season continued. I would give it a few weeks and hit it hard towards the end of the season. I shot my biggest deer there the last few weeks of the season every year. Also if you have a water tank we shot quite a few good deer on cold afternoons at noon when they would hit water. Just my take.

We have 6k acres South of Big Lake off county rd 207. I agree with the above that said early season isn’t as good as late. It’s like hunting a new lease come December. I hunted 5 days this past week and saw quite a bit of deer and ended shooting an old cull 9 that was chasing a doe. It’ll get better.

I think alot of deer are moving at night. We drove in last night and while we normally see a few deer between ozona and our camp, last night I counted 47 with 4 of those being huge bucks. One I slowed down to about 10 mph afraid he was coming into road and he was probably a 150" deer. Huge.

Where do y’all hunt Chance?

We’re off Ferguson road. I thinks it’s also known as cr 206. Saw some bucks chasing today. It might be getting started early this year.

Well good luck. I’ll be heading that way in a week. Keep us updated if you don’t mind.

One of our guys killed a real nice 19" wide 9 point last night that was chasing a doe. I saw a jacked up rack cull that would never present a shot chasing a doe. This is strange we normally don't see any rut activity till around December 5th.

Deer seem to be moving very late and at night on our place. This warm weather isn’t helpful in much.

JW was that on the adobe ranch?

They are definitely moving at night. Coming home last night I counted another 26 with 1 being another stud buck.

Nope we hunted the 07 Ranch but the name might have changed.

Still 07. That’s where I hunt now.