This was last week. A ranch just east of Big Bend. The house sits at 3800' ASL, and the highest peak is 6300' ASL. We spent three full days driving, hiking, walking. We saw tons of does, and hunted all the hours of daylight available. I put 100 miles on my Kawaski Mule during the trip. We had some 35 degree and some 45 degree inclines and declines to manage, and we and the Mule handled it just fine. We didn't see any Aoudad, so I never fired a shot. But Bill did get a Mule deer buck, and I was more than happy to help. This part of Texas is very special!!!



Bill is in this photo, down hill about 150 yards from me.



I zoomed in. He is blending in well, but can be seen.



No caption needed.



Bit of gun porn.

Found a bear 650 yards away. Set up the tripod and spotting scope. The pics are through the spotting scope. I also put a Mil reticle on him, and measured him. Standing on his hind legs, nose up, I came up with 55" tall




9 o'clock from Bill's chest is his downed deer.
9 o'clock from his collar is another buck looking at us. He was only 20 yards from us.





The harvested buck's trachea with worms. Bill looked it up, they are called "lung worms". They get coughed up, the deer swallows them, then passes them. Never heard of them before.

Bill got one of me looking for needles in a giant hay stack.




After his buck, we still had Aoudad, and lion to go look for. We were well equipped.


Good thing there is no audio, Bill was not saying nice things about me, since I convinced him to walk up the highest we've been all week.



Set up watching his carcass before sunset.

Amazing country West Texas is.

Awesome pics JG!

Great pics.....looks like an amazing trip. Love that country.....[b][/b]

Oh, very nice!!!

Beautiful country looks like y’all had a blast

That is awesome JG Impressive country out there.

Love that place! It was a good time, we might be headed back next month.

Great pics and beautiful country! That looks like a Nasal Bot larvae and they are common in deer.

I love that country.

Looks like an awsome trip. Love that country.

Beautiful country and looks like a great trip!

Awesome Photos. I am amazed that bears can survive in that county. .

Same place you hunted last year Jason?

Never heard of those "worms" either, kinda...Yuk lol

Nosir this is a different ranch. Not too far from last year,s though.

Looks a little "rougher", but real close to what I recall your photos, big country for sure.

Since Mule Deer season in the Trans Pecos does not open until tomorrow morning it is obvious you were hunting MLD. Did this ranch have buck permits only or does also? Did you see a lot of fawns?

That's looks like an awesome trip. I have hunted some remote parts of Texas like that in the past, it is really easy to get disconnected from civilization. I need that again, people are crazy.

Buck permits only. Saw 18 does, and one yearling in the mix. We bet we drove by a thousand deer, we never saw.

I'm sure you drove by some deer that you never saw, as muleys are bad about that. I do think the drought years of 2011-12 really hurt the populations down there. My buddy near Valentine TX told me as much. Obviously the lions have killed their share too. It's great country though, and loads of fun to hunt that's for sure.

Lions populations are high in the area around the park as there is no hunting and it is good lion habitat. I hunted on a ranch just north of the park for many years and between lions and droughts, mule deer populations were never very high. We always found the bigger bucks down in the lower country as feed was better and easier for them to get around...also less lions.
I use the Burnham Brothers Deer Call when hunting out there. Get to an elevated spot with visibility and blow the call, imitating a deer bleating. In the least, every deer is going to stand up and look at you. If a deer thinks that he is hidden in that open terrain, he is going to squat and let you drive or walk by.
This is possibly my favorite country to hunt mule deer.
Adios,
Gary

The rancher told us to shoot any lion we saw, but we didn't see any. I've not heard of the deer call. I'll have to try that. A cow call worked for me once in Colorado, so I certainly believe you.