Made a trip before rifle season starts down to my new lease in Gillespie county this past weekend.. Sat out in the blind a bit Sunday morning just to see what comes in, saw several does and a few bucks. Nothing record breaking but I saw more deer that morning, than I sometimes saw all year long at my old places back in East Texas!

Looking good. Is the horizontal black line on the feeder for height reference?
I totally agree on the low deer sightings in East Texas. We are working hard on reducing our hog numbers, hoping that will help.

Congrats

It sure is, 36" from the ground just to give me a point of reference for the height of the deer

Nice good luck this year

Nice

Good luck

I am now hunting in Gillespie County after hunting 9 seasons in Goliad County. While I had a lot of deer but not for consistent high numbers every time you sit. My new place has a good buck to doe ratio and better quality and age structure than I expected. What part of the county?

The northwest quadrant, about 7 miles SE of Doss. Normally the lease allows one 14” spread buck and four does but this year it is two bucks and two does. Seems the fawn and doe count was lower this year (possibly due to the bad winter storm we has) Really looking forward to this season though.

Wow. Just wow.

I am also in the NW corner of Gillespie, more north of you though. No shortage of deer and you should have some decent quality also in that area. Back along 783 towards Harper are some larger ranches and they kill some pretty good deer every year....140+ type deer. I am seeing about 20-30 deer per sit when archery hunting right now. There was a buck killed about a week ago now in the NE portion of the county on a LF place that grossed just over 160. The rains were timely and some areas got more than others in the county.

Congrats on your new lease & seeing so many deer. Two bucks are better than one. Sounds like you'll have your best season in years. Added bonus, you can go climb the big rock during mid-day.

Warning - the cook at the Hilltop Cafe may use abusive language.

Go to the Doss General Store and Cafe in downtown Doss to eat...lot better food, friendlier people and nice area.

LOL I had heard the Hilltop cafe was an interesting experience

Agreed, the Doss General Store and Cafe is the best place to eat in Doss....some may even say the ONLY place in Doss to eat!


I will say Doss has the absolute finest Volunteer fire department station I think I have ever seen in such a small town.