We are right around that halfway point for General Deer Season in Texas….judging by pics on social media and texts from friends the hunting has been great for some and slow for many.

For me, this has been a season of some self reflection and internally honesty…..I have found/admitted to myself that the following things are true.

You can’t recreate the magic of a good hunting camp. Participants come and go, people get old, they die, properties are lost, but you can’t ever get back what once was. At best, it may be similar in many aspects but won’t be the same once it’s gone. Grown men sitting around a fire, drinking and telling stories after a hunt is one of the best times to be had in a rural setting. Although I didn’t know it at the time, that’s what made deer camp so attractive to me, though I thought it was the pursuit of the deer.

I’m really not much of a whitetail hunter anymore. I enjoy a good sit and I still love to pull the trigger/sling an arrow on a deer, but it’s gonna be on my terms. For me the thrill is in the execution of the shot, not the cat and mouse game and endless hours on the stand waiting for “ the one “ that so many others enjoy. I think the above paragraph has a lot do with this. Slept in more than I ever have this season and watched more sunsets from camp than I ever have too, and I’m ok with it.

I am enjoying colder/nasty weather more than I want to admit.

I enjoy hunting new/different properties…to me this is a very enjoyable experience even though the odds off success are lower than a place I'm very familiar with. Different landscape is very appealing to me.

I may finally be over my ( this is painful to admit ) taxidermy addiction where I feel the need to shoulder mount every single creature I’m able to fell. The end game horizon aspect has begun to creep into reality, and though I’m not gonna completely stop mounting trophies, I’m going to be more selective with what I do mount. Gonna try and get and get a few more ducks for the wall though.


The adventure/experience remains the ultimate reward, rather than being able to just show off a big animal on social media or gain some kind of quasi street cred. from peers. Im right around the halfway point in a hunting career that started when I went on my first deer hunt at the age of 10 and I’ve been blessed beyond measure to have experienced what I’ve experienced and to see the things I’ve seen in this short time on earth.


I hope each and every one of you has a blessed, safe and successful remainder to your hunting season!

Good post. I see my future as more of a meat hunter. I went through about an 8 year run of hunting different animals for the wall. Had a blast and got some nice heads but I don’t have unlimited wall space and it gets very expensive. Me and wife eat game meat instead of beef. Last 2 years I’ve just done meat hunts. May finally do a Nilgai bull hunt next year since I’ve been talking about doing it forever. That is more about the hunt and the meat, I love nilgai meat and a Euro mount would look pretty cool.

I don’t shoot many deer at all anymore, I get more out of the grandkids hunting, but I never miss a hunt when we’re out hunting, I just love getting out, years past even after I would tag out I would hunt with someone just to get out in the woods.
Like you said, the experience means more to me than taking a trophy.

Good stuff. I’ve pretty much passed the torch to my 4 youngsters (3 girls, 1 boy) at this point. Love seeing them enjoy the outdoors and the excitement when they drop a deer.

I was blessed to take my 200” low fence giant a few years back and will always see that as the “pinnacle” of my hunting life.

I’d sit every day of the season if I could. Enjoy taking in nature a little more the older I get and don’t mind being the tracker & deer cleaner these days.

I should be hunting out west this week, and I’m not and I’m bummed

Its been a tough year for me

I said my personal goal this year was to not take a deer unless it was either a true trophy, or my favorite big 8

For years, I preferred unique...give me an odd 6, trash on 1 side, double throat patch pencil horned 17' wide 8, etc and I liked that

Ive passed on 3 I normally would have shot and deep down I wanted too, dropped the safety and applied pressure to the trigger on 1

So even if I don't tag out, ill still consider it a good year....I stayed to my goal

Truthful post in a lot of ways.

I recall when my Dad (who was a very serious hunter for years) put down his gun and picked up his camera - he told me that he just did not feel like killing anything anymore - he took some awesome pictures later in life.

I have been blessed to get to travel many places in the world for many different types of hunts - deer camp is still the best IMO - I have been letting my son. SIL, and grandkids take the trophies and I get just as much enjoyment out of that. I also enjoy seeing my lease mates take their biggest trophy.

My walls are full of good memories from various hunts and that is good enough for me at this time in my life.

I just turned 80 and the desire to make things dead isn’t all that strong. Yeah, I need to eliminate some hogs but the grandsons and their wives and girl friends are more serious than I am.

I`m just not as mad at them as I use to be. Saw 15 different bucks so far and none I wanted to shoot. I conceded already that the rest of the season will be deer watching and hog hunting (12 pigs since Sept.). It`s been a great season for me even though I`m probably not going to fill my tag.

I turned 60 this deer season. Probably the best deer season I've ever had. Killed a good buck and still get the fever come hammer time. Hog hunting the way I did this year probably had a lot to do with me enjoying this hunting season. After I killed my buck I transitioned to hogs during deer season and hunted big boars exclusively. Being in the field during deer season, even though I got my buck just prolonged the experience. I wouldn't have seen a buck mount and breed a doe had I stopped going to the stand after I got my buck. Still get to hang with hunting partners, cook, BS, just a never ending season. I've hunted my whole life, but the last 10-12 years have been at a much higher level. You get your kids raised, their college paid off, professionally get where you need to be, more $ and it's time to really enjoy hunting.

For my birthday this year, my wife offered me a trip. Nothing was off the table, anywhere, anytime to celebrate. (For hers we went to St. Lucia) For me, I made the call to be at the lease, her along with me. Thanksgiving and family commitments have always prevented me from being at the lease the day after Thanksgiving and that weekend so since it was my call, no hesitation. I did spring for modern lodging at the containers at the Hotel Turkey. I've been everywhere and done everything, so I wanted to be where, and do the thing that really says the most about what I am at my core and her to be there with me right in the middle of it as it happens. She was right there with me for all of this one. Rain, cold, miles on foot, she even followed a blood trail to a downed hog. She spotted for me through bino's on coyotes and hogs, sat with me in set ups, drove the Ranger for me, ate left overs in the cabin for my birthday dinner, wore my dirty camo for scent control......

That's my musing.

sounds like a good plan!
may I suggest you consider New Zealand trip for a Stag and Tahr at some point - wife went with me and it was probably the best trip she and I have ever taken - stayed 3 weeks. Hunted for 4-5 days and then were tourist the remainder of the time. Amazing place and trip.

I've been focusing more on quality of hunts rather than how much time I spend in the woods. And quality has become more a matter of the number and quality of deer seen, weather, at overall state of mind. You might say my goal has become to avoid spending an entire morning or afternoon getting bored because I haven't seen a deer while being forced to tolerate poor weather.

Back in my younger years myself and a couple of my friends went either to NM or Colorado to hunt Mule deer. We usually went the first season. Back then there was no draw. You went and bought your license and hunted. Those were hunts and good times that I will never forget. Sometimes we got something and sometimes not. It did not matter either way. I miss those days but know them and how special they were will never happen again. Now I could care less about killing a deer. I still hunt them but do not shoot. I have guided numerous hunters that have taken many exception animals. If I was the hunter other than the guide, I would have been the one taking the shot. So, in reality I have all those animals in my collection. Time and interest change with age. If you still like the kill more power to you but if not, there are other ways to keep hunting.

I started doing this at 5 and have not missed a season since 1984. I miss my younger years when my dad, uncle’s and cousins were still alive because the fellowship aspect around a cabin is s hard to beat. We were taught to hunt for meat and worry about horns later, if you were able to get a nice one then you would be king for the weekend. As of now I hunt to eat but shoot what I what too when it comes to bucks. This season im out of buck tags already and cant seem to get a doe in front of me to save my life as Ive sat 18 times in last two weeks and have only seen bucks. Is what it is I suppose

Your first paragraph definitely hits home for me (about not being able to recreate the magic of deer camp). Little did I know growing up, I was exposed to some outstanding camp environments, and surrounded by a lot of exceptional folks (many of which are no longer around).

I will also say that technology (game cameras, smart phones, social media, etc...) has definitely taken a lot of the magic out of it. There are less surprises and unknowns than there used to be, which I feel contributed heavily to the "mystique" of deer camp.

X100

From 1977 (when I was 17) to 2002, 25 years, with a 4 year break when we temporarily lost the lease, I got to experience a true deer camp. Prior to that, I'd been around leases that my dad was on, but it was infrequent, and I was just a kid, not really allowed to participate much. Now, years later, I realize how blessed I was. If I'd only been able to grasp it, I would have savored it more. A couple of years Dad invited his older brother, my favorite uncle Johnny, who'd dropped out of high school and was an old-school carpenter (as in every nail he drove was with a hammer, not a nail gun). Dad was worried he'd put the others off with how much he talked. Everybody loved him. And, he didn't talk near as much as several men I've witnessed over the last few years. They...never...shut up! All about themselves, with no concept of how long no one else has been able to utter a single word. What, in the hell, has caused this? I never realized the phrase "the art of conversation" had so much meaning until this stage in my life. But I digress.

Dad died during that 4 year break. We got the place back and still had a great time around that campfire, with friends, customers, and the landowner. Alcohol was never the center of the gathering, that I can ever remember. And...I have no memory of anyone, ever, putting a @#$%^&* tape measure to a deer's antlers.

Like others above, I've tried to recreate that experience at different places, but never really came close. I have had to have a little chat with a "manager", aka "deer measurer", about the members, and especially the kids in camp, needing to experience the "culture" of deer camp. I have experienced it, briefly, at camps in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Those Professional Hunters are trained that that experience is a vital part of the hunt. Now, they're also trained how to act like a friend, so you never really know how genuine they are, but I was honored to call one a true friend for a time.

I like to believe it's still achievable and still exists but is increasingly rare. Cherish it if you got it.

Musings of an aging man.

I enjoyed reading your piece Creekrunner. Probably fits a lot of folks, including myself.

Believe me it IS still achievable - A quality Texas deer lease? you have to work at it (as I know you know) - you also have to make your own environment - if it takes going to New Zealand, Africa, Canada, etc. it is worth every penny - truthfully on these types of hunts I do not expect the guides or PH to become best friends - just provide me a good experience and memory and I will leave satisfied - I have so many awesome memories of many awesome hunts