It wasn’t a great season for me, but still I enjoyed it. The grandson got a decent buck, and he was thrilled. The ‘big buck’ that roams this place was seen by me the afternoon of the day before deer season opened, and only on night camera shots thereafter.

Now it’s coyotes and pigs. The wife wants coyotes to die. She hates those fawn killers with a true passion. Pretty sure she’d be Ok with my buying night vision, but that would cut into my sleeping time, so I don’t bring it up.

I’m just glad I can do what I do.

Great season for my family. TUFF year hunting for a number of reasons, but was able to finally get on a new deer lease with some really good like minded people. Might be short lived for us, but THANKFUL all the same to the guys that got me on. My youngest Daughter killed her first deer, youngest Son killed his biggest buck, I shot a buck, and am now focused on my oldest Son shooting something before the season is over. Was blessed again with a meat haul before the season started, which is a special thing to me..... If we don't see another deer, I will go to sleep a blessed and happy man. My little kids told me tonight, "Dad, this was a great year". I agree.

If my oldest boy can put one or two down that's icing on the cake, it's been a while since we've hunted together and he's itching...we're gonna try the next two weekends. Either way, we're gonna have fun together. After that, I'm booking a 36 hr tuna trip for just the 2 of us. Young man has done exactly like I've told him....."Son, you volunteer to work every rain out and every weekend possible. You volunteer to work every holiday and save your money." He has done that, but we never see each other anymore lol.... I miss spending time with my Son.

Life is good.

My place is a 3.5 hour drive from home each way. I went pretty much 2 times a month in the off season all year. Mowing, shredding, taking down trees, clearing areas, setting up feeders, planting plots, fence work, gate work, blind maintenance, setting up cameras, etc. Just picking away a little at a time all by myself. Most of my place is thick cedar/mesquite/oak with hills, rock outcroppings, and creeks and it is all low fence or no fence.

I've been in the blind every other weekend since opening day. I've only spotted a few bucks that got lucky due to a bad shot angle, or too early or too late to shoot, etc. Also I've seen a handful of does that I wasn't ready to take (until now). A few nice 10 point bucks are always on my cameras, but at different times each day so they aren't consistent. They bounce around between all of the feeders and watering holes on mine and neighboring properties.

I'm not starving, and I don't NEED the meat, so it's not a big deal, but after so much money and effort, it is frustrating to have not taken at least one nice buck. Regular season ends on the 15th, and we have special late til the end of the month, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

In Feb. I'm just going to continue to work on making the land a nice area for the deer to feed, bed, and be comfortable on so they stay on my property and not wander off to someone elses place,

I'm still waiting on the Axis invasion that several neighboring properties have had. I've yet to see one on mine.

All in all, I'd still rather be out there and never pull my trigger than be at work any day!

Seems like a stretch to call it "another disappointing season". To each their own, but you DO have your own property to hunt which is a win in and of itself. Totally agree with some of the comments about other seasons to hunt, or varmint tagging, to get you out there beyond WT season. I myself do find that I spend more time working on my lease in the off season than likely hunting it in deer season. But isn't part of that the fun? Least in Texas where we don't have the public lands that some other states do to hunt.

I can absolutely find it frustrating not to get out more during the deer season, but I also don't consider it entirely a bust. It's pretty cool just to have access to a piece of land. What you do when and while you're on it is in your hands. I don't know, just tryin for a glass half full perspective.

I gave up hunting for 15 years and just picked it up again. My boys are athletes and played three sports each for multiple years... select sports. We were never around to do any kind of hunting. Now that they are in college I am full force again and loving every second of it

The cool thing is they have simplified their lives as well and now can go with me occasionally. They like it too.

For you guys with young kids playing sports I totally get it...it's impossible.

May be time to consider building a home in the country.

They don’t like it. When I have tried they just want to stay inside and complain about how there isn’t high speed internet. Every time we have gone they all drag there feet to the point where it is dark before we even leave home so by the time we get there it is time to go to sleep, I get up and go hunt in the morning and they sleep in. It isn’t their thing. They try and go and make me happy but it is very obvious they hate every minute of it.

That's what it's all about, amigo. Don't get any better than that!

Sewer, the internet and social media is something our fathers didn't have to contend with or battle in the 70s, 80s or up into mid to late 90s, does further complicate generating sincere hunting interest in youth, IMO. That said, keep offering it and don't overly force it. If it's meant to be, they'll eventually come around, if not, that's OK and life too.

Try and make it fun for them when they go. Do the fun things like we used to as kids, like shooting BB guns (can plinking), skeet shooting, walking the ranch looking for sheds and artifacts during the off season.

Here's hoping this weekend with SIL #2, 82 degree highs and a full moon provide a turn for the better. No way 30% and 40% chances of rain could come to fruition in South Texas, no way.

Have a great time! (And don't get stuck.)

My advice is plan your work around your life, and not the other way around. You already regret not hunting and spending time with family, don't let it go another year.

What's the point of making money if you can't enjoy it a little?

I have a feeling you'll always regret it if you let your own property go. Even if I don't get something during deer season, I just enjoy the heck out of going to it every 10 to 14 days even though it is a little over 4 hours away from my home. Of course, my kids are grown but I have a very understanding wife who still works because she is much younger than me.

These are my kids. The two older boys don’t mind sitting in a blind ( evenings only ) but when not in a blind they are glued to their phones. They will pass up an invite hunt quickly to hang out with their buddies. At 15 and 17 this is just who they are gonna be.

The 9 year girl old shows more interest than the other two and she will go with me to burn brush, look for and find arrowheads and other ranch related chores.

Not every kid is designed to be passionate with the outdoor lifestyle and that’s ok. If they have an outlet to be outside and they choose to be inside that’s all you can do. Both my cousins grew up on ranches and today they are the most suburban folks you will ever see. They maybe went to the ranch once a year for a family visit, never to recreate.

Not everyone is wired the same and don’t let lack of family interest deter you from spending time there, I sure don’t.

Kids are going to want their phones and electronic devices no matter what. Just let them have them while they are out there. And if the signal is poor, consider getting Starlink. It's a game changer.

My oldest son was never really into hunting or fishing, but he's a college freshman now and a lot of the kids in his fraternity hunt/fish, so suddenly he's a lot more interested, which is great. He has much to learn (and needs to keep his phone in his pocket a bit more), but I never hunted until I was about 26, so he's got plenty of time to learn if he really is passionate about it. On the other hand, my HS freshman loves going with me to the lease and couldn't care less about missing anything going on back at home. My youngest is 11 and is a bit too squirrely to sit in the blind for 3 hours straight, but he really loves fishing and the outdoors in general.

I always find it funny when guys on here say their 2-6 year old "loves" hunting with them because I just don't think it's possible for them to fully comprehend the situation and they haven't necessarily found other activities that they like more. That same 4 year old girl may hate the idea of going hunting with her dad in 10 years . At any rate, it can't be forced on them or they will loathe it.

It's my opinion, and going off my dad's experience, a hundred years ago in America, boys, never mind girls, didn't go hunting with their dads, unless it was subsistence hunting. It was more of a right of passage into manhood. Granted, kids didn't have the distractions, electronic and otherwise, that kids have today.

I've seen too many dads try to force it. That ain't doing the kid, or hunting, any favors. I'm sorry, but it speaks volumes about a dad's inflated ego when HE decides what the kid'll be interested in, or where the kid will go to college, or what career the kid will choose. I'm not talking about guidance; I mean deciding. I was blessed that my parents let me choose my own path. Unfortunately, I hear rumblings out of more than one son-in-law of what universities THEY (the son-in-laws) are considering "allowing" the child to go to. One granddaughter is two. And one of these son-in-laws tried college three different times...without ever finishing

But I digress. I was ate up with deer hunting since I was knee-high to a duck. 'First word was "deer". True story.

One thing for sure was hunting wasn’t child centered if they could go.

Dad or uncle may have sat with you a few times to teach you the ropes but after that you were on your own. And if a big deer happened to show up they shot it.

No one coddled the kids like they do now.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

While I agree 100% it is complicated. I have a very specialized small business and three customers make up 90+% of my work. Heck I have been in this field thirty years and probably haven’t worked for more than 40 customers. I am hoping to retire in 5-10 years but right now when my three main customers say jump I say how high. There really isn’t much of a choice if I want to hit my goal of retiring in 5-10 years. It’s like I am on the last leg of a long race.

A real head scratcher here.