Texas Wildlife Association Annual Convention and Statewide Texas Big Game Awards in San Antonio is coming up. Its a great organization and I always go. Two weeks away, July 14, 15. Its a little pricey and you may of missed the discounted room rates. The Big Game Awards is Saturday lunch again this year, so at minimum, a person that lived close could just pay for the day(I think). They have seminars and vendors and a huge auction(Sat night). Very family friendly, if you can afford it.
For me, its a big social event and chance to reconnect with lots of friends involved in hunting. There is a very large percentage of attendees that are land owners, followed by conservation/hunting/ranching/education professionals and every day hunters(like me.) I also really love seeing the mounts of all the newly killed huge Whitetail, Muley, Pronghorn and maybe Bighorns. I think my good friend said he was mounting 4 Texas Slams that were killed this year and they will be there. All Texas Slams are invited to be recognized and displayed so there will be several there. One of our forum members best friend killed the number one Muley in the State last year and Im not sure if he will be there are not, but hopefully. Last year one of our members killed one of the top 3 Muleys in the State so I got to see him. Only the top 3 big game animals in each category are invited to come and be displayed and recognized so its quite an honor and they are real Trophy quality. There are numerous categories including Typical and NonTypical WT, MD, and Pronghorn with separate categories for high fence and low fence. Depending on the number of Slams there could be around 40 to 50 of the biggest animals youve ever seen on display and a chance to talk with the hunters that killed them.
Many people use the opportunity as a family vacation. Its a nice resort with many amenities for adults or kids. TWA and the resort get together and offer supervised things for kids to do all day long in case you want a free babysitter(at least they used to offer this.)
Im posting this because I think its a great organization that can always use more support and because I would like to meet some of yall if you come. Keep in mind, its not necessarily what YOU CAN GET out of the event, but what YOU CAN GIVE to support a good cause.
TWAs Mission Statement is "Serving Texas wildlife and its habitat, while protecting property rights, hunting heritage, and the conservation efforts of those who value and steward wildlife resources. "

If I have copy paste correctly, the link below is from my post on this subject from last year. It has more info and a lot of pics of mounts.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...tewide-texas-big-game-awards#Post8637081

I have attended this and it is awesome - great people great deer and great place to see a lot of great booths to find stuff you do not see anywhere else

Event is just over a week away so I’ll post a few pics from other years.
At least one of these was killed by one of our forum members. Certainly many have through the years but I happened to notice one of these. Truly the best of the best from our great State.
Keep in mind only the top 3 in each category are invited to come and have the animal recognized and displayed.
The exception to the top 3 is that ALL the Texas Slams are invited and recognized. Some years there may be just one or two Slams killed but one year I think there was over a dozen. Of course, TWA website has every animal that has ever made the minimum score archived all the way back to the beginning, about 1990. .

Wow!

Packing up to start south for the event. I’ll spend a night in my home town wed night going and sun night coming back and 3 nights at the event. Really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones while I see some incredible trophies from last year. I may learn some stuff as well.
A pic of the casino entertainment from previous year.

FR -

I ended up getting conflicted out; not going to make it down there this weekend. Post a pic of Matt's muley when you see it.

I hate you can’t make it. I was with Matt’s office mate Sunday and he said the muley was coming. He wasn’t sure if the taxi got done. I will definitely take and post a pic.

We’re heeeeere!! Not too late to join the festivities.
Just a taste of some of the Best of Texas mounts and Texas Slams taken this past season that are on display and to be recognized at lunch tomorrow.

When you get a chance, can you post a better picture of that whitetail table top mount. The one in the 2nd picture on the mesquite slab with prickly pear pads. Thanks and keep them coming

Interesting, I just this second took that pic before reading your post.
I was mostly interested in the table top mount. I think it was you that had talked about a table top mount and got my interest up. I have a pedestal but want to also have a table top for easy transport and display on occasion. Post your table top if will.

Those cactus jack nontypicals always have such smaller frames then the pictures when they get posted. Most are not very impressive in person compared to how they look in pictures

Wow #1 and Wow #2.
Best in Texas Typical and Non Typical from last year.
Lotta huge WT also but Muleys are starting to get my interest up.

Thanks for sharing!!! muleys have been peaking my interest this year as well.

wonder what bottom one grossed

Awesome...

One of our hunters got an award for a buck he took off the ranch last year. We went to the ceremony last year.

They have quit listing gross for some reason(silly). He matches up real well so not much more.

I haven’t followed their bucks like you evidently have. But out of the 3 here you are correct. The 2 Typicals are HUGE framed and the Non Typ, by comparison, is not. The Typs beams appear well into the 30s while the NT may ONLY be 27.

That cactus jack nontypical has 24" beams, the 10pt next to him has 27-28" beams. I hunted a buck that looks ALOT like him last season that was killed by another guy. That one was 182" gross and net 176".

When i get to the house i'll post a pic of that buck and of my table top pedestals. I have two, of my biggest nontypical and my biggest gross typical.

I wish more people/ranches entered their deer, its starting to be the same 5 ranches and 5 hunters who are winning the whitetail catagories each season.

So where is the Cactus Jack ranch located in Webb county?

On 83 about half way between catarina and encinal. The other bucks in those pictures came from the somberito ranch outside of laredo.

It’s been that way for years with most deer contests.

Nobody enters Los Cazadores anymore for that same reason.

I don’t follow the “contests” but a big difference in TBGA and the big contests are that there’s no pre entry or entry fees as well as no real prize. It’s strictly recognition to show the quality of animals that can be produced with some deer management and habitat management. There is also a lot of recognition for first time harvest/youth that are not even scored. Similar to the origin of Boone and Crocket, the data collected from the entries is used to help TPWD steward the States resource.
Also, several of the top WTs were not from S Tx(2 E Tx) so pretty sure they aren’t regular “contest” winners. Several of the more obscure locations/ranches didn’t show up and most of the bucks y’all are referring to were high fence. Both HF and LF have the same number of categories and are tallied and recognized separately.

Thats not why people stop entering deer contest, people dont care if the same high fenced ranches win year after year....the reason they stopped is because of all the pen deer released have had offspring and they are being killed and entered and people (mysef) are tired of 300" whitetails being considered "pasture born native bucks"...

The good thing about the bucks in this thread and in the above pictures, they are all native south texas bucks and the texas bga does not allow deer like other contest

I have been told (by good sources) that the Cactus Jack was totally HF for years - when it changed hands word was they left most of the HF up and had a small part LF so they could call it LF - maybe that is not the case but makes one wonder