Has your hunting "heyday" came and went?

Sitting here next to a fire in BFE, got me thinking about the past

Seems like even though we ( personally me) have access to better gear, equipment, etc, that the "good ol' days" have slipped by

Another member posted about how he enjoyed a south texas hunt. Growing up hunting south texas, its pains me to think about how it used to be. It seems the mystic it once held is now a bygone era. Too much human influence and encroachment have changed its look and feel.

It's true, management has never been better and trophy quality is at an all time high, but it seems like we are chasing a ghost so to speak in a lot of other aspects.

I find myself being put off by the overwhelming number of people In what used to be otherwise desolate country. I'm not talking about hunters either. Just people in general.

I find myself seeking more and more remote places to hunt, even at the expense of trophy quality.

I just enjoy hunting every chance I get

I feel your pain, brother!

Not for me. I have always been able to find solace in the woods, whether I am hunting or not. I have been blessed to be able to hunt some remote areas and other areas that while civilization was close, the woods were still mine at that moment.

The quality of the trophy isn't what drives me, it is the thrill of the hunt and the success at the end of it. Every trip, I get to experience some small piece that I have yet to see or maybe just didn't notice before. The woods and the world are still a wonder to me and, as in most things, I still believe that hunting is what you make of it.

If the areas and hunting has lost its mystic, you can blame it on management, people, civilization encroachment, equipment, technology, comfort, or whatever else you feel has changed it...but IMO, it is you that has allowed these things to change your view and perspective. You have also allowed the chase to be hindered by outside forces while you are still in control of yourself and your environment. What you seek is still there, just might not be as easy to find as it once was.

I will also say that I am getting into my "heyday" by watching my kids learn the sport. I get to experience so many "first" all over again, I get to watch them make the same mistakes I did, I get to enjoy the excitement of minor successes all over again.

At age 70, I’ve seen a lot of changes. Shot my first deer at age 8 in ‘55. But I enjoy being in the brush or hills with a rifle in my hand as much as I ever did.

Our camp is 1.5 miles from the gate. I feel solace anytime I am there and enjoy company of others.

I hear what you are saying about S. Tex. I was in an old Texas Hunter blind years ago called End Of The Line. Backed up to the Nueces. Felt a million miles away. Spanish explorers ran through the place. An old oil pad and sign laid down in the brush about 50 yards away. I asked about the sign and oil and was told that was a long time ago... 50+ years. Little did anyone know how fast the Eagleford would hit. Totally different place now. Hard to see stars at night. Cell phones actually work. Luckily a few LF natural places left but not many. Nothing like it.

Oh no, not at all, lol. I'm in my heyday now and have been for the last ten years.

Once you cross the cattle guard it is 7 miles of ranch road to get to our camp. We hunt 10,000 acres that's part of 165,000.

No road noise ever. Vistas as far as you can see are 50+ miles of view in every direction.

Great hunting which is the icing on the cake for me.

Spot on, but things always change as time passes. The high fence has dramatically changed hunting in texas, and the wind farm has branded a lot of once scenic and remote vistas.

Sounds like you’ve been in the same place to long. I’ve only hunted STX once so I don’t have a good reference for you. But I hunt the coast every weekend and I’m still amazed how much I see and feel down there. Probably the reason I will never leave Texas. I hope you get your spark back. I know your missing it.

I hate it that my back no longer allows me to go far into the woods any longer. These Alabama hills are just begging me to go for a walk about.

The old days were wonderful, but they aren’t coming back. I miss them, I miss the times we all had, and I miss the people - many of whom are gone now. The only thing constant is change.

But there’s a lot to be said for the new days too. Folks are more management-minded, the deer herd is healthy, and (in east TX) the bucks are bigger and more plentiful.

I love having my own place. I love seeing my wife, daughters, and new son-in-law take to hunting and just being outdoors.

We bought our place with remoteness in mind. One way in/out down a mile long road, no cattle, no farming, no activity other than hay cutting a few times a year. You can’t hear any traffic and you don’t see anyone coming/going.

When I need a genuine “remoteness” fix I head for the mountains out west or in the north country.

No doubt hunting is changing (see: HF, score-mania, obesession with killing, commercialization, TV idiots, etc., etc....). But not for me, my family, and friends. We are doing our dead-level best to keep the old hunting traditions and start new ones with the emphasis on hunting for the right reasons - to enjoy being together, enjoy the creation God has given us, and enjoy the challenge of hunting wild, free-range animals.

I hunt several places.

But wind turbines, new pump jacks and tank batteries, increased traffic on ranches due to oil activity, etc reels you back to reality pretty quick

Even in the land cut and on king ranch shoreline....freaking wind turbines everywhere

I hear you, after two back surgeries.

In reference to South Texas, I think it has, but it would be tough to explain to anyone that hadn't entered the brush before 1975. A good book that references exactly what has happened to South Texas is "Adios To The Brushlands."

I'm 63 and just about missed old school ST. I grew up on what is now the south side of Corpus Christi, Staples and Holly, but at that time was broken farmland and brush. My dad had a place in Zapata County because it was cheaper than hunting closer to Corpus. Then you could afford to run one hunter per 1,000 acres but the properties closer to Corpus would cause you to run hunters at half that rate because lease fees closer to town were higher. It is hard to explain how little the country has become in my lifetime, more on that in a bit.

I've seen two large, non-typical whitetails in my life, both before I was ten years old. The first at the intersection of South Staples and Williams Rd in Corpus Christi, while I was riding a bicycle to first grade which my parents had sent me to at 5 (probably so the nuns would exhibit some type of control over me). That buck has stuck with me hard over the years, and I can see it crystal clear to this day. It was tending a doe at the edge of native mesquites/cactus and milo stubble. To hell with being late, I stopped and watched it and got a licking but it was worth it. Can you imagine letting a five-year-old ride through that intersection now? That's city, but it is also an explanation of what has happened to the brush... people.

The second non-typical was just as massive but a couple of years later when I was eight. I was walking in from a morning hunt on our Zapata County lease. My dad drove a Corvair that we used as a hunting vehicle because the buggy like configuration lent itself well to the sand sheet, it was very easy to stick a truck. A personal pickup with four-wheel drive was almost unheard of then. It has been cold, and as I got to the Corvair, I laid my Savage 340 chambered in 30-30 Win across the top of the car. I no sooner did that a doe cross the sendero about 50 yards beyond, flagging her tail. Immediately I got the gun up, and as that was happening, a non-typical stepped out, it was massive. The problem was that as I looked across the open-sights (yeah, a majority of the hunters I saw as a kid did not have optics), I was looking up a crest in the sendero, and my dad had told me, "never shoot over that crest." In a flash of seconds, I thought about bullet deflection on bone mass or a rock down range and my dad laying dead as a result of not following what he told me. I wanted to be responsible and let him walk. My dad was at least a 1,000 yards away. When my dad came in I related to him what had taken place and I can still see the look in his eye thinking that I should have taken the shot given but he told me I had done good and there is always tomorrow. I'm thinking about that now, an 8-year-old hunting alone in Zapata County but I was not the exception as all my friends were doing the same. My first encounters with illegals were before I was ten but my dad had told me it would happen and to treat them with absolute respect as they would be older than I. I did, "sí señor y no señor." No problems and they told me what deer they had seen and where.

This was before corn feeders and a lot of things, if you saw a buck during a day of hunting, it was a good day. That buck was probably going to be a good one. You see, there was a thing called the screw worm, and it ensured that the"survival of the fittest" rule was in play.

A few years later, that beautiful large ranch in Southeast Zapata County fell to a thing called the root plow. It was actually "chained," and as a kid who loved the brush that seemed excessively violent to watch as we removed our few things. That was a January day, we had gone down to hunt javelina one last time, I was 14 now and the next day I took my first flying lesson so it is easy to remember all the events of that weekend. Adios brush.

When I left the Army 7 years later, I found work out of Corpus as a pipeline patrol pilot. I was airborne over South Texas four days a week. It was a great job, the best I ever had, and I saw some incredible bucks. I also had a bird's eye view of the destruction of the South Texas brush. The harshest I witnessed was 20,000 acres in southern Jim Wells County and eastern Duval cleared in 10 days. That was a lot of belching machines around the clock and brush piles on fire. Humble Pipeline had me patrol the line every morning. Sure as chit, one night, they pulled 8 miles of my pipeline out of the sand sheet. What I observed with that job at that time was there was still a lot of habitat that wasn't being hunted or at least country without the evidence. Year's later, 2000, a friend of mine owned the patrol company but was selling it. He needed a pilot one day a week in South Texas until the sale was completed but hated to hire someone for a job that soon would not exist. My job as an airline pilot allowed it and I was living on my ranch in South Texas which put me in a position to help so I flew the lines that I had flown a quarter of a century earlier. What I immediately observed was that anywhere there was whitetail habitat, there was a blind and feeder. There was no unhunted country left.

The changes I've seen is about people and the deforestation of the available habitat that those people require. Land fragmentation is a key player in how the properties and hunting have changed, we have an ethic that causes us to split the wealth among heirs and that, in most cases, is not good for the land. As part of a presentation I gave on land fragmentation, I went back and looked at the tax records of a pasture that was 1,000 acres in 1968. It is now, 66 different properties.

So yeah, in my lifetime, it has all changed. When I walk back to the house at night, luckily the top of the brush still looks the same against the horizon with the light that is left from the setting sun. It is very easy to see the same horizon that I walked into as an eight-year-old and that does make me smile. My dad who is on his way to 89, had told me everything would change in my lifetime and he was right about that too. He lives on my ranch and this was the first year that he didn't go out. He said he had had enough to last him.

Nope, as long as I can remember I loved it and still do. It is different kind of huning now than it was then, but I still feel the same way about it. I don't care if someone has walked there hunted there, or worked there before. If you think you went places no one has been I think you were kidding yourself all along.

For me, I love to be in the woods, but I find it harder and harder to pull the trigger. I set goals for myself many years ago on Elk, MD and WT, I have met all those goals.

I agree with texastrophy85, as I was also raised in South Texas. I still love to hunt the country for predators but too many folks and the dense cover makes my style of hunting extremely difficult. When I grew up down there, brush was not as thick and you could rattle and spot and stalk much easier. Today in most of the country, it is difficult to step out of a sendero. I have photos of the country around Los Angeles to Fowlerton in 1936 and you could drive a pickup across most all of it...and there were very few deer.
For this reason, I hunt in the Trans-Pecos though I am well aware that the deer are not as big. I am much more into the hunt than the kill after well over 55 years of chasing them.
Adios,
Gary

For the guys on here that hunt with their families, well done. But it's a dying tradition. I experienced it and I get melancholy when I think about how I've tried to reproduce it, but it's just not in the cards for my son, son-in-laws, and daughters. Maybe with my grandson in a few years, and I'll give it my best effort, but it's best to have his father's help and assistance in making a true hunter, in my opinion. My kids work, are seemingly happily married, and believe in our Creator, so I am a very blessed man anyways.

Our cabin is seven miles from the blacktop, and on the blacktop it takes a solid hour to get to any sort of town. But it's a working ranch with several other groups of hunters, so there's plenty of activity and noise. AND, the nice pastor in the cabin next to ours filled out his group with some friends of his...from just east of the Sabine , so the voices, UTVs and four-wheelers whizzing by at all hours, has increased in volume and frequency exponentially.

I've recently taken to enjoying my evening cigar and a sip from my flask back out on a ridge in our pasture.

Not real sure about it. The politics, time, travel and expense in it have dampened the experience somewhat but the idea of getting out and seeing game and the solitude is a fantastic concept. That and other things jumping in to alter priorities has made it a dream I do keep alive.

Keep looking forward and enjoy the days we still have.

Yep, for the younger generations it is all they know.
I'm 70 and I get where the OP is coming from.
Back then there were less deer due to the screw worm fly which would lay eggs in open wounds on animals that were injured or giving birth to newborns that would then have to battle to survive maggots eating them alive.
Deer leases were easy and cheap, and all that fancy gear and high fences was pretty much non existent.
The bucks you did end up killing were good ones, and big horns weren't a priority, only a bonus.
You could really get away from civilization because there were no cell phones, and you could brag about your hunting lease to everyone, as nobody had the internet, and your hunting lease was pretty safe from outsiders outbidding you.
Hardly anyone from north Texas hunted down in the "brush country" because it was just too harsh to drive so far.
That meant less people, and cities like San Antonio were tiny, because once you left downtown you were out in the country.
Those days are gone, never to return, but if you lived it, you do miss it.

I do remember as a kid getting to the deer lease and pulling over on the highest hill a 1/2 mile before the gate and breaking out dad's bag phone to call mom and tell her we made it safe. It was the last cell reception we had, now you can talk text and get on the internet from practically any square inch of that place.

I not even that old and I could remember when there where no whitetails, no elk, and no mulies near my place. I can still remember my grandfather wainting to pay a bounty on Antelope first time they showed up.

My dad and I got on a lease 17 years ago and have been on the same spot with the same landowner ever since. Still paying what we did 17 years ago. Over the years, we've built our camp into something resembling a second home. My brother started hunting with us after about 10 years, and my nephew soon followed. A couple buddies of mine and I go out during doe/spike to make sure anybody who's low in the freezer gets filled. Soon, their younguns will hopefully show interest, and they'll be coming out as well.

It's come a long way from me and my dad sleeping in a gutted, leaky, rat infested 20' travel trailer and using an outhouse, to staying in a 60' construction trailer with two king beds, A/C, and running water. It's changed. But it's not bad change. One day we'll look back on today and remember it as the good old days.

Just turned 58 and diabetes is kicking my butt. This is the first year i havent been able to deer hunt since i was 15 and its really bothering me. Cant hardly walk and definatly cant climb into my stand.Thought about riding the 4 wheeler down and hunting off of it but if i got a deer or hog i couldnt drag him to the wheeler. I just wish for the good ol days when i could enjoy the time in the woods.

When I was 9, my "heyday" was bagging a bunch of squirrels. Shortly after, it was killing my first deer, then my first buck, then my first bow kill, then my first Buck with a bow, then my first trophy buck, and now it starts all over. currently, I am at the stage of getting my boy his first deer. Most of my favorite hunts have been recent hunts with my boy. Your "heyday" is what you make of it. I've hunted some of the most beautiful, remote area of North OK, where my family is originally from, and am lucky enough to still get to hunt there. I Have also throughout the years hunted in some of the nastiest, muggiest, snake and skeeter infested swamps in Florida; some of the thickest, most impenetrable thickets in GA and LA; some very small pieces of land in various areas, some where you had to be careful where you shot because of nearby populations; Public land that was way too crowded; Public land that was not overcrowded, but had no game; and I enjoyed every hunt. Your heyday is what you make it.

Thank God, we don't have any UTV's or ATV's on the ranch. If you want to hunt, we use the boot leather express or feed he roads and drive. I don't think that most folks realize how many deer they spook with those things, as the only time of the year the deer see them is deer season.
Adios,
Gary

Lol I agree Gary, the people who hunt around us ride atv's etc. like they are on a dirt track or something you can hear them for miles.

God I still love being out in the woods! Although I embrace the changes of comfort and ease of hunting, at times I do miss the hunting of old. What is the hunting of old? Climbing up a tree and sitting on a 2X6 in the fork of a tree while the freezing mist builds Ice cycles on your mustache, the greater challenge to harvest a real nice buck while actually facing and challenging the elements. The stories that these times evoked were truly priceless!

Right now I am sitting in a comfortable office chair in a warm and comfortable tower blind posting on a smart phone. Do I enjoy these creature comforts and the advantage they give me over what I seek, at almost 62 heck yes, then there is the other side me that still relish’s the days gone by


Another way of putting it. If I was single I could get on the computer now and find a date. In the old days you had to hunt and prospect then actually engage with them in a meaningful yet sometimes mindless manner to capture your game. The stories you shared with your buds on your skillful pursuit and victory were again priceless

To me hunting and being outdoors is an ever evolving thing.
I once thought I was a bass fisherman. For many many years i chased those little suckers all over. Now the desire to chase bass has onlh dwindled a bit. But I know I'm no kvd, lack of passion. I can't do a week on the lake 12 hours a day. Just cannot.
I once believed i was a duck hunter. Let me be clear.. I love to kill a mallard duck. Love it. But I know that I am no Phil Robertson.

The last couple years I've been chasing elk. I love putting on a pack and bivying in for several days. Waking up on a mountain with nobody within miles of me.

I've found I love to fly fish. Do it yearly in colorado. So I loaded up and went to beavers bend. Ooops once I realized I was going to be in line with everyone stretched out every hundred yards or so I came to realize. It's not the fly fishing I love it's the quiet mountains of Colorado.

I can slip a canoe in the creek on a cool day and just enjoy. The enjoyment of hunting and fishing to me has always been seeing what's over the next ridge or around the next bend. Its why I cant do a lease. I love to walk miles tnrough the woods in hopes of finding that beaver slough that nobody has decoyed a wad of mallards in. That ridge with that buck that's never been hunted. That crappie hole that nobody knows about.

So for me it's always an adventure. Because there is always a new ridge a new bend and a new slough.


I'll add that I was on a 100 acre lease in Grayson county where we had plenty of 150" deer. I hated hunting it. I'd swear the neighbor shot 10k rounds every Saturday. Tractor noise, truck noise, dogs barking etc etc. Thats when I started to realize for me it's not the quality of the animal but the quality of the outing. I may get back on that place next year as it will be 10 minutes from the house I'm building. Figure my 4 year old may be ready to sit in a popup with a cross bow sooner than later.

ducknbass, never go on a lion hunt with your own dogs...you will not be seen again.
Adios,
Gary

Yes and no. Yes because there are a lot of changes that have occured since I began hunting 35+ years ago. ( I'm 44 now.) I remember turning off the highway onto a dirt road toward our hunting cabin and feeling like I was in the middle of nowhere! That same dirt road is now paved, high fenced, and I can see several rooftops from my blind. It stinks but it is what it is. Ten years ago I had the chance to hunt on a beautiful ranch in South Texas which was as desolate as they come. My last year on the place the oil wells came in and changed everything. I could hear the boss talking on a loud speaker at 6 AM and the place was lit up like a shopping mall. 18 wheelers coming and going at all hours, frac ponds everywhere, and new roads criss crossing the once beautiful ranch. But who could turn down making 20,000 a day? If I was the ranch owner, I probably would have done the same thing.
Several family memebers have passed and our Hill Country place doesn't feel the same without them. That melancholy feeling you get when you revisit your childhood home is sometimes how I feel when I go the place now. The level of excitement has faded somewhat, but I enjoy taking my boys out there and seeing them enjoy what I enjoyed at their age. Hopefully they will still want to take me hunting when I am an old man!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THIS^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Even if my heyday was over I wouldn't admit it. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, who really knows as things change all the time. One thing I do know if I don't keep at it by hunting with my buddies, spending time with family, and taking kids outdoors there is a good possibility their heyday is over.

I’m the guy that just returned from the South Texas hunt. First deer I’ve killed in over 30 years. The kill means little if anything to me. What I really enjoy is passing the love of hunting and fishing down to one of my boys. My boys are 39 and 36. The oldest loves to hunt and fish, the youngest could care less and doesn’t seem to have the patience to do either. I’m happy that I was able to pass the love of the outdoors down, just like my dad passed it down to me. Some of the fondest memories I have of my dad and my stepbrother are the weekends we spent rabbit hunting as I was growing up in Missouri. Listening to the beagles bring a rabbit back was pure joy.

I cant say mine has "come and gone", many great and a few not so great memories. Definitely more urban sprawl than there was in the late 70's, early 80's almost everywhere. Ironically, as far as Colorado hunting, I see LESS hunters now, by a huge margin, probably due to strong control now with deer tags and higher cost.

Lived through the "your shot if you take a doe" years in C Tex, remember land being cheaper and much more plentiful if a family wanted to lease

That sounds like a blast.

Young whipper-snapper. When my dad stuck the '66 Bronco trying to get across to me and a little buck I'd shot, I remember having to use a spent cartridge to dial the rancher's ROTARY dial phone to call Mom. ('Guess he'd thrown it across the room too many times. Wild man, but I still consider him a friend.)

I would love to hear that...if they weren't my beagles.

I decided a while back not to post on things that got into pissing contest on here. This is a little different. I am now 71 years old. I grew my first 16 years near San Antonio. My parents had land that Interstate 35 cut in half to build the road. to be exact IH 35 and Weidner Rd. They had around 75 acres there that backed up to at that time was Longhorn Cement Co. The first deer I shot was a Doe when I was around 12 years old with a 22. The first Buck was an 8 point with my Fathers 250 Savage when I was 15. Back then it was real hunting even though now in that area you can shoot better bucks out of you back yard. I started hunting by myself when I was around 12 years old. I know that times were different back then but young hunters now seemed not to be able to to start hunting on their own at that age. Starting at that age and not having as much supervision to me makes you a better hunter. You are at the age where your brain seems to take in what you do and what you could have done better to make the situation more to your advantage. Now even with my Grand kids I can see the difference in actually hunting for a deer and just shooting so you can say you got one. The increase in the deer population, the increase in feeding protein,the pen raised deer, the negativity in just shooting a buck unless it is at least 5 years old and has at least 150 B&C points has taken hunting to a level that in my way of thinking is not good for the sport. I would venture to say that not 0ver 10% of people now could really hunt a Buck Deer if it were not for Feeders and Blinds. It will be interesting to see if there is still hunting and what the replies will be to the original question in another 50 years. I won't be here but many of you will.

Agree 100%.



For the record, 'had a beautiful, wide 8, standing and looking at me, at 100 yds a few days ago, while I was checking out a plugged water trough (that had a leak in the pipe leading to it.) There wasn't a feeder in the area. 'Gotta walk careful.

Not me, I'm in my prime.

I'm the odd ball that gets more joy out of killing hogs and coyotes than deer. I can hunt them 12 months a year, and no land owner around me has told me not to. I saw the sounder one hour ago, and put a little hurt on it, on my way home. In my business I've made lots of friends, and have had the opportunity to be a guest all over the place. I don't care if I'm going just to help glass, and help drink beer, I'll go! Being in the country is all I want.

Today will be the "Good ol' days for future generations. Keep that in mind and make it fun for them!

I grew up and spent my first 20+ years a few miles down the road from there.

Never really had a "heyday" or am still in it. We always hunted with Dad's business associates or my uncle. Then I was blessed to meet a few landowners that traded work for hunting and I was finally able to get my own small place . I am also blessed to have worked for a great guy that I became friends with and he takes me on a week long dove hunt and later in the year a deer hunt. I also had veteran staying on my place that introduced me to a friend that has land in Webb county that I get to do management hunts on. I've been blessed to have places to hunt.

I shot my first buck, 3 point, when I was 6 years old hunting by myself with an M-1 carbine. Yes times have changed. Each of us individually has to determine whether for the good or the bad. I honestly see both, but when I'm with my 9 year old grandsons out in the woods hunting rabbits, trapping coons and just watching all the other small game, I see nothing but good in their eyes. Next year I am going to let them hunt deer for the first time. And they are enjoying one of the most important things that goes along with hunting...sitting around a campfire with family and friends. I hope they get to continue to enjoy that for a very long time.

just a few years ago, I would have disagreed with you, but not I am more in line with your thinking. I went thru the "gotta be X years old and score X amount for me to take it"


Early part of this year I was hunting on a buddies lease in the Comstock area. I was having a ball of a time walking and stalking the hills. I took a smaller animal that I normally wouldn't have taken in years past, because it was fun. Not a trophy in anyone's eyes, not even mine, but I have a momento of a fun hunt and I enjoyed the heck outta myself.

beating ourselves up over 5" of antler or 1 year of the animals age has gotten to the point of ridiculousness and has zapped the fun outta the sport moreso than anything else

I agree, and I have been caught in that trap myself. I still am to some degree, kinda obsessed with taking one truly giant buck from my own place before I kick (which I hope isn’t any time soon).

I am now resolved to keep it a goal, but not an obsession.

Rural lifestyles are going the way of the Dodo. The number of folks under 40 who actually grew up in the woods is minuscule - and getting smaller by the day. Even rural families rarely let their kids roam the woods unsupervised these days.

Lots of guys hunt, but their focus has turned to killing, antler size, and gear these days. Why? It’s all they know because they didn’t grow up outdoors and time doesn’t allow them to really spend much time just roaming the woods/brush/hills.

Most guys spend more time talking about hunting than actually hunting. It’s not their fault, just the way it is these days. Life moves fast in the 21st century.

beating ourselves up over 5" of antler or 1 year of the animals age has gotten to the point of ridiculousness and has zapped the fun outta the sport moreso than anything else


You are not kidding. I know some deer leases down south where you are heavily fined or kicked off the place if the deer you shoot is one inch less than 140". Or 150". Or whatever standards they set for themselves. Same goes for the deer's age. Shoot a three or four year old buck and it's adios for you. The whole experience is nerve wracking, and not fun at all. I know they are trying to grow big deer, but paying a 1500.00 fine on top of the 6000.00 + you paid to get on the place just sucks.

I think it comes down to as you age and change as a hunter you want different things. You need to hunt amongst people who are in the same stage as you.

Like any guy I like a big high scoring buck, but I'm happy to shoot a good solid 8pt too. I do like to strive for mature deer, but shoot does with little regard for age and culls at whatever age we identify them as such and are able to get them. They are culls, but they are as fun as anything to me. To me the management just adds more to it, it doesn't take it away. I see some of the deer that we are letting get older and it gets my heart pounding etc. just seeing them I don't have to shoot them, but hopefully one day me or my dad or brother or one of our kids will.

a trophy is what you make of it. i've killed a bunch of "trophy" does and pencil racks

I know of a ranch in south texas. 5k acre not crowded and they kill some big deer. Price isn't bad either

Rule is you have to video a buck you want to shoot and take it back and review it with the lease boss before you get the go ahead


Forget that noise I'd rather kill deer at will

'...that.

Yeah no joke, that's shopping at IKEA like IMO.

Yeah I’m out on that. Lol I’m only going to see one I want once - if I’m lucky. Can’t relate to that “video and show it to the lease boss” mess.

I've heard about that happening on a lease a relative was on, and the lease manager ended up killing the deer after being shown the video.
The lease manager became the ex lease manager shortly afterward but for other reasons.

Yep, I would suspect it's more about a power trip and "right of first refusal" than any true management goal. The goal there is "me first". Makes me appreciate the guys on my lease.

My "heyday" is located in Central Texas and is still going and betting better.

Back in the first half of 1900, most folks still hunted for meat.
As refrigerators started showing up, there was a shift in meat consumption from wild to domestic raised meat.
The true hunters continued to hunt.

When hunting in the 60's, the deer population was down from hunting but showing signs of recovery.
They were still few and far between - you might go the entire season only seeing tracks.
The deer were extremely wary from being hunted for centuries and would bolt instantly.

Between then and now, folks started moving out of the cities and spreading into the country.
More and more farms and ranches were converted to wildlife management.
Feeding the birdies and wildlife became a way of life.
Since they feed them, they become pets and not targets and the deer adapted and thrived.
And got a lot less wary and much more tolerant of people.

This has increased the deer population exponentially in this area.
Along with more deer comes better deer up to a point before they reach saturation.
It seems like we are almost to the point that they need to increase bag limit.

In the 60's, you might see a deer track so you knew they were in the area.
Today, I have them sleeping in my yard and built a high fence to keep them out of the garden.
You simply can't grow a Jalapeno in the open around here as they seem to have a weakness for them...leaves, peppers, stalks and ALL!

While everybody is feeding the deer, I have seen an increase in the turkeys and my favorite target, pigs!!
Now if we could do something with the fireants so Quail would return.

been at it now for around sixty years - you could apply the changes in deer hunting to anything else in life over that many years - things change - some for the good and some for the bad- welcome to life

I do not hunt like I did when I was a teenager but then again I was hunting 100 inch 8 points. Now I hunt differently but I hunt deer pushing 200 inches on LF ranch - I miss some of the old days and other things I do not miss.

As long as it is fair chase and legal then I am all for progress - Why? Because you nor I can stop it

Obviously, it’s STX, no real woods.

I enjoy bringing my kids more than hunting alone.

I don't think that my "heyday" has passed already, I hunt pretty much every single day during deer season and I used to not be able to. I killed my first deer at age 7 outside of Albany, Tx with a open sight .30-30, crazy amount of deer around there in the early 90's.

Hunting has been my passion in life since then and there is no way I could only drive out on the weekends/holidays to be in the woods, I enjoy it too much. Some people in my family say I'm obsessed but I don't care, it's what keeps me going.

My passion has changed somewhat. I love to hunt I love the deer. I have been fortunate to hunt the world over. I bow hunt and love the outdoors. This past few weeks I have had the chance to help my daughter get her first deer as well as my nephew. their excitement is pure and not caught up in anything buy pure hunting joy. I felt like I was 7 again. that is my future in hunting and will get me excited again.

You must be of those guys who wants to get patted on the back because you killed a deer in east Texas.

I don't want any pats on the back, but videoing a deer and then knowing you can kill it later ain't gonna happen on my place in east TX. Period. It don't work that way and ain't never gonna work that way. The first time you see a mature buck is very, very likely the last time you will see him.

All the talk I see on here about "herd history", photos of bucks that are later shot, "letting the herd age/knowing your herd", and basically all manner of other stuff where mature bucks are known like cattle and can be shopped for like groceries is all foreign to me. I have trail cam photos of deer I have and will likely never see. I see mature bucks that I do not have a single trail camera pic of and have never laid eyes on every year. There are a few that hang around enough to get familiar with from year to year (through TC pics), but very few. Even those you may not see but once a year - if you see them at all. I have owned the place for almost 15 years and my family hunts it exclusively.

East TX is a different world than most everywhere else in TX - in almost every respect.

I like it that way BTW....

NOPE.

Done with my kids....soon to be working on the grandkids......

We've got a large LF place in the western hill country. I do get some repeat older bucks on cameras and at feeders, but by and large if you see a big old deer (over 5), you damn well better shoot him and fast. You very well may not ever have any sort of shot at him again, or ever see him again on foot or camera. The idea that you could videotape him, take it back for people to discuss, then go back and check him out (as in the grocery store) is nowhere near our reality.

One of the places I hunt is a LF place and around 6500 acres of leased land. Almost every deer that is shot, I have a tc picture of or have seen in person. There are a few exceptions. Most the pictures come from one of 5 stands scattered across the property.

Typically, I can go back and find the deer from the previous years also.

I would never personally hunt a place that I had to get video approval prior to pulling the trigger, but I truly enjoy watching progression from year to year and everything that I can learn from those deer.

Usually, when someone shoots a mature buck, I've got it on camera. But not always. And sometimes it's just a pic or two in the middle of the night from a different place. And there's dang sure no certainty you'll go back out and find him again.

I do not think this is because neighbors shoot them necessarily. It's just a wild place, and we don't tend to see the big boys unless they're chasing a doe and getting dumb. Rarely would we have a mature buck habituated to a feeder. I don't know why.

But that wildness/mystery of what might or might not show up is a big part of what makes it fun for me. I would not enjoy it nearly as much if I knew with a reasonable level of certainty what was going to show up at a feeder.

As answer to the question, to me the wildness/mystery of the outdoors is what really makes it fun. I am not as much in my heyday as when I was hunting huge LF places with my grandfather. But I also haven't lost it. I try to keep it together as much as I can for kids and friends. While I do want to take good care of the herd, I also don't want to put a bunch of rules on it that take the mystery and fun out of it. Some people (especially youngsters and new hunters) need to be able to shoot deer and have fun.

+1000 on the “wildness and mystery” on what is out there and might show up.

Deer being known so well they are something awfully akin to livestock is not something I would ever want to be a part of. It has apparently become almost the rule rather than the exception from a lot of the stuff I read on here.

I’m glad I hunt where it’s not possible even if one wanted it to be.

Just making the most of the IKEA reference.

On 200 acres, there is a lot of unknowns. On 10k acres, they pretty much live on you.

Knowing your deer is not akin to livestock...smh...

I’m thinking it has more to do with the terrain, location and nature of the deer rather than the amount of acreage on a given deed. I know most all my neighbors for miles around. We are all surprised at most of the mature bucks we see, even though we share information. We sure don’t count on being able to see them again. No matter the amount of land owned, a man can only be in one spot at any given time. The “livestock” reference comes from another - don’t mean to offend. Obviously a lot of folks consider following their particular deer as a fun endeavor.

If anyone hasn’t hunted the woods of east TX I don’t think they can have a frame of reference.

Things really are fundamentally different when you cross the Trinity.

Land size does make a difference. On 200 acres, all your deer aren't living on you. Terrain makes a big difference. Genetic inclination of the herd you are hunting does too. The deer that I hunt in West Texas tend to travel greater distances than many of the other deer that I have hunted in other locations, especially East Texas. In the panhandle, I saw distances similar to ours and some even greater.

I have hunted Corsicana, Tyler, Longview, Jackson, and up around Bonham and Paris. Different terrain and a different herd. It is still hunting and you can still know your deer. Take Rifleman, he post progression pictures every year and "knows" his deer. It is what you know and how you use it that makes a difference.

Nothing wrong with not using any cameras, studying deer, learning deer and just going out into the woods and hunting. I would never ridicule someone for doing it because that is similar to what I do in Kansas. I use them for scouting because of the distance and then just hope to catch a big one on camera. No different than someone using them to learn and understand the herd better, I wouldn't ridicule them either...

I’m not “ridiculing” anyone. Just saying it’s not my cup of tea.

I’m just an old dummy saying what he thinks. I guess I don’t “study” or “learn” or “know” anything like the smart kids, and obviously I’ve got a lot to learn. Not the first time I’ve heard that today.

Smh again...carry on then and us “smart kids” will go kill our livestock

Thanks. Maybe I’ll luck up and kill something one day too. You know, “Even a blind hog......”

I know the deer I see yearly....killing them jokers after they hit 5-6, or I let slip to 7-8 bc of singling out 1 deer makes it a crapshoot. My “ondeck” buck for this year got shot 4 miles away 2 days after I last had him on cam...my big one from last year got shot in the same spot. Didn’t know he was still alive until dead pics started blowing up my phone, with lots of laughing/crying/barf emojis. He left a sanctuary with plots/protein and free based corn in Feb for no good reason. Odds are good he had been further North than 4 miles since the guy between us hadn’t seen him either. It’s a weird year, I have 2 I can match up from last year and they aren’t dependable. The 4 daily bucks that Summered with me left before they went hard horned, haven’t seen them since. I’ve only found 4 ground scrapes on the entire place when I can normally find that many in 100yd stretch of field. Saw my “white/off colored doe” from a few years ago from the Family Dollar parking lot. Talking to a cpl folks about her bc apparently she’s a regular there now right at the city limits and they were mentioning the big 199” buck running that group of does in that field by the store the day before he was shot. It’s straight shot 6.5 miles. 8 miles to me where I was getting pics of that deer up until his bachelor group was slaughtered whe he was a regular 3yo. I haven’t pulled the trigger since ‘13, but it’s not for lack of trying.

TxTrophy: Good post, btw. I think I try very hard to get back what we have lost. I do not think it is possible.

What we CAN do, is make something of what we DO have...and try to build it new.

Growing up, we had 9 sections of West Texas land (out by Notrees, TX.. heh) and we hunted more quail and dove than you can shake a stick at. We were spoiled. We could go out after work, school, weekends...it cost us (and by 'us' I mean my dad...) like $60 a YEAR.. and ducks.. anything we wanted.. bird, rabbits.. just not deer, I think. I cannot remember if we were not allowed to hunt them or just never did, but we could take guests etc. We knew that land like the back of our hands and I can still see the ruts in the road we would have to drive to get to the duck pond.

We had like 28 acres (I think) outside Campwood/Uvalde. It was big country to us.. I never knew better. I had to tie my gun to a rope, climb the tree, and pull it up and then tie myself to the tree so I did not fall off if I fell asleep.. lol.. and we shot "anything that had a horn long enough to put a ring on it".

I think we lose ourselves these days in trophy deer and wtd management. It has become such a "science" of hunting, that people forget that it is about the camaraderie and stories, imo only.

That is why I rarely actually hunt and even more rarely shoot anything. One year, I shot 3 cull deer, a doe and a couple spikes. I have never shot 3 deer in one year, but I had friends that wanted meat and did not hunt. I have more fun inviting people out and getting to know them and listening to their stories than I do hunting...heh

But.. I am rambling. To your point, for me.. I think I lost the "feel" or the "love" of being out there when I think about how I wish my dad could see this. I am not bragging in the slightest... but the point I think about, when I have my coffee in my hand and am standing on that porch.. I picture John Wayne in Chisum.. looking out over his land.. and I think to myself how my dad loved that 28 acres and how he would have given anything, as would I, to be on that porch with me looking out over the trees.

So... I invite people that are like minded... and hope that I can regain some of that.. and hope even more my kids grow up loving the ranch and can, one day, be standing on that porch with me too.

So... I regain my love with that.

The feeling is never lost, you just have to find where it went and go get it.

What did Harrison Ford say in 6 days 7 nights? "It's an island, baby.. if you didn't bring it, you ain't gonna find it" lol

Russ

“The feeling is never lost, you just have to find where it went and go get it.”

Thanks for that. Words to live by.

To me the hunt isn't about killing, anymore. Watching animals on your own place is priceless. Things change. I've hunted all over the state. Killed some nice bucks through the years. I'm just not mad at them like I used to be. Hunted with JohnRussell this last weekend at his place in Edwards county. Didn't shoot anything but saw plenty of game. Camaraderie was great, food was off the charts. Good times were had by all. Thats what it's about for me these days.

At one time we had over a dozen. We lived across the street from the police station and fire department. When the Sirens went off, the beagles howled.

I wish I had the deer hunting knowledge that I have now back when I first started hunting as a kid on a 2500 acre lease that costs us 25 cents an acre. We each payed $75 a year, which included a small fee for food to feed the deer dogs.

I would take in a heartbeat, the average attitudes of hunters back then over what you see today. Unlike today (when the only time you hear someone say something favorable about a dog is when they need one to bail their poor shooting [censored] out), a good hunting dog was respected as much as any good sportsman. Back then, a hound could run a deer across a half dozen leases without any fear of being shot. In fact, when hunters killed a deer in front of one, they would often catch him and call to let you know where you could pick him up. That all changed when meat became less important than antlers and scoring.

Nothing is more exciting than hearing a good hound drive a deer towards you.

Came and gone...

We still have a community fox hunt every year. Folks camp, dress up on horseback and release the hounds. Not sure when was the last time anything other than time was killed on one of those hunts.

You hanging it up at the ripe old age of 16?

Nope just getting started really.

Just pointing out your grammar mistake because I'm a pesky humanities major.

Well, it’s actually “come and gone” if you want to get all Grammar Nazi about it.

Have fun at school


Us out here in the field appreciate your devotion to grammatical studies

That is absolutely correct. It's just a pet peeve of mine when people say "went" instead of "gone." The came doesn't irk me as much.


TT85, thanks sir.

Are you an English teacher? When you do not write that often or are in a hurry you tend to type quickly and as the words pop into your head which definitely can cause issues with presenting the message correctly.

My Paw Paw hunted with hounds in AR. He trained them and ran them. I only had the opportunity to hunt with him once when he was running the dogs. I was 12-13 at the time and my dad and brother were there. My Paw Paw set us up to follow him about 100 yards behind to get anything that circled around and behind the dogs but we found out quickly that it was impossible for us to follow him. Here's this 70 yr old man running behind these dogs leaving me, my dad and my brother, in his dust. We simply couldn't keep up with him. When I think about what he could do at his age I'm still in awe. And listening to those dogs run those deer was outrageous. It was definitely a thing of beauty!

I loved to hunt years ago and got married and pretty much got out of it. Now 11 years later and two sons which got interested in hunting and fishing re-ignited my desire to do so. Absolutely loving every chance we get and going to gun shows and meets ect.

With the end of the season getting closer, I'm starting to think my hunting days are numbered and my heyday is coming to an end not mentally, but physically.
I gutted a doe a week ago, and it took me a long time because of the many breaks I took because of back and nerve pain, and being crouched down. Then came to chore of dragging her out, which was only about 75 yards from the road.