Drawn for Big Bend Archery Mule Deer!!!

I am so pumped up! October 12-15 Big Bend State park Archery Mule Deer! going to be a tough but awesome hunt!

Can't believe I was actually drawn for the hunt!

I’ll never understand the Gods, of all people

hahahaha

That ought to be a clown show.................it would be a good time to ditch the tower blind physique and actually try to get in some form of shape before you go unless you plan on sitting on a rock for a couple of days. Can't wait to see you lugging all that pro staff schitttt around down there.

I hope they don’t give him a film permit

Damn you take a beating on here...how about just congratulations! I am 0-10 so far this year, been putting in for about 44 draws for the last 3 years and NADA. Good luck! An archery mule deer in Big Bend would be an adventure of a life time.

Good luck and you will probably need it. 30 years ago I hunted just above Big Bend on a large private ranch and got real lucky and killed a real big buck right off the bat(rifle). The next year I came back and hunted 9 days really really hard and covered a lot of ground and glassed a ton of country and saw a total on one buck and he was immature.

Well damn. Good luck

Good luck. You will need it.

Y’all just made my day.

Remember aim for the gut and you may get lucky and hit the vitals

It could be warm in mid Oct in Big Bend.

Well considering I have lost almost 90lbs since last year I am on my way to that. :-)

Filming is permitted :-)

Don't get mad at everyone because your only stroke of luck was finding a quarter on the sidewalk.

That's just funny!

Congratulations Big Time! Send me a video.

He's right about lugging all the stuff, you know.

Yeah...but he did not tell you it was super glued to the sidewalk.

That’ll make for a fantastic “pro hunter back out til morning” sequence.

Gee I wonder who glued it......

Well it’s up to you to not get the law changed

Did you ever get the knife blade repaired that you broke when you were trying to pry up that quarter? Just asking for a friend.

They have not seen any of his videos yet.....

Congrats!

I am curious to hunter success on that property.

Lots of cats in that area keep the mule deer wore out.

You may get lucky and find a good buck. I would practice shooting at long distance for that trip, 70-80 yards min

Got a Major Upgrade

Nice knife, nicer steak 😊

Pack light and keep the menu simple. You don't want to waste a bunch of time preparing food and then cleaning up afterwards. Take a compass and not the one on your phone. You probably won't need a range finder so if you are allowed a guest, consider asking BoBo to come. He's got a good knife, a strong stomach and is really helpful when he is quiet.

Remember, positive energy creates desirable outcomes.

Congratulations and good hunting sir .

Congrats! Find the water and start glassing out in circles to spot a buck. They like to bed down with the wind at their back in the shade of a cedar where they can watch from above.....

congratulations and good luck!

When the yotes and javelina come out, remember you're there to hunt mule deer. LOL

Wish we could put on a GoPro and follow along.

Eat on the go.

Jetboil, case of water, ramen and mountain house. Ready in minutes and cleanup takes about 60 seconds.

If you want to cook out, do it at night.


At just over 300k acres, it’s a daunting place to hunt. They have a good road and trail system thru the park so access should not be a problem by Jeep or SxS

At that time of year, I would not expect much movement until right at first and last light. Let your glass do the walking for you and get up on a ridge and glass draws and gravel ridges.

Gonna be a tougher hunt but you may have some luck

As if he will have less then 7 attached to him...


Ok I will be nice.

TxTrophy gave good advice. Especially food wise. Peak refuel meals is my favorite, the new Chad Mendes sig meals are really good.

First get onX on your phone and save the maps.

Second always mark your truck
Third always have plenty of water, toss in a cheap sawyer just Incase you need to drink from a guzzler
Fourth-get high and glass, glass and glass. A tripod is probably your best investment, it will help your glass more efficiently and most importantly comfortably so you will actually glass more.
Fifth- get a decoy, not to lure but to help when you are busted

Mule deer are pretty tolerant be aggressive.


Last but not least, make sure your vehicle has extra water, air compressor and plug kit.

I hope you kill a stud and have a great hunt... for your self!!! Not the gram

Well he's now pro for Tactacam for the record.

And Kudos BOBO for taking the high road and sharing your good experience advice. I took a couple of your recommendations to file away for myself

BoBo, if I do the filming, I'll let you do the editing. Btw, you do want to go, don't you.

Probably depends on who he has to bunk with.

Absolutely, id be more then happy to help if that’s the case or if he promised not to film.

Who wouldn’t want to go on a grand adventure on a huge piece of texas history.

Just think of the money to be made off of this adventure..or misadventures of BOBO the Clown....heck with Americas Funniest Video paying $10,000 for the weekly win and then $100,000 at the end of the season.... Then all the other avenues to profit from this especially with your cameo appearnce and since your "kinda a big deal" status to make the video go viral. You could start a new career and YouTube channel after that. Then you could say
I'm kinda a really big deal".

Could it be reminiscent of Laurel & Hardy?

I think more of Mayberry RFD-The Andy Griffith Show...you could pick any two and not be disappointed. I am thinking more Otis and Barney though. Otis in real life would be needed for this duo to make it to the end of the hunt though....

All joking aside BOBO would be a great hunting partner though. He would be there to hunt and be serious from the get go. He would be there to hunt and would take it very serious.
I will add that hunting close to water can be iffy with those Trans Pecos mulies IME. We hunt in late Nov into Dec so it could be a bit different in mid October around water. IME we put up TC in late Oct to first week of Nov for a couple of years and never got a pic of the bigger mature bucks we killed. I was told and what I have seen is that the mature buck just do not go to water as often as the does/younger bucks go. Mature bucks water every 3-5 days under normal conditions and the does/young bucks go every 1-3 days on our lease. Driving out to hunt I have seen bucks/does leaving water right before daylight or heading to water to get there right at dark or after. On days when I watched them head to water in better light and then leave, they always would travel in from one direction then leave in a completely different direction. What I try concentrate on is the distance from water..on our lease they seem to stay around 3/4 mile from water when feeding or bedding up. They don't travel between bedding and feeding spots like whitetails on our lease. They use the best feeding areas then go to water from those. Our success seems has always been to gain elevation of some sort to glass a lot of country. Find deer up and feeding and they pay attention to what that area they are feeding on or in has that they like at that time. Then replicate that in the areas to glass or check. The bucks should be in groups at that time and that makes them much easier to spot. Look for sign in the greener areas(forb not as much browse) and see if you can find fresh deer sign. No feeders and those deer feed when they are hungry..the more green on the ground the less time they spend up feeding. The less green the more time the spend up on their feet. On our lease the bucks may not be in the spot tomorrow they were at today. Some years they spend 2-4 days when it is really green. The deer on our lease will feed and bed in sometimes wide open to shorter cover. If it is really hot they may need some shade for the day. I have seen them bedded all day in one shady spot on a hot day and other hot days I have seen them get up to feed then back in a new shade spot. For me the thing I had to do was learn to not hunt them like I hunt WT. Their habits, food sources and daily needs are different out in that region from what I have seen compared to a WT's. If I could find a good elevation that gave 360 views of a possible water source and good browse/forbs/some kind of recent deer sign I would spend the first afternoon trying to find some deer from that location. If you find a deer then make a stalk or watch we he does. Just the way I would approach a hunt if I was drawn.

Excellent analysis STX, you obviously have mucho experience with these animals. My game camera experience mirrors yours to a "T". The later in the year, the less they visit established water, and get their water needs from dew on the browse, grass, mesquites, etc. Big mule deer bucks have been un-patternable for me over the past 45 years. Here one day, gone tomorrow. We usually see the biggest bucks one time, then they disappear.

What few really good older MD bucks I have seen(but got away) have generally shown me the same pattern. One and done. Even seen them one year then 2-3 yrs later one more time and never again. I think many of our one and dones are deer pushed to us by neighbor hunting pressure and then they react to our presence. They then head for greener pastures elsewhere I think. The buck I killed last yr is a prime example of that one and done. Seen him in 2016 on the last morning of the season for the first time that year and then not again till 2019. He was seen and killed with a mile of the 2016 sighting on the second day of the season. But not one person had seen him in the other 2 yr period and that area of the ranch is hunted the most of any of the 70,000 acres. Older mature bucks can have a tight home range at times and most of them have a huge range. I watched one buck I saw on opening morning one year move across the pasture over the next 14 days...that move was 5.75 miles straight line. He was a 4x4 with no back forks and with a herd of 9 does IIRC. He never left those does in 14 days. No pressure they just were steadily feeding and moving south into a different pasture. The deer on our lease tend to move or stage in different rutting terrain than where they spend the other 10 months or so. It seems like the bucks will move to elevation to feed and bed to watch for does. Then move to them to check for early receptive does. The does tend to move from down low or the flats with better vegetation to the area with hillsides or ridges where they are seen easily from long distances. Just seem to be like that on our place every year. The problem is the rut is after the season closes though.

One last thought. IME deer do not always stay in the same area year to year. Rainfall or lack of it can and will move them out one area or into a new area. So just because someone saw deer in this location last year does not mean they will be their this year. If the habitat looks and is in the same shape then more than likely they will be there again. That is not to say that this year they may need water due to poor range conditions, so water sources may be key to sighting deer numbers this year. Were we hunt we deal with lower density than parts of West Texas. Our terrain is more rolling than high elevation also. One thing we have learned is that deer patterns can change midseason due to rainfall or freezes. When we have early before season killing frost the deer are on feed after the frost. When we do not have a freeze till during the season it make take 3 days to find the same deer in that same pasture or location. One year it was dry but had a little early fall rain to get some green on the gravel ridges and not in the lower greasewood country. Then early in the season we had shower of rain and then a hard frost all within a couple of days. The deer left the ridges but returned to the greasewood...it was not a lot of rain but enough to get some new fresh growth greasewood around the base of the plant. One area had no deer at all on it and the 3-4 days of the season now had multiple groups of bucks and does feeding on the new growth greasewood. That is all that was green on that gravel flat not any grass or forbs. So old info from the past may steer you in the right direction for success or leave you looking for new areas where the deer moved to. IME with mule deer you have to learn to be more adaptive from year to year due to moisture and temps. Good glass saves boot soles.

raider and Stx both--yall are way more experienced than me on MD but I noticed the one and done myself. In the other thread about "main beams" i gave an example of getting lucky real early one year on a big buck then hunting 9 days the next year and only seeing one buck. The bucks were somewhere on that huge ranch but i didnt know how to find them after much glassing. That same, first, year i pulled out after killing my buck and spotted a 150ish buck just past camp from the main ranch road. I went back and told the other guys. They thought he wasnt big enough but a few days later on a 9 day hunt they were all looking for him and never saw him.
I know Pitchfork has talked on here before about their MD moving big distances and i think it was food or weather related or rut.

Man I can’t wait to hear the story. You still using this bow?

This thread is gold. Some really good advise too

Knowledge and entertainment.....

Nailed it.

Great advice thank you.

Food wise, one good thing abou tmy surgery is they removed 85% of my stomach so I do not get hungry. Protein drink in the morning and 3 bars thru-out the day mixed with some turkey jerky is plenty to get me by for several days. Already downloaded the maps on OnX and 2 other sources to make offline just to be safe. I agree with water, and I have a life straw as back up as well.

What Decoy would you recommend? That is good advice thank you.

My jeep always has a compressor, plug kit, tool set, green slime, and a few other essentials.

Some great advice here everyone thank you.

Yes I will be filming but on this trip the hunt comes first before footage. Having the tactacams on my set up will make hands free filming easier incase the person with me cannot capture on camera for any reason.

As far as the bow I am contemplating on taking my crossbow just to increase odds of an already low success rate hunt. Not sure yet.

And post of the day for BP.

[quote=jtprocaddie]


Great advice thank you.

Food wise, one good thing abou tmy surgery is they removed 85% of my stomach so I do not get hungry. Protein drink in the morning and 3 bars thru-out the day mixed with some turkey jerky is plenty to get me by for several days. Already downloaded the maps on OnX and 2 other sources to make offline just to be safe. I agree with water, and I have a life straw as back up as well. /quote]

That food may be sufficient for sitting in an office or box blind all day, but in the weather and walking around mountain, that won’t sustain you.

You are going to be dealing with much higher elevations and climate out there than where you live and are used to. Sitting vs walking in that terrain is going to burn a lot of calories. I would suggest more protein type snacks/energy bars daily than what you have. As far as a crossbow I would consider the terrain and cover you will be hunting in. Wind can always an issue out there it seems. Due to terrain and wind I would suggest you practice a lot without a rest with the crossbow since you make not have time to setup a rest for a shot. You may have to stand to shoot so make sure if you take a trigger stick or similar that it allows a standing shot. For our lease I would say that a regular bow is much faster to draw/shoot and easier to stalk with with in our terrain/cover over the crossbow. On your hunt if the brush/cover is thicker you will have trouble maneuvering thru it with a crossbow. The thorny brush and then regular brush/trees could be constantly tangling with the crossbow as you walk or stalk. If it is more open then it won't be an issue with the crossbow. If it were me I would take both of them to make sure I was covered for any scenario. I would also consider the weight of your compound with quiver to the weight of your crossbow with quiver. If you are not used to carrying that weight around all day long you may need a bow sling. My older model crossbow weighs twice as much as my new compound. It would be long day carrying that thing for me in that terrain.

This is best I have used. I have used heads up and montana and this works best for alll species


https://ultimatepredatorgear.com/mule-deer-stalker-decoy/

Yes sir.. I did a west texas aoudad hunt 6 weeks after surgery last year in the same area and we did 25 miles on foot in 2 days. Was brutal but fun and an awesome experience . I am planning on treating it about the same way in preparing.

great points about the crossbow.. I am going to practice longer distance shots with both, bring both and see how it is when I get there. good advice. thanks!

OMG what a douche

Was a joke over a year ago when that saying was popular on facebook. not my best moment.....

That saying was only popular amongst underage girls. Do you believe pedophilia is a sexual orientation?

Knife details, please.

That makes it okay.

You couldn’t even make a dumb, juvenile joke without pimping your low rent sponsors.

Nice knife, granite, & steak. What's up with that raw azz bacon?

"Feeling cute"? Oh my.

Gift from a very good friend, MikeC blade and build, w/huisache scales

You should of seen steak inside, nice and cool

I like my steaks black & Blue, you should ask Judd what that means

Means cold center, any thing more is over cooked.

wow - I am more of a well done guy. I'm always amazed at watching people when they eat " cold in the center"

I would have gone 1 more minute and then it would be about perfect for me, what my MIL calls Medium Rare Plus lol.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Still don't understand why you put blu cheese on your steak...must be a dumb Forney thing

I got a surf n turf in the keys and I'll be a monkeys uncle if they did not cover it with some kind of blue cheese sauce. Why on gods green earth would you cover a good cut of meat with anything but butter salt and pepper?

I like my steaks black & Blue, you should ask Judd what that means [/quote]

Still don't understand why you put blu cheese on your steak...must be a dumb Forney thing [/quote]

I got a surf n turf in the keys and I'll be a monkeys uncle if they did not cover it with some kind of blue cheese sauce. Why on gods green earth would you cover a good cut of meat with anything but butter salt and pepper? [/quote]

I agree, and blu cheese should be banned from the planet.

You can’t be serious....the blue is a rare reference. Please don’t tell me that Wade has the corona and thinks it’s moldy cheese....

There should be free psychiatric services for anyone that cooks a steak past medium rare , and discounted services past rare.

Solid idea.

The difference between a steak cooked right and wrong is so vast, I don’t understand why anyone would even bother eating a steak that’s anything past medium, and even that’s pushing it.

Congrats on your hunt. You may consider taking a mountain bike with you. There are designated hike and bike trails and a bike would allow you to cover an area quicker. I was lucky enough to draw there 5 years ago. Wasn't able to get any bucks within range, but saw animals everyday. I could have shot some javelina, but I was concentrating on deer. Cell service is very spotty. The bunk house was nice to stay in if they are allowing that. It has a nice commercial style kitchen that you can use, Some hunt areas are a good distance from the bunk house and may benefit you to camp. The Ranger was very helpful and tried to put people in areas where he had scouted and observed animals. When I was there during my hunt, the deer still had velvet antlers. If its warm, watch for rattle snakes. I saw several while hunting along with some non venomous ones. Have fun and good luck.

Did you start a go fund me like that time you found those puppies on a “hunt” cocojoe?

Say it ain’t so, Joe....

I found them close to Lake Bardwell on a duck hunt, they were dumped at the entry to the public area in a box. I didn't start a go fund me.I posted them in a Jeep Group I belong to our of Austin, and someone from the group started it. All funds went to a vet that took care of all the shots for all the pups. I didn't even keep one becuase I already have enough dogs. That was like 2 -3 years ago lol. Glad you follow me that closely haha

I swear you get more and more retarded each time you try to start crap where there is none... Moronic

I’m well aware of what Black n Blue means, it’s how I like my steaks, it’s your buddy Jizzy that thinks it refers to blue cheese

Hope you get to hunt Madrid Falls!

I didn't get picked for anything. If I were you I'd try to get there week early and do a lot of scouting. The odds of success are in your corner. Good luck.

Ohhhhhhhhhh, well bless his heart.