New to this!

Long story short...I recently purchased 5ac in Brewster County about 60mi above Big Bend. I became friends with the land seller, and currently have access to a 85, 40, and 20ac tracts. I can hunt, bait, scout, etc the properties to my liking.

But, like I said I am quite new to this. With me not knowing much about these tracts, where should I start? Should I just put cams up on any sign that I see or promising area that I find? Or, would it be better to just start with bait, maybe put up a feeder, and see if you can attract anything...hopefully mulies. I saw two on the 4-mi drive to my property, so I know they exist in the area for sure. Also, would you just put up deer corn for mulies? Or do you guys give more variety, like alfalfa?

Thanks for any/all help!

Look for water sources.

water sources would be crucial or at least a path to/from a water source. build a pen out of hog panels (not sure if hogs are in that area yet?), put up a feeder with corn, tossing twice a day at 1 second and toss out a bail of alfalfa with a game cam or two (different angles) and see what shows up.

Scatter a sack of corn in an area you see some sign and put up a camera.

Find the properties on google maps. Look over the properties for water sources, or other terrain features that look like it would hold animals. Mark a few locations and then go put out some cams and corn. Leave cams for a week or so and then see if they are getting activity.

Living a long ways from it, I would not put any feeder or anything up of any value on it. Mule Deer can be trained to eat corn but it takes a long time. Whole Cottonseed or large bale of alfalfa will work the best but again living a long ways from it is not going to work very well. Water source would be great but you have to have a way to fill it and keep it full, evaporation rate will use up lots of moisture quickly in the desert. Any feed you put out could also get hit by feral livestock so a feed pen will be of benefit. All in all you are dealing with very low deer numbers out in a lot the Trans Pecos area some areas are very low. I hunt on a ranch west and southwest of Ft. Stockton and it had great water but still some areas had only 2 deer per section of land up to as high as 6 deer per section. Deer in that area move to rainfall or if it rains 6 miles away and you are still dry they are moving to the greener pastures. The habitat just does not support high deer numbers due to lack of rain and then water to drink. You will only have access to 150 acres total and it is not all contiguous. Hate to say it but your odds are not very good at seeing many deer on land you can hunt. Anyone who has established water will have the deer in their area.

You didn't mention if you are off of the Marathon highway or the Study Butte to Alpine highway. The area south of Alpine gets more rain than the flats below Marathon does so you might be in luck. I've seen some real nice mulie bucks on Hwy 90 between Alpine and Marathon though, also east of Marathon within 10-12 miles on 90. That being said, they are few and far in between. good luck.

The properties are all in Terlingua Ranch, off 118. The properties are all kinda like 20-30miles away from Big Bend Ranch and NP. The 85ac is literally directly below 9-pt mesa. Haha, but from the sounds of it...I should not hold my breath, even tho I saw some in the area already.



This is pretty much the outline of the 85. Appears to have something seasonal in the bottom left corner! The 20ac has boundaries with the Ranch I believe.

WATER will be the key.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0032.pdf

http://www.wildlifewaterguzzler.com/

https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/CO/guzzler.pdf

That much acerage hunts very small in that country. It will be hit or miss as to animals being on the property when you are there. I wouldn't fret about it. Show up to hunt with a couple bales of fresh alphalfa and spread it out in chunks, get on the high ground and see what's gonna be passing through. It's a cool place to be so its all good.

That area is probably in the 10"-12" per year average annual rainfall. For quite a few years now it has not rained average but either way less or over the average. Summer is the rainy season out there. There are fewer animals out there for a reason...less water and less habitat. Also something to think about is hunting pressure. If you have xxxx amount of landowners all showing up to hunt at the same time(mule deer season is short) then the few legal animals that live on those tracts are going to get shot quickly. Land is cheap out there for a reason.

That is a very good point! I might build a guzzler on my 5ac just to bring more wildlife to the area. Been looking at DIY options, seems fairly easy to DIY. Of course, I say that now...



Haha, that's kinda where I'm at. Been hunting for one season so far, so why not TRY in an area that is just amazing to be in. I think I will try to setup a guzzler, let it sit for a little, and maybe spread out some alfalfa, like you mentioned.



Yeah, you can say that again, I was out there two weeks ago. And the rain was coming down for sure! Since its all back country roads, and flash flooding is quite common, I didn't even dare to drive on the roads during that time. And cheap is an understatement, I got my 5ac for a grand, haha. From what I have seen, a lot of the people out there do not hunt (landowners in TR) however with that being said, the ranch house does have cold storage for deer. So people definitely have to hunt in the area....you would think. Yeah, this might be quite of a long shot...but I guess worst comes to worst, hares and quail might use the guzzlers I setup. I have been told by people who live there, they are being overrun by both.

But of course I got excited when I passed by two mulies on the drive out.