East TX Hunting

I’ve joined a new lease in E. Texas.....timberland that happens to be very well managed, MLD III. Just shy of 10K acres. Mature bucks in the 140’s-150’s taken each year (Verified by good family friend who’s been a long-term member). I’m curious where to set up my hunting spots. There are clear-cuts, “edges”, creek bottoms with hardwoods, and river frontage areas. And of course, tons of actual large stands of pine trees that are harvested regularly.

I’m leaning towards the creek bottoms with hardwoods, primarily due to the fact that the trees won’t be harvested.

Which area would you choose assuming accessibility is equal?

Find you some white oaks in the creek bottoms preferably near a place where they cross the creek.

Very good questions for your friend thats been a long term member, he will know.

Try to get 2 stands. Tree stand in creek bottom for early bow and post rut and then a good long trail/logging road etc to catch them crossing in rut. Has worked well for me. Hand corn the lane consistently. Hard to beat a pipeline if you can put a stand on one. Good luck

I like the idea of the pipelines, however, most of these are already taken (or, you have to drive through spots to get to yours). But I’m sure there are a few that are untapped. I also like the idea of a road feeder attached to the Pioneer, I figure every time I’m there I can road feed to get the deer acquainted with the feed and sound. And when hunting. To stop them long enough to judge/shoot.

X2

Maybe a dumb question.....how do you tell a white oak from any other oak?

If you don’t mind me asking where is the lease at?

White oak is probably the only type oak there. Soon you’ll be able to tell by the acorns.

The lease is in Polk county near Corrigan. Understood on the oaks....I’m terrible at tree identification. To me if it’s not a pine it’s an oak.

White oaks have rounded lobes on the leaves and bark is much lighter in color than other oaks and looks somewhat like it's been glued onto the tree. Perhaps the best way to tell is by the acorns which are much larger and lighter in color that red, water, and pin oaks. White oak acorns are the closest thing to ice cream for deer. Next to white oaks, the next natural food source that would grab my attention is wild honeysuckle. IMO, deer will never pass up these two natural food sources.

White oak acorns are almost twice as big as any other oaks in east Texas.

White oak acorns are almost twice as big as any other oaks in east Texas.

White oak leaf.

Best bet is to look up and at least know the leaf shapes, though some of them you’ll see on multiple oaks.

Put a box stand on a long straightaway (i.e. pipeline, highline, long/straight road,) and buy you a 100 lb road feeder for your truck or side by side. Spread out 100 lbs of corn as far as you're comfortable shooting every thursday and sunday. Sit in the box stand with a caldwell field pod and the windows closed (if the wind direction is wrong for your stand) and shoot your target buck late september/early October when he's still coming to corn, or kill him the last week of october/first week of november chasing does.... if he's not dead by then, he'll come back to corn in Mid January and hes very killable then.... as long as your entry and exit to get to your stand isn't bumping deer off the corn every time you hunt that stand.

Look for scaly bark on the tree because acorns probably won't be on the tree right now also leaf ID.

Any oak tree is better than no oak tree but White Oak species (leaves have rounded lobes) are preferred over Red Oak species (leaves have sharp pointed leaves). Starting the first part of October, if not sooner, I start checking under every Holly tree I see looking for scrapes- my experience has been that bucks love scraping under Holly's. Get a bearing on a scrape line and set up.

Thank you all....I’ll definitely be on the lookout for some white oaks. Hopefully I’ll be able to establish two spots for the first year, one along a creek bottom and another along a pipeline.

Thank you. So many say to plant food plots and I do believe food plots attract and kill deer. But in my situation I have a deep creek that crosses my pipeline that is not kept up by the pipe line company anymore and I just about cannot cross it on my tractor anymore because it has washed out so bad. I have a feeder on the other side but pretty soon I will just have to walk bags of corn across and spread it up and down the pipeline by hand. I live 4 hours away which makes it even more difficult.

Is it Carter Pasture?


You’re probably right to go with your gut on hugging the SMZs to not have to worry as much about timber mgmt cycles. If you can find where several SMZs merge, then even better. Big food plots in young clearcuts tend to do well also and you have 20+ years of uninterrupted hunting.