Game on!! Annual STx rut pilgrimage

Anyone traveling south on 35 the next month should stay out of the left lane unless pedal is to the metal. Those jacked up trucks with Yetis in the back MAY be excused. A sxs in tow will help keep road rage down. Hopefully anyone in a pickup will get a pass from the cops. For anyone that knows not what Im referring to then "forget about em!!" I used to make this annual trip but moved North many many years ago, and went even further North recently. I still have a respect for the STx rut. Everyone has a rut but its something about that STx rut that seems special. Maybe its cause its later so all the attention is down there. As Murphy Ray once said, "Ill take the rut, you can have the rest."
MUCH WELL WISHES to all yall in search of Muy Grande. Be safe and have the wind in your face and the sun at your back.

Over thirty years ago this was on opening day so actually not rut related but a special memory none the less. Any special STx memories or stories? I still carry the same M70 3006 and, believe it or not, still wear the same cap. Probably the same knife too but I digress.

Free, is that the pre-64, Winchester pre-featherweight M70? My Dad gifted his in 30-06 to my brother that he had bought in 64 at White's auto in San Antonio. I have taken many of stops at either Las Cazadores or Lionel Garza's Muy Grande Village whether starting from Corpus of DFW during those pilgrimages; much preferred the drive from CC though...

Great pic free

I hate to admit but it is not pre64. Dad bought it in the late 60s and died of a heart attack at the roadside park between Mason and Llano while pulling a travel trailer to our deer lease outa Ft Stockton on Thanksgiving Day in 72. I got the gun then and its the only rifle I have ever killed a deer with since then. I guess he has help me steady it for many memorable shots. I like to think so anyway, and I do on many occasions and not embarrassed to say that tears come to my eyes right now. I would of thought the few years after 64 would of been the worse for those guns but I have never had an issue with it. 1" groups with 165 Nosler Partitions.
Enough about me, im hoping for some STx rut stories and/or pics.

Never been fortunate enough to hunt South Texas, thought about pursuing a lease down there many times. The drive is just too far for me now.
Love seeing those south Texas bucks though!!

Bolt, the drive as well as the cost is more than some want to do. Understandable. Like I said, I quit hunting there but for me i just did not enjoy primarily looking down a sendero. I prefer more broken, up and down country, where you can see more. But this is about STx and the special mystique of a huge buck stepping out of a sendero at a moments notice. Especially a rut crazed, dumb with a doe, bruiser.

Cuz already down there. I will be right behind Butch. Gregor gonna follow Friday. Who knows about Donger. I plan on hunting off the rack quite a bit. We hunt the Dull Flats and you can see hundreds of acres at a time from a rise. Here's hoping matters line up. Sunday is not the day to return. The next few weeks can bring lasting memories worthy of the lengthy preparation.

Onward and ever forward!

Butch, Gregor, Donger, Klapp, sounds like Santas role call for reindeer. Good luck.

I pretty much can mark my calendar the same time every year....Rattling horns and .270 in tow I’ll get serious and head to my Dimmit co place around Dec 15...after MANY years I still get a charge out of rattling deer up. I’m not a blind sitter.

Hunted South Texas for many years. Was always a fun time but I preferred to hunt in January when deer were hungry and quick to come to feed. Bucks in the brush during the rut were there but they didn’t stand still for long when on a doe.

Still hunt it from time to time but like you I have found I prefer some more open country with some topography, really enjoying hunting the western hill country but the deer are quite a bit smaller.


My uncle has a pre-64 Winchester rifle stolen in the late 60’s and he replaced it with a rifle that looks just like yours. Think it was made in 68’. It’s a fine rifle, plenty accurate and had killed an untold amount of deer. Doesent eject very good anymore, plunger seems to be weak but other than that it’s a good gun.


We used to hunt in tall tower blinds, I’ll climb in them early in the mornings and the only light I could see was the La Mota ranch headquarters several miles away. It was wild country that had a certain mystic about it. This was before the big push towards the deer contests, genetically engineered deer herds and all that. Was a good time to hunt down there

The pic was from the 80s so I wouldnt be surprised if it was taken with a polaroid.

you have an eager, confident look about ya"

Well, let me look in one of my many mirrors. Yep, kind of like a young Paul Newman in "Hud." But come on guys, what about South Texas. No stories about how crowded the Bucees is on the way down. What about the time your Yeti got stolen at Marys in Cotulla. Got all the way to Old Mines road and realized your rifle was in Austin. Pulled into a deer contest and the bucks were so big ahead of you, you just drove away. What about the time the bucks were rutting so hard that........

Ok Free, there was the time I saw Janie Fricke at Muy Grande Village and Heisman winner Ty Detmer of BYU in same stop, 1989 or 1990. Ms. Fricke was quite nice looking for her age. Tons of stories of LaLa's in Mirando City like the day they invited us to stay at Mirando City civic center since the low that night in Dec. 1989 was to drop around 5 degrees. We ended up surviving the night in the cinder block 15'x22' house, supposedly pony express stations in the 1880s on the ranch. Coldest night I've camped through in my life including Army basic training in Jan. 1990 in Ft
Knox, KY. Thank goodness we had a wood burning fireplace and plenty of wood but it really sucked having to get out of bed to throw new logs on it. Did see 20-30 bucks that record cold weekend with some being very nice.

Can also recall 4-5 times of seeing illegals walking the pipelines during very cold Dec. deer hunts. Never an issue, just desperate persons trying to improve their lives.

Quail were thick back in the 90’s, both blues and bobs. I was a young kid then, and couldn’t wait to get out of the deer stand in the mornings and start hunting quail around 10 am when they would start moving. We would go eat in Yomi’s in Batesville for dinner some nights, it never seemed very crowded back then, even during the middle of hunting season. We had a 1 bedroom cabin with a cast iron stove that would heat the place up nicely on cold nights. Driving out to the blind in a open top keep with no windshield was always fun. One morning it was 17 degrees, I opted not to get in the blind and hunted out of the Jeep.

years later in the mid 2000’s I used to get a big kick taking out of state hunters to los cazadores and letting them gawk at the big deer coming in.

Lots of good memories from down there

We hunted just east of Batesville for many years.
I remember how thick the quail were back in the 90’s. After the morning hunt we would just park the truck and take off walking through the brush.
Seems like we always had bacon wrapped quail for supper Saturday night when I was younger.
South Texas is a magical place for sure

I'm not a part of the pilgrimage, but whenever I drive down south, and west of San Antonio I enjoy looking in the beds of pickups, and seeing what they bagged.

Fantastic picture man and I absolutely love that this gun is 'your go to deer gun'!!

And there is damn sure nothing to be embarrassed about if you still tear up. That simply says just how much he still means to you after all these years and just what kind of a man he was!
I do anything if I could get my pop to go with me one more time and have asked him many times but he just won't do it because I think he believes he'd be some kind of a burden to me or something like that.
Hell, I'd put him on my damn back and carry him to a stand if he would just go.