USA: Texas Hunting Season 2020 / 2021

AustinL

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So It’s that time of year again. Hunting season in Texas is soon to be in full swing. Going to use this thread to post recaps of this seasons hunts and adventures.

Dove has been slow for us here in the hill country but last weekend we did make a run up to a small family parcel in Coleman county. We took it easy filled a few feeders and then proceeded to slay some pond bass and shot at a few birds. Again hunting was slow but my son did manage his first dove with an old SxS .410 the same one I killed my first dove with.

Wrapped it up and back to the lake house for a steak dinner that night.

This deer season our focus will be on three main properties covering a range of Texas.
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Great pic of your son and his first dove! I learned to shoot doves and rabbits with an old sxs 410 myself.
 
Shooting doves with a 410 is quite the challenge! Your son did great!
I miss Texas dove season! I grew up on it. Use to sit on the back patio where my mom would bring me either fresh squeezed lemonade or iced tea while I would shoot the evening dove flight as they headed from the fields to a lake. Awesome times!
Here‘s hoping you and your son have many more great hunts this year and future years! I’m looking forward to reading them.
 
Great outdoor weather this morning in East Texas - 57 degrees!

Time to go shoot meat for winter!!!
 
I gave my grandson his first hunting license yesterday. He's 11 and super excited. Just hoping to get him a doe or 2 and not going until january 2nd. Possibly a cull buck but not likely. Depends if the lease owner offers a cheap price in the moment.
Texas youth even for a non resident is a steal. $7
I think bucks will still be open for 2 days while we're there.
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Yes sitting on the back porch this morning had me wishing I was sitting in a blind. Should be a really good season. We have an annual father son hunt on youth weekend at a friends ranch. As well as hunting our usual spots in Fisher, Coleman, and Kerr counties
 
Childress is some great country with some great deer. I used to hunt Foard county and still have access to a small parcel of family land up there it is just so far from home.

Ran all over dickens motley Childress and Floyd counties growing up
 
Forgot to mention we picked a sack of prickly pears while we were at it last weekend and processed the juice.

Just turned out the first batch of jelly
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You’re just up the road from @gizmo at the Legendary Rockin G Ranch.
 
Well what can I say about this weekend. Had a trip planned to meet my dad up at the ranch and finally get some feeders kicked off as well as other necessary chores. Plan was to head up after work Friday spend Saturday getting work done then come back Sunday after breakfast.

Work has had me running non stop for the past couple of months and this week was no different and by the time I got home after 6:00 on Friday I just didn’t have it in me to load up and make the three and a half hour drive that night. Instead I got my stuff ready had a good meal and grabbed an early bedtime.

Alarm rang at 4:00 and I was loaded gassed up and on the road by 5:00. About 7:00 I get a call that my mom was in the rural ER due to pain associated with a kidney stone. My dad was going to take her back home in case she needed further medical attention.

Much to my objection my dad insisted on coming back to help. Of course there was only one left by the time he got back so we grabbed some lunch and finished up the feeders. We had a spot we have been threatening to set a tripod up in for years but never took the time. So we loaded up the tripod and went and stuck it in a mesquite flat on the edge of a wheat field.

I climbed into the stand to check the view and low and behold there is a large hog at the far end of the wheat field so he chase is on. After a quick stalk we get the distance cut to about 75 yards and a quick shot from the .223 and the big sow was down.

6:30 found me back in the truck headed home and my dad headed back to check on mom. Alittle after 10:00 and 18 hours after I woke that morning I was back home ready to crawl back in bed.

Two weeks from now we will be headed up for our annual youth weekend father son hunt at a buddies ranch
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What a season it has been so far.
Our annual father son hunt was a huge success and great time with old friends and our kids.

Friday morning the kids got up and headed to school. At this point my son still didn’t know I was going to spring him early for the trip up. I loaded the truck made a few last minute preparations and topped off with fuel. I showed up at school just after 10:00 and we hit the road for the 4.5 hour trek north. A couple unplanned stops and we were rolling through the gates at 3:00 and got settled into camp.

It didn’t take long and my son had a line in the water while we made plans for our evening hunt. Now this evening was not
Youth season so it was more of a scouting mission.
Everyone had a great evening with lots of fame sighted. Back a camp dinner of smoked chicken and Mac and cheese was waiting for us all

5:45 wake up had camp stirring and everyone gearing up for the morning sit. On our way up my son made it quite clear that he really wanted to get a pig which in his words was a “bucket list animal” so we made our way to a setup that traditionally had a lot of pig activity and it didn’t disappoint with a nice sounder conning into the feeder just after it threw. It took a lot of patience but the hog he wanted finally separated from the mass and gave him a good shot and he dropped the hog in its tracks.
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One happy young hunter!
 
The day was filled with lots of laughs, fishing, 4 wheelers and good clean outdoor fun. As evening neared we shuffled some hunters around to different stands my son and I taking a spot on the edge of a field with a feeder about 100 yards out. Due to the amount of activity we took some hand corn and strategically placed it at about 70 yards and off to the side of the feeder.

The hand corn was intended to spread the deer out and get them away from the feeder thus making it easier to get a clear shot. The plan worked and as the deer filtered in we finally had a nice mature doe settle in unobstructed by other deer and another shot from his 6.5 grendel and a short 40 yards she never made it out of the field.

dinner this night was ribeyes baked potatoes and salad. We are living like kings.
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Sunday morning consisted of a quick hunt then back to camp for breakfast tacos and a lesson to the boys in skinning and quartering a deer. Cleaned up camp loaded the trucks and headed home.

It was a great weekend with great friends and we already have next year’s scheduled.

Folks this is just the beginning it going to be an eventful season
 
Great job. Your boy is lucky to have those chances to hunt. Congrats
Bruce
 
Haven’t been seeing many deer around but did get my first kill with my Zastava M70 9,3x62 285 gr PPU sp backed by 62.4 gr of Power Pro 2000 MR powder. Whistled right through this Ram.

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John I see you are right down the road from me should be plenty of deer just give them some time.
 
The following weekend was the general season opener and my son chose to sleep in and I went in search of a buck for him. It should be noted that we help manage a fairly large MLD ranch and have very strict criteria on what to and what not to shoot.

That morning I watched a good 8 point that checked all of the boxes and confirmed with the land owner. That evening the wind was wrong for the spot that I hunted in the morning so we went to another stand that he was likely to be at and sure enough he came passing through with no intentions of stopping. We just couldn’t get it all put together for my son to get a shot off.

I wasn’t too worried because I was quite certain he would be back at the stand I first saw him at the following morning.

The following morning found us nestled into the stand waiting on daybreak. Shortly after seven I caught movement and saw it was our target buck approaching. As he circled the feeder and came up out of a draw from behind I heard it..... It was the loudest almost deafening sneeze I have ever heard from the 65lb 9 year old beside me. Needless to say the buck went to full alert and vacated stage left ASAP. The morning brought several visitors our way but no shooters.

That evening we moved to another stand on a different section of the ranch to let the area cool down and my soon made a perfect shot on a nice mature doe
 
The second weekend of the season found us back out looking for “his” buck our first morning sit was by and large uneventful.

That evening found us back in the same stand we had seen the buck at the previous weekend on our evening hunt. As deer started to filter in expectations were high. We had several young bucks and does filter in and then another buck that upon initial glance I dismissed as a young buck. As the evening wore on I kept turning back to that “young” 8pt. While he had a thin neck his other features didn’t line up with the other youngsters. His skinny neck dipped into a thick deep brisket, hip bones were sticking out, large hocks, Roman nose all pointing to a post mature buck.

Just to confirm my suspicions I grabbed some pictures and text the landowner. The quick response told me what I needed to know it simply read

Old turn little man loose

it was go time we got the rifle up and spent the better part of 20 minutes before he could get a shot off between bad angles or other deer in the way. Light was fading when the buck started to leave but stopped one last time and a shot from the grendel rang out and the buck dropped.

This was his first “racked” buck as he killed a spike the year before. Just as we expected tooth wear showed a buck well past his prime
 

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