What I did today

Yesterday, I had a nice 8 point spook off the fence line from some guys on horseback working cattle on the big ranch next to my land. He ran within 15 yards of me, but I was using a Contender pistol and didn't take a running shot. I'd have easily gotten him with a rifle, but that's part of pistol hunting. It was a windy, cold morning and the deer were hold up other than the one that spooked.

Well, when I sat down in my stand this morning, it was cool, still, quiet, the moon had been covered by clouds and it was dark, so I figured this could be a good morning. A little after seven AM a doe walked by, stopped, moved on about 80 yards out. It was small and I couldn't really get a good shot though the grass. But, right behind her (perhaps ruttin') was a good sized spike. I set the 4moa dot of my Contender's scope on him behind the shoulder and heard the 150 grain Nosler 30 caliber ballistic tip strike home. The deer dropped in his tracks.

I walked out to my van to fill out my tag and get some tape and my bike to haul him out on. While there, my friend hunting my stand on the far side of my place got down, was walking to the feeder, and jumped a doe which he shot at. He ain't a very observant person, doe was maybe 20 yards from his stand....rofl He missed it.

Anyway, the deer were out and about this morning big time. I'm going to give 'em a few days off and go back after that 8 point maybe end of the week. I KNOW he's out there. He was pretty nice, not a tall rack, but maybe 16" or a little more in width. That's pretty good for out there. He had a BIG body, too, mature buck.

Nice pistol Goose, and shot. Poor, poor Bambi…

Added this one with the rifle today.

Good shootin Goose. Looks like some good eatin'. I'm kinda jealous. I haven't been drawn here in 8 years.
One of these years I'll have enough money to live in an Over the counter state.

Well, Texas has a huge whitetail deer herd, but it's mostly private land. I bought some land in 88 in the county and it's just gotten better every year, though I took two off it and a buddy one first year I had it without even using a feeder.

Feeders are the way of life here. I really like hunting out west where you can spot and stalk. I had a lease in a hunting club I was in for a while out west of Langtry, Texas. It was a 13,000 acre place. I don't remember ever being skunked on a trip out there and it was all spot and stalk. They had some stands and feeders, but I mostly stayed on foot. I sure enjoyed hunting out there.

But, in Texas it's lease (getting very expensive) or own. Wanna play you gotta pay. I don't know about New Mexico anymore, been a while since I hunted there. But, it used to be over the counter for mule deer. You still had to draw for elk, of course. Season was awful short out there, though, and set up kinda weird.

One thing you can do pretty cheap here is day hunts for feral hogs. There's some amazingly good hog hunting for cheap. I did a two day hunt for $185 on a high fence ranch south of San Antonio a few years back for hogs. Shot my three allotted hogs the first day. I have a few hogs down on my place, but they're quite nocturnal and really don't come in much unless it's soaked down there. It's finally beginning to dry out down there, now, but there is some standing water. They've wallowed up a few places down there. But, I never see 'em daytime. I might have to do a night hunt down there next wet winter we have. Can't hunt it in summer. Even deep woods off don't help.