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Aransas 2016

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    #46
    Anyone hunting the first rifle hunt? I'm taking my son (6 yrs) and any tips would be great. pop up, ladder stand or just sit in the brush? He really would like to put a pig down.

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      #47
      All three Rifle hunts are now officially sold out.

      We will be there for #2 and #3

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        #48
        So who's all hunting the first rifle hunt? We are not going to make it Friday for scouting. We will be there Sat after my Sons Soccer game. Hopefully its not too crowded and we can still find a place to setup. We will be in a white ford F150 with a twisted horn taxidermy sticker on the back glass.

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          #49
          My son and I will be there Friday around noon..

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            #50
            Got my stand in place where I wanted, lets just hope I do not get walked over all morning. Got to the gate at 5:30am this morning, Friday scout day, and was number 28 in line. The first truck got in line at 10:30am on Thursday, the 12th truck got there at 5pm on. Over 50 trucks were in line by 7:30am when the hunt gate opened to let us in.

            Going to hunt with a rifle at first to shoot one buck, then bowhunt the rest of the hunt to take another buck. Some of them public land rifle hunters are something else... most have their act together.

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              #51
              Wow that's crazy. Hopefully I can find a spot tomorrow. My son shot his rifle a few time and said he's ready for a big pig.

              How were the mosquitos??? I spent like $70 at Wally World on mosquito repellant today.

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                #52
                What skeeters?

                There's hardly any this year. Didn't even turn on the Thermacell this evening or use any spray repellant.

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                  #53
                  Night and day difference on the mosquitos compared to the last time I hunted here. We haven't really seen anything so far. We will be going back home today after the hunt. Need to try and find a light weight 2 person stand for next time. Some my son and I can sit in comfortly.

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                    #54
                    Hey guys & gals, new guy here and not a bowhunter anymore due to shoulder injuries but this is about the only place that I have found info on Aransas over the last several years. I've hunted since the first Archery hunt and then gun hunts. I started hunting Laguna Atascosa in 1975 and favored that country over Aransas, plus I was living in Harlingen. Funny, but at that time Aransas was hands down a better deer hunting place but over the course of time that switched. Now, if I don't get LA or the LRGV system, I permit up for Aransas but haven't hunted here since 2011.

                    I took a newby to the refuge, my neighbor, for the rifle hunt as he was interested. We showed up to scout at 8:30 rather than sit in line, still a few lined up when we pulled in but within 5 to 10 minutes we were in. Went straight to where we wanted to hunt without any others marking ahead of us and setup.

                    Saturday Morning at first light he killed a spike, not really a spike, the deer grew main beams with about a 11" spread but nothing off of them and was 2½ years old. I saw a large boar hog. After a noon break he saw a large doe come out and watch me walk to my stand which is 550 yards away. That was it. 12 deer on the board when we left, all bucks but one doe.

                    Yesterday morning at sunrise, he shot a large boar, and didn't see anything else the remainder of the day. I saw a large boar about 4 pm. I haven't seen a deer yet other than on the drive in. 14 deer on the board Sunday night when we went through the exit with two of that total does. There were about five trucks behind us in the line so that might of changed but we did not hear a shot yesterday evening.

                    We are sitting in popups and as reported the skeeters are light, I walk 1216 yards to my spot and haven't seen a snake yet. It is very dry, all the low spots have dried up where we are at. We took today off so that we don't get burnt out and then will hit it through the end.

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                      #55
                      Nice.... We didn't see anything all weekend and had a hard time finding a place to set up the pop up were we could see further than 30 yds.

                      We will try again on the Dec hunt... We will either have to find some type of stand or try and get there early enough to get a spot in the burnt out area. where we can see a little further.

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                        #56
                        My friend is on a bit of a rise and can see to shoot about 350 yards in two directions. The buck and hog where at about 100 yards. I'm on another high point and can shoot about 70 to 100 yards in two directions. We talked about using tripods but the mosquitoes can be an issue and I had a leg collapse suddenly in the sand. Out of the blue after two days, it shifted, sinking about 18" to 24" and the stand fell over. I landed on my feet, then my butt and was okay. It was a 15' Texas Hunter aluminum tripod. The tripod did not break or fail, the ground did. I figured the sand crabs wanted me!

                        We are using large popup blinds that have floors, totally sealed. It really makes it nice.

                        Is there any others here that hunted Aransas the first year? Trying to remember exactly what year that was.

                        Alot sure has changed on this property since then. I get about a 5 year span snapshot of the country and it never seems that any change has been for the good. I found mention of a 2013 deer survey giving 1 deer per 43 acres.

                        Anyone know why TPWD didn't take this property into the public hunting system as they did the other NWR properties? Just kind of curious.

                        I see I have a similar username as a long time member here, sorry dude, but I will only be posting about the Aransas, LA, & LRGV NWR rifle hunts.

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                          #57
                          Here is an update after the close of the 1st rifle hunt. My hunting partner and I left around noon on the last day so the kill board might have a few more deer than posted. I did not see a deer, he killed a spike and saw a doe. No more deer were seen while hunting.



                          Sure seems like a lot of young bucks being dropped. I saw most up through one of the eights and nothing was over 2½ years old. I did not see the 11 but was told that it was a "small rack with a lot of odd points". If a member killed it I would like to see a picture of it.

                          Concerning the feral hogs. The Refuge is doing everything it can to eliminate them which is good for the deer; however, their writing of the rules suggests that they need to be brought to the check station vs. the way the rules are written for the Laguna Atascosa refuge. As it turns out, you can leave them lay. In fact there is a drawing for a $100 Academy gift certificate from all the hogs reported at the Check Station by permit holders. All you need to report your hog kill is the tail. We passed a lot of hogs as we were just too far from the truck to tote them in.

                          Concerning the application for a permit, a change is in the wind for 2017.



                          The refuge would really like to get comments back as soon as you can concerning the proposed change. This is just my take on it from talking to several of the Staff and "Friends"; this is a hard hunt that is attended by a very specific group, a group that comes from the general area that realizes what they face on this peninsula. The TPWD public drawings will change this completely. If you want to keep it more or less local, say something.

                          I have a rule of "halves" for the refuge that I've kept in my head concerning the gun hunts, haven't attended a bow hunt in a very long time. That rule is that each day of the hunt drops attendance in half. In other words; 100, 50, 25, 13. This hunt started with only 80 in attendance but followed the numbers. I suspect that outsiders wandering in from the TPWD draw hunters will cause the 2nd day drop will be even greater especially if it is not a hunter friendly year; mosquitoes, snakes, gators and low visibility. We already know that the deer density is low and a lot of Wildlife Management Area hunters are not going to realize just how low densities can be.

                          Hope any members that attend the 2nd and 3rd Rifle hunts will give us a report!

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                            #58
                            I hope they dont do the TPWD draw and just leave it like it was this year. TPWD put a minimum age of 9 on the youth. The Aransas hunt was the only hunt I could fine where they would let me 7 yrs son hunt.

                            Guess I'll shoot them an email.

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                              #59
                              The refuge is still going to run the hunt, the state is just doing the drawing. I'm pretty sure your son still gets to hunt, if drawn.

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                                #60
                                Originally posted by Thumper View Post
                                The refuge is still going to run the hunt, the state is just doing the drawing. I'm pretty sure your son still gets to hunt, if drawn.
                                All I know is the min age is 8 on all the TPWD hunts and 9 on the other NWR in the state draw system

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