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    Black gap wma

    Got drawn for the November 13-16 archery hunt looked like I wasn't going to make it for awhile but looks like it'll work anybody else going or have gone in the past ?


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    #2
    Did the archery hunt there 4 years ago. The area was just coming out of the major drought so deer numbers were way low. We hunted hard for 4 days and saw 4 deer total. The positives of the hunt: Great scenery, huge compartments (ours was just over 10K acres), chance to shoot a mule deer. Negatives: low deer numbers, low success rate especially with a bow. In checking back after the hunt, only 2 groups of hunters saw deer.

    With that said, I would do it again. We tried everything. Sitting high & glassing, hiking, driving & glassing and sitting over guzzlers. Had a couple opportunities at javelinas but were waiting for mule deer. I know the area is in better shape and deer numbers are better now than when we hunted. During our hunt, a small fork horn busted out of a draw right in front of me. Ran up the hill and stopped about 125 yds away and looked at me. With a rifle, easy shot. He stared at me for a second and bounded off. Tried to follow up but couldn't find him again. Neat area and you will definitely enjoy the night skies. Good luck.

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      #3
      Congrats! I just got back from the early archery hunt this past week. What an AWESOME, rugged place.

      I hunted the first unit when you drive into the WMA. 3k acres. Had lots of natural tanks and 2 guzzlers, so water was plentiful. My plan was to get up high before daylight, look over a bunch of country and glass, glass, glass. Some guys might like to walk 10 miles a day in this country, but it is brutal. Loose rock, everything sticks or bites and not a patch of level ground in my unit, even though some it looked flat. Good optics and boots are of the highest priority on this hunt.

      I think my strategy worked. I saw 19 deer in effectively 2.5 days of hunting- 3 of which were mature bucks. The biggest was still in velvet and a solid 150-inch deer. The other two were in the low 140s. I stalked all 3, got within 30 yds of 2 of them before they eventually saw me trying to get a shot and flushed. It is REALLY hard to get a clear bow shot from the ground in this country. Maybe I should have sat there all afternoon until they stood up.... They both ran to 150 yards, stopped and looked around for 10 minutes before heading over a ridge. With a rifle, the bigger of the 2 would have gotten it. On the third buck, I spotted him at 7:30, watched him lie down at 9:30 and at 3:30, I was within 20 yds of his bed ... only he wasn't in it. He lost his shade at some point and moved on. Tough ending to a very hard stalk. Take your time and really study the land before making a stalk out here. Nothing looks the same when you get close!

      I was hunting solo, and brought in 8 gallons of water from Sunday evening until Thursday morning. I drank 7 gallons (and cooked with a little of that) during the hunt. Firewood was a little bit of an issue. I did not bring any, and there was a lot of dead wood around, just none of it bigger around than my wrist. If you want a good fire that lasts, I suggest bringing in some good logs. I drove a Tahoe and never put it in 4WD. The road throughout my unit was well maintained. I filled up in Marathon, brought an extra 5 gallons of gas and left Thursday with 3/4 of a tank of fuel. Did not need extra gas. (Some other units might require more driving)

      There were 2 other groups on the hunt- one guy shot a small 7 point on Wed evening at a guzzler with his crossbow. He sat the guzzler all week and had good activity the one afternoon it was pretty hot. He also shot a javi at the same guzzler the night before, so success can be had in multiple ways. I preferred to glass big country rather than sit tight, but that was more personal preference for how I like to hunt. To each his own! This past week, at least for me, hunting was much more productive in the mornings than afternoons. Only saw 3 does and a fawn in the p.m. The little driving I did, I only saw one doe. These deer are really tough to spot and IMO, you will do better getting on ridges and glassing than driving around. As it gets closer to the rut, the deer might be out during the day more.

      Travis and Will, the 2 biologists out there, were very helpful. The HQ has wifi, so if you need to get in touch with the world, you can.

      I bought the book, Hunting Open Country Mule Deer by Dwight Schuh, for $10 on Amazon and it was an incredible resource- highly recommend if you haven't done much western mule deer hunting.

      Good luck on your hunt! Even though I did not connect, it was one of the more enjoyable trips I've been on- it was very pure hunting. No feeders, no fences and no other people for miles. Me vs. the deer and they won, which they do 99% of the time in this country. PM me if you need anything else- glad to share info.

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        #4
        I have been there. Tuff hunting but was fun.

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          #5
          OK just finished the hunt black gap had an awesome time left my house Monday morning about 430 got there about 9 all hunters showed up and no standbys showed after a short orientation we had our compartments first when I saw my compartment I wasn't very excited basically it was one big mountain didn't hunt the first eveningjust got on some high ground and looked to see what the compartment had to offer only have one guzzler so first thing I did was put up a camera then glassed till dark didn't see anything that evening did the same thing in the morning and saw nothing around lunch I went to go check the camera I saw the deer had been there last evening and in the morning so that evening I set up at the guzzler and had a doe come in down wind of me so next morning I walked around on some smaller hills had a six point at 100 yards it went over a hill and simply disappeared or climbed in a hole I'm not sure saw a few does that days then on the last morning I got up high very early and so as I was sitting there in the dark high up in the mountains with a rock wall behind me and rocks on both sides I looked to my right and about 15 feet from me i saw a perfect outlined cat head looking at me I won't lie I freaked out a bit and told myself that's a funny looking cactus shaped like a cat and looked away glanced back at it and saw it was still there reached down for my light and shined at it and what do you know it had glowing eyes and that's when I really freaked but it look like a young cat then I thought crap where is mama thought about shoot and run but I waited and got a better look at it when the cat turned around and walked away and I saw it was a ringtail cat almost s***t in my pants so when the sun finally came up I started glassing spotted a doe about half a mile to my left and a few minutes later I saw a doe and her fawn running and looking back saw they were running from something looked a little further behind them and saw a buck was chasing them watch them for about 15 or 20 minutes till they finally bedded down .6 miles away packed my gear and the hunt was on I had to walk around the mountain along way when I finally got within about 100 yards the boots came off and put on a extra pair of socks and started making my way up the hill lots of small rocks felt like a Lego field when I finally got my eyes on the buck I was about 70 yards it wasn't a monster but a decent nine point when I got to about 60 yards The buck got up and looked round he knew something wasn't right I had practice my shots up to 70 yards and felt comfortable shooting 70 normally but from climbing that hill and the adrenaline my arms were shaking my knees were shaking so I didn't shoot the buck bedded down again same spot I got to 50 yards The buck gets up again but did not turn broadside so he started walking off down the hill so I get up and followed him and so I get it within 25 yards and all I see is his head and his antlers by this time I had completely forgotten about the does so about 30 yards to my right dead downwind me the dang doe starts blowing and they all run off and stopped I ranged the buck again thought it was 60 yards but really he was more like 90 must have range some brush or something shot way under him they took off and bedded down again about 400 yards so my boots were not even close to where I was so I followed him in my socks it hurts but the excitement outweighed the pain by far got to about 100 yards he busted me and ran off couldn't find him again so didn't get anything but had one of the best hunts I have ever been on so if you ever get drawn for this hunt GO or give me your spot and I will gladly put it to good use


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            #6
            that is awesome, great story i just got on a deer lease right next to black gap looking forward to making some tim

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              #7
              Pretty country but man,that looks like a tough bow hunt.

              DJ

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                #8
                Originally posted by spencorLUK View Post
                that is awesome, great story i just got on a deer lease right next to black gap looking forward to making some tim


                Saw lots of elk sign on the mountain top


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                  #9
                  Originally posted by DJM View Post
                  Pretty country but man,that looks like a tough bow hunt.

                  DJ


                  A lot of work yes but was very surprised how noisy you can be when they are bedded and don't really care enough to move


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                    #10
                    Hogman$, it was nice to meet you. We saw you up high on that ridge Wed, looked like a great spot to glass. We saw lots of does in that area while driving in and out.

                    Your hunt area was much better than ours. We saw a ton of game at that earth tank by the road, nothing during the day at any of our guzzlers (except javalina) we had a few pics of smaller bucks at guzzlers at night. Only bucks we saw were at the earth tank 2 four pointers, 2 spikes. We had fun though.

                    I bet we saw 60 does between the 3 of us in 4 days, just no bucks to be found.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by blhaley91 View Post
                      Hogman$, it was nice to meet you. We saw you up high on that ridge Wed, looked like a great spot to glass. We saw lots of does in that area while driving in and out.

                      Your hunt area was much better than ours. We saw a ton of game at that earth tank by the road, nothing during the day at any of our guzzlers (except javalina) we had a few pics of smaller bucks at guzzlers at night. Only bucks we saw were at the earth tank 2 four pointers, 2 spikes. We had fun though.

                      I bet we saw 60 does between the 3 of us in 4 days, just no bucks to be found.


                      Same to you I didn't see that amount of deer but I had a tagged collared doe I saw almost every day so that was kinda cool saw 2 does at your earth tank on the last morning cool place to hunt


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                        #12
                        So this is a draw only bow hunt? I can’t just show up and hunt?

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                          #13
                          For deer and javelina it’s draw only


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                            #14
                            Just got back from the Black Gap archery hunt last week. My first time hunting mule deer and first time in West Texas. What a beautiful and rugged part of the state. We stayed in Marathon on Sunday night before the hunt on Monday and the combination of the starry night sky and watching a thunderstorm in the distance was worth the trip by itself to a guy like me who lives in Houston. I could not believe the stars. Amazing.

                            The WMA is over 100,000 acres and I think there were maybe eight hunters total so they put us in compartments closest to the main road. Lots of interesting animals running around those hills including mule deer, javelina, black bear, desert bighorn sheep and elk. Also, some chupacabra have migrated that far North I'm told : ).

                            I was with my long-time hunting buddy, Mario, who had never hunted mule deer either and we had both been looking forward to it. We were assigned our 3,000 acre compartment on the first day which was bordered on one side by Big Bend and on the other by the Stillwell ranch and we spent that first afternoon just driving around exploring it. It was so big and some of the hills so steep that we did not even cover the entire thing in his 4wd truck.

                            The weather had just changed dramatically from Sunday night to Monday as we got the first cold-front of the year. It rained on us ~80% of the time (usually light drizzle) on this hunt and temps were in the 30's/40's, which was perfect for hiking the hills.

                            The rain got old, but I am grateful for it because I am pretty sure our normal inclination would have been to sit by water and wait. That was not a viable option with standing water everywhere, so we hiked up as high as we could to look around. We got out our spotting scopes to look around and even if we had not seen anything, just being able to hike around in this remote, beautiful area totally disconnected from the developed world was a fantastic experience. The first day we had kicked up a couple doe and a fawn and we followed them over a couple hills hoping there may be a buck with them until we lost them in a vast valley.

                            The second day we hiked up to the top of a ridge where we could see for miles and scanned the hills and valleys around us. Three things became apparent that had not been from the road:

                            1. Every single plant out there could stick you. I was fortunate to have just bought some great Danner boots from Texarican on here that kept me dry and had great footing.
                            2. There were a lot of animals running around those hills and they were up high. We found tons of tracks and fresh deer sign at the top of the ridge.
                            3. Everything looks different from above. When you look off in the distance from the road and see a ridge and wonder what is on the other side of it, you will find the answer is another ridge. And before you get to it you will come across 2 or 3 little dips or dry creek beds where animals could easily hide that you didn't know were there.

                            We didn't see any animals the second day but were very encouraged by the sign.

                            The third day we hiked up on a ridge in a new area and spotted what we had been looking for. Two beautiful mature mule deer bucks. The only problem was that they were perched at the very top of a ridge line with a sheer cliff behind them and no approach where they would not see us coming.

                            We tried anyway and circled upwind of them about a mile before starting our climb. Our round trip stalk would be 4 miles and climb the equivalent of 27 flights of stairs over slick, thorny uneven ground in the rain, but we didn't feel a thing as the adrenaline was pumping. At some point they moseyed off and when we got close they had disappeared. There is not much cover there which is great for glassing but very difficult for a stalk within bow range.

                            I know we could have easily taken one with a gun. We took a pic of one through the spotting scope and it is blurry because of the rain and scope, but this boy was either a 6x6 or 6x5. I'm no expert, but he looked like a stud to me.

                            The rain got worse the third afternoon and the roads in our compartment had become dicey, so we cut the hunt short and didn't hunt the last half-day opting to go grab a great meal at La Casita in Alpine and get a good night sleep in Marathon before the long drive home.

                            Overall, a fantastic experience for my first mule deer hunt even though no animals were harmed in the making it. I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat.

                            Here's a pic of the one we went after:
                            Attached Files

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                              #15
                              My son and I got drawn for a gun mule deer hunt January 1-4. We are very excited about it. I grew up hunting mule deer in Wyoming and this is my son's first ever deer hunt.

                              It seems like there are two choices out there 1) set up on a guzzler in some sort of ground blind, or 2) get up high early and glass then stock.

                              Is that an acculturate assessment? Which method is better? I have a bad back and my son is young so maybe setting up on a guzzler will be easier physically but does not seem like as much fun.

                              How long a a rifle shot should I be prepared for? Not sure I want my son shooting past 200-300 yards since he's still learning marksmanship.

                              Will I need a GPS, or do they give you maps when you get out there?

                              Is there any real critical pieces of gear I should be sure to bring?

                              Thanks in advance or any advice

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