Heading to the Angelina National Forest tomorrow afternoon and I'm freaking excited. I'll probably camp around in the rain for a couple of days, but I'm looking forward to it clearing off Saturday evening and Sunday morning. It's supposed to be cool and nice after this front rolls through. I'm hoping a combination of the rain letting up, the cooler weather, and rut will prove to be a recipe for success. I'll try to keep you guys updated but, from my experience, the piney woods aren't the greatest on cell-signal. Good luck to everyone else!
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Good luck to you bud. I will probably be bow hunting myself Saturday since its supposed to rain. I have a area I pack in to and spend all day I will probably spend the day Sunday gun hunting. -
Thanks man, and good luck to you as well. I'll see how bad the storms are before I decide if I want to sit through it Saturday morning. Saturday evening may be a different story. Sunday looks like it's going to be nice hunting weather for sure.Comment
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You guys have any luck?Comment
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Sorry it's been a while. I was at home with sick kids this week and didn't get much of a chance to sit down for an update.
First let me say this: I always enjoy hunting and camping, as well as hiking. This trip, however, was a definite test of my nerves.
The trip started off great with me getting to the campground around 8:30AM Friday morning. I got the camper/camp set up pretty quickly and then thought I'd drive to Zavalla to pick up a couple of bundles of firewood and some ice. The first little mishap occurred as I was pulling back into the campground and drove into a washout near a ditch. (I'll include pictures). I wasn't too terribly stuck, but my driver's-side rear tire couldn't get traction. (Didn't think to turn off my traction control...
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After an hour and a half of trying to get unstuck, another camper finally came over and helped me get out by standing on the bumper to help me get traction.
After this I decided to head out to the spots I found and check my cameras and set up a popup blind. My brother-in-law was running a little late so I decided to go by myself. I had it marked with GPS and getting there was no problem. I made it to the first spot, checked the camera and only had 18 photos (For over a month of time). There were some does and a small 6pt buck that didn't meet AR. I went ahead collected the camera and headed off for the spot I was going to hunt. I got there and found that my camera was gone, and someone had set up a popup blind about 15 yards from where my camera was (I assume it may have been the same person). I whistled to make sure no one was in the blind, then approached it and looked inside to find empty bags of corn inside (illegal in the NF). I left the area, walked about a 1/2 mile from the location and set out my popup in another area that looked promising. To deter someone from taking it, I cabled it to a tree using a 3/4 steel cable with a built in lock. I left pretty irritated, went back to the main road, and gave the GW a call to let him know someone was baiting in the NF; I gave him the coordinates as well. He thanked me for reporting and said he was going to work the area Saturday morning.
Saturday morning there was a light sprinkle and it was cool outside. We decided to head out and try to hunt as long as we could until it started raining. I pulled down to the spot nearest my blind, pulled little off the road and promptly got stuck in the mud. I sank down in a soupy sand/mud and knew there was no chance of getting out. We decided to head into the woods and hunt for a while and deal with it when we got back. After about 30 minutes in the blind, the bottom dropped out and it started raining hard without end. Realizing that it would continue to rain, we walked back to the truck and started to attempt to get the truck out using logs to get traction. After it was apparent that we were beating a dead horse, we started walking down the USFS road in the direction of the campgrounds; it was pouring the entire time. About a mile and a half into the walk, a truck pulls up behind us and we move to the side of the road. I waved my arms in the air to gesture for him to stop, and he drove right on by an never once looked at us. At first I could say that I blamed him for not stopping for two strangers on a USFS road in the middle of the piney woods, but on second thought , what if someone was hurt? What if we were in a REAL emergency and this jackleg drove right by. The least he could have done was crack his window and ask if we were ok, and then if he wanted to say he couldn't help, ok...I get it. Anyway, we ended up walking about 2 1/2 miles before a friendly guy and his son (and father I presume) pulled up and offered to pull us out. I urged him that we could wait until they were done hunting for the morning but he insisted that he could do it and that they were driving that direction anyway. He gave us a ride back to, and pulled out our truck easily.
We thanked them, talked to him for a while in the rain and parted ways. His name is Keith and he lives in Livingston... (THANKS KEITH!!)
We called it a morning and went back to camp and took a nap. The rain let up Saturday evening and we headed a different direction and hunted another area some other campers had told us about. The area seemed really nice but we didn't see anything. Sunday morning, rather than drive anywhere, we walked straight out of our campsite and onto a USFS road that was closed. We walked about 1 1/2 miles and found a good area to hunt. I ended up seeing a very mature buck. His antlers had the most mass I've ever seen in a deer; his main beams went straight up about a foot and a half above his head and were like as wooden baseball bat. He was a 6 pt. and I could have shot him 10 times if I wanted to. He never did look at me, but I made the decision not to shoot because I couldn't really tell if he made AR. (He was very close). I couldn't believe how much mass he had for a rack that was around 13". I saw this same deer on the evening hunt along with several other does. My brother-in-law saw a spike that he couldn't get a shot at as well as a few does.
I'd planned to stay until Tuesday, but my B-I-L had to leave Monday so I decided to call it a trip. Monday morning I woke up and headed down to get my popup (Technically could have left it until Monday evening) only to find out that it had been stolen as well; all that was left was the stakes and a bottle of water. They took the blind and the big steel cable I'd used to cable it to a tree.
I went back to camp, loaded up my gear, and left before anything else went missing. I was worried I'd only get back home with my truck and a pair of shorts.
Like I said, I enjoyed the hunting, camping and hiking, but I learned something: I won't put up a popup blind as well as won't leave a camera on public land in East Texas. I will likely head back to hunt the area again, but I'll sit on the ground and lean against a tree. The area is beautiful, the hunting is good, but the outlaws are out of control.Comment
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Dang man sorry to hear your stuff was stolen. Sounds like you had a good time anyway though. You might look into getting a climbing stand so you can take it in and out with you.Comment
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.Attached FilesComment
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My other pics won't load; says the files are too big. Seems like the pics I took vertically will load, but the ones I took horizontally won't.
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Yeah that definitely might be the way to go. My brother-in-law had a small one-person popup that folded up really small that he carried with him. Mine was more of a heavier duty two-person popup and is kind of awkward to carry around. I'll look into a climbing stand to avoid situations like this. I actually did pretty well just sitting on the ground against a tree with a little brush cover around me. I know one thing though, I didn't realize how skittish those deer are in the woods. They can spot you fairly easily. I had a doe at 150 yards pick me out of the woods and stare at me for several minutes. She even tried faking running away and "barking." Once she realized I didn't move and didn't chase her, she kept on coming in and walked past me at about 60 yards. It just surprised me how she was able to spot me at that distance in those woods; and I was pretty well covered.Originally posted by CRM_95 View PostComment
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Well that sucks! I've never put a trail camera up on public property for fear of the same thing happening to me. I've read and heard WAY to many horror stories of things going missing, which is kinda strange since I rarely see anyone in the areas that I hunt up there. For future reference, take CRM 95's advice and pack am liking stand in. Most of them are light weight and easy to pack and you can see so much more 20+ feet in the air opposed to being on the ground.Comment
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Yeah, it was a bummer to find the camera missing right off the bat, and even a bigger one to see someone illegally hunting the spot I picked out. Then it just got humorous Monday when I found my blind missing after cabling it to a tree. lol.Originally posted by CookieMonster View Post
I will definitely be looking into a climbing stand. I've definitely been burnt on leaving things in the woods... lolComment
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Where are you staying? I'm over by Powell Park, if you wanna come have a cold one around a fire.Comment
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Hey I appreciate it man! Thanks for the offer. I was staying at the Boykin Rec Area Campground, but I'm back home now about 3 1/2 hours away. lol I probably would have taken you up on it!Comment
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Well there's always next time. I know of 2 160's killed over there in the past 3 years.Originally posted by TexasHunter83 View PostComment
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Man that sucks about the theft...we used to ride dirt bikes at Boykin Springs back in the day, good times.Comment
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