Justin Hurst WMA

[Welding Teach]

Being from Brazoria I put my stepson in for this hunt also, but drew Gus Engeling instead.
Never hunted the Hurst but he has hunted the Stringfellow across the San Bernard river. The stringfellow allowed ATV's and you did not have to have the OHV sticker, Not sure if you need one at Hurst or not. Head nets , spray and Thermacells a must. Good Hotels in Lake Jackson 15 min. away or if Tent / RV camping the county park at Quintana Beach is only 10 min from the WMA.
Good luck

Thank you for the information!

I will check into the OHV sticker for sure.

[Welding Teach]

Being from Brazoria I put my stepson in for this hunt also, but drew Gus Engeling instead.
Never hunted the Hurst but he has hunted the Stringfellow across the San Bernard river. The stringfellow allowed ATV's and you did not have to have the OHV sticker, Not sure if you need one at Hurst or not. Head nets , spray and Thermacells a must. Good Hotels in Lake Jackson 15 min. away or if Tent / RV camping the county park at Quintana Beach is only 10 min from the WMA.
Good luck

I called them today and they said I would be fine without one for the hunt.

Thanks again for the heads up though--would have sucked to get down there and not be able to use the Ranger!

[Welding Teach]

Ok I have another rookie question.

So we get there at 10, after the meeting, do they turn us loose to go the stand?

I am guessing you must stay in your spot until a determined time, then allowed to leave the stand?

I am trying to plan what I need to take with us. My 9 year old can go half the day of not eating while playing baseball or outside playing with friends. The minute he gets in the deer stand he becomes a garbage disposal!!

I know we can and are going to bring our Ranger, just didn't know about the other stuff.

Thanks!

[jomw10]

They have a "quite" time window. Where you must be in your stand before quiet time and cannot leave your stand until after hunting hours are over.
You can certainly go to the stand after orientation. But you can also have time to spread some corn and the head back to eat something before you have to be at the stand.
If you arrive after start of quiet time, you are not allowed to go to your stand.

[Welding Teach]

They have a "quite" time window. Where you must be in your stand before quiet time and cannot leave your stand until after hunting hours are over.
You can certainly go to the stand after orientation. But you can also have time to spread some corn and the head back to eat something before you have to be at the stand.
If you arrive after start of quiet time, you are not allowed to go to your stand.

That makes sense!

When we had a lease we would drive to the stand, unload our stuff and then corn the roads and go park somewhere out of sight of the stand, I am guessing the same would be true here, unless we already put corn out ahead of that.

[C-dubyah]

Been hunting there several times for waterfowl. Seems to be a fair amount of deer and many hogs. I have seen alligators in the water too. The one thing I can promise you is that you are going to be eaten alive by mosquitos. Over prepare for them. I would buy a mosquito jacket for you and your son. The kind that covers every square inch of your body and has a hood that zips around your neck. Don't even leave a sliver of you wrist open to them at the cuff. They are always bad out there but I have seen times where I can't imagine it ever being any worse.

[Welding Teach]

Been hunting there several times for waterfowl. Seems to be a fair amount of deer and many hogs. I have seen alligators in the water too. The one thing I can promise you is that you are going to be eaten alive by mosquitos. Over prepare for them. I would buy a mosquito jacket for you and your son. The kind that covers every square inch of your body and has a hood that zips around your neck. Don't even leave a sliver of you wrist open to them at the cuff. They are always bad out there but I have seen times where I can't imagine it ever being any worse.

Duly noted!!

[Welding Teach]

Ok another question.

anybody that has hunted there for deer, is there any blind better than another?

Just got an email and they said we get to choose our blinds based on the order we were drawn.

Thanks for all the help so far!! We can't wait until next weekend!!

[Welding Teach]

Well the weekend came and went. We came we saw and we came home empty handed. Not because my 9 year old didn't try, he really wanted to shoot something.

Overall it was a great hunt, Trey was the guy in charge out there and he and his staff were awesome!! He made it fun, interacted with the kids, made sure that every kid had their best time while they were there.

On the way to our stand after orientation to put corn out we had to wait for a doe to leave so we could go on in there, turns out that was the only deer we would see at our location.

We saw 4 good size hogs walk across one of our openings, which was about 20 yards wide, but they never slowed down and just crossed and kept going. Saturday evening while sitting in the stand we saw a racoon come out and take some corn for a snack, and on the other side we saw something move. Turns out it was a bobcat mom and her 2 kittens! They would run and play, jump on each other. That was so cool to see that, they stuck around for 30 minutes out just playing around.

Sunday morning the bobcats came back out for a little bit and played again. We had 4 small pigs walk out by our stand and walk straight across our shooting lane, once again never slowed down. We decided to get out of our stand and go try another stand. At this point some people had decided to leave. So we went and sat at another stand for a couple of hours, then came back and tried one more stand. At 2:00 my 9 year old son said, "dad can we go home now? I'm tired." So it was it was at that point we loaded up and left. I was sure proud he stayed and tried as long as he did!! I kept telling him that everything was up to him. He picked the blinds we sat in, him and Trey would discuss things about the blinds, what they liked and didn't like about the stands.

I will definitely sign him up for this hunt again. He enjoyed it, was just bummed he didn't get to shoot anything.

When we left Trey said there had been 11 deer shot, at that point they were at 50% success rate.

We may go back for the stand by hunt for spike and doe--who knows.

Thank you everyone for the advice, and anything else going towards this hunt--it was a cool place!

[TXOUTLAW]

Too bad but sounds like a great time with your son. Watching bobcat kittens are always cool

[Static1968]

Sorry He did not get a chance to shoot, but sounds like you guys had a good time.
Which 2 stand locations did he pick?

[Welding Teach]

Sorry He did not get a chance to shoot, but sounds like you guys had a good time.
Which 2 stand locations did he pick?

We sat in stand #9 Saturday afternoon/evening, Sunday morning

Then Sunday we also went to #2 and #11

[Rounder]

TPWD Draw hunt page says that ATV/ORV's are highly recommended for Justin Hurst. For those that have deer hunted there, are you wasting your time without an ATV or can you hunt it in a truck?

[Rounder]

.

[Dejashoot]

If it is dry like now, you can drive anywhere. If it is wet you will need a SxS. If it is really wet you will stick most SxS if you get off the road.