My wife and I got drawn for Aransas National Refuge

[RifleBowPistol]

Well, it's go day. I scouted yesterday and found a good spot for my tri pod. My wife is sick and couldn't make it. I'll update this thread as I go along.

Good luck, the deer are likely moving pretty good out there. They are moving here much of the day. Mother nature may be on your side, for this trip.

[SabineHunter]

Well, I stayed in the tripod from 6 am to 530 pm. Nothing. I heard one shot. It drizzled all day long, was in the 40s all day and windy. Not one mosquito. Its on tomorrow.

[RifleBowPistol]

Well, I stayed in the tripod from 6 am to 530 pm. Nothing. I heard one shot. It drizzled all day long, was in the 40s all day and windy. Not one mosquito. Its on tomorrow.

I would think weather like today, would be the best time to hunt that place. I have never been out there in weather like this. But I have hunted another place that was pretty similar, when it rained, drizzled, over cast, the hunting was a lot better. Critters would start moving, where normally the deer and pigs would only move at night. The few times, it rained when we hunted down at that place the deer, would be moving a lot. On those few occasions, we saw more deer than that the rest of the two years we hunted that place.

But does not mean they will definitely do the same out at the Refuge. How about acorns? The times we hunted down there in November, the oaks had lots of acorns on them. That's what the deer were primarily eating.

Good luck.

[SabineHunter]

Deer kicked my butt this weekend, none sighted. I hunted till 11 am and took down my tripod. RBP, I hunted down Middle Road and met with a guy who has been hunting the same area for decades and he didn't see anything either. I thought I had a good area since I found an ancient road and could see for a long ways with a huge game trail going down the middle. Just about every where, there was water standing and this road was high and dry. As far as acorns go, I saw some scrub oaks had some but not much.
I retire this June and will put a lot more effort in it in the fall since it will be so close to my new home. I plan to put in for the draw and then go standby and hunt all 5 days, not just 1 1/2.

[RifleBowPistol]

Deer kicked my butt this weekend, none sighted. I hunted till 11 am and took down my tripod. RBP, I hunted down Middle Road and met with a guy who has been hunting the same area for decades and he didn't see anything either. I thought I had a good area since I found an ancient road and could see for a long ways with a huge game trail going down the middle. Just about every where, there was water standing and this road was high and dry. As far as acorns go, I saw some scrub oaks had some but not much.
I retire this June and will put a lot more effort in it in the fall since it will be so close to my new home. I plan to put in for the draw and then go standby and hunt all 5 days, not just 1 1/2.

Normally the deer don't need to travel far, to get all they need. They seem to get most of their water from off of leaves or grass in the form of dew in the mornings. I know there are many areas, of that place, on the northern end, that normally don't have any water and those area are too far from any water for the deer to travel to water holes. Now with water all over the place, they are in heaven.

There are areas out there, that on normal years, there are short scrub oaks that are thick with acorns. Pretty much a guaranteed thing that you will find deer feeding on those in the mornings and evenings. Not sure what the freeze last year did for the acorn population this year, if it had any effect. I know the oaks where we live, have not had much of any acorns on them since we bought our place three years ago. But this year, we have a lot of trees covered with acorns. In the past two years, I had lots of deer coming to my feeder. But this year, the corn, is more of a after dinner snack.

Knowing that the live oaks down there normally have acorns on them, with some just flat thick with acorns. Then the oaks on our place have hardly had any acorns in the past but now have a lot. So I would really like to know about the acorn population down there.

[SoTXAg06]

Any hunt recaps? We ended up putting our house on the market, so I didn’t attempt to get one of the leftover tags this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SabineHunter]

A big zero for me. None sighted

[fish4food]

Any other hunts coming up? Or where could I check to see for other hunt dates?

[BigRed323]

Hunt recap for us:

Between 5 of us, we shot a doe and 2 pigs. One of my buddies saw a deer crossing a sendero real fast and the other who shot the doe saw 2 does. Other than that, myself and 2 others of us, didn’t see a single deer. I covered toms of ground and multiple areas and barely even found deer tracks or poop. I shot one hog but didn’t recover.

Had a great time at Adella’s and Butch’s campground hanging with our group. All in all, beautiful place, but will not be applying for Aransas again. Will go to bird watch, but between our own place and other draws, not a place I would go out of my way to go back to.

[fish4food]

It’s a tough hunt for sure!

[SoTXAg06]

Hunt recap for us:

Between 5 of us, we shot a doe and 2 pigs. One of my buddies saw a deer crossing a sendero real fast and the other who shot the doe saw 2 does. Other than that, myself and 2 others of us, didn’t see a single deer. I covered toms of ground and multiple areas and barely even found deer tracks or poop. I shot one hog but didn’t recover.

Had a great time at Adella’s and Butch’s campground hanging with our group. All in all, beautiful place, but will not be applying for Aransas again. Will go to bird watch, but between our own place and other draws, not a place I would go out of my way to go back to.

Dang, I was hoping you had some good luck. How did the board look deer wise?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk