New Balcones Canyonlands Units?

[BOBCAT4119]

Yeah, only 640 acers but this is archery only. My email said “up to 15 hunters”

[RobinBradbery]

I'm not holding out hope of getting a deer. I am however, looking forward to some outdoor time, meeting a few TBH'ers and seeing another part of Texas.

[RobinBradbery]

Yeah, only 640 acers but this is archery only. My email said “up to 15 hunters”

When I called he said they had 16 hunters for this hunt. Half or more will likely drop after the first weekend.

[BOBCAT4119]

When I called he said they had 16 hunters for this hunt. Half or more will likely drop after the first weekend.

I figured the same, and my son and I may be part of the drop out clan lol. It’s a solid 5 hour drive 1 way and depending on what we see will be the deciding factor on if we make any more trips down there. I too am looking forward to being in the good ole Texas hill country!

[deerslay3r]

For you guys that are comin down, check out Storms in Burnet for a good burger and Dahlia Cafe in Liberty Hill for a nice down home meal. Inmans BBQ and Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, can't go wrong.

[RobinBradbery]

For you guys that are comin down, check out Storms in Burnet for a good burger and Dahlia Cafe in Liberty Hill for a nice down home meal. Inmans BBQ and Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls, can't go wrong.

Awesome, thanks for the tips.

[jnd1959]

And the pie at Bluebonnet.

[RobinBradbery]

For the first time ever we gave up on a public hunt. Never have we worked so hard and left without seeing so much as a track.

My husband and I spent most of the day scouting the 440 acres of the Mouton tract. Most of the hunters seemed to concentrate on the smaller 200 acre Shaw tract.

We walked, climbed and slid across over half of our area and didn't see any sign of deer. No tracks, no poop, no beds, rubs or any other sign. It had rained the day before so any tracks would be fresh. We saw some pig tracks, coon, cow, bunny and coyote. But no deer. We didn't even jump any animals except for one Eurasian collared dove.

This was the most deer deficient area we had ever scouted in our 20+ successful years of public hunting. 90% of the area was choked with thick juniper. During the orientation we were told that they hadn't even done a deer survey in over three years. They had no idea how many deer they had, if any. They did say that they had a much lower deer population than the surrounding areas. I believe them. Last year no deer were taken at all.

Still, we got to hike through a new area of Texas and see some breathtaking country. But, in our opinion, this was no place to have an archery deer hunt. Most of the area had about three to five yards of visibility.

I am curious if the other hunters found the same in Shaw tract. It looked much more open. We could have gone over there but didn't feel like crowding into the 200 acres, not all of it huntable, with 11 other hunters.

The crew running the hunt were friendly and helpful but you can definitely see the night and day difference between a State run hunt and a Federal one. They genuinely wanted us to be successful but the habitat just wasn't there and from what we saw, neither were the deer.

[BOBCAT4119]

My son and I didn’t even stick around for Sunday evening hunt. Same here… we walked 85% of the Shaw tract and found 3 old trails and 2 piles of week old deer poop!! The ONLY thing we saw the whole weekend was a red fox “my son got a kick out of that” It was a 18 mike drive from our cabin to the hunting area and we didn’t see a SINGLE deer on the drive there or back, and we made that drive 7 times!! Sooo disappointing but like you said, it was beautiful country and we enjoyed that. I won’t be going back

[deerslay3r]

The hunts would be more successful if they allowed baiting. The reason they do not is because they want all the deer gone to preserve the Golden checked Warbler habitat. I am sitting in my stand right now that backs up to the Flying X ranch of Balcones. I have 7 doe that are regulars and a few bucks, one decent. The deer are there, just hard to hunt without a food source to draw them in.

[WinslowBoy]

The hunts would be more successful if they allowed baiting. The reason they do not is because they want all the deer gone to preserve the Golden checked Warbler habitat. I am sitting in my stand right now that backs up to the Flying X ranch of Balcones. I have 7 doe that are regulars and a few bucks, one decent. The deer are there, just hard to hunt without a food source to draw them in.

Unfortunately the staff at any Federal Wildlife Refuge have their hands tied regarding baiting. There are very specific Federal Regulations which strictly prohibiting baiting of wildlife on Federal refuges of any kind. I believe some of them would like to allow baiting but they can't, it's against the law.

Other issue with Balcones is it's primary purpose is to provide nesting habitat for the golden-cheeked warbler and black capped vireo. That is their reasoning for leaving the thick cedar stands on the property. Sort of funny but their website talks about cedar woodlands interspersed with oak mottes and open savannahs. I've been around that refuge a bunch and there aren't a lot of open savannahs. Obvious from past live hunts, this is a tough place to hunt.

As stated by another post, the Federal hunts are different than the State Park and State WMA hunts. Not going to get into "better or worse" argument, just different. My main concern (which I state regularly on my TPWD survey) is that although TWPD continues to tout more and more land available under the Public Hunt Draw program, most of the new sites appear to be Federal refuges. Wouldn't be a bad thing but I have noticed several State Parks have dropped off the list in recent years.

The TPWD Public Draw Hunt program is still a great program and I'll continue to apply, I'm just selective in the sites I apply for based on the type of hunting. As more sites are added, you'll just need to do your research to see if it is a type of hunt you would be happy attending. Best of luck in the future to all public hunters.