Black gap mule deer - live

[OldRiverRat]

Unfortunately not cause they have no service at the wma. Made the 7hr drive to Fort Stockton today, will make the three hour trek to black gap in the morning. Check in is 10:00 add hopefully I’m hunting by 1:00.
I’ll be staying at the wma so you’ll have to wait until I get back to civilization for the scoop and hopefully pics.
Looking forward to the experience, big country!




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[TWarren]

Good luck! I'm leaving in the morning to hunt them in NM. Hopefully they are still somewhat interested in the females.

[Puncher51]

They have WiFi at the HQ, we would pull up to the HQ every few days and send out texts.

[PredatorControl]

We drove back from Ruidoso today. Seen several bucks and they were all checking does. Near the house we had rented there was 3 bucks pushing a doe, one of the bucks was a pretty good one.

[solocam_aggie]

Good luck!

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[bowtecmike]

Good luck , rut should be on


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[OldRiverRat]

Well I’m 2 for 2 on Tpwd mule deer draw hunts!
An old war horse, 8 plus years old.



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[texaswoods8]

Congrats!! in for pics!

[Hooverfb]

Awesome. That's gotta be a cool place to hunt.

[Avid Hunter]

Congrats... in for pics

[donpablo]

Do you use your own tags for this or is it MLD?

[OldRiverRat]

Black gap mule deer - live





I’ll send the vid I referenced tomorrow, I’m at the farm and the signal is too weak to down load.



Taking a lymph node for cwd test



Sorry for the delay guys, it was a busy few days.

I left out on Monday morning and made the 7 hour drive to ft Stockton for the night. Left Stockton early Tuesday and made it to black gap for check in at 10. There were a total of 7 hunters, all paid and all showed up. I felt really bad for two guys that made the drive from the Beaumont area to try their luck for standby, unfortunately they didn’t let them hunt.

We were checked in and sent out to our compartment by 11:00. I was placed in unit 4 which borders the headquarters on the west side. I made the quick 2 miles trip down the road and located the camp site and grabbed my gear and headed for high ground. I found a nice vantage point and got on the spotting scope. I spotted the first deer at noon, a doe and a yearling being bird dogged by a young 2x2. They were up and feeding on the east end of the canyon I was in. I watched them for a while hoping maybe a bigger buck would show himself but no luck. It was slow from that point until 4:00 when I spotted a doe crest the highest ridge in the farthest mountain range on the east end of the canyon, as a crow flies she was 4.56 miles away and feeding at about 3200ft
I watched as two more doe fed over the ridge and then two really nice bucks joined them, both shooters. They seemed to get nervous and it was about that time I panned back west and spotted a herd of 12 big horn sheep feeding their way. That was a pretty cool sight. I went back to scanning the whole canyon with no other deer spotted.
I decided to head down and try to get back to the truck before dark so a I could ride back east and see how much distance I could cut between where I was and where those deer were feeding. I was able to get back to the East side and cut most of the lateral distance but the vertical issue was still evident.
I headed back and made camp, got some food and immediately began game planning for Wednesday morning. I decided I was going to be aggressive and my plan was to head back East, half way between where I was Tuesday evening and where i spotted the bucks on the ridge, work the spotting scope at daylight and if I wasn’t able to spot anything down low or close and those doe showed up again on the ridge I was going to go after them and try to get into position for a shot that evening. After a decent night of sleep I was up and on another vantage point at daylight. The weather was perfect, 40 degrees and just a light breeze which was enough to keep me from sweating profusely as I climbed. I began scanning the entire canyon from the floor up. At 8:00 I peeked up on the ridge and saw my first animal, it was one of the Does and it was evident they were bedding and feeding up at the top. I was dreading the hike but I told myself to stay with the game plan so I packed up and headed back to the truck. I emptied everything out of my pack that wasn’t necessary, made a sandwich to go and headed back out. It was 9:00. I was taking my time and scanning the hills as I walked and I may have made it 400 yds from the truck when I saw a buck on a knoll about 200 yds away, he was looking right at me and I thought I was busted. Then I spotted a doe, he was chasing and the doe was heading my direction. He paid no attention to me, I got my gun on the sticks and about that time I noticed there were two more bucks behind the first. It got very busy at that point, the doe was on the move and the greedy side of me began scanning each buck trying to determine which was the biggest, had the most points, which would score more and almost instantly bad memories came back of a similar situation I had with two white tails chasing a doe in the hill country where I got greedy and before I knew it they were gone and never pulled the trigger. I decided I would shoot the first buck as soon as he gave me an opportunity and it didn’t take long, the doe led him right to me and I made a good shot at about 100yds. A bitter sweet end to a very short hunt. However, I decided to hang tight and watch the other two bucks, the **** didn’t even faze them. As soon as my buck went down the second buck was on the doe, he ran her back and forth on the side of the hill and then he noticed the deer I shot and that’s where it got interesting. I’ll post the video, it’s amazing how aggressive these animals get during rut. I got a pretty neat show to say the least, I was maybe 75yds away at the time standing in the wide open. After going back and watching some of the footage I got of the second buck chasing the doe I realized the doe was collared.

It was a really cool 10 minute experience.

So what I thought was going to be a very challenging day ended up being a god send cake walk.

It was probably the quickest turnaround hunt I’ve had, drive 9 hours and hunt for a total of about 9 hours and then drive 9 hrs back home. It was worth it, I’d never had the opportunity to hunt far west texas much less a mule deer. It’s rough country but beautiful at the same time. I love the Tpwd draw hunts and this one was a great experience.

Like I mentioned they aged him at 8 plus, he didn’t have any teeth left and it was evident he was getting much to eat, he only weighed 125 field dressed. I’d have loved to have seen this deer 2 or 3 years ago.
I scored him at 152 2/8. He had over 30” of mass. Just a solid management buck and a trophy public land mule deer.

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[Puncher51]

Heck of a buck and write up!! Congrats!!

[TXraiderTK]

Awesome
Funny how things work out sometimes

[M16]

Awesome, Congrats