South LLano River SP Exotic Draw hunt 2019

[Eberle]

Congratulations!

[BlacktailSlayer]

Hunting the either sex deer/ Axis hunt. Started today. Sitting in stand 3. Saw quite a few whitetails, but no shooter bucks. saw a few shooter bucks walking out towards my truck. No axis today. Looks like you guys did a number on them, but got a couple more days to get it figured out.

[BlacktailSlayer]

I sat at #3.It was in decent shape.It had windows unlike most of the blinds.

DJ

I think I found your .308 shell casing in the blind.

[Cypress Hunter]

Hunting the either sex deer/ Axis hunt. Started today. Sitting in stand 3. Saw quite a few whitetails, but no shooter bucks. saw a few shooter bucks walking out towards my truck. No axis today. Looks like you guys did a number on them, but got a couple more days to get it figured out.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[BlacktailSlayer]

Had a great time at the South Llano SP hunt. Most of the hunters harvested something (except one hunter who held out for axis). Axis vanished after the previous hunt. Out of 8 hunters only 3 axis were harvested (1 buck, 2 does). I got stand #3 for the first 2.5 days. Saw tons of whitetail the first day. Passed a nice 9 point that the ranger said I should have taken, but held out for bigger wt buck. On the first evening a hunter harvested a beautiful 11 point around 140" out of stand 4. I took a spike WT on day 2, but deer traffic started to decline down by the river. Moved to stand #6 on the last sit of the hunt (the rain was pretty heavy on the last day) and had 2 nice WT bucks come through. The bigger buck did not offer a shot. The second buck was chasing a doe and disappeared in the thick mesquites. I watch the doe for about an hour and she bedded under some trees to wait out the rain. about 2 hours later the doe stood up and about 100 yards back in the brush I could see a nice 8 point get up and shake the water off. I was able to get on him quick and got a shot off. He ran about 30 yards inside the cover and I saw him fall. Pulled it off with about 30 minutes left in hunt. During entire hunt did not see any axis (except the first day driving thru camp ground) which was disappointing, but due to the success of previous hunt not unexpected. All together hunters got 5 rack bucks, 2 wt spikes, around 8 does in addition the the 3 axis. The park staff and volunteers were awesome! Would love to her an opportunity to go back again. I have a few pics if someone would like to post.

[ZINS708]

Had a great time at the South Llano SP hunt. Most of the hunters harvested something (except one hunter who held out for axis). Axis vanished after the previous hunt. Out of 8 hunters only 3 axis were harvested (1 buck, 2 does). I got stand #3 for the first 2.5 days. Saw tons of whitetail the first day. Passed a nice 9 point that the ranger said I should have taken, but held out for bigger wt buck. On the first evening a hunter harvested a beautiful 11 point around 140" out of stand 4. I took a spike WT on day 2, but deer traffic started to decline down by the river. Moved to stand #6 on the last sit of the hunt (the rain was pretty heavy on the last day) and had 2 nice WT bucks come through. The bigger buck did not offer a shot. The second buck was chasing a doe and disappeared in the thick mesquites. I watch the doe for about an hour and she bedded under some trees to wait out the rain. about 2 hours later the doe stood up and about 100 yards back in the brush I could see a nice 8 point get up and shake the water off. I was able to get on him quick and got a shot off. He ran about 30 yards inside the cover and I saw him fall. Pulled it off with about 30 minutes left in hunt. During entire hunt did not see any axis (except the first day driving thru camp ground) which was disappointing, but due to the success of previous hunt not unexpected. All together hunters got 5 rack bucks, 2 wt spikes, around 8 does in addition the the 3 axis. The park staff and volunteers were awesome! Would love to her an opportunity to go back again. I have a few pics if someone would like to post.

Would love to see some pics. If you cant post them, feel free to PM them to me or email them to me zins708@gmail.com. I've hunted there twice in the last 4 seasons and had an awesome time both hunts. I also have done some mountain biking and river floating in the park during the summer. Great area and congrats on your success!

[toomuchsun]

Quick after action report from the exotic hunt Oct 29-31.

Left home at 4:45am and arrived in town just before the 10:30am reporting deadline as planned. Had a quick orientation and drew blinds. There were 8 hunters drawn by the state and the hunt organizers put all 8 blinds down by the river where most of the axis and whitetail are.
I drew hunting blind 6 just past the Acorn bird observation blind, which is the 2nd furthest east blind, one of the two over near the campground. The blind faces north and there are 3 primary shooting lanes cut out from the blind to the north, north west, and west-northwest. Although none of the shots i took were in the lanes it did help to acquire targets. I made it into the blind around 11:00 briefly walked the lanes to sprinkle a bit under a gallon of corn across 200yard or so down two lanes then set up in the blind. Blind 6 is in a clearing about 300/400 yards south of the river and just west of a stand of woods, which i would learn is where almost all of the deer traffic would come from.

The wind on Tuesday was consistently out of the north and wasn't bad sitting since temps had not yet dropped. Rained on and off most of the day. I saw a couple of whitetail not too long after getting set up, then around 2:30 i saw an axis doe heading east to west out of the forest. As i started setting up for a shot i saw antlers above the brush line following her. They both reached an area with good site lines about 140 yards out and i was able to take the buck, made it about 20 yards and i saw it drop. I let it set for about 40 minutes though i was comfortable that it was dead (150grain .308 does the job). I walked out, to locate it and fortunately he was right were i expected. I walked back to the truck, unloaded my bike and cart, then went back, field dressed him, loaded him up and rode back to the check station. Ended up being a very big male, close to 200lbs field dressed. I called it a day at that point, around 5pm.

Day 2 was uneventful, got in the blind about 6:30 and stayed till sundown. Rained on and off the first half of the day and was very cold due to wind blowing out of the north. Saw at least 30 whitetail but no axis. Only one big buck but some others saw a few. At one point i count 11 whitetail within 50 yards, a couple came as close as 5 yards.

Day 3 hunt ends at noon. Was in the blind again round 6:30, 29 degrees out but thankfully no wind so was actually more comfortable than the previous afternoon. Saw a couple of whitetail right before sunrise, then around 8am scan to my left and see an axis buck approaching the edge of the first shooting lane. As i grab my rifle and start to set up for a shot i see he is chasing a doe thats moving pretty quickly left to right. I decide to take her first if she gives me a shot. They both bound past the second shooting lane and the doe crosses the third then slows down to a walk through small trees. I take the shot on her not too far from where i hit the first buck on Tuesday. Seemed like a good hit, i looked so see where she would go and saw the buck take a couple steps and stop in confusion so i re-acquired him and got a good shot in about 10 yards beyond were the doe was. On the second shot i saw them both bound another 10 yards to the right and head north into the trees towards the river. I knew i hit the doe but wasn't sure on the buck and the way he bounded off i was hoping this wasn't going to turn into an ordeal. I waited in the blind till about 9:30 and only sited more whitetail. Hunt rules are that if you need to blood trail out of site of the blind you have to go to the check station and wait till hunters are cleared from the area. I went to the impact site and there was good blood but it quickly went out of site of the blind. Fortunately since it was the last day the other 2 blinds in the area were already empty, so a couple of the park employees came out to help with the trailing. we found the buck in 20 minutes about 100 yards from the impact site or so and the doe was another 30 yards beyond that.
I field dressed them both, and as we were loading them into the bike cart one of the caretakers showed up with a side-by-side so we tossed the carcasses on there and met back up at the check station. I ended up removing the buck heads for easier transport, rinsed them all off, loaded them up and headed out.
All in all a very successful hunt, great experience and i cant speak highly enough of the park staff. And with that i'm done for the season all in 1 week. 2 whitetail from an MLD hunt last weekend and 3 axis, freezer is officially full.

Pics are below. I forgot to take pics of the buck and doe from yesterday after tracking them, just wanted to get things buttoned up before it was too late.
Good luck on your seasons everyone.

I am hunting a place where mountain bikes are allowed. I wondered how I could use mine as going in about 1/2 mile. I see the fat tires etc. The cart? Where did you find it. Thought about building one. I have a rear rack pretty heavy duty but low cost off road tires on the bike. Any tips on the bike set up in summary is appreciated. My trails are fairly usable for a bike

[jjaimes]

Great hunt congrats!

[ZINS708]

I am hunting a place where mountain bikes are allowed. I wondered how I could use mine as going in about 1/2 mile. I see the fat tires etc. The cart? Where did you find it. Thought about building one. I have a rear rack pretty heavy duty but low cost off road tires on the bike. Any tips on the bike set up in summary is appreciated. My trails are fairly usable for a bike

Here is what I would recommend for both a budget "hunting bike" and a setup if $ budget isnt a concern.

Budget option: If you don't have a bike already, look for a used mountain bike on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and look for a used bike trailer. You can find them used for $50-75 most times and they work well. You can either get the trailers you see parents pulling their kids around in or trailers that look more like a cart. Put slime or some other tire sealant in the tires of the trailer and the bike so you dont have to worry as much about flat tires. You can also find new bike trailers online for $100-125 and up. You can also take a game cart and fabricate a connecting arm to the seat post of your bike (several options!)

More expensive setup: Get a fat tire bike- You can find them for $400 and up. If you really want to get fancy, look at an EBike or Electric assist bike setup. They are now legal on most public hunting properties in Texas. You can get a tow behind cart and rear rack and with the electric assist, you can easily go 15-25 MPH.

If you are going to use the bike setup at a place like Granger, definitely put sealant in the tires and bring extra tubes. Every single time I have taken my bike hunting at Granger, I picked up mesquite thorns in the tires.

Good luck!

[ZINS708]

Had a great time at the South Llano SP hunt. Most of the hunters harvested something (except one hunter who held out for axis). Axis vanished after the previous hunt. Out of 8 hunters only 3 axis were harvested (1 buck, 2 does). I got stand #3 for the first 2.5 days. Saw tons of whitetail the first day. Passed a nice 9 point that the ranger said I should have taken, but held out for bigger wt buck. On the first evening a hunter harvested a beautiful 11 point around 140" out of stand 4. I took a spike WT on day 2, but deer traffic started to decline down by the river. Moved to stand #6 on the last sit of the hunt (the rain was pretty heavy on the last day) and had 2 nice WT bucks come through. The bigger buck did not offer a shot. The second buck was chasing a doe and disappeared in the thick mesquites. I watch the doe for about an hour and she bedded under some trees to wait out the rain. about 2 hours later the doe stood up and about 100 yards back in the brush I could see a nice 8 point get up and shake the water off. I was able to get on him quick and got a shot off. He ran about 30 yards inside the cover and I saw him fall. Pulled it off with about 30 minutes left in hunt. During entire hunt did not see any axis (except the first day driving thru camp ground) which was disappointing, but due to the success of previous hunt not unexpected. All together hunters got 5 rack bucks, 2 wt spikes, around 8 does in addition the the 3 axis. The park staff and volunteers were awesome! Would love to her an opportunity to go back again. I have a few pics if someone would like to post.

Posting these for BlacktailSlayer. Looks like they had a heck of a hunt!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toomuchsun]

Here is what I would recommend for both a budget "hunting bike" and a setup if $ budget isnt a concern.

Budget option: If you don't have a bike already, look for a used mountain bike on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and look for a used bike trailer. You can find them used for $50-75 most times and they work well. You can either get the trailers you see parents pulling their kids around in or trailers that look more like a cart. Put slime or some other tire sealant in the tires of the trailer and the bike so you dont have to worry as much about flat tires. You can also find new bike trailers online for $100-125 and up. You can also take a game cart and fabricate a connecting arm to the seat post of your bike (several options!)

More expensive setup: Get a fat tire bike- You can find them for $400 and up. If you really want to get fancy, look at an EBike or Electric assist bike setup. They are now legal on most public hunting properties in Texas. You can get a tow behind cart and rear rack and with the electric assist, you can easily go 15-25 MPH.

If you are going to use the bike setup at a place like Granger, definitely put sealant in the tires and bring extra tubes. Every single time I have taken my bike hunting at Granger, I picked up mesquite thorns in the tires.

Good luck!

Thanks. I have a fairly nice mid grade DiamondBack and installed a rack for fishing gear already. I wondered if the kiddy or dog carts would work to haul an animal. Thanks for the input. Once I replace a tube I buy the heavy dutys with slime in them. It works. Mine are still original so no extra protection. Good hunts to ya.