Trinity River NWR draw hunt

[ppeeks59]

Acorns

So I shot this buck up in Jack County two weeks ago, and we had the hardest time patterning them for the same reason -- the ground is literally carpeted with acorns everywhere we went. There were 6 feeders on the ranch, and underneath each one was a pile of uneaten corn. Neither the deer nor the pigs, for that matter, have any need for corn when they have a virtually unlimited supply of acorns. Upon post-butchering inspection, the buck's belly was FULL of acorns.

[ppeeks59]

Took another walk in Brierwood Unit. The ground is a bit drier than last time, which helps differentiate new hog damaged ground from older hog damaged ground. Once again, though, the extent and amount of hog ground damage is hard to really comprehend -- it is basically everywhere to lesser or greater extent. Some areas look like they were hit with waves of mortar shells. Other places look like someone drove a tiller through. Oddly, I didn't see a single pig, though it was daylight so that's not totally unexpected. I saw one raccoon and a bunch of birds, and heard woodpeckers everywhere, that was it.

[thisisbeer]

I saw most of the pigs 1 hour after/before sunset/sunrise. The number of squirrels in that place amazed me too. They do a squirrel draw. I didn't put in for the squirrel draw because a $130 (or $80?) permit seemed unnecessary for me. But with the amount of squirrels I saw I'll put in for it next year with my son. That would be a fun time and the hunt I believe is a few weeks of access.

[ppeeks59]

Right -- loads of squirrels, too. Anything that eats acorns is going to be in there, in big numbers.

[Southernboy]

Pretty good place to hunt from what I’ve seen. We were drew a few years ago and saw plenty just no shots.

[HuntorFish]

Anybody hunt boars den this year? Plan on checking it out tomorrow, mainly looking for hogs.

[ppeeks59]

I was one of three guys with muzzleloaders in Brierwood yesterday. No shots taken by anyone. Squirrels, raccoons, muskrat seen, but the place seems deserted by all large quadrupeds. Walking out after dark I didn't even hear any hogs, and saw no eyes with my light scanning into the dark woods. It is VERY VERY WET in there, high boots are absolutely required; crossing some flowing drainages is unavoidable, and it is just easier to slog through the muddy water than to go around it in almost all places. This morning I spoke with two other guys who drove here from Virginia to hunt another nearby private property owned by a friend of theirs, and in five days they managed to shoot exactly one pig, and saw only a few deer at too-long range through the woods. Their friend says that the incredible acorn mast this fall has definitely screwed up the hunting in that area.

[tx_basser]

I hunted Brierwood the first 3 days it opened along with a couple of other guys earlier in the week. It was a hard place to hunt for sure, mud, standing water, looking for sign, animals, etc.

Deer were far and few between. A few does were seen but no bucks. Lots of pig sign but seeing them seemed to be hit/miss. I killed a large boar, and two guys from S. Texas killed one each also.

Dont know if i will apply again, but I think the place gets allot of unauthorized pressure from the locals throughout the year. Also since it is old growth river bottom, there is not allot of thick places for animals to hide/bed.

Here is a video of the one I shot.

https://youtu.be/l20oSFKXqDI

[HuntorFish]

Great day in boars den today. Ended up with three hogs. Saw 40-50 of them. Actually still working on packing the last one out. Only saw three deer way off. Not quite sure how to rotate photos.

[ppeeks59]

Nice! That looks A LOT drier than in Brierwood. Is that generally true of the Boars Den unit?

[HuntorFish]

No idea it was the first time I have been out there. I was the only one there all day so had the whole 2,000 acres to myself. There was standing water and some mud in places but was no issue for just rubber boots. I only explored like a third of the unit.

[ppeeks59]

Brierwood is standing water and mud pretty much everywhere that I went, and I put my stand in a tree almost two miles in from the parking area. I'll hunt one more session this weekend and then pull my gear out as the season ends Sunday. There was standing water just a few feet from my tree last weekend. With this week's rain and what's coming in overnight tonight, it will not surprise me one bit if my tree has water around it's base. I won't be too happy if that's the case. The whole area was pretty dry on Christmas Day when I went scouting.

[ppeeks59]

Season over, here's my post mortem on Brierwood. It is a good big area. I scouted two days and hunted two days. I saw five bucks (two legal) and zero does, zero hogs, despite hog-damaged ground literally everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE, you cannot get away from it. Initially I thought it was a hard area to hunt, but I actually don't think that now. It is physically challenging because there is so much mud and standing water, but the hunting itself is actually pretty easy -- you can see forever, no need to search for shooting lanes, you can climb just about every tree in there. The first shooter buck was very big but I jumped him on the first scouting day. The second shooter buck was seen on the second scouting day, walking with a narrow buck and a button buck, the three together. I saw nothing but squirrels on my first hunt day.
Today, the last day of the muzzleloader season, I saw what I figure was a 2.5 year buck that dropped its horns in the last couple of days. I think I could have taken this one as an "antlerless" deer, but I'm really not sure. at 70 yds I thought he was a she, and I almost took the shot. But he turned towards me and then I could see the bases sticking out of his head -- so does that make him legal to take as antlerless, when he probably wasn't a legal buck a couple of days ago? Anyway, I don't feel bad about not taking the easy shot when he got within 50 yds -- I was really only looking for a doe or a pig, and saw neither. There are some bedding areas in Brierwood, but you really need to put in the search time to find them. All five of the bucks I saw on three different days were heading to the same basic area for their daytime siestas. I'll probably put in for this drawn hunt again.