Chaparral 2019

[denowt]

How did y’all do?

[sqiggy]

How did y’all do?

Not to good!!
Everything was still green down there. Lot's of corn still on the ground, so they still have plenty to browse on. Trails are hard to hunt because they are freaking everywhere. Only doe I saw was on the last evening while driving back to the check in station. With the station within sight, she crossed!!!
Only seen 3 bucks while on stand. One was across the HF on the compartment west of me, so he don't count. All of them were legal to Chap's specs. Had a 10 at 20 yds on the 2nd evening, but he had short tines and maybe 15 inches wide. I had a huge 10 on camera at a 2nd spot that I was going to hunt the next morning, so I passed. The big 10 was a no show, but had another good buck cross in front of me at about 50 yds. I threw every call I had at him to try to bring him in closer, but he didn't want to play. That's all the deer I saw, except what was crossing the road in my headlights every evening while driving out. Deer sign was everywhere. Guess they were moving mostly at night.
Still had a good time and would go again in a heartbeat.

[denowt]

Not to good!!

Everything was still green down there. Lot's of corn still on the ground, so they still have plenty to browse on. Trails are hard to hunt because they are freaking everywhere. Only doe I saw was on the last evening while driving back to the check in station. With the station within sight, she crossed!!!

Only seen 3 bucks while on stand. One was across the HF on the compartment west of me, so he don't count. All of them were legal to Chap's specs. Had a 10 at 20 yds on the 2nd evening, but he had short tines and maybe 15 inches wide. I had a huge 10 on camera at a 2nd spot that I was going to hunt the next morning, so I passed. The big 10 was a no show, but had another good buck cross in front of me at about 50 yds. I threw every call I had at him to try to bring him in closer, but he didn't want to play. That's all the deer I saw, except what was crossing the road in my headlights every evening while driving out. Deer sign was everywhere. Guess they were moving mostly at night.

Still had a good time and would go again in a heartbeat.

I was lucky enough to get a 9pt on Thursday morning.
135 gross, personal overall best for me.

[SCREAMINREELS]

I was lucky enough to get a 9pt on Thursday morning.
135 gross, personal overall best for me.

Congrats, good luck to everybody hunting tomorrow. I look forward to meeting some of y'all. I'm headed into work now and will head straight there when I get off. I'll be staying at the primitive camp.

[Yakinthebox]

Anybody know if that buck turned in after the Friday morning hunt ended up getting ticketed? I felt bad for the guy. It was about 13.5" but the deer was definitely mature! They had called the game warden out but I took off before they arrived. Wished I had seen more but that's hunting. My grandmother passed away on Wednesday morning and her service was Saturday morning so I had to cut out early on Friday. Can't wait to go back some day.

[Fargus]

Anybody know if that buck turned in after the Friday morning hunt ended up getting ticketed? I felt bad for the guy. It was about 13.5" but the deer was definitely mature! They had called the game warden out but I took off before they arrived. Wished I had seen more but that's hunting. My grandmother passed away on Wednesday morning and her service was Saturday morning so I had to cut out early on Friday. Can't wait to go back some day.

I will ask tomorrow at orientation

[denowt]

Anybody know if that buck turned in after the Friday morning hunt ended up getting ticketed? I felt bad for the guy. It was about 13.5" but the deer was definitely mature! They had called the game warden out but I took off before they arrived. Wished I had seen more but that's hunting. My grandmother passed away on Wednesday morning and her service was Saturday morning so I had to cut out early on Friday. Can't wait to go back some day.

GW showed up while I was cleaning mine.
Whitney walked over to talk to him for several minutes, but I never noticed the GW get out of his truck.
Supposedly, it was going to be confiscated and donated to local food bank, but deer was hung in cooler with the hunters name on the tag.
When I grabbed my ice chest out of cooler after Friday evening hunt, the hunter was taking the deer out of cooler to clean/quarter.
It appeared that he was getting off with just a stern talking to.
Looks like it’s about the same as the nice 8pt with the broken brow tine that was shot during the management hunt.
If they don’t enforce the rules and make examples of wrong doers, it’ll just encourage the next hunter to ignore the rules and do as they wish.

[Yakinthebox]

I don't disagree but I do think it's nice to show grace sometimes. I don't think the guy intentionally poached an undersized buck.

[denowt]

Chaparral 2019

I don't disagree but I do think it's nice to show grace sometimes. I don't think the guy intentionally poached an undersized buck.

Could show grace by not issuing a citation.
IMO, intentions don’t come into play, 14” is 14”.
I had multiple bucks that were probably 14”, but too close to risk it.
I let them walk and shot one that was definitely outside the ears, ended up being 16.25” inside.

This one is at least a little more understandable.
The broken brow 8pt shot on the 7 or less point management hunt should’ve been confiscated and made an example of, not bragged about on Facebook.

While cleaning my deer, Whitney came over and talked with us for a while.
She told us about an 8pt that was shot during the youth antlerless/spike hunt.
The adult claimed they couldn’t make out the antlers and shot anyway.
She went to their spot to see their setup to determine if there was any truth to the excuse.
After she found trash everywhere in that location, she decided to throw the book at them. It sounded like they were going to be off the hook if they hadn’t left trash behind.

They don’t have to be buttholes, but they need to enforce the rules or don’t bother having them.
A few years back, when Steve was there, some guys got caught putting their names on multiple standby cards.
They were told to simply ‘fix the cards’ and nothing else.
They should’ve been shown the gate and banned for at least a year.
It was clearly announced that putting your name on multiple cards was not allowed, but since there was no punishment, they and others will simply try it again in the future.

[bullets13]

When I hunted there it was still 13 inches. Didn’t realize they moved it to 14. A guy in my group killed a pencil horn 8-point, looked to be 2.5 yo, and we put a tape to it and got 12 1/2 inches. They ended up letting it slide and calling it 3.5 yo and 13 inches even. It sounded like an honest mistake, but not one I could understand making. I honestly think he got let off because after be shot the buck and drug it onto the sendero, he immediately called in on himself. Then he popped his tire on the antler of the buck as he drove past it to load it up. I think that made them take pity on him. I don’t think I would’ve let him off if I’d been the warden, but I did gain some respect for him for doing the right thing and turning himself in without a second thought.

[denowt]

When I hunted there it was still 13 inches. Didn’t realize they moved it to 14. A guy in my group killed a pencil horn 8-point, looked to be 2.5 yo, and we put a tape to it and got 12 1/2 inches. They ended up letting it slide and calling it 3.5 yo and 13 inches even. It sounded like an honest mistake, but not one I could understand making. I honestly think he got let off because after be shot the buck and drug it onto the sendero, he immediately called in on himself. Then he popped his tire on the antler of the buck as he drove past it to load it up. I think that made them take pity on him. I don’t think I would’ve let him off if I’d been the warden, but I did gain some respect for him for doing the right thing and turning himself in without a second thought.

On a gun hunt, when the deer are at 100 yards, I can be a little more understanding.
But on an archery hunt, when the deer are within 50 yards, probably within 30yards, there’s no excuse to shoot an undersized buck.
But, I say again, if there’s no punishment, then people will continue to shoot questionable bucks.
In the past two weeks, there have been 2 bucks that I know of that we’re shot that should’ve walked with no consequences to the hunter.
It would not surprise me at all if the same thing happens again this week.

[SCREAMINREELS]

Gassed up and headed that way

[Yakinthebox]

Any updates?

[sqiggy]

Any updates?

They have a live thread going in the Campfire. Already one down!!!

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752133