National Refuge General Deer - Trinity River NWR (Brierwood)

[C-dubyah]

Has anyone ever hunted Trinity River NWR or this particular hunt? Any details would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Rivershack21]

Never hunted there but grew up about ten miles from it. It’s going to be lots of hogs and should be lots of deer in there. It’s really close to the trinity river so it will be wet more than likely.
What days did you draw.
My son and I draw the 11/20 thru 11/28. Not for sure if we are hunting it or not

[thisisbeer]

I've hunted Brierwood twice. If you google around you may be able to find some threads on it. I'm on a few myself. Pretty much it's covered up with pigs. I haven't heard of anyone taking a deer in there the last two years. I've seen one deer and next to zero deer sign. I feel like the hogs have ran the deer out. The most deer sign I've seen was actually within 50 yards of the entrance.

I've seen the majority of hogs in the back half. There was an old corn feeder on private land a couple of years ago but it looked rusted out the last I saw it. It was all the way in the back.

The pigs are fearless and it's pretty easy to get within 75ish yards by just walking up to them. When I was there both years the underbrush was thin and you could set up and actually see quite a way through most of the trees. If it's empty my method of choice would definitely still hunting. Get on the trails and move quiet and slow. You can cover a lot of the place this way.

[C-dubyah]

Rivershack21, we have it from 11/6 thru 11/13. I will let you know how it looks and try not to mess things up out there.

thisisbeer, thanks for the info. It sounds like in the beginning I will go quiet and slow to scout the area while hunting and then move to still hunting.

I like the taste of pigs too! oink oink baby!

[ppeeks59]

Wondering how anyone's been doing ...

[Rivershack21]

We ended up not hunting it. It’s been a really hard year and so much stuff has happen this deer season. Kinda want a redo on it but hey. We have to play the hand we are dealt

[Josha6783]

I drew the rifle hunt this November, 5th I believe. Anyone going? I'll be solo. Hoping to find a good safe camping spot, lol. Saw a previous post about sketchy camping. Also contemplating if this hunt is even worth it. If I don't hear anything, I'll definitely head up and give it hell. But my backup plan is to head up to Lake Meredith if this doesn't look to well. Or even standby hunt the Aransas NWR where home is.

[C-dubyah]

My experience last year is that 3 of us went hunting for 3-4 days and we hunted Brierwood hard. The first evening I saw 2 does but did not get a shot. Other than that, we didn't see much of anything. There is a lot of sign but that's it. All 3 of us sat tight and patiently hunted with no success. I would try it again but I live fairly close to the area. I would not drive a long distance to hunt here. If you have other options then I would probably look at your other options first.

[Static1968]

Was on the Muzzleloader hunt last year in Brierwood and Hunted 5 Days until the flood ran me out. Seen 1 Doe and 1 Hog the first Day and nothing after that. I was about 1.3 miles in on the left trail. It started getting very wet and muddy and that was as far as I could comfortably get to. I had plans of going all the way to the back but never made it.

[Josha6783]

My experience last year is that 3 of us went hunting for 3-4 days and we hunted Brierwood hard. The first evening I saw 2 does but did not get a shot. Other than that, we didn't see much of anything. There is a lot of sign but that's it. All 3 of us sat tight and patiently hunted with no success. I would try it again but I live fairly close to the area. I would not drive a long distance to hunt here. If you have other options then I would probably look at your other options first.

Thanks for the reply. Was that 3 of you total on the property or in your party?

[Josha6783]

Was on the Muzzleloader hunt last year in Brierwood and Hunted 5 Days until the flood ran me out. Seen 1 Doe and 1 Hog the first Day and nothing after that. I was about 1.3 miles in on the left trail. It started getting very wet and muddy and that was as far as I could comfortably get to. I had plans of going all the way to the back but never made it.

Sounds pretty rough, not good. If there are very few people, that would be encouraging to me. I will have to see myself to be able to write it off or not.

[C-dubyah]

Thanks for the reply. Was that 3 of you total on the property or in your party?

It was 3 in my party. We did not see another person out there the entire time we were hunting, which was nice. Find a nice stick at the edge of the parking area before walking down the trails, there is a big spider/web about every 10 steps. Also watch for snakes, I stepped on a decent size copperhead.

[Static1968]

Sounds pretty rough, not good. If there are very few people, that would be encouraging to me. I will have to see myself to be able to write it off or not.

During my Hunts there was never more than 3 cars in the parking area. Muzzleloader started on a Monday. I hunted Monday, Tuesday and Wed. Then came back Friday and Sat. First Morning I seen 1 Hunter walking the woods maybe 200 yards from my stand. The 2nd day I had a man and a woman pretty much stalk dead in on me to within 70 yards around 9 AM . They never knew I was there til I started getting down out of the tripod since I knew my hunt was screwed. It may be different numbers in the woods for the Bow and Rifle Hunts, but I pretty much had my area to myself most of my hunts. I also never seen the Game Warden when I was there. Good luck on your hunt. Looking forward to hearing how the hunt is for you.

[Josha6783]

Thank you. I bet rifle would be the most "crowded" of the hunts, but doesn't sound too bad.

[jbkt]

Hunted it a bit this year for archery. As said, there are a lot of pigs but there are deer there. Best opportunity will be a doe. Take advantage of the scouting window and I think you can find a good place to set up for an opportunity. Have seen state and federal wardens and not many other hunters, so I would encourage you to go out and give it the old college try.