After 2-yr. lull, I finally get a deer....

[Eleanors38]

Last Friday, I finally took a nice buck in Coryell County, Texas. I had to move from two previous posts due to changing wind direction. Finally got a decent spot overlooking an intersection of jeep trails and oak mott. There I enjoyed the golden early evening light and many monarch butterflies, after spooking at least three deer in the process. But the rut is a forgiving time for clumsy retirees. With less than 30 mins. left of legal light, I caught movement over my "off side," which turned out to be a nice doe. My intent was to shoot her, but she wove through brush and trees and went out of sight before I could maneuver around and get a brace on the oak I was sitting against. I kept my eye on where she first emerged, and sure enough, a legal buck slowly revealed himself.

I got a sight picture, but the buck was single-mindedly dogging her same path. Then he stopped. He never turned his head, toward me or anything else. Somewhere ahead and out of sight, he was fixed on that doe who probably was sniffing out my old scent trail along the jeep lane before signaling to the buck all was OK. Most of his body was obstructed by brush, save for the front quarters and antlers. I just managed to get the cross-hairs over his right lower shoulder as he stood transfixed on the invisible doe. At the shot, he leapt backwards and disappeared. The only movement was the re-emerging doe who flashed into the open, then back into brush.

I was somewhat confident of my 100 yd. shot through the little "tunnel" I had for visuals, so immediately struggled up, grabbed my pack, and traced a bee-line for where I last saw him. Sure enough, he lay on his side only a few feet from where he once stood, with a lung through-and-through. He trembled his last, and I thanked him and bade him farewell. Then the work began. A week later after red neck aging in the ice chests, I finally had him boned out and dropped off at Hudson's Processing in the heart of hep-cat South Austin. God, I think this may be the last kitchen sink de-boning job I do! But 52 pounds of sweet, solid, well-trimmed meat will be returned as breakfast sausage, burger, link sausage, ham steaks, etc. It's a relief in many ways.

Happy hunting to all of you who deal with eating straight up.

[petronius]

1. Congratulations! glad your hunt was successful (and your freezer is stocked)...

[Eleanors38]

2. Thanks. The work is getting to me, though!

[ManiacJoe]

3. Being the nice guy that I am,

I am happy to volunteer some freezer space.
However, I cannot be held responsible for any mysterious disappearances that might happen.

Congrats on a good hunt.

[Eleanors38]

4. Thanks! Heading to Uvalde County this month to go for another.

[RedWedge]

5. Congratulations! Tag soup for me again this year.

Loved every minute of it, though. Best time of the year.

[Eleanors38]

6. I loved seeing the beleagured Monarch buterflies flitting about..

A fox, which stirred up an "illegal" white tail, then emerged from heavy brush with his/her mate, off for a hunt. And even a half-dozen goat that caused me to find another post to hunt at. They got loose from the cattle leasor's daughter, and require a special dog or two, and the herder's knowledge to get 'em rounded up again! Needless to say, they beasts have taken up residence.

[RedWedge]

7. White weasels and plenty of songbirds here, along with the does who were safe because

I didn't put in for an antlerless permit this year. I know the ones I saw, though, and they're good mamas. They can keep on keeping on.

[Eleanors38]

8. Texas has encouraged the taking of does so as to suppress populations...

of deer, and it seems to have a positive effect, here. The question is: which does are preferable for achieving this goal? Some argue older more mature "trophy" does, as they are by their very presence survivors, and most likely to produce the most offspring. In a peculiar way, this dovetails with the thinking about taking bucks: The bigger the trophy, the better. But that is a surface similarity. Taking "trophy" bucks near the end of reproductive life seems to prevent in some measure the negatives of consuming large amounts of vegetationn before gracelessly starving to death. But does reproduce till they die. This ability to pass on "survivor" genes until the last weeks of life causes me to wonder if the policy needs better thinking. Taking younger does means you are per force taking deer with unknown genes as you favor the older survivor's prgenes. And therein is the problem.


Antler restrictions exist in most Texas counties because head hardware is easier to theorize about.

Edit: White weasels. Where do you live?

[RedWedge]

9. Arrowhead of Minnesota.

First day of the season it was 65 degrees; last day it was 25 and snow -- good for the weasels.

Always lots of opinions around shooting does. Our population has had a tough go of it the last few years with harsh winters and lots of wolves, but there are definitely pockets of overpopulation.

[Eleanors38]

10. Jeez, the temp will plunge there in a few days! It is finally turning chilly in

Central Texas, with Lotta rain this wk end. May get a chance to hunt again next week end, temps chilly and dry. Another deer will cram the ice chest!

[RedWedge]

11. We had a ridiculously warm November, second-warmest on record IIRC. Nothing was moving those

first few days, as you can imagine. And after the cold temps moved out at the end, we've had another two weeks of 40-50 and rain. While helpful for those of us who are lagging behind on our winter prep (ahem), it's hard on the animals and the woods. Good luck if you go out again -- I envy you your long season!

[meathead]

12. I work with a TPWD biologist on my MLD3 lease

She has us shooting 2.5 year and older does on our lease in Newton. The science is that older does have higher incidences of birth defects and the offspring have higher mortality rates. That matches closely what I learned in genetic counseling when the wife and I had our own children. The odds of having a child with birth defects increases dramatically with age. Young mothers have a 1/750 chance of birth defect, a 40 year old mother has a 1/125 (off top of the head approximations).

We shoot bucks at 4.5 years or older. Our problem is with culling poor bucks. Our rules are so restrictive that it's safer to let them walk than risk wrath over culling a potentially good buck. I find it frustrating, but I guess so is watching mistake culls (i.e. good young bucks) being cleaned at the rack.

I've seen plenty of does and bucks like yours this season. But my freezer is full, so only a true trophy is going down. If my daughters hunt with me over winter break they can take a doe if they're inclined in.

Congrats on your successful hunts!

[Eleanors38]

13. Thanks! I have also read where taking older "trophy does" is preferred, but for different...

...reasons. The main one goes like this: They (like trophy bucks) are around for a reason. They are survivors, and are likely to produce off-spring for a long time (no menopause for them). Lately, I have seen fewer large does.

The buck I got in Uvalde Co. was by no means a trophy, but he had one large fork antler from a single pedicle (the other antler was a normal 4 point). This, according to L. LaRue (Ph.D.) is a genetic fault which is passed down generationally. It seems most other antler oddities are the result of injuries during velvet stage. So, I had no problem killing him after I got a good fix on his horns.

I wanted to take an axis, but couldn't get a clear shot. They roam freely through the Nueces Valley (the 200 acres I hunt lie a few hundred yds from the Nueces River; a veritable expressway for exotics and whitetail, and turkey.) Whitetails are still in the rut in early December. A hundred miles north, not so much.