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The 2018 Hunting Thread


Bert Orange

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Woohoo!  Just found out I am getting to take the family to NE Texas this weekens for some family hunting.  Anyone here familiar with Talley Bottoms, off the Sabine River?  My stomping grounds growing up...not a ton of deer, but the chance for a monster is real!  

Prime time - all the bucks running around trying to get their dicks wet.  Here’s to hoping a moss-head makes that crucial mistake.

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Will finally get to sit  in a blind this weekend and next.  We are MLD III  but have not been able to cross the Frio to get to our place due to water depth at our low water crossing. There is a back way to get in but that meant coming in from a different county and across a large farm's cattle alleys.  It has been raining locally and that meant 9 miles of knee-deep or higher mud.  Even the farmer wasn't taking out his gigantic tractors on soft tracks because they were sinking.  We did get in 2 weekends ago to finally load feeders and we did get the helicopter survey done.

The water is still up too far to cross and our drive ramp is torn out.  The bulldozer is there waiting to rebuild once the water is down.  The water level, after initial 20' depth, was running at 5-7 feet but now down to 1 - 2 feet.  

Our season started in early October and we have tags for 60 doe and 15 bucks. Nary a shot has been torched off to date.  Gonna  be some bullets flying this weekend.

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Headed to Oklahoma to hunt Thursday to Sunday. Owner of the company I work for has a place 45 min north of Tulsa. Unsure what we will be able to kill besides brain cells.

Was low of 17 there today but this weekend will be in the 50s.

Excited to get out and about.

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1 hour ago, huge said:

Headed to Oklahoma to hunt Thursday to Sunday. Owner of the company I work for has a place 45 min north of Tulsa. Unsure what we will be able to kill besides brain cells.

Was low of 17 there today but this weekend will be in the 50s.

Excited to get out and about.

Oklahoma has some amazing animals.  And a shit ton of pigs.  You should have a good time either way.  

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Will finally get to sit  in a blind this weekend and next.  We are MLD III  but have not been able to cross the Frio to get to our place due to water depth at our low water crossing. There is a back way to get in but that meant coming in from a different county and across a large farm's cattle alleys.  It has been raining locally and that meant 9 miles of knee-deep or higher mud.  Even the farmer wasn't taking out his gigantic tractors on soft tracks because they were sinking.  We did get in 2 weekends ago to finally load feeders and we did get the helicopter survey done.
The water is still up too far to cross and our drive ramp is torn out.  The bulldozer is there waiting to rebuild once the water is down.  The water level, after initial 20' depth, was running at 5-7 feet but now down to 1 - 2 feet.  
Our season started in early October and we have tags for 60 doe and 15 bucks. Nary a shot has been torched off to date.  Gonna  be some bullets flying this weekend.
Have gun/crossbow.....will travel.
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Just got back from the panhandle. Deer moved good, except afternoon before and thru the snow until the following day. They just all shut down. Which was opposite than what I expected. Shot this 8 on the last day down in a canyon with no roads. Sorry for the blood we didnt clean him up before we had to pack him out. Had infected puncture wound on his ear, infected leg wound, infected puncture wound on his jaw which was also dislocated. He had several spots on his rack that appeared to be worn down like he was locked up with another buck for some time.
Tough old dude was running a doe still after all that.
f051b8c7a8e84fde7a1c96e62d55d2e7.jpg

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On 11/13/2018 at 12:07 PM, Izhmash said:

Woohoo!  Just found out I am getting to take the family to NE Texas this weekens for some family hunting.  Anyone here familiar with Talley Bottoms, off the Sabine River?  My stomping grounds growing up...not a ton of deer, but the chance for a monster is real!  

Prime time - all the bucks running around trying to get their dicks wet.  Here’s to hoping a moss-head makes that crucial mistake.

I shot a lot of deer in Talley Bottoms about 35 years ago.  Great place.  Killed lots of ducks there also.  

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I know a lot of folks bow hunt down there on land owned by a certain company. No rifle hunting allowed, and you pretty much have to wait for someone to retire to get their spot. I don't bow hunt, so that's about all I know about it. Sitting in a blind in some East Texas bottomland brush right now with only a narrow strip in either direction of visibility. Nothing so far, but it's about time for them to come out.

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I put a friend onto one of my target bucks this morning, I have pics of him going back to 2016, aged at 6 this year:

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Tomorrow morning I’ll go out for myself, saw a ton of bucks today, really a great year at our place. Protein and food plotting regimen really showing results after 3-4 years.

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I always enjoy your yearly posts from the panhandle. My folks just 30 miles west of the ranch caught 4 inches of snow while you were out there. Did you guys stick to Alanreed or head in to McLean now that it’s wet?

We stayed on the ranch the entire time. Roads did get messy after the snow melted.
You ever eaten at Red River Steakhouse in McLean? Pretty good eats and the atmosphere is old school small town. Slower paced and the live singing is great.
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On 11/8/2018 at 11:01 AM, cab948 said:

Had a great opening weekend down at the ranch in Victoria.  Opening morning got to take a unique buck I was chasing.  Came out at around 9:30 am to about 75 yards away.  Took a few moments to admire him.  Attempted to get organized in the stand and he high tailed it after a couple of does.   Finally stopped and presented a shot at about 150 yards.  Ran about 20 yards and dropped in the brush.   The tine ended up measuring out 12 3/8"

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Got my buddy on a large mature 8 Saturday afternoon that ended up being his biggest buck to date.  That next morning my dad tagged a 14 pt buck.  Wasn't a great buck score wise, but he was just an old buck with a bunch of points.  Still waiting on him to send over a few pictures from his phone of that one.  No hogs to shoot which was unusual but all in all an awesome weekend with great company.  

Great buck! 

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On 11/17/2018 at 7:02 PM, 686 said:

I put a friend onto one of my target bucks this morning, I have pics of him going back to 2016, aged at 6 this year:

876af73fdcf53582731d811ce038b003.jpg

6f4367434c94e74191b62a65247a2e92.jpg

Tomorrow morning I’ll go out for myself, saw a ton of bucks today, really a great year at our place. Protein and food plotting regimen really showing results after 3-4 years.

Just got a pic from one of my younger hunters we lease to.  BIG 8.  I think I love that as much as pulling the trigger myself.  

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On 11/13/2018 at 12:07 PM, Izhmash said:

Woohoo!  Just found out I am getting to take the family to NE Texas this weekens for some family hunting.  Anyone here familiar with Talley Bottoms, off the Sabine River?  My stomping grounds growing up...not a ton of deer, but the chance for a monster is real!  

Prime time - all the bucks running around trying to get their dicks wet.  Here’s to hoping a moss-head makes that crucial mistake.

Tally Bottoms bears fruit.  What a hunt!!  This guy couldn't resist the 5 does in the field....he just had to check'em out.  Best mainframe 8 I've ever seen (in the field).  The G2 splits really drew me in....   He's my 3 generation buck, as I got the opportunity to take him while hunting with my dad and my son.  Great, memorable moment for the family.

imgur

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Some pics from the past week or so at my place.  This guy is interesting - only one horn and it's odd as hell.  I think I'd shoot him if I see him.

old-one-horn.jpg

Two bucks, one good 8 pointer

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Another nice one, big buff body

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Raccoon saying "come at me, bro!"   Have some pics of the same one sliding down the legs of the feeder.  

coon-fight.jpg

Glad I got the camera - I stay out at the house there over weekends, but a lot of stuff happens when you're not looking.

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2 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

Pulled the SD cards in the game cameras for the first time two weeks ago.  Seeming some good activity, but no shooter whitetails.  Been so busy working (at home and at the ranch) to spend much time hunting.  Hoping that changes over the holidays.

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That younger looking 10 in the second pic has promise.  

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14 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

That younger looking 10 in the second pic has promise.  

Agreed.  He's actually an 11.  There's a little kicker on his left G2.  I'm far from an expert, but I aged him at 3-1/2.  Even on the game cams, I haven't seen anything better than that and I haven't noticed any older deer either.  The biggest axis I saw was actually dead on the side of the road about 100 yds past our gate this spring.  There's a few passing through there, but haven't seen any trophies on that front either.  We have a fair amount of pigs, and they've been fun for the kids to shoot this fall.

We just bought the place in January.  Low fence west of Junction.  So, I'm not banking on any B&C quality deer, but it will be awesome to try to manage them in the coming years to see what we can get.  I'd be ecstatic with a decent 5-1/2 YO 10 pointer every couple of years for my son or daughter to shoot.  We fed protein April - August and will do so a bit earlier in the coming years.  Also hoping to get a food plot down next year or the year after.  It's just fun to get out there.  Good deer would be icing on the cake.  

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