cooperjd
Well-known member
I don't have a lot of time to go into the details of the trip at the moment, have a lot of work to catch up on. but here's the basic story...
it was actually a fairly disappointing hunt, unfortunately. the food was good, but my last meal was a tag samwich, and that tasted pretty awful. to be fair, i did have a 138-140" 8 point in bow range on the 5th morning, he stepped out from a thicket at about 20 yards and saw me turn my head to look at him. he got nervous and went around behind me, i made my draw when he as behind some trees but he had me pegged, and when he hit the clearing and i gave the little "maa" to stop him, he took off running. the 6th morning i had a 130ish deer come in (this place has a 140" minimum) that i would have shot anyway, but he came in directly behind some trees and directly downwind of me, so needless to say, there was no shot at him.
other than that the closest i got to a nice deer was about 700 yards.
dad only saw one buck within a quarter mile, a small 6 point. he did see 2 decent mule deer, but they were far far away.
now i don't want to sound totally negative, i saw tons of deer, mostly does, and several small bucks. i saw deer activity that i've never seen before, i had a buck coming in grunting at me (i snort wheezed and grunted when a spike blew at me, this deer came in directly after)
i watched 2 young bucks spar and fight all around me for an hour. heard one of them snort wheeze at the other, never heard that before in the woods. watched a nice young 8pt work a scrape.
the bad part about the hunt was just the poor planning and imo laziness of the guide. he had 3 hunters in camp, 4300 acres leased, and 4 deer stands.
2 ladders and 2 ground blinds. at my request he put up a 5th, but he didn't put it where i asked him to. Dad had to ask him to move the ground blind for him, when he moved it Dad had deer all around him, but no bucks. the 3rd guy in camp, Doc Randy from Lubbock, also had to request his stand be moved, because all the deer were too far away for a bow shot. it seemed to us that he just watched deer in the fields for a couple days, and quickly put up stands where he thought the deer might be traveling. i dont' think he scouted at all. (i'm actually pretty sure of this due to some statements he made). the excuse i kept getting was, well, your too early for the rut, next week woulda been better.
anyway, i dont' feel like he worked very hard as a guide, i feel like the planning and preseason scouting was almost nonexistent. but it was a good time spent with pops, and a great time away from work. it snowed, it was cold, the weather was pretty good for hunting, its windy out there but the deer are use to that. i saw deer feeding out in the field in 20-30 mph winds. thats definitely something you don't see back home. i'll get my journal notes together and post them later. and hopefully some of the video i took i can upload to youtube or something. i got some pretty good footage of some small bucks fighting and sparring around.
it was actually a fairly disappointing hunt, unfortunately. the food was good, but my last meal was a tag samwich, and that tasted pretty awful. to be fair, i did have a 138-140" 8 point in bow range on the 5th morning, he stepped out from a thicket at about 20 yards and saw me turn my head to look at him. he got nervous and went around behind me, i made my draw when he as behind some trees but he had me pegged, and when he hit the clearing and i gave the little "maa" to stop him, he took off running. the 6th morning i had a 130ish deer come in (this place has a 140" minimum) that i would have shot anyway, but he came in directly behind some trees and directly downwind of me, so needless to say, there was no shot at him.
other than that the closest i got to a nice deer was about 700 yards.
dad only saw one buck within a quarter mile, a small 6 point. he did see 2 decent mule deer, but they were far far away.
now i don't want to sound totally negative, i saw tons of deer, mostly does, and several small bucks. i saw deer activity that i've never seen before, i had a buck coming in grunting at me (i snort wheezed and grunted when a spike blew at me, this deer came in directly after)
i watched 2 young bucks spar and fight all around me for an hour. heard one of them snort wheeze at the other, never heard that before in the woods. watched a nice young 8pt work a scrape.
the bad part about the hunt was just the poor planning and imo laziness of the guide. he had 3 hunters in camp, 4300 acres leased, and 4 deer stands.
2 ladders and 2 ground blinds. at my request he put up a 5th, but he didn't put it where i asked him to. Dad had to ask him to move the ground blind for him, when he moved it Dad had deer all around him, but no bucks. the 3rd guy in camp, Doc Randy from Lubbock, also had to request his stand be moved, because all the deer were too far away for a bow shot. it seemed to us that he just watched deer in the fields for a couple days, and quickly put up stands where he thought the deer might be traveling. i dont' think he scouted at all. (i'm actually pretty sure of this due to some statements he made). the excuse i kept getting was, well, your too early for the rut, next week woulda been better.
anyway, i dont' feel like he worked very hard as a guide, i feel like the planning and preseason scouting was almost nonexistent. but it was a good time spent with pops, and a great time away from work. it snowed, it was cold, the weather was pretty good for hunting, its windy out there but the deer are use to that. i saw deer feeding out in the field in 20-30 mph winds. thats definitely something you don't see back home. i'll get my journal notes together and post them later. and hopefully some of the video i took i can upload to youtube or something. i got some pretty good footage of some small bucks fighting and sparring around.
