First year hunting in this area how is it? My lease is in jean between Graham and Olney. Lots of hogs but not many deer on camera so far..

Tough area Amigo, Nocturnal hard to hold and close to the Metromess. Made a failed attempt but had a group of Kids that didn't know there A** from a hole in the ground. I will stick with my Edwards County. But on a bright side
Good yotes and Hogs, seen some good deer out of that area.
Good Luck

Yes lots of yotes for sure. They have killed some nice deer off the place, I guess the population isn't as high as I had hoped for.

Agree with Sniper's assessment. Positives are close to metromess, abundant coyotes and predators, pretty decent dove hunting; cons are lots of nocturnal activity and obviously hunting pressure due to metromess proximity. Every year, some very nice bucks come out of the county for those fortunate ones. I highly recommend hunting extensively in mid-late archery season and the first week or two of rifle season. For six years, have seen the most and nicest bucks during that timeframe and sometimes not at night...

Words of wisdom above^^^ and for the record...Good Luck Sir, did not mean to be negative on a bad experience.. Have Fun Amigo, watch that Rut.

I had a lease 3 miles S. of Graham for 6 years. The first year we didn't see a single deer, a few on game cam but none seen from the blinds. Granted we were too close to town and the land owner was a real dufus. The last year we were there the foreman was plowing a field in front of one of our blinds opening weekend of deer season. Lots of turkey but the deer were scares.

Good luck.

hunted a few miles SW of Jean (off Ward Rd) for many years....had to move to a county with greater density as my son started going with me and I wanted to be in a place we could see lots of deer on almost every hunt.

I'm in agreement with the above....not a lot of deer, but there are some real good ones...they go nocturnal at the slightest pressure so be careful...tons of hogs & varmits.

I agree on watching the rut and hunting opening week end. Worked that area for years and there's some big deer there.

Tough county, most deer are nocturnal. Might get lucky during rut.

Sounds like it is going to be some tough hunting! I'm throwing corn, golden nuggets and feeding protein with mineral blocks put out all in my area. Once they find it I'm pretty sure they will stick around but you never know.

Young County is good area to hunt. Used to hunt in the Murray area which is about 20 minutes from Graham and close to Woodson and Throckmorton county. Used to see lots of deer but really just depends on where you hunt and how much it has been hunted in the past.

Cory, shoot me a text. I hunt around Graham. These past couple of years have been slow. All ive seen are coyotes and 1-2 year old young bucks. Every year there seems to be a new batch of young bucks. I think some of the people around just shoot any deer they see. Kinda sad that its this away. Such a shame. But I keep putting corn out to fatten up the raccoons.. and just hoping that a mature deer walks out.

Just like almost any county within 2 hours of a major city there ain't a low population or nocturnal deer problem in Young county.
There is a hunter problem, small acreage & high hunter density.
Deer ain't stupid, they come out after the human activity decreases or go where there is less activity or move to areas where the deer consider the amount of human activity normal.

I've seen 7 whitetail bucks & 4 doe and 2 red deer cows since 3 pm today in broad daylight, of course they're used to my activity and consider it normal.
Nevermind, you're right, aint no deer in Young county and the few that are around only come out at night.

I've been hunting Young County for past 18-years at same lease. We have no problem seeing deer during the daylight hours. And from Arlington, it takes me 1.5 hours to the front gate of the ranch. And as you can see from timestamp, most are during midday.

We hunt in Northwest Young County . Feeding year round golden nugget & corn so we have had pretty good results so far.

Best of Luck to ya !

Like the wide boy on the bottom. Very nice.

Thanks 4Weight ,

Here are our latest pics from Young County .

If you put in the effort and feed them what the need , they will not be nocturnal all the time !

We hunted a place just outside of New Castle a couple of years. Poachers and nocturnal deer. Oh it August and early September we had plenty of daylight pics of nice deer. Come second week of archery, nothing.

I'm going to check my cameras on the 16th. I will an update if I have any progress!

Update,

Most of you probably saw the double drop tine buck I posted. things have really picked up on the cameras now averaging about 450 pics per feeder a week. Mainly at night, but showing promise that there are a lot more deer in the area then I had assumed. Headed back on the 6th so we will see what I got going on then!

Good deal!!!

I've hunted Young county north of Loving for (this will be the 7th year). I love the place. Only 100 acres but I average seeing 10-15 deer per hunt and have taken a buck every year but one. My son has also taken a buck most years (a couple he wanted does). I also have a place in Jack County over by Bryson. Now THAT is where they are really nocturnal. Not as bad at my place in Young (IMO). The Jack County place is 240 acres but I see far more deer on the place in Young County..and bobcats, and yotes, and hogs, and turkey (though my turkey have some sort of sensor - when it gets to be deer season, they get gone - every dang year). My best on the Young County place so far is a 130 class 10 pointer. Not a monster by most peoples reckoning but for a small family year round place, I'll take it.

I had a lease in young county for 2 years, and as soon as hunting season opened the deer would go nocturnal. It didn't help that half the hunters on the lease rode their loud ATV's to their stands in the morning because they were too lazy to walk.

Also, we had a real bad coyote problem, which no one else on the lease was interested in helping to control.


If given the chance, I would get another lease in Young County. But I would be more selective of the people I would allow on the lease.

Had a place for 5 years by Woodson. Took some very nice bucks, hogs, turkey, and Yotes. IMO you need at least 1000 acres to hunt and control to get consistent results.