Just got drawn for an archery deer hunt at the Walter Buck WMA, it's in Junction, TX adjacent to the South Llano River State Park. I was wondering if anyone who has been there has any tips for hunting that area, as in what's a good compartment to choose on the first day, or any tips about the game or terrain. The hunt is open to anterless/spike, unlimited exotics (axis I know are there for sure), feral hogs, and spanish goats. Any information on this area would be greatly appreciated, hopefully I'll have some good pictures to put up after mid october!

awesome congrats how did you apply for this hunt and goodluck theres plenty of animals up that way

It was years ago, and I doubt the deer have changed their habit much since then, but we had the best luck of any of the other hunters there, and we saw plenty of deer and three out of four of us scored and it was an archery hunt.

Don't remember the compartment but it was the one directly behind and to the east of the headquarters building on what I would say is the north east corner of the property.

Hunt the draws where the trails come down from the hills and empty into the river plain below.

They travel back and forth between bedding on the hills to feeding on that river bottom at night.

The only guy in our group that didn't score almost had a shot a big ten point, that came down the trail and was only 15 yards from his tripod, and the guy was at full draw waiting for the buck to continue down the trail and give hime the shot, but the deer looked down at the ground spotted the corn and stopped dead in his tracks and looked around and then threw his flag up and was gone!

Everything we shot was off trails and nothing shot coming to corn, so keep that in mind as they are trained and spooky from the pressure.

hope this helps a little, and have fun!

I hunted WB in '99, and would offer these thoughts from memory:
On a GDA hunt, be careful as the WT's are not large and it's easy to hit a smallish fork horned buck thinking it's a spike.
My deer lure scent tags & bait only served to funnel critters AWAY from them LOL...really think it was a wind / human scent problem from the box blind I was assigned.
1st Day Noon to Dark - I hunted as high as I could get and walked higher to the blinds - could see I-10 traffic 5 mile+ away so I guess I was at the far north edge of the Unit, no movement until almost dark and then saw mebbe a dozen at last shooting light, took an Axis doe out of a creaky tripod stand that got me up over the brush and killed my scent that was killing me in the swirling uphill & downhill wind out of an adjacent box blind, and got caught up in watching when I could have taken several more critters that froze at the shot.

Axis & WT's run together in mixed herds. The Axis bucks I glimpsed at last light 1st Day were at the back of the herd along with couple WT bucks.

2nd Day Volunteered to give up my Assigned Compartment as no one else had seen any Axis. Hunted an open box blind on a hillside in the AM when other "lost" non assigned hunters occupied the new Compartment and the blind I wanted to hunt - they killed 3 does & spikes, saw a nice 8pt WT couple times and filmed him doing his bird dog thing. He was wary but not spooked at my camera's mechanical film drive...prolly heard it many times before !
2nd Day PM Hunted the back of another new Compartment to get away from any non assigned hunters out of a box blind on the shoulder of a mesquite flat, saw some rubs in some adjacent mesquites, shot at and missed a smallish doe when the bullet blew up on some rocks in front of my bait - my bad bait placement was due to unfamiliarity with the height of the blind's shooting window, and the really small size of the doe, as I had dropped it on the hike in thinking I had a clear line of fire.
Saddled up and went home evening of 2nd Day.

The hilly roads were passable for my 2x4 street tire'd Suburban as it had not rained in several weeks... HOWEVER I saw lots of skid marks seen on bald exposed spots from wet weather driving on the hard packed clay roads. A 4x4 with Mud & Snows would be a much safer bet...especially one that is jacked up to clear some of the rocks on the uphill road sections that kept me from going where I needed to go.

My trip out the night of 1st Day was one of the scariest things I've ever down...wound up standing on the running board, door open, with the tranny locked in 1st gear, pumping the brakes and listening to the tires scrabble for footing & the rear end occasionaly falling off the road ... going 30*+ downhill for mebbe 1/4-1/2 mile in pitch black darkness. My old customized North Dallas fancy truck was NOT set up for the Hill Country for sure.

Field dressing is required in the field so be prepared to use a nearby tree. There is a nice screened in area with lights and a outdoor wash out rack at the Hunt HQ but not really a place to dump cleaning scraps.

I'D GO AGAIN IN A HEART BEAT AND NOT EVER BEEN ABLE TO GET DRAWN AGAIN !!!! But WHAT a great place to hunt, with good TP&W folks helping as much as possible. See my one of other recent posts too for a description of the game herd I encountered driving out of the adjacent South Llano River SP the nite of Day 1 about 10:30.
Ron