How discouraging

I've been hunting a lot this year. I've only seen one mature buck and he was a mediocre 8 that I passed up. Now I'm kicking myself. I'm hunting 6000 acres with 3 other guys in Hays Co. There ought to be deer everywhere but many times I sit without seeing anything at all.

After the recent rains on Mon/Tues I walked many roads and trails looking for sign. No deer tracks. Just pigs and varmints.

Corn is piling up under one of my feeders. The rut is winding down and I'm afraid that if it doesn't happen soon, it won't happen at all.

I don't know about y'all but this is and has been my experience with hunting the Hill Country. It's either really good or really bad. Time to start looking at South Texas again.

Just got to keep trying!!!

You definitely have a lot of land might need a couple more people on there someone's bound to start seeing something

6k acres is alot of land. How bad is the range conditions? Talked to any of the locals to see if movement has been different this year compared to others? How long have you hunted this property?

Odd year for sure, in Blanco county just started seeing rut behavior pick up last weekend. I'd keep hunting and not get disappointed, yet.


First post ever using my iPhone while hunting.

I hunt just west of Kyle and have had minimal success. This has been a weird year for me, no does at the feeders and mostly young bucks, a few mature bucks but not many. That being said, both my son and I have taken one nice buck each this year.

Lot’s of increased pig activity as well here, seems that the pigs are getting most of the feed this year. I plan to keep hunting and hope that things turn around as it gets cooler. Maybe I can get lucky and find a little more freezer meat. (pig included)

It's definitely hard to remain positive when don't even see deer sign. It's like they just vanished. Two of the pastures we hunt don't have cattle and haven't for several years. Conditions aren't bad but they could be worse. I dunno. Gonna have to come up with a new strategy and a move to another area of the ranch.

I would put 3 or 4 game cameras up make sure to program them for night shots

I have heard the same thing about other areas of the state too, while talking to friends. My Oats are getting the most use as I have been also told by my friends with food plots. Corn getting hit, but no where near like before the rains and the new growth. Also the bigger bucks seen pre season, have seemed to use different "roads". I know at my place, the acorns have been outstandingly abundant which is a shocker after the drought, albeit they are tiny and likely nutritionally "packed"

Guess this year may require a little more "hunting"

I've seen a lot of young forked horns a good young 9 and a couple of 10's. But not a drop in the bucket compared to years past. My brother filmed a good wide 9 and a good 8 we've all seen yesterday.

The rut usually hits out here last week of October and first week of November. Last weekend was awfull especially with the demolition squad next store. But one thing I noticed was that none of the bucks mature or you g were swolled up and their hawks looked dry. I thought the rut was kicking off 2 weekends ago , but I think I was wrong. Because this morning even though the two bucks I saw were young forked horns they were fighting for the title. I zoomed in with my bino's and you could see the snot slinging and there hawks were real dark.

I think I'm going to rocksprings on the wrong weekend and should stay put in hays.

I am experiencing the same thing 300 miles from you!

I'm in Mills County, and the only thing I've been seeing is a bunch of spikes (already shot one), and what seems to be a heard of 4-6 point deer. None of them are wide enough for our lease to shoot. (I'm not shooting a small deer).

I think the drought has had a huge effect on the deer herd, there's always next year. I go about every weekend searching for the buck, but if I get one, I get one, if I don't I don't. I'm saving my last buck tag and if I can't get a big buck, the last day of the season, I will gun down another spike.

After Thanksgiving lunch the wife gave me a pass to go back to the lease. She knew I was discouraged and wanted to go. I made a move to a different area where I set up a secondary "just in case" stand and it paid off. Got a management 8 pt at 5pm. He came in running a doe hard. Didn't really have time to study him real hard. He looked like a 7 but turns out he broke a brow. He had short brows anyway which made him a management buck. I'll post up pics soon. 17" inside, heavy mass but short tines.

Congrats!!!

Congrats

2 spikes in an AR county isn't legal

Sure they are. Two bucks in a five deer county but only one 13" or bigger.

It is extremely slow in our shop this year. No one is killing anything worth mounting. I hope it picks up soon. This is depressing.

I never thought about it that way, always understood it to be 1 spike & 1 13" or bigger

ON my small place in Hays County I usually have 10 - 15 deer coming to my feeders and this year I think I have about 4 or 5 deer i see regularly. I think there really are a lot less deer out there. I also hunt South Texas and to me, things look way better down there. There is a ton more drought tolerant vegetation for deer to eat down South. Around hill country I hae no idea what the deer eat during a drought. Down South they will eat cactus, mesquite leaves and beans, etc.

I hate to sound negative but I think hunting will suffer for a few years after the drought is over and we do not know when that will be.

Welcome to the results of the drought. The animals will move to where they can survive and give their young the best chance to make it. We have hunted from the Hill Country to Illinois. We have seen good deer in the hill country and in Kansas as well as Illinois, the Texas deer where in areas where the land owners actually placed watering stations and food stations to help the animals through the drought.

I am afraid that next year will be even worse as far as growth and numbers.

hunting in south texas hasn't been all that great as of yet.

we caught alot of rain recently and things are super green out in the pasture.

deer arn't comming to corn like they normally would.

give it to late december then fire up the tailgate feeder, you'll get a good one

Doing this from my iPhone for the first time. Let's see if I get right and post the pic.

Nice job

Thats a brute 5.5? CONGRATS!

Good job LP

Great deer LandPirate congrats.

LanPirate,that is a beautiful buck,nice dark horns.Congrats.

Nice buck Mike. Congrats.

I think he probably is 5.5 yoa. Possibly 4.5, but no younger. I got in the stand at 3:45pm and at 4pm had two does come the feeder. They were hoovering up the morning left overs and kept looking into the brush.

They finally moved in the direction they were looking. About 15 min. later they ran past the feeder, headed the opposite direction. This ol' boy was hot on their heels. They crossed the 50 yard wide meadow before I could grab my rifle. A few minutes later the feeder went off and the does came back to it. They brought him with them. He was chasing hard. His neck was swollen up and his hocks were running wet and smelly. Full rut.

The sun was almost sitting on the horizon, directly over the feeder which made it difficult to find the buck in my scope but I managed. He was constantly moving and chasing the does. He finally stopped for a second, quartering toward me. I put the round just forward of his left shoulder. It knocked his front wheels out and he pushed himself along for about 15 yards with his back feet. His antler dug into the shoft dirt and pole vaulted him straight up into the air, doing a complete cart-wheel. When he landed he didn't budge.

The round came into his right side ribs, just behind the shoulder and proceeded to travel rearward, taking out about 5 ribs but didn't exit. The bullet was lodged under his hide and I recovered it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I was really getting down.

Good job and a nice looking buck

good 'un.. my backup stand usually ends up being the one I hunt the most, but for different reasons.

Nice buck!!! Congrats!!!