Rut in South Texas

So, besides me....who is ready for the rut in South Texas? It's almost here!

from christmas til second week of january for us.

I am but I think e got another couple of weeks

Where I'm at it's usually in full swing by mid-December & runs on into early January.

Man-o-man I wish I was hunting south this year. Just couldn't make it happen. I don't care what I have to do, I will be hunting somewhere in S. Texas next year. Good luck guys. If any of you get openings on your leases gimme a shout.

10/4 Pirate, thanks!

Hopefully, the next couple of weeks past fast. I'm ready!

Where does everyone here hunt in South Texas? We're in southwest Webb Co.

Conception, Duval County.

Dimmit County. Nothing like rattling in South Texas during the Rut

I'm hunting just south of Hebbronville, can't wait for the rut to kick in!

Starr county

Webb oounty 2 miles from Hwy 83 and 44 intersection.

Just east of hebbronville

Stxhunter-
Are they going to be pre rutting by next weekend in Jim Hogg county?

Zapata county

I live in Bandera County, Hunt in McMullen County...haven't seen
any rut up here, which is unsual, and the deer are still traveling late and feeding at nite even with the dark of the moon. Best movement I've ever seen in So. Texas is from Xmas day
until Jan 15...bucks are usually quite poor by late season..not
much good to eat..But beef is a lot cheaper than a So. Texas buck....Good Hunting...DD

Duval County/Jim Wells County lines.

webb county 1 mile south of encinal starting to chase

I'll be in Duval County this weekend rattling & crossing my fingers. Good luck to you guys!

I will too. Good luck!

The should be in pre-rut right about now!

they are chasing pretty good in McMullen... seems a bit earlier than most, but they're going after it pretty good

Bucks are busy....checking scrapes and such. Great rattling time.

They are definitely in pre-rut. I rattled in a mature 8 point, mid-afternoon in medina county last Saturday.

start rattling guys and good luck

I'm leaving at 5 so we can get down to our ranch just south of Los Angeles tonight. Might stop at Ruby's for a beer

I'm hoping it's not too muddy down there this weekend. We haven't been in a month but it seems like they got a good amount of rain in the last week.

I hunted Los Angeles sat through Tuesday and it was very muddy , had about 1 1/4" of rain in that time , I onley saw young bucks pushing does around !

Thanks, I was afraid of that. Well, I'll have fun either way but the bad thing about down there is that when it's muddy, it's miserable. The oil company just put in gravel roads on our place, though, so that will help a bit.

Heading to Bee County tomorrow...

Anyone have an update after this weekends hunt in South Texas? I was in medina county and have still yet to see a lot of rutting activity. It was pretty slow this weekend.

It was a slow/tuff weekend for me in Duval County.

I didnt make it down, but brother and dad did. Southern duval co. Saw lots of deer, but we are waiting on the rut. It seemed to be picking up from what they say.

matt

I hear it has begun already.

I hunted Duvall county this past weekend, and although that might or might not be considered south Texas for this thread, I can tell you many attempts at rattling didn't bear out any bucks or movement. We did however seem to have either a buck or a neighbor rattling a little back at us one time. This was our first attempt rattling this property and we tried it two days with only one "response" but nothing came of it.

In the blind Sunday morning I saw nothing but did hear and got responses from what sounded like a doe bleat or an estrus bleat. I called back to it and got about three or four responses but again no movement, which made me think it was an estrus bleat more than just a doe bleat. I am sure this wasn't a neighbor as my hunting buddy didn't hear any of it and he was between me and the neighbors that it could have come from.

Other than that, we saw several fresh doe scrapes, some buck scrapes and lots of deer sign but very little other than young deer.

We did see some monsters at the freer deer camp on Sunday morning. A couple each had freakish looking deer, the guy's had drop tines which nearly covered the bucks eyes in addition to the other three drop tines it had on each side (the antlers looked stuck on they were so freakish looking) and the gals had above 40 points (looked like a cancerous wart on the deers head). They said they got them in Live Oak county and brought them down to get scored. The workers were not happy to score them since they were so atypical. I didn't ask the guy how much they cost him, as there was no way in he#* they were low fence deer.

We did see another truck pull in with three or four deer in the back with a nice large typical, but didn't get a chance to see how big it was....

So even though the rest of us didn't do so well this past weekend, the HF pay ranches certainly had some success.

They were not even thinking about it in Webb Co this weekend, at least not on my place.

One of the other hunters on our place got a real nice 8 point
on thursday,said it was around 180lbs. And another 200lb 8 pointer was taken saturday by the third hunter. Said they saw 5 really nice bucks on saturday morning. This was on a low fenced 320 acre lease. Southern Duval county, 10 miles north of Hebbronville.

It's starting to pick up, but the rut has not started

It was slow this weekend. Steady drizzle on Saturday and overcast on Sunday. Saw about 7 deer. No mature bucks. Didn't see any sign of rutting. I tried rattling, but no luck. I starting to believe that the one shooter buck from our offseason trail cam pics has been killed by a neighboring ranch. He hasn't come out on our cameras since the 2nd week of rifle season. There's always that hope in the back of my mind that he'll magically appear out of nowhere, but the amount of shooting activity coming from the neighbors to our east tells me that it would be a miracle if he IS still alive. Oh well, that's hunting I guess.

It was in eastern Duval County, close to Palito Blanco.

I just talked to my buddy hunting n McMullen CO, he said the bucks are running hard today !! I hate work lol ,