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Tough Buck to lose in Leon County

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    Tough Buck to lose in Leon County

    My family has had a place near Centerville and Buffalo since 1980 when I was 2. I have hunted there my whole life. Granted, I grew up as a bowhunter and probably started hunting deer with a bow at the age of 10 or 12. My dad said that we use to have tons of deer before they opened doe season, but ever since I can remember, the deer hunting hasn't been too hot. The duck hunting has been great, but not deer. Back in 1997 we got on a lease in the hill country and we saw tons of deer, and the hunting was good. We really eased off the deer hunting at out place in Centerville. To make a long story short, I have out in a mnay hour on stand there and never seen anything much better than an 80 inch 8 point. Killed him when I was young. We haven't hunted much in the last few years as we got a new ranch 3 years ago in Brackettville and it was poor anyway. Well I got a new job this year and won't have as much time to make the long drive, so I set up 3 stands. I took two friends up there to hunt this weekend. It was the first time there for one guy. About 6:00 I was hunting towards the back of our plac and I see a buck, a BIG buck. He was not coming in to my stand so I got down to sneak to the edge of the woods to see him. All I could see was a big framed rack. A bigger frame than the deer in my avatar. He spotted me and began to run towards my buddy. I stepped on out hoping to push him to him. He was about 1000 yards away.

    I went to pick him up and he had an arrow in the ground. I asked him if he saw that big buck, and he said, yes, I shot him, low and back. Oh no I thought. He had not pushed him, so we loaded up and went to the house and decided to wait until the next morning. We were concerned that I may have pushed him when I drove up b/c he ran the same way I came up in the truck.

    The next morning we went and found great blood. We think he hit it better than he thought. We followed the blood trail for about 200 yards and saw where he ran up and down the fence line looking for a place to go under it. We finally figured out where he went under it...into ankle deep water, everywhere. We searched for about 3 hours and never found the deer. He went back the next day and looked even more hoping Buzzards had found him. But no luck.

    It sucks b/c this is the best deer we have ever seen on the place. I feel bad for him too as it would be his first buck with a bow. Here is a short clip of it. It is a great Leon County buck. Goes to show what they will do if we let them grow up. This new antler restriction will be a great thing I think.


    #2
    And I forgot to mention we saw two other bucks that weekend, and I saw 10-12 deer each hunt which is great. I hope the area is on a rebound.

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      #3
      i hunt in leon county and we are starting to see more and better bucks, sorry too hear about your friend

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        #4
        man that sux. that was a great buck.

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          #5
          Very nice buck for that part of the country. Sorry ya'll could not find him.

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            #6
            Where abouts you hunt in Centerville.. I have a 2500 ranch and get more and more **** about deer management every year. I wish I could push it into my neighbors head also.. Thats a shame you didnt find him.. I have seen 5-6 shooters this year and I am hesitant on what I shoot.. Good luck to ya

            Brandon

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              #7
              hey brandon are you the spring creek ranch owner?

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                #8
                Man, that's a great buck, for any area!!!

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                  #9
                  Spring Creek.

                  I hear you loud and clear. It drives me absolutely nuts. That and the fact that people will kill a 100" 8 point one year and then a 50" 6 point the next. Try to improve year to year. Set a goal. People try to use the excuse of they were really wanting the meat. Sorry, but ground beef is better tasting, and cheaper once you take into account all the expenses of hunting. We won't kill a deer unless we want to spend $400 mounting it. We have 500 acres, our neighbors to one side have a total of about 400 acres (3 total neighbors that don't hunt) and the wildlife refuge behind us of 1500 acres that barely hunts, and another neighbor next to us that has about 1000 but they hunt and I think shoot anything. Even though they do, I am not sure they kill anything and can't have the assumption of if I don't kill it, they will or else the deer will never grow. Plus the fact that they may have the same mentality as us.

                  To answer your question, we hunt between Buffalo, Centerville, and Oakwood. East of I-45 on Hwy 7, off of 1511. If I didn't have another place to hunt, I would definitely get with the local Game warden and state biologist, and try to set up a Hunting Coop. I didn't even know they existed until I spoke with our biologist in Brackettville. It is almost a necessity in East Texas if you want to kll big deer, unless you have as much land as you do. 2500 acres in East TX is a lot of land. We have 6000 in Kinney County, and we are even in the process of high fencing it to help us manage it. Neighbors aren't as big of an issue there as the constant influx if deer from ranches that over graze and don't feed supplemental feed.

                  Where is your place?
                  We found a dead deer about 5 years ago that scored about 135 and had broken off double drop tines, so that should give you an idea of what to shoot. I have no doubt that if the neighbors were management minded, you could consistently kill 160 class deer. And we only have about 40 acres of woods. All the rest is pastures. But we have 2 sides that back up to woods.

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                    #10
                    I've been told the deer that are in east texas are the same ones that are in south texas, they were transplanted there several years ago after the deer in east texas were shot out and there habitat was taken away due to over logging. So it is true east texas deer can get very big the hunters just have to let them grow and the antler restriction are a start. It also doesn't hurt you land backs up to keechi creek WMA, all the trinity river project WMA's (keechi creek, gus engling, richland creek, and big lake bottom) have had antler restrictions in place since 2000.

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                      #11
                      Im in Centerville as well. We have been in the co-op since 2000 also. Things have changed tremendously since then. I see nice bucks on every sit in the stand now, back in 1999 I never saw a buck that season.

                      Check out this buck I got on video Oct 12th. The biggest buck Ive ever seen. Other two aint to shabby either.

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                        #12
                        Tough break.

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                          #13
                          What an awesome buck! I agree with you, I think the antler restriction is going to benefit every county that has it.


                          "That's why they call it huntin'"

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                            #14
                            I hunted right behind the Post Office in Flynn for a few years and never really saw much there, a lot of hogs and a few small bucks. I have been hunting in Colorado County for a long time and have seen a difference in the deer there from the antler restrictions, especially in the last two or three years.

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