Mason/Burnet Counties as LIVE as I can make it!

[C.Read]

Headed out Monday morning for Mason county, hunting with a friend on his lease for a couple of days. Then will head over to Burnet county to Balcones NWR for the draw hunt I was drawn on.

Going to be a fun week in the hill country! I'll try to keep it as live as I can. I'm pretty sure I'll have signal at Balcones, not real sure about the lease in Mason.

Y'all stay tuned!

[flywise]

Good luck
I crawled in the stand about 30 min ago with hand corn and have 2 young bucks and several doe.
Not really seeing any rutting action yet, Blanco co.

[C.Read]

I've got the Chevy pointed west. ETA in Mason is 2:30ish. Probably won't get a hunt in this evening but we'll give em hell mañana. As I expected the service at the lease is just about nonexistent but I'll update during our daily runs into town.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[sboudreaux]

Good Luck!

[awry]

Good Luck

[C.Read]

Sorry for the lack of updates on this. I ended up tagging out on my friends lease and didn't make it over to Balcones. Had a great time and saw a ton of deer.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[C.Read]

Here's a quick recap of my hunt in the Texas hill country:

0800 11/9/20: I had everything packed in the Chevy ready to roll out. Dropped my daughter off at school and pointed the truck west for Mason, TX. Arrival time was around 1500 that afternoon. I met up with my buddy in Mason, we topped off with gas, stocked up on adult beverages and ice and made our way into camp which was about 12 miles out of town.

Made it into camp, unpacked/unloaded most of everything from the truck. Time now is about 1630 hrs and my buddy is itching to show me around the lease so we throw a couple bags of corn on the 4 wheeler and head off to find me a spot to hunt. There aren't any permanent stands so are looking for the right group of cedars to make a ground blind in. I find my spot, we throw a sack of corn out ~100 yards in front of my blind. On our way back to camp my buddy locks up the brakes on the 4 wheeler and says "shoot that buck!", I turn to see the 10 point standing ~125 yards broadside looking at us. I settle the crosshairs and squeeze off a round, hear the impact and he bolts. We give him a minute knowing it was a solid hit. Drive up and find him piled up 30 yards at the bottom of a small ditch. In camp for 1.5 hours and have my first deer on the ground, things are looking great!

That evening we sit around camp and relax after getting my deer on ice.

0600 Tuesday morning: I make my way to my blind, misjudge the distance in the predawn light and park a little closer to the blind than I anticipated but this didn't seem to bother the deer at all. As I ease toward my blind I can make out several bodies in moonlight out in the pasture. As the light got brighter deer seemed to pour out into the field from all directions. I saw ~40 deer that morning, could have easily filled a couple more tags but chose to sit and take in the scenery.

Tuesday evening I can't wait to get back in the blind so I set off about 1430. It was HOT and my chair ended up being in direct sunlight so I moved it back further into the cedars to get some shade. 10 minutes later I have my first set of does in the field followed shortly by a pencil horned 8 point.....from there it was a steady flow of deer in/out of the pasture. As the light was fading I decided to try to fill a doe tag, as much as I don't want to admit it I smooth missed a head shot on a doe at about 80 yards. I let everything settle down after the shot and decide to ease down the road to see if I could catch one slipping and sure enough that's exactly what happened. I tagged my first doe, got the truck, loaded her up and was easing back to camp when another doe pops out of the wood line to my left. I contemplate on filling another doe tag for about 30 seconds and pull the trigger on her. That's 3 deer down in 24 hours.....I'm liking this!

My plan was to save a buck tag for the state hunt I had won which started Friday at 1300. Well that didn't go as planned LOL.

Wednesday morning I set off with the plan to fill my last doe tag. This was the coldest morning we had so I figured the deer would be up on their feet......much to my surprise there wasn't a deer to be found after there was enough light to glass the pasture. Knowing the amount of deer I had seen prior I knew it was just a matter of time. After about a hour after sunrise I had only seen one doe cross the road about 300 yards to my right so I decided I would ease that way to see if she was feeding in the adjacent field on the other side of the wind row. As I'm taking my coat off, getting my shooting sticks adjusted for standing height and walking out from under the cedars I look up to see a buck in the hand corn, looking dead at me. I drop to my knees behind a bush and look at him thru the scope. With the bush in the way I couldn't really tell how good he was so I crawl around to the edge of the bush and give him a better look. I could tell he was at least as wide as the 10 point but couldn't get a solid count on points but could tell he was at least another 10. If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's not to pass up a good opportunity when it's directly in front of you so that's exactly what I did.....I settled the crosshairs on the front of his right shoulder and squeezed off....he mule kicked and ran about 40 yards and piled up right in the middle of a cactus patch. He ended up being about an inch narrower than the 10 point but I was happy with the extra point. This left me with one doe tag, so after I wrangled him up on the 4 wheeler I set off on foot toward the other field I mentioned earlier. As I reach the wind row I can see another pencil horned 7 point and two doe. I wait until the deer are separated and put my last doe on the ground. Very fun hunt and am looking forward to going back next year!

Needless to say, I did't make it out to the state hunt LOL.

[Eastexhunt]

Congrats on a awesome hunt!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk