Powderhorn WMA

[TXOUTLAW]

Throwing my hat in the standby pot, anyone else down here today? Red Ford with a bed cover.

[Jzoch]

Good luck! Wish I was there instead of the office.

[Reaper]

Good luck ! I was there 2 years ago, the standby hunter killed a stud on the first hunt.

[TXOUTLAW]

28 cards, 1 opening. Better luck next time.

[brokeno]

I was there and as always didn’t get the lucky ticket. Now come on July so I can start applying all over again. I saw you over there taking pictures and was going to say something but someone else came by and I never made it over there.

[TXOUTLAW]

Sry I wasn’t taking pictures. I was talking with the two big guys from Indiana with permits to the SP

[Huntindad]

I wanted to go today, but got too many things going on here at the house. I'll be down at Teniente next week.

good luck to those that were drawn.

[brokeno]

I just figured the guy taking pictures was a tbh member. We definitely need some kind of signal to identify t b h guys. I was standing to the left of the door where you turned your s b card in next to the guys that were draw.

[Texas Grown]

I just figured the guy taking pictures was a tbh member. We definitely need some kind of signal to identify t b h guys. I was standing to the left of the door where you turned your s b card in next to the guys that were draw.

TBH or Bownanza shirt works great! I've run into a few around town and at stores.

[WinslowBoy]

Sorry TXOutlaw and BrokenO but didn't see your post on Monday during the Standby process or I would have said "hi". Our group was drawn for this hunt and I was going to do a Live Hunt but decided to focus solely on hunting for this one. Quick recap of our week.

Our group had 4 hunters total. Since I know someone will ask, I personally had 22 preference/loyalty point but as a group we had 18. We've gotten very selective over the last few years on where we applied with our points in this category. We are beyond excited to finally get drawn.

For those of you familiar with the area, we were given the compartment farthest to the southeast on the property. Basically, just north of the town of Port O'Connor, Compartment had the bay on the east side, high fence on the south and the proposed State Park property to the north. Had 4 stands and a good combination of gravel roads, open areas and thick (and I mean thick) live oak thickets. Staff said the area had a good population of sambar so we were hopeful.

Anyway, the recap can be summed up as "our group didn't shoot any sambar". I (and the group) hunted HARD. Out there pretty much all day. Sat in stands, corned roads, walked ALOT and even drove the compartment hoping to see/jump a sambar. Only one member of our group actually saw a sambar cow & fawn while sitting in a stand and missed on an attempted long-range neck shot. Another group member saw 2 sambar while walking but unfortunately they were across a large waterbody and the other side was not our compartment. That was it.... I spent the week looking/hunting but still haven't seen a sambar We did find lots of very large sambar tracks (pretty easy to tell them from a whitetail track) and it appeared they were in the area, just never showed themselves.

Now a little more context. Earlier hunts in the year had went "well" as told by the staff. Normal kill totals and nothing unusual UNTIL our hunt. For the entire WMA (I believe 18 hunters), only 3 sambars were taken and one was a small calf (ONLY 185 lbs field dressed). Quite a few hunters were in the same boat as me and they weren't seeing any either. The State Park section did well. They killed 3 sambar between 4 hunters. One guy in the park said he saw 7 the first night and killed one (a small bull). WMA staff was very confused by the results. For you standby guys, a very large sambar bull was shot by one of the hunters who actually drew the standby compartment.

I will say it was HOT and FOGGY most of the week. We generally couldn't see anything until 30-45 minutes after shooting light in the mornings and in the evenings the thick fog rolled in around 6 pm. High temps were in the 70s and only in the 60s at night. Not great hunting weather and the mosquitos LOVED IT. Not sure if that affected movement. The one thing our compartment did have was hogs. I ended up shooting 2 of them late in the hunt but waited until mid-morning or right at dark to shoot them as not to spook any sambar during prime hunting times. Basically, took my frustration out on the pigs.

Overall the staff was friendly and helpful and genuinely wanted us to be successful. We thought about asking to move to another compartment but that didn't seem very useful as other hunters weren't seeing any sambar either. For anyone hunting there in the future, it is not an easy exotic hunt. They are not dumb animals and those few who did see them said they never stop moving and they ignore corn. Good luck to anyone drawn here in the future and we will start over applying in the Exotic category. I'm pushing 60 years old so I just hope I'm still above ground in 22 years when I'm drawn again.

[brokeno]

Thanks for the update Winslowboy. I know the guys that got drawn for standby. I’ll see if I can get a picture if powderhorn don’t have one on their website.

[MtnMike]

I currently have 10 points in the Exotic Category. So 10 years to go to get drawn I guess!!

[brymor31]

I was there as a drawn hunter for the State Park. I was one of the few lucky ones to see Sambar. I saw 8 total over the course of the hunt and shot a hind and a nice stag. I stayed out all day.

The staff were all professional, friendly, and helpful, but did say this was a very slow hunt with quite a few hunters not even seeing a Sambar. Total shot for the state park and wma was only 6 I think.

[Huntindad]

congrats on the Sambar double.

[Mule Skinner]

Congrats!

Perhaps they are finally being shot out. Wonder how much longer TPWD will offer the exotic hunts on the WMA and SP.

Kind of like the axis hunts at Garner, where it’s not really worth applying anymore.