Originally posted by maxwellllll
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Thanks for this--had the same question myself. My father and I were selected for Nov 16-18. This will be only our second public hunt (well, other than dove that we have gotten drawn for three years in a row!), so the more info I can glean from here the better.
I'm curious what everyone is thinking re: scouting. It appears that we are permitted to scout our designated hunt areas on November 3-8, 15, 29, and December 6 and won't even need to check in and out at HQ. Honestly, I'd prefer to do my scouting further in advance rather than the day before the hunt so I'm probably going to skip out on my regular opening weekend activities (or maybe just cut them shorter than usual) and try to get some scouting in at the Balcones on the 3rd or 4th. Anyone else thinking similarly?
Finally, as far as the mediocre hunting there the past few years goes, I'm personally not feeling like it should be too much of a downer for those of us drawn this year. Fair chase hunting has been pretty lousy (fewer good bucks, less overall animal movement) the last couple of years on the property I hunt, and I've heard similar from others on their properties. I've chalked much of that up to the fact that animals that would've been at full maturity for the past 2-3 seasons were all coming out of the mid-drought fawn classes (2010-2012). I am anticipating that the quantity/quality of animals fawned post drought (2013 on) are going to be more visible this year and for the next couple of years. Maybe this is all wishful thinking, but if so, I'll just be hunting the Balcones Canyonlands with my rose-colored glasses on!
I'm curious what everyone is thinking re: scouting. It appears that we are permitted to scout our designated hunt areas on November 3-8, 15, 29, and December 6 and won't even need to check in and out at HQ. Honestly, I'd prefer to do my scouting further in advance rather than the day before the hunt so I'm probably going to skip out on my regular opening weekend activities (or maybe just cut them shorter than usual) and try to get some scouting in at the Balcones on the 3rd or 4th. Anyone else thinking similarly?
Finally, as far as the mediocre hunting there the past few years goes, I'm personally not feeling like it should be too much of a downer for those of us drawn this year. Fair chase hunting has been pretty lousy (fewer good bucks, less overall animal movement) the last couple of years on the property I hunt, and I've heard similar from others on their properties. I've chalked much of that up to the fact that animals that would've been at full maturity for the past 2-3 seasons were all coming out of the mid-drought fawn classes (2010-2012). I am anticipating that the quantity/quality of animals fawned post drought (2013 on) are going to be more visible this year and for the next couple of years. Maybe this is all wishful thinking, but if so, I'll just be hunting the Balcones Canyonlands with my rose-colored glasses on!
I will be out there scouting the 3rd and 4th. I plan to be there from sun up to sun down both days. May even put out a game camera
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