Balcones Canyonlands NWR

[Rounder]

My son and I will be on the youth hunt this weekend too. We drew 1-1 and I haven't seen any info on that anywhere yet. I have been known to be blind though...

Any of y'all know anything about 1-1?

Good luck out there this weekend. I did talk to the biologist out there this week and he said they should be rutting a little so I am bringing some rattling horns and rut scents to put out hoping to draw them in. And looks like we are going to miss most of the rain so thankful for that and hopefully that forecast holds true.

[vogeldaddy]

So far, we've only seen a young 6 chasing 2 doe Saturday evening. Too far to get a range. Dipped into the trees just as I got a reading and didn't come back out before dark. See what this morning holds!

[vogeldaddy]

We bombed. Not a surprise in any way given the intel from previous hunts. What I did leave with was a camper with a slide that quit working, a truck with a busted radiator hose, and a lighter load since I forgot to grab our pop-up. Sheesh....

[KLThreeSeven]

Following up on our experience hunting compartment 1-9, we scouted 3 separate days and never saw deer... some fresh signs but not much. We did however see a good pig making its way up the hill in the back from the dry creek bottom on one of those scouts at sunset. As others did on past hunts, we set up on that back hill where we could see our entire pasture and monitor the openings in the treelines that they were using to cross. Our position also allowed us to see the entire back hillside across from us which wouldve been a bit of a poke at 350+ yards and 1/4 of the pasture adjacent to us.

Despite eyes on essentially the entire back half of the compartment, we sat the first two days without seeing anything the entire time. That first day, it seemed like we the only sign of life were maybe 5 birds which is odd for a national wildlife refuge... for birds.

On the final day, we finally encountered a doe on the way in at the front of the compartment, but it was outside of LST. She was making her way toward the road. Thinking that maybe something got them all moving, we were excited to get into position in the back seeing it was the only deer we've seen. We ended up not see sh*t once again that morning so we walked through the creek bed/middle brush after deciding to set up in the front for the rest of our hunt.

As we walked through the dry creek bottom in the middle, we came across lots of fresh pig sign... hardly any deer sign, which confirmed the decision to move to the front.

We set up on the front hill for the rest of our hunt as that is where we saw the doe coming from and we discovered s ton of fresh beds at the top of that middle hill (where she had to have been leaving). Nothing ever showed up.

Count us among all the others as having shared the same experience. We saw plenty of hog signs in that creek bottom in the middle as others have mentioned, but that was about it. After seeing that pig during our scout, I actually had a bit of hope going into it, but through 3 scouts and 3 hunt days, it proved to be the barren b*tch as advertised lol!

Being allowed to bait would've helped, but it was nice to get out, put in some miles and enjoy some fair chase spot and stalk in some surprisingly beautiful terrain.

[cy100]

I hunted at 1-2A during 11/17-11/18. Scouted this unit two times before the hunt. During legal time, no deer or hogs were seen in these four visits. Only saw a pair of bright eyes in 11/18 while walking from parking lot to the blind. I quit in the last day. I can easily find deer/hog tracks in this field, but can hardly identify fresh ones. I tried buck call, rattle call, buck/doe urine. Nothing works. It approves a truth that you cannot attract a deer when there is no deer.

However, in 11/17 morning, there was a shot from the direction of 1-2B around 7:30am. In 11/18, there was a shot from the direction of 1-2C around 8:00am. The sound of the second shot was weird. It is more like a muzzle load shot.

There was a youth hunt in the previous weekend. I saw the truck track from the parking spot all the way to the blind. If it is left by the previous hunt, then the young hunter must have a success. I will be more happy if it is true.