This year, as was the case last year, tags are becoming more difficult to come by. An increase in hunters applying, point creep, and in some cases decreased tag allocations all contribute to fewer hunting opportunities. If you are like us and plan your entire year around hunting more than 30 days, it may be time to consider hunting in a different state. Texas offers such a broad variety of opportunities and game animals to hunt that it simply cannot be overlooked. Where else can you shoot a zebra in the United States?! Although the vast majority of the land is privately owned, there are still hunts to be had on a budget if you forego some of the frills. In this article I will recall the adventures the Cutter team had on two separate Texas hunts this past season, enjoy.
Our journey begins with a 15 hour drive from our home state of Colorado, and to put into perspective just how big Texas is, 10 hours of that is within the state. A mutual friend had invited us down to hunt what turned out to be one of the coolest and most memorable places I have ever hunted in my twenty years afield, a 7,000 acre ranch with a golf course and country club. We would be staying in a 10,000 square foot mansion for the two days we had to hunt that property. We arrived at 11pm to be greeted by our buddy Patrick. After catching up and unloading our gear, we get to bed around 1am. With the mansion being the summer home of the property owners, the air conditioner had not been on in nearly six months, and with the 90° temperatures, it is safe to say that not much sleep was had. We rose before the sun, headed out to hunt for the day. Patrick and I got dropped off to sit in a ground blind at a feeder in a small meadow surrounded by dense native vegetation. Waiting for light, we grew more excited every minute.
Before we continue, I feel it is necessary to address the elephant in the room, hunting over feeders. In the western states it is nearly unheard of to hunt over “bait” or a feeder, however in Texas and a lot of southern states it is commonplace. Hunting is comprised of several “pieces” if you will: locating the animals, getting into bow range of the animals, and executing a perfect shot resulting in a clean kill. Hunting a feeder simply checks one of those pieces. You still need to hunt the correct wind, you still need to be silent and wait for your shot, and you still need to make said shot. Believe me, the deer are exponentially more alert and skittish around feeders than in any other scenario. In most cases, there are also multiple animals in the vicinity all looking out for danger. Before you stick your nose up in the air, I invite you to go try and shoot a deer over a feeder and neglect the wind, make noise, and aim mid body.
Patrick and I had quite the eventful morning, seeing over 30 deer. Unfortunately we were unable to shoot any of them. The thing about hunting other people’s property, (that they let you hunt for free) is that you often get told which animals you can and cannot shoot. The ranch was in the early stages of being managed for trophy quality so we needed to get confirmation from the owners on which deer we could shoot. Does of course, were fair game however. More on that later. About 20 minutes into legal shooting light I saw the deer I absolutely wanted to shoot. A beautiful 5 year old buck with a drop time on one side. Unfortunately for me, someone already had “bought” that buck for a lot more than I wanted to pay, so we had to painstakingly watch him feed and walk around for almost a half hour. My first morning in Texas was overall a success.
Bowhunting a golf course was quite out of the ordinary for me, however, I’ve never had more fun. The sheer quantity of deer on the property was astounding. With a buck to doe ratio near 30:1, doe management was vital to improving the herd. The plan was simple, we would drive around in a side by side through the rolling hills, keeping an eye out for does in approachable spots to put the sneak on. The three of us hunting were all able to connect in the two days we hunted. My doe was spotted as we crested a hill, she trotted across the road in front of us, went up a steep bank to our right. We turned around, went back over the crest of the hill, and hopped out. Slowly walking towards where the doe should be, I spotted her. Patrick gave me a range, 57. The broadside doe stopped with her head behind a large tree facing right, the left edge of the trunk sitting right on the edge of her shoulder. I drew, and held on the edge of the tree. I knew that if I missed the tree it would be a perfect shot. Pull, pull, pull, let that pin dance and wait for the shot to go. My arrow arched in and passed through both lungs. 40 yards away we found her. What an awesome experience!
As our time in Brownwood ended we began our journey east to the town of Rockdale, Patrick’s hometown. His parents live on a nice piece of property with a feeder 300 yards from the house. They had been seeing an old 8 point come in at first light every morning and Patrick’s father, Tiny, was kind enough to let me have a crack at shooting the buck. Justus and I snuck down to the box blind in the early morning darkness. Five minutes before legal light, the buck stepped out. Still too dark to see my pins, we had to wait. As the light grew, so did my heartbeat. The feeder was at 25 yards, the buck was broadside at 29. I drew, and began to pull through. Shooting a hinge release with a “click” was a mistake. I hit the click, signaling that I was close to the release firing. The buck heard the click and turned frontal. Shooting 80 lbs and a 480g arrow, I let it fly. The buck ran a long way before expiring in the thick hardwood creek bottom. My largest whitetail deer to date now laid at my feet, what a feeling!
When you think of Texas, you probably think of wild hog hunting. We did our fair share of that as well, late nights, early mornings, whenever we found ourselves out of the deer stand, we were chasing pigs. Not much sleep was had on either of our trips to the lone star state. We hunted pigs in several different ways, at night via thermal, during the day by driving roads through various properties, and even at our deer stands. Hogs were introduced to Texas and thrived, causing million dollars of damage to the local landscape, breeding rapidly, and pushing out native wildlife. Hunting and managing the population is critical to keeping the numbers in check. A pig can begin birthing a litter of up to 8 piglets at 6 months old, so it does not take long to have an explosion in population very quickly. One of the properties we hunted in a town south of Houston had a pig problem. The roads were torn up, green meadows rooted and destroyed from hogs browsing for food looked as though a backhoe had torn up the earth. Luckily the Cutter Stabilizers team was here to save the day!
Sitting in an elevated box blind over a feeder, I waited for the seemingly always startling sound of the feeder going off. Even if I knew exactly what time it was set to go, it would scare me every time! Once it went, it took perhaps ten minutes for the pigs to show up. Using a borrowed 300 Win Mag, I set the crosshairs on the largest in the bunch. BOOM! The pigs scattered, but one remained, dropped in her tracks under the feeder. My first ever rifle kill, my first wild hog, what a morning!
Our December trip was quite the adventure, hunting with both rifles and archery equipment provided ample opportunities. On the property that I shot my rifle pig, Justus was able to connect with an awesome whitetail buck. Sitting an elevated blind over a feeder, the buck came out, then went back in the trees before returning. In Texas there is a 14” wide inside spread minimum, and on a property someone is letting you hunt out of the kindness of their heart, you do not want to judge a deer poorly. Justus scoured over the buck’s antlers for nearly five minutes before placing a perfect bullet from his borrowed 6.5 Grendel. A buck of a young hunter’s lifetime. What an epic evening!
Co-owner Brandon also was fortunate enough to come home with a very unique and awesome buck on this trip, back in Rockdale on Patrick’s parents property. They had been seeing a big, spindly frame “8 point” come in occasionally, so we found ourselves on the back deck with Patrick’s rifle before first light. As dawn broke, I saw a buck cutting through the hills and approaching the strip of pasture in front of us. Brandon got on the gun and lined up the shot. A loud “MEHHH” followed by a louder BOOM woke Justus up from his peaceful nap. We followed a short blood trail directly to Brandon’s amazing SEVEN POINT. Such a cool deer, this buck would score 114” net.
Now with all these rifle kills, you might be thinking “isn’t this an archery company?” Me too, and I made sure to let the boys know that I was the only one to put something down with my bow on that trip. Staying in College Station with Patrick, we would make a three hour drive north to a town called Frost. We had one evening to hunt this property, but the owner had been seeing a 160” buck regularly and we had the green light to shoot him if we saw him. LFG! Brandon and Pat went and sat a field edge while Juice and I would sit a two man stand over a well used trail. No feeders on this property made it difficult to know where the deer would come from, and no insight from the owner kept us on high alert. About twenty minutes into our sit, I heard something approaching. A nice sized hog followed by another 15-20 other adults and 30-40 piglets filtered through the thick underbrush. Staying around 30 yards away, they browsed, and squirted through shooting lanes for nearly two hours. I came to full draw EIGHT times before finally getting a shot. A large black sow was feeding through a thick alder patch when she hit an opening we had ranged at 29 yards. I was at full draw when she hit the opening, pin settled, release went off, arrow was on its way. THWACK! The arrow hit and the woods erupted before silence prevailed. We heard a crash almost immediately after the shot, but it wasn’t until after reviewing the footage that we realized it was my pig dying. Four seconds after the arrow hit her heart, she was dead. A 430 grain arrow tipped with a 3 blade mechanical broadhead did her in. After crawling through the thick, thorny underbrush, we found a small tunnel through and recovered her. She was a giant! Patience and staying in the moment prevailed on this one.
Brandon also was able to shoot a GIANT boar on this trip from another property. Since I wasn’t there, the details are lost on me. However, this boar was huge and he apparently did a backflip after being shot. The picture below is on a full sized truck tailgate, and Brandon and I are both over 200 pounds. This bruiser was a walking tank!
If you have a week, a little bit of spending money, and the ability to make friends, you can certainly have yourself an adventure in Texas. We were not staying at a fancy lodge, we ate pizza and went to Hooters, we slept on floors, and we drove about 5,000 miles all said and done. Despite the lack of luxury, I will be the first to say, I will never forget either of those trips to Texas.
