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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Articles Archives > Taking Advantage of Texas Public Land Hunts
Taking Advantage of Texas Public Land Hunts
Chris Fullilove - JHO ProStaff
- TX
November 23, 2005
This year I took an opportunity to deer hunt Aransas National Wildlife Refuge along the South Texas coast. This is a public land opportunity presented by the US Fish and Wildlife Department. Aransas NWR is composed of 115,000 acres, but hunters are allowed access to about 20,000 acres of the entire complex. During designated weekends, up to 100 hunters are granted permits and allowed to hunt the refuge. My father and I have hunted the refuge in the past, and we would be hunting it again this year in hopes of filling the freezer with venison… or perhaps taking a shot at some of the nicer bucks that reside on the refuge.
We arrived early on Friday, our designated day to scout and set up our tripod stands. We knew the general area we wanted to hunt, and once we got in there, we would look for sign and establish the exact location to set up. We discussed some location ideas with a few veteran hunters of the refuge who had been hunting there since the 1960’s. They agreed the area we were headed to was a good location and they were, in fact, headed in the same direction. This piece of info increased our confidence.
After a 45-minute drive through the refuge and into our intended area, we identified two places that we thought looked promising. One was a pipeline cut through some thick oak trees and yaupon bushes. We walked 300 yards down the pipeline through waist high, native grasses and observed several good trails crossing the pipeline cutout. There were also several openings connected to the pipeline. Dad wanted to hunt here, so we put up some flagging tape and set up his tripod stand along the tree line.
We then walked back to the truck and started looking in an area on the other side of the road. It looked like it had potential. Several well-traveled trails were cut through the tall grass, and contoured around the clumps of trees and heavy brush. I found an area where the brush came out into the high grass opening and decided this would be a good vantage point to oversee several good areas that offered up to 100 yard shots.
Setting up stands
A tripod stand provides an excellent vantage point for hunting over the high grass in the open terrain. |
In some places the grass was too high to see game moving through, but the trails eventually opened up into areas where I would be able to see activity. I packed in the tripod stand, set it up, and proceeded to put up some flagging tape to let other hunters see that someone was positioned in this location. After everything was set up and prepared, we left the refuge and prepared to return the next two days to hunt.
My father and I awoke early Saturday morning to chilly 45-degree temperatures and low overcast clouds. This was great news, and we expected the hunt to be good. Even though there was a full moon Friday night, much of the moon’s light was diffused due to the heavy clouds. With the colder Texas temperatures, we were hoping the deer would be moving this morning.
We arrived at our hunting location at about 5:45am. Thinking that this was possibly the best hunt we might have, we decided to stay out in the stand later than usual and we decided to meet back at 10:00am, rather than our usual 9:00am rendezvous. We put on our daypacks, slung the rifles over our shoulders, and began walking into our locations. I arrived before shooting light, but would have preferred to get into my spot a little bit earlier. Even so, when shooting light arrived, I was settled and ready.
Watching the morning wake up, I could hear the goose hunters volleying back and forth as they were already getting some activity. Several flocks of honkers flew over head while I continued to scan the high grass. My eyes scrubbed every trail, tree, bush, and patch of grass, trying to pick up something that was out of the ordinary. Then, surprisingly, at 50 yards in front of me I saw some movement in the tall grass. I immediately identified it as a deer, but two steps later it was well hidden in the high cover. I knew they would be well concealed, but not this well!
I put the scope up to re-locate the animal and evaluate possible shot opportunities on other deer that might accompany it. No opportunities were presented, though, as it was walking solo. Although I could only see its ears, eyes and neck at times, I knew it was a doe. I thought that this doe was destined for my dinner table, but the opportunity did not develop. I was hoping it would continue walking around to my right, where the grass thinned out, but it didn’t. Instead it started to walk away from me, fading into the dense grass.
Still reeling at how hard it was to identify the animal in the grass, I started wondering how many deer had slipped by this morning. I made a couple of mental notes on where I was actually able to see this animal, and added these locations to my mental checklist of places to look for game.
The morning, overall, was quiet and I had not heard much shooting elsewhere. I was still confident that this hunt would present some opportunities. About half way through the morning hunt, I noticed a deer running with its flag up and snorting about 150 yards away from me. It appeared as though it had been spooked elsewhere and was flagging its way through my opening. The wind was in my face so I don’t suspect it winded me. There wasn’t much I could do other than watch where it was going and be hopeful that it might come closer and slow down. The deer never presented itself in a more favorable situation, and the morning hunt was almost over. I packed up and headed back out to the truck where I would meet my father for a quick lunch.
After eating, we decided to go back out on the tripod stands early and see what the afternoon hunt offered. It seemed like it would be good. The weather was still cool and it even started drizzling on me at one point. It wasn’t too uncomfortable, and I hoped it might be a catalyst to get the deer moving and feeding before nightfall.
Despite the weather, the afternoon hunt was totally still. I had not observed any animal movement. However, with about an hour of hunting light available, I did hear some shots nearby, followed by some talking and laughter in the distance that cut the silence of the woods.
At the end of the afternoon hunt, neither my father nor I had seen any game. We headed out of the refuge and stopped by the Fish and Wildlife checkpoint to meet some of the other hunters, see how they did, and maybe do some social scouting and sharing of info with a few folks. There were already a couple of deer and hogs on the meat pole, which confirmed that they were moving. From the tales of the hunters, the bucks they took were already in rut mode. One hunter observed a fierce fight and harvested the victor of the clash moments after it was over. Eventually the hunter who had fired the shots near me came into the checkpoint with a very nice 10-point. He said the buck was in hot pursuit of a doe. While it was good that the bucks were moving, they were not cruising through my immediate area. My father and I headed in to get a good night sleep; the next morning would be our last chance at bringing home any venison from this trip.
On our last morning of hunting, the weather was in our favor with low clouds blocking the moonlight, and rain and cold temperatures during the night. Hopefully this would be the stimulus for more rutting, feeding, and general deer movement this morning. I got to my tripod stand and brushed the water off of my seat.
Public land buck
Texas is almost all private land, so any opportunity to hunt public land is a gift. The author was able to stock his freezer with this small buck. |
My morning hunt didn’t last long. About 30 minutes after it became light enough to shoot, I saw a deer moving quickly through the grass off to my right. I put the gun up and followed it with the cross hairs. The deer moved through some extremely thick brush where I knew I would not be able to shoot, so I continued to track it with the scope. The deer had come from my right and was now in front of me and heading away at 100 yards. It turned to the right to look back at the trail where it had come from.
I could tell the deer was a small buck – nothing glamorous, but good enough. He offered a perfect quartering away shot, and as he was stopped, I leveled the crosshairs right behind his shoulder, and squeezed the trigger of my .270. I tried to determine the status of the shot and jacked another round into the chamber, then continued to scan the field looking for flagging, or movement, but I saw nothing. I felt good about the rest on the tripod, my trigger pull, and the shot placement. I was confident that the buck dropped in his tracks. I could actually see the animal on the ground though the dense grass, but I felt that I wouldn’t have to look far. I climbed down off of the tripod, shed some clothing layers, drank some water, and waited 30 minutes before pursuing the animal. The search didn’t take long, as I walked right up to where I thought he was standing when I shot. He lay on the ground a few feet from where he’d been hit, turned 90 degrees from his standing orientation.
Hunting Aransas NWR is one of the best ways to fill the freezer with venison, or take a chance at a decent buck. The times that I have hunted on Aransas, I have always seen decent 10-point bucks taken. Hunting the refuge for $125 is perhaps the best bang for your buck if you want to get in some whitetail hunting, but may not have a lot of time or money. To learn more about Aransas NWR, you can visit http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/aransas/ .
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