Whitetail Hunting is Tough

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

At least for me...

Been spending the last 4 years trying to learn the TX public land, archery only deer hunting game and it has whooped my butt so thoroughly, I can feel my tail in my throat. We're talkin 50-60 days of in season scouting/hunting across '22-'24(when I started counting days), with another 30+ days out of season, running trail cameras, moving them all season long, and I have killed exactly one 8 pt buck (2021) on a draw hunt, and one doe this fall. Have I given up? No...

But I sure wish I could get some dang snow days down here, cause I at least know how to hunt the white fluffy stuff! Everything I hunt is hardwoods and greenbriars, with poison ivy all over, but no oak trees or persimmons. It's a veritable sea of bedding and browse, and generally its low lands with water everywhere. Meanwhile, there are no hard funnels, and I'm learning that southern hunters call a creek a ditch, and 16" depression is also a ditch, while a 3' height difference is a "ridge", and 3' tall briars are a "thicket".

Anyways, it's the offseason, and a good time to lick the wounds, so what are your favorite tactics for this stuff?

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[RanchoSueno]

Whipping out the checkbook and investing in a small chunk of private land where you can build a whitetail paradise... helps to have good neighbors too! Lol but in all seriousness I have yet to harvest a public land whitetail. I have found some pretty good public land sheds. Usually near acorns and a sneaky travel corridor ear private with some green food source or a burn.

[RanchoSueno]

This was a fun one!

[Lefty]

Called my buddy Tim a while back, after some conversation Me mentioned he need to climb down

I hear geese from his phone

What? your sitting in your stand"
"Yeah I'm cold"" been here all morning" " Im hungry"

-2 F.

[Lefty]

Rancho,,, some dandy deer,,

[RanchoSueno]

Thank you Lefty! This year came up a little short but we knocked quite a few does down

[Lefty]

TD Im somewhat fascinated with Texas public land. I really want a crane hunt ( lubbock?)

My brother and cruised around along the border east to Eagle Pass Lots of deer ranch hunts,,, looked like all feeders on cleared 2 tracks

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Nice deer Rancho!

Lefty, TX hunting is what you make of it, and it's affected a lot by the region of the state. Feeders are definitely a big part of TX hunting culture, and if you visit South TX for a day, you'll see why. The brush is too thick to get through to the animals.

Cranes would probably be a Lubbock area deal, but I wouldn't know for sure. That's at least 6 hours drive for me.

[Tigger]

Nice bucks Rancho! Good pictures as well! Quite a few people shoot nice bucks, some have nice pictures, but very few have good pictures AND nice bucks!

Trumpkin, one solution is an out of state tag! Other than that, does grunting, bleating, or rattling work?

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

Nice bucks Rancho! Good pictures as well! Quite a few people shoot nice bucks, some have nice pictures, but very few have good pictures AND nice bucks!

Trumpkin, one solution is an out of state tag! Other than that, does grunting, bleating, or rattling work?

Tigger, I've been pretty succesful with calling bucks in the past, but theres a difference between calling them in and getting a shot. This year I had almost no success with the calls, and I'm not sure why.

As for out of state tags, I'd rather hunt elk and mule deer at that point (and I do!).