I have been been putting into the Texas Parks and Wildlife mule deer public land draw for 14 years and finally got drawn for Elephant Mountain WMA this year. You are allowed to put 2 names on the hunt application for this particular hunt and put in with my good friend Venatic. A few years ago we were drawn for Whitetail in San Angelo and we both killed deer and I got a javelina that was tied for 1st in the statewide scoring program.
This year it was for mule deer buck (minimum 18 inch outside spread or o e whitetail buck, coyotes, feral hogs, and an elk if we saw one, each.
I drove 3 hours to David’s house on Sunday morning and we drove the other 7 or 8 hours to Alpine, Tx to our motel. We had a 30 minute drive to the WMA but nothing between Alpine and WMA but desert.
We arrived at the WMA at 8:30 Monday in time for our 9am orientation. There were 2 other drawn hunters (older father/pair) and they were going to draw for 2 standby hunters. They had the area broken into 3 areas for each group. The drawn hunts got to draw first and standby got the other. I drew #3 with the corresponding units and the other drawn hunters drew #1.
The night before at the motel David was studying google earth to see where he thought the best area would be particularly for elk. Turns out, that area went to the 2 standby hunters and after spots were determined we found out that the area where elk were usually seen was exactly where David thought they would be.
After getting some directions and better maps for our units we were turned loose. Our hunt was to last until noon Thursday.
We headed out to scout our area to see how it looked. It didn’t take us long to spot some big horn sheep on the side of the mountain.
We also saw some mule deer after a long time glassing well above the sheep which surprised me. We were instructed that we were not allowed above mid slope due to the sheep, but it would have been almost impossible to get to the mule deer where they were or get them down anyway. Plus, there didn’t seem to be a legal buck with them so we moved on to see what else the area offered.
A little farther we saw some more sheep and a few more high slope mule deer but still no shooter bucks.
Later in the day we started to see some mule deer down on the bottom in the brushy draws, but it took a lot of glassing to pick them out, and then they would disappear again.
Then we saw a nice big buck, but just our luck he had ear tags and a big gps collar.
The WMA does a lot of research, particularly with the sheep, and collared deer were off limits. Deer the hunt we saw this buck and and several tagged does and sheep.
We kept looking and just before dark we ran into a group of sheep down low and only about 200 yards above us from the road. We always spent a little time glassing the sheep, because it is rare to get to see them, and a lot of people don’t even know they are native to Texas or that they are here. While looking at this group I spotted a buck and some does mixed with them, but the buck looked to be just bare legal if at all.
That was the end of the first day. No deer were killed by us or the other hunters on the first day. The next morning we were back before daylight and picked a spot that we had kind of drove by the day before that was at the beginning our hunt area. We had spotted a small buck on yesterday as we were driving thru the other hunters unit near where it joined ours so we thought we better look at it closer. We didn’t see any thing at that spot, but it seemed like a perfect morning. As we were driving to the next look out spot I saw a hog in the road ahead. We quickly stopped and tried to gain a little elevation to see him in the brush. Turned out to be about 10 but they were running and the property line was about 100 yard and they were already past it and ran completely out of site which was a ways. This turned out to be the only hogs we saw.
We kept working our way around the mountain and saw a good many sheep again in the same places a yesterday. We saw another buck that looked just a little shy the limit.
All of the game pictures were taken thru David’s spotting scope and a couple were a little fuzzy.
We moved on to where we had seen the tagged buck yesterday which was in an area were we saw the most deer and he was by far the biggest we had seen. This area also seemed to offer the best chance to get into range. We got to a high spot and started glassing. I spotted some deer about 750 yards out after a good bit of looking. Harder to spot than you would think, and not as open as it looked. David also spotted some across the canyon but only about 175 yards out. They were laying in shady spots under bushes. He had been glassing for 30 minutes before he saw a little red spot and started looking at it closer. Turned out it be one of the tagged cows from yesterday. Not far from it was a buck, but didn’t look legal and no forks on the g2s.
We decided to moved down to Ann other glassing spot it get a closer look at the buck I had seen at 750.
David had offered to let me shoot first since I had never killed or even hunter mule deer.
We gained about 50 feet of elevation by climbing the slope and were still only about 75 yards from the truck. I always immediately spotted the buck standing broad side with some does, and David ranged him at 300 yards. I started trying to get steady on shooting sticks but before I could we lost site of him in the brush. We could still still see a couple of does standing around but not him. I was having a hard time getting steady where we thought he would be and David suggested he would go back or the truck and get his bipod to attach to my rifle so I could get prone on a flat rock.
I kept watch which he went to the truck but still had not seen him by the time he came back with a bipod and a rear bag. I settled in on the last place I had seen him, with the rifle where I didn’t have it hold it. I could still see a couple of does milling around and we just started glassing know he had to step out somewhere. We had been there an hour when a bird flew into a cactus bush and David spotted the buck move his head. He was right where we had seen him last, he has just laid down with only the tips of his antlers showing. David directed me to where he was and after staring at the spot finally saw an antler move. I had been looking at this spot for 30 minutes and never saw him.
I was all settled in and just waiting for him to stand up. An another hour later he was still laying there. By this time it was 5pm and we were worried he might just lay there until dark. So we thought we needed to do something.
David decided to go down slope and start to ease out to where he was to make him stand up. As soon as he lost elevation he could no see him but he has a land mark dead tree that was in line and behind the buck. I could see David clearly and buck, but neither of them could see each due to the brush and David being down slope from the buck.
When David was about 100 yards below the buck, a doe stood up which caused the buck to stand up. He was facing me quarter just slightly but knew I had to take the shot and center on his chest. I lost sight picture in the scope form the recoil of the .300 win mag, but I head the hit, and when I found him in the scope again I could see he was down and his head moving around.
I got done the slope and headed back up the slopec though to brush to see him.
We took some pictures, gutted him and then worked to drag him 300 yard across the brush, rocks and cactus to the truck. It was dark by the time we got to the truck.
A picture from where the buck was back to my shooting spot. There is yucca in the center of the picture. I was on the first point above it in a rock pile.
By the time we got back to the headquarters to weight him and put him in the cooler it was late and 2 of the hunters had already went to camp, 2 were just finishing up with their deer. Turns out 3 of the 4 had also killed deer today. Mine was the only one without typical mule deer forks, but mine and 2 were almost exactly the same width outside (21 1/4) with one being narrower.
We c CD caped out my buck, hung him in the cooler and headed back to the motel. It was midnight before we got into bed.
We were back at 6:30 the next morning at a different glassing spot. We were about 750 yards the other side of where my buck was.,
It was a beautiful morning.
This year it was for mule deer buck (minimum 18 inch outside spread or o e whitetail buck, coyotes, feral hogs, and an elk if we saw one, each.
I drove 3 hours to David’s house on Sunday morning and we drove the other 7 or 8 hours to Alpine, Tx to our motel. We had a 30 minute drive to the WMA but nothing between Alpine and WMA but desert.
We arrived at the WMA at 8:30 Monday in time for our 9am orientation. There were 2 other drawn hunters (older father/pair) and they were going to draw for 2 standby hunters. They had the area broken into 3 areas for each group. The drawn hunts got to draw first and standby got the other. I drew #3 with the corresponding units and the other drawn hunters drew #1.
The night before at the motel David was studying google earth to see where he thought the best area would be particularly for elk. Turns out, that area went to the 2 standby hunters and after spots were determined we found out that the area where elk were usually seen was exactly where David thought they would be.
After getting some directions and better maps for our units we were turned loose. Our hunt was to last until noon Thursday.
We headed out to scout our area to see how it looked. It didn’t take us long to spot some big horn sheep on the side of the mountain.
We also saw some mule deer after a long time glassing well above the sheep which surprised me. We were instructed that we were not allowed above mid slope due to the sheep, but it would have been almost impossible to get to the mule deer where they were or get them down anyway. Plus, there didn’t seem to be a legal buck with them so we moved on to see what else the area offered.
A little farther we saw some more sheep and a few more high slope mule deer but still no shooter bucks.
Later in the day we started to see some mule deer down on the bottom in the brushy draws, but it took a lot of glassing to pick them out, and then they would disappear again.
Then we saw a nice big buck, but just our luck he had ear tags and a big gps collar.
The WMA does a lot of research, particularly with the sheep, and collared deer were off limits. Deer the hunt we saw this buck and and several tagged does and sheep.
We kept looking and just before dark we ran into a group of sheep down low and only about 200 yards above us from the road. We always spent a little time glassing the sheep, because it is rare to get to see them, and a lot of people don’t even know they are native to Texas or that they are here. While looking at this group I spotted a buck and some does mixed with them, but the buck looked to be just bare legal if at all.
That was the end of the first day. No deer were killed by us or the other hunters on the first day. The next morning we were back before daylight and picked a spot that we had kind of drove by the day before that was at the beginning our hunt area. We had spotted a small buck on yesterday as we were driving thru the other hunters unit near where it joined ours so we thought we better look at it closer. We didn’t see any thing at that spot, but it seemed like a perfect morning. As we were driving to the next look out spot I saw a hog in the road ahead. We quickly stopped and tried to gain a little elevation to see him in the brush. Turned out to be about 10 but they were running and the property line was about 100 yard and they were already past it and ran completely out of site which was a ways. This turned out to be the only hogs we saw.
We kept working our way around the mountain and saw a good many sheep again in the same places a yesterday. We saw another buck that looked just a little shy the limit.
All of the game pictures were taken thru David’s spotting scope and a couple were a little fuzzy.
We moved on to where we had seen the tagged buck yesterday which was in an area were we saw the most deer and he was by far the biggest we had seen. This area also seemed to offer the best chance to get into range. We got to a high spot and started glassing. I spotted some deer about 750 yards out after a good bit of looking. Harder to spot than you would think, and not as open as it looked. David also spotted some across the canyon but only about 175 yards out. They were laying in shady spots under bushes. He had been glassing for 30 minutes before he saw a little red spot and started looking at it closer. Turned out it be one of the tagged cows from yesterday. Not far from it was a buck, but didn’t look legal and no forks on the g2s.
We decided to moved down to Ann other glassing spot it get a closer look at the buck I had seen at 750.
David had offered to let me shoot first since I had never killed or even hunter mule deer.
We gained about 50 feet of elevation by climbing the slope and were still only about 75 yards from the truck. I always immediately spotted the buck standing broad side with some does, and David ranged him at 300 yards. I started trying to get steady on shooting sticks but before I could we lost site of him in the brush. We could still still see a couple of does standing around but not him. I was having a hard time getting steady where we thought he would be and David suggested he would go back or the truck and get his bipod to attach to my rifle so I could get prone on a flat rock.
I kept watch which he went to the truck but still had not seen him by the time he came back with a bipod and a rear bag. I settled in on the last place I had seen him, with the rifle where I didn’t have it hold it. I could still see a couple of does milling around and we just started glassing know he had to step out somewhere. We had been there an hour when a bird flew into a cactus bush and David spotted the buck move his head. He was right where we had seen him last, he has just laid down with only the tips of his antlers showing. David directed me to where he was and after staring at the spot finally saw an antler move. I had been looking at this spot for 30 minutes and never saw him.
I was all settled in and just waiting for him to stand up. An another hour later he was still laying there. By this time it was 5pm and we were worried he might just lay there until dark. So we thought we needed to do something.
David decided to go down slope and start to ease out to where he was to make him stand up. As soon as he lost elevation he could no see him but he has a land mark dead tree that was in line and behind the buck. I could see David clearly and buck, but neither of them could see each due to the brush and David being down slope from the buck.
When David was about 100 yards below the buck, a doe stood up which caused the buck to stand up. He was facing me quarter just slightly but knew I had to take the shot and center on his chest. I lost sight picture in the scope form the recoil of the .300 win mag, but I head the hit, and when I found him in the scope again I could see he was down and his head moving around.
I got done the slope and headed back up the slopec though to brush to see him.
We took some pictures, gutted him and then worked to drag him 300 yard across the brush, rocks and cactus to the truck. It was dark by the time we got to the truck.
A picture from where the buck was back to my shooting spot. There is yucca in the center of the picture. I was on the first point above it in a rock pile.
By the time we got back to the headquarters to weight him and put him in the cooler it was late and 2 of the hunters had already went to camp, 2 were just finishing up with their deer. Turns out 3 of the 4 had also killed deer today. Mine was the only one without typical mule deer forks, but mine and 2 were almost exactly the same width outside (21 1/4) with one being narrower.
We c CD caped out my buck, hung him in the cooler and headed back to the motel. It was midnight before we got into bed.
We were back at 6:30 the next morning at a different glassing spot. We were about 750 yards the other side of where my buck was.,
It was a beautiful morning.
