Lora and I are still in hunting camp in the Trans-Pecos finishing up the Mule Deer hunt we were drawn for.

Pictures and a full report will be posted as soon as we get the chance, but we were both successful, in fact all 4 of us drawn for this hunt were successful on some really nice cull Mule Deer bucks.

That's great glad all of you had a successful trip.

CH:
Finally got the map out and looked where Olney is. Surprised me, thought it was way down south not up in the north end. Been within a few miles maybe a 100 times when trucking down 287. Very much believe with the map I filled in those years that I've been within 50 miles of every inch of Texas, and several other states.
Still it's surprising to look things up and find out I didn't know that town/area was where I thought it was.

Lot of pigs around there I take it? Many of 'em "Culled" on the highways?

Glad you all got your bucks. Did you get some of this light snow Friday/Sat??

George

Here is the first picture I have managed to get downloaded.

This is Lora's first Mule Deer and her first buck deer that wasn't a spike.



This is a group shot of the four hunters that were drawn for this hunt, myself and Lora along with Marshall, standing behind me and Hal, standing behind Lora, a Father & son from east Texas.



I got lucky on the hunt, as we were driving around on Friday morning headed back to camp for lunch, we spotted a coyote and the guide asked us if one of us wanted to shoot it. Lora could not get into position for a shot but I did. About an 85 or 90 yard shot with my .375.



Here is another picture of the coyote. We were all really surprised at the performance of the 235 grain Barnes TSX. With such a lightly built animal, the bullet did a tremendous amount of damage. On my buck it wasn't near as destructive.



More to follow as I get them downloaded.

Congratulations to you and your wife.

Thank You.

What a neat old buck. Look how big his body was, and his antlers are so massive.

I think most would enjoy taking an old buck like that.

My uncle once killed a 30 inch wide mule deer that was only a forkie, but he weighed about 375 pounds. Just and old warrior at the end of his life. Kind of like your buck.

Lora has all the measurements from our bucks and I will get them posted.

All 4 bucks were pretty comparable to each other.

Gutted and hanging the animals weighed from 168 pounds on the low end to 185 pounds on the high end, that was my buck.

Ages went from 8.5 to possibly 9.5 on the high end to 7.5 on the low end, again my buck.

All were considered management/cull bucks and for a base price of $10.00 per animal/per person. it is hard to beat the results.

Good stuff Randall. Congrats to you and Lora!

+1


GWB

Great post congrats to the both of you . Excellent buck ! Nice dead coyote as well .

Ten bucks each for the deer, what's all the incidentals add up to?

Nice old buck, good for her.
See now why they call you CH! Ha!

George

Which hunt was it, the Trans-Pecos covers a lot of territory..I was raised next to Black Gap South of Marathon and it has some nice bucks for sure, rough hunt however..The Sierra Diablo out of Van Horn is another great draw and I have hunted the McAdo ranch that borders it, they sure have a ton of nice bucks in that area. The Palo Duro Canyon used to have a great deer draw, not sure if it still does but all those Texas draw hunts are very successful as far as I know...

Texas has as good a Mule deer and Whitetail as any place and you can even find some really nice Coues deer in and around the Glass Mountains between Alpine and Marathon..Also some of the Del Carmin Whitetail that SCI touts. although questionable as they are believed by some to be Coues deer, commonly known as Fan tail locally. Most of which were hauled in that country during Roosvelts CCC program wherein jobs were created..My dad and Uncles hauled Mule Deer to Arizona and traded them for Coues Deer that were dumped in the Big Bend Nat'l. park..I recall watching them unload the deer in the Park or Black Gap?? Im 80 now and was just a toddler at that time! There are also some regular whitetail in that country that have migrated from the Sanderson area and even some cross bred Whitetail/Mule deer. The Coues don't seem to cross breed and those littlel buggers can whip the crap out of a big mule deer..I have witnessed that on more than few occasions..Those narrow little Coues horns go right between the wide spred of a Mule deer and rip his face to shreds..plus they are quicker on their feet..Wonderful deer to hunt and with some luck you might kill one on the Black Gap hunt. I have seen them there along with some real nice desert sheep.

It was a new hunt this year. It was put together by TP&W and a private wildlife management operation.

The only incidentals were a one night hotel stay in Sanderson, about $60.00, gas and meals on the trip down and back. Probably total expenditures was $500.00 dollars or less.

The ranch we hunted on is 27,000 acres that straddles the Brewster/Pecos county line. The hunt was offered to TP&W as a Cull/Management hunt, and we just got lucky. I have been participating in the program since the 60's, but have never found them all that productive, with the exception of the Pronghorn hunt on the Rita Blanca Grass Lands in the northwest corner of the Panhandle, and the exotic hunts on Mason Mountain.

Your wifes Buck sure had some good mass.Congrats to your better half.!!

Thank You very much. Not only was it her first Mule Deer, it was also the first non-spike she has had the chance to hunt.

I have hunted on the old Joe Brown ranch, and several others around Sanderson, Ranched the Rosillas Ranch So. of Marathon for a few years. Was born and raised in the Big Bend area. I always liked hunting around Sanderson as they have huntable numbers of Whitetail and Mule deer and even a cross bred now and then...

The place we were on was basically surrounded by the Longfellow Ranch.

Congratulations to her. Fun hunt and nice to be lucky on that draw too.

Outstanding!


.

Small world, one of my shirt tail relitives was and may still be the foreman on the Longfellow ranch..That's great deer country and its just across the hiway from Joe Browns ranch where I have hunted many times..

Finally got the picture of me and my buck.

Congrats to you and your Mrs. Looks like a fun hunt and a couple of nice mulies.