TEXAS TAYLOR TRAVELS: Nov 29-Dec 20 Last Days at the Deer Lease

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Nov 29-Dec 20 Last Days at the Deer Lease

I pretty much lived at the lease the last month. Most of the time it was just me and John Callahan. More people came on the weekends. The deer hunting was slow. Not many deer seen during the day. We got a lot of good night pictures on the game cameras. I did a lot of walking in the woods and just enjoying. Usu ally i see a lot of deer on my tree climbers this time of year. Not so this year one reason is that we have so many hogs there is not an acorn to be found so the deer are just laying up in the thickets.I am not sure how many hogs we have killed or trapped but it is in the thirty's..I did go home one day so we could go to Mackennas first Jr. High band concert. They did pretty well especially since when school started no one could play a note.On the evening of the 10th I shot a longhorn spike. It dropped in its tracks but then dragged itself in the woods. I didn't think it would go far. I went back to camp and put my boots on and David Bird was there and we headed back to get deer.Lots of blood for about 15 yards then quit bleeding .We tracked it for about a hour in a pine thicket only finding a drop on a limb or tree. Finally we ran out of sign and couldn't find the deer. Hated to lose a deer, in the good ole days we would have put my beagles on it and we would have found the deer. When I get to where I don't travel much I will get some more beagles. It has been really warm the past few days (9,10,11) but today is supposed to be our last one as a front is blowing in sometime. Light turnout for the weekend but normal for December. Its my favorite time of the year here as the woods are so pretty. I met Susan in New Waverly on Sunday . We had breakfast there and then headed to Bryan to see the grand kids and leave my truck for Kyle to do some work on it. It rained all day going and coming back.. Susan dropped me off at the deer lease on the way home. I am afoot till Kyle gets my truck back to me. I have started seeing a few deer very late in the evening. Saw one big heavy horned 8 pt. Not sure if he was 13 inches wide. Once again I have very bad black thoughts about TP&W. It has been a nice cool week. I have been moving game cameras around to different spots and still getting plenty of pictures. Ranger had a carrier bearing go out so I have been using Little Johns 4-wheeler. Sure miss that windshield on cold mornings. On the 19, we wound the season down with a little picking and grinning. Eddie, David, and their cousin Howlin Howie played all evening. David cooked us a feast of smoked pork and coon. We had a nice fire to sit by and it was a great night. Sunday the 20 I am packing up and heading home. Another good year at Mack Creek.