El Rojo’s 2017 Season

El Rojo

FNG
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Lufkin, TX
I suppose I’m a little late starting this since our archery season began here in Texas in the last Saturday of September. A little background on myself and then on to the season.

I’m new to the forum but what little time I’ve spent here I have enjoyed it. It doesn’t seem fair to enjoy y’all’s postings without a little contribution from myself. I’m 33, married, with a 3.5 year old little girl (Adalee), and a 2 year old son (Raylen). I work a pretty demanding out of town schedule of 28 on and 14 off. On my 14 days off you can bank on me being in the woods or on the water just dang near every day. It’s challenging at times to juggle time between the loves of your life and the life long loves. Fortunately I have a more than understanding wife (most of the time) that also enjoys the outdoors, and two babies that are being raised with it.

I’ve been very fortunate over the last 10 years or so to kill some really nice whitetails. 8 P&Y deer and several with a rifle. My biggest being 173 6/8 (you can watch the video in the video forum) and my “personal best” a 161 2/8” East Texas Public Land rifle kill. You won’t find the part of Texas I’m from on the covers of many hunting magazines. I live in the Piney Woods region and it’s known more for claims of “black panther” and bigfoot sightings than 140” deer or bigger. Finding and killing one of that size here, even on the most premium properties, is exceptionally hard to do. I work extremely hard, and hunt much harder. Through this post I’d like to share that with you.

Since I’m late posting I’ll give you a short run down on my hunting so far. Opening weekend My wife and I went to a small property that myself and 4 other families lease. There are some nice deer on it but it really isn’t managed for trophy quality. A 125” deer there will be exceptional. It is however a beautiful property and because of the wild hogs there it’s a very target rich environment. There is no bag limit or very many rules at all when it comes to wild hogs, in reality it’s more like guerrilla war fare!

The second morning of season I was in a ladder on the corner of a food plot with some large white oaks behind me going down the ridge. I had 2 really nice bucks and 6 does well within shooting range for about 20 min but since the stand was set up to shoot the corner of the food plot, there were no shooting lanes behind me going down the ridge. My wife ended up shooting a big boar hog that morning and that afternoon the wind shifted so I moved further down the week bottom.

It was a whack a mole style hunt. 3 hogs came in 3 left with arrow wounds. 2 were recovered and the 3rd wasn’t.

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The next day my buddy Jason (you’ll end up reading quite a bit about him) and I had an unsuccessful hunt that morning and went to move the stand where I’d seen the bucks the previous morning. I’ll give the cliff note version, but I ended up falling about 20’ and banging up both of my ankles pretty bad. Luckily I was leaving for my 28 days at work.

I just got home 3 days ago and it’s been one great hunt after another on my MLD Trinity Co lease which is where I am currently. In my last 3 hunts I’ve seen 4 shooters (5 years old, 130” or bigger) and several other smaller bucks. A cold front is blowing through as we speak and I’m on the edge of a big pipeline where pre rut bucks are known to cross. Stick with me over the next couple of weeks. It should get interesting!


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El Rojo

FNG
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Lufkin, TX
As stated earlier, I’ve been gone for around a month. I got just enough of the first week of season to make me hate life for 28 days while I was at work. I got home on 10/25/17 and have been in the woods every since.

I hunted a couple of days on my MLD place in Trinity Co. For the non-Texans “MLD” is a managed by the state property. We have an extended season, rifle or bow, and it starts early and runs late.

When the wind was right I’d hunt my bow stand. When it wasn’t I’d get on the pipeline with a rifle. I was having great success at seeing mature bucks on their feet in daylight hours, but not having a lot of success at getting one shot. The weekend hit and “the warriors” came out so I opted for my bow lease in Cherokee Co on Sunday. I had a pretty good hunt and decided I’d take a doe and get some meat in the freezer. She came in from out front and was quaffing past my stand. When she got her head behind a tree, I drew and settled my 20yd pin. I tried to stop her and she kept going for another few steps and then stopped on her own. I guess I didn’t... The shot was forward through the brisket and after 150yds of blood a two hour search turned up nothing but blood that looked non-fatal. You’ll never meet anyone that takes that any harder than I do. Giant buck or a doe gets the same amount of effort. I take it personally when I wound one and don’t recover it but at least in this case I believe it was a non-lethal hit.

That afternoon my daughter (3.5) wanted to go hunting with Daddy so I obliged. We didn’t see a thing but had a blast watching “those silly birds” and a rabbit.
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That afternoon a lease mate John killed his first bow buck and his biggest buck to date! It was very exciting to be able to help with the recovery and picture taking. I love sharing that experience with someone! The kids were in camp still and loved that too!
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On Monday I returned to Trinity Co to try and close in one of of the better deer that had been showing. After a day and a half of hard hunting and scouting I’d found what I believed to be THE JUICE! There were TV sized scrapes blown out in a thicker grown up area and rubs as big as my arm. It smelled like a buck in there! I was absolutely jacked! I went to town and bought a pop up just for that area because rain was pending in the forecast. I go in early and to my disappointment I couldn’t hunt from the ground. The ground cover was just too thick and I’d have to be elevated. It’d began drizzling rain so I admitted defeat for the evening, tucked my tail between my legs, and went back to the box blind I’d been hunting.

I wasn’t happy about being there. I KNEW where I needed to be and couldn’t be there. I was just sort of going through the motions of hunting really. I parked too close to the stand, wasn’t cautious about scent control, wasn’t quiet getting in... Essentially I broke every rule I have in an otherwise very strict regiment. I had the windows open in the blind and was watching a fishing video that on my phone with the volume up. I half heartedly glanced down the pipeline and a STUD was standing 40 yards away making a scrape!!!

I almost dropped my phone trying to get my rifle out the window! I made too much noise, nothing was fluid and precise... He was standing there in the wide open and they just don’t do that very often! I’d love to give you a dramatic rehash of events but it was extremely fast! Age? 5.5. Size? Big enough! Distance? CLOSE!!! TOO CLOSE!!! BOOM!!! He was quartering too me a little bit but that .280 and the hand loads don’t care anything about a bone at 40 yards! He only went about 20 yards and piled up just off the edge of the pipeline.
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Stay tuned and don’t run off. I’ve got 3 buck tags and 2 doe tags left. I love deer meat and hate tag soup!!!



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El Rojo

FNG
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Lufkin, TX
I took the day off yesterday. I’d hit a wall after 2 months of 4am wake up and 14-17hr work days on the rig. Temperatures have DRASTICALLY increased. This past Sunday it was 26*, today the high was 85*... Welcome to East Texas!

Today was pretty hot. I’ve been having a mental debate with myself about whether or not seeing a lot of deer on the road in the mornings is a good sign or bad. I did see quite a few this morning and one really nice buck not far from camp. I checked in at a pop up blind in a grown up field with a feeder really just trying to get an opportunity at a pig or a doe. I heard several pigs in the wash to the north but nothing made an appearance at the feeder. By 9:30 I’d had enough of seeing nothing and needed to make a return to Academy for a card reader I’d bought.

I was pulling out of the gate when William (you’ll hear a lot about him this season) shoots a group text that pending the recovery he was tagged out in Cherokee Co! I love a good blood trail before breakfast so I punched it into high gear and met Will and his cousin from Pennsylvania Shane. We talked about the hunt and it was a great recap! Will was about to get out of the stand at 9:50am and decided to bump the horns together for just a second. THIS NEVER WORKS WHERE WE LIVE! He finished up the sequence and saw a huge bodied deer blasting through the thick timber headed his way. Sever draws and let downs finally lead to William literally screaming obscenities at the deer and he stopped in a shooting hole. Will touched the trigger and watched the fletchings disappear. 100yd recovery later we were standing over a fantastic buck! 129 2/8” 8pt!
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El Rojo

FNG
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Lufkin, TX
I’ve been sick since Saturday night. I kind of felt a cough in my chest coming on and tried to fight it, but it came on pretty strong. I haven’t been in the woods since Saturday evening. I think I possibly found the proper combination of OTC meds and let my tournament partner con me into going to Sam Rayburn to tag some fish for the Bass Cash Bash ‘18 project.
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We smashed on the small ones and went head hunting for a little while trying to catch a big one and ran out of light before we connected. I’m going back for a little more tagging in the morning and by noon should be bound for Cherokee Co with my bow in my hand.


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El Rojo

FNG
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
18
Location
Lufkin, TX
Sorry for the length of time between updates. I ended up scoring a couple of extra days off and smacked a doe on my buddy’s lease. I did have a couple of close encounters with some older deer but nothing that tripped my trigger enough to get the bow off the hanger.

I got a call to run an electronics class for a customer. I normally don’t do these during deer season but Chad is a great dude so I didn’t mind. He’s pretty sharp and caught on quick. We decided to make a few casts while we were there. Somehow the lucky Rabbit’s foot fell in my pocket and I had the hot hand. Our best 5 was over 30# with a 9# kicker, a 7.5, and a 5.5! Nothing like dropping a 1.25oz Stanley Jig in deep hydrilla!
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I’m back at work now and will be here for a week or so and then will have a week or so back in the woods before I have to be back. I’ll update the thread when I get home.


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