Texas Youth Sambar/Deer Hunt on Public Land

[jmveverka]

Hunted Texas for the first time this week. Over the summer I learned that my son Andrew had drawn a coveted Either-sex Deer hunt on the Powderhorn WMA in Port O'Connor, Texas. I love the Texas youth draw opportunities because they are free to apply to and free to participate in, but I never expected to actually draw this hunt which would take place January 5-6. I began to plan how to make this happen between work and school and the holidays - and the fact that we live in Virginia.

I like to drive on hunting trips so that we can take all of the meat and have the flexibility to explore the area. The drawback is needing extra travel time and help with the driving. Because this was only a day and half hunt, we decided to maximize our trip - and pad our success rate - by adding a pig hunt.

So on New Years Day, my dad, my son and I set out for Texas.

We have built a large wood cooler for in the bed of the truck to fit all of the game on our traveling hunts. Andrew has the opportunity to harvest a Sambar (either-sex), Axis (either sex), 2 Whitetails (either sex, but only one buck) and unlimited hogs. We also scheduled a Nighttime/Thermal hog hunt. After driving to Texas we waited for our thermal hunt to begin. We were using .308 modern sporting rifles with pulsar thermal optics. It was cool. It did not take long to locate our first hog, a big boar on its own about 500 yards out in the corn stubble. Since it was the first pig, and a long walk, we left Andrew in the truck to watch while my dad and I stalked. In hindsight that was a bad decision.


Nice boar down and back to the hunt. We spent the next 8 hours scanning empty fields. We apparently came at the wrong time--too long after fall harvest and too soon before spring grains. The boar was the only pig down. My dad did not harvest a pig and Andrew never even fired. Tired and dejected as the sun rose, we drove the rest of the way to our youth hunt location near Port O'Connor Texas. This was the third time I took my dad on a guided hunt and he failed to get what we were after. I set to work reaching out to outfitters and friends to find another pig hunt to get him on. As luck would have it I was able to find hunt in Alice, Texas and after some scrambling we decided to schedule my dad to hunt the next day - Saturday, which was the first day of the youth hunt. We got the boar skinned, quartered and on ice and headed in to bed.

 

[jmveverka]

On Saturday morning we left Andrew sleeping in the rental house and awoke at 4:30 to make the 2+ hour drive to my dad's hunt. I left him in the capable hands of our guide and quickly returned to POC to get Andrew ready for the start of our TPWD Public Land Youth Sambar Hunt. After check in we went through the process of drawing standby hunters to fill no show slots and a few extra blinds. Over 3,000 youth hunters applied for this hunt opportunity where they drew 36 youth hunters for a 3 different hunt periods (12 hunters per period). While waiting we hear from my dad that his first pig is down!


About 25 hunters showed to get drawn for 5 open slots. Names were picked a quick orientation and then blind assignment. Adult hunters drawn for hunts on this property are assigned compartments for the hunt, but for the youth, for safety reasons we are supposed to stick to the assigned blinds. In researching this hunt I was told the Sambar love water. When we got to our blind, I was pleased to see two ponds.
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Id did not take long for a decent 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 year old 8-point whitetail buck to make an appearance. I asked Andrew if he wanted to shoot it. It was only 1:00 pm and he would have plenty of time to recover the deer and be back on stand before the prime evening hours. He said nah, he had killed his first buck in December and it was bigger than this one so he said he would wait for his primary target, the Sambar stag. The deer moved off. Not long later we were rewarded for holding out when a stag approached the pond. During orientation TPWD staff urged the taking of neck shots on the stag. The argument being that a neck/spine shot will drop the 400 lb animal in its tracks where as a completely lethal heart/lung shot could still allow the animal to make it 50-100 yards or more into the EXTREMELY thick, nearly impenetrable brush in the WMA and make recovering difficult and sometimes impossible. With this thought running through the head of an 11-year old, he hesitated when the stag turned to face us and he did not have a neck shot. I told him to take the shoulder shot instead, but his hesitation allowed the stag to get away. We were not down as we knew it was early. Another buck followed by a sambar caw and calf and it was soon approaching full dark. As we were in the stand at the end of the road with no surrounding hunters, we were given permission to also hunt the roadway. With 10 minutes remaining of legal light I told Andrew we should get down and get in position to see down the road and still cover the ponds. so we moved.

 

[jmveverka]

As we got to the road, we immediately spot movement. Pigs. A group of pigs is crossing, wallowing and generally hanging out in the road. They were a long way off so Andrew and I quickly move down the edge staying out of sight to get into position. We get to about 150 yards and I get Andrew set to shoot. Time is running out. The pigs are not holding still and Andrew can't get a solid shot. Just as he was about to get on one of them, they bolt to the right off the road and a stag comes out - it scared them away. I look down at the time, with 2 minutes of legal light I said, "Its a stag, take it Andrew". He squeezes the trigger and I hear that perfect thunk sound, the stag stumbles and bolts into the brush...

Panic sets in as it is now dark and we have a stag somewhere in the brush. I call it in to staff and they do not sound positive after I say no, we did not take a neck shot, it was a shoulder shot. We return up the road to the truck, give it 10 minutes and drive down to near where he shot the stag. With headlights and flashlights I start looking for blood. I can't find blood in the middle of the road where the shot was so I start looking at the leaves next to the road where I thought he went in. Not 5 feet into a game trail lay a dead stag. I throw my hands in the air and run to Andrew.


The smile says it all. I wrestle the 400 pound beast into the road to to field dress and call in the good news to the office. The cavalry is on the way to help load. My dad, who is still 2 hours away has taken another pig and I let him know that it is going to be a late night. The pig guide is being a good sport and says to let him know when we are in the way and he will meet me a little closer. TPWD biologists weigh and measure the animals. The Powderhorn Ranch is the newest state property and TPWD knows relatively little about these cool animals so all the data they have will help them to manage in the future.

Back in the truck, I ice down the Sambar and head to get my dad. After skinning hogs we get to bed at 2:00 am.

 

[jmveverka]

So that night my phone decides it needs to update...my alarm does not go off. I wake up at 6:15 with first light coming in 30 minutes. We scramble to get dressed and back into the WMA to catch the magic of first light. Andrew is really hoping to add an Axis to his bag. As we get to the road, the sun has already crested the horizon and we see pigs near the stand. Out of range, we push on but a shot does not develop. We spend a couple hours on stand before heading back to the headquarters to hang, skin and process the sambar. We take this time to pack up and check out of our rental. While processing the sambar, an axis doe comes into the check station and Andrew is energized to go back and find his second exotic deer. With the stag cut and in the cooler with the pigs we go back to the stand for the afternoon/evening.

We sit for a couple hours with nothing moving. It is warm, sunny and windy. As 5 pm approaches a few doe whitetails come out. They are looking behind them with that telltale look and we get ready for a buck or some other animal to approach. A nice whitetail buck comes out and we get into position for a shot. Andrew is really hoping for an axis, but as the least populous of all deer on the property the odds are not in our favor. He decides to take it and the 4 1/2 year old deer drops in its tracks.

Andrew is amazed at how small the deer (body size) here are, and nicknames him tiny.

We have an hour left and wait it out til last light. No Axis but another sambar bull comes in close and we see some more whitetails.


We weigh the whitetail in at just 73 pounds and they age him at 4 1/2. We are the last group to exit the WMA on Sunday night and we start making the journey back to Virginia. Another long drive and we get home at 6:30 pm on Monday night. We traveled 3,500 miles and logged 65 hours of windshield time traveling to, around and from Texas. We wish the pig hunting had been better, but could not have hoped for a better public land adventure on the Texas Gulf coast. Andrew had a blast, he had an awesome 3 generation hunt, and we brought back a load of meat.

 

[jabber]

Congrats to you all!!!! Glad you were able to take advantage of Texas's generosity to non-residents. Be sure to let us know how the sambar table fare is.

 

[Knight.54]

What an awesome trip!

 

[Nick87]

Looks like you guys had a great time, congrats!

 

[kansasdad]

Wow, now you need a vacation from your vacation.

Congratulations to Andrew and crew. This is a trip that will be talked about for years.

 

[Rzrbck918]

Awesome hunt! Thanks for sharing.

 

[redwoood]

Very awesome adventure I would say!!! Congrats to you all...life long memories for sure!

 

[Jwill]

Congrats to you guys, nice haul!

 

[Greyman]

Very nice! I live just down the road a bit from this WMA. I've been trying to get drawn myself but no dice so far. Congrats to all of y'all!

 

[3855WIN]

Outstanding trip. Congrats.

 

[Nebraska E->W]

Congrats, you had a great trip with your dad and son.

 

[okie archer]

Good times. Congrats

 

[jmveverka]

 

[gburk]

Just seeing this now - awesome trip to a great place! My son and I hunted powderhorn right after it was acquired, maybe 4 or 5 years ago now. We have some great memories of that hunt. Didn't see any whitetail bucks like that one, i think that's above average antlers for the area. 73lbs is crazy though, i don't remember them being that small. It was cool how the animals stopped and stared without fear due to lack of hunting pressure. Probably have wised up a little since then.