Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Texas P&W hunts are drawn

Mostly Axis & Black Buck if remember right...sure could handle a freezer full of axis yum! Dunno anywhere anymore to go for sika except South Llano River and I can't get drawn there for love nor money...anybody heard about any ? SLR was overun with Axis & WT's the last time I was down...an they don't take standby's.
Ron

Ever tried Devil's Sinkhole?
There are plenty of axis there...

0 so far,still waiting on exotic and mule deer.

Fos,

KErrville and Ingram blend in together so finding a hotel in Kerrville that is clean/affordable should not be a problem I do not imagine....

Just found out I donated nine more dollars to TPWD for, oh, about the fifteenth year in a row! Maybe I'll get drawn before I'm eligible for social security. TPWD should call them donation points instead of preference points!

Bill

No Truer Words Have Ever Been Spoken! When you look at the number of entries, the odds of getting drawn for some of these hunts aren't that bad, especially when you are applying year after year, with preference points. I does make one say: "WTF is going on here?"

I found one place in Ingram. I'm familiar with Kerrville as I've taken my boys hunting out in Harper numerous times. Was just hoping there would be something closer to the WMA.

Will more than likely get a place in Kerrville. Kids are looking forward to the hunts! Truth be told, so am I.

Good luck Fos....

No Truer Words Have Ever Been Spoken! When you look at the number of entries, the odds of getting drawn for some of these hunts aren't that bad, especially when you are applying year after year, with preference points. I does make one say: "WTF is going on here?"
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No kidding guys, I have been drawn, more then once, for areas in Colorado that had LESS of a chance of being drawn than the ones I have put in for Texas!

Bill

Bill

Ya could apply for elk in AZ... 151 bucks each year just to apply, and get "points" Average is about what 8-10 years till you get a tag....

Checked today...looks like I'm 0-7 now. Weird thing is that it will tell me I have preference points for a hunt (i.e. not drawn) but still lists the hunt as not drawn. Anybody else notice this?

-Dan

So far I haven't received any 'non-select' responses yet..my fingers are crossed!! I haven't been drawn for ANY hunt in years though. In fact, about 10 I guess. Donations is right! Now if the dang guv would put a stop to raiding TP&W money for other things I'd prolly be ok to donate every year! Not gonna go there..not gonna go there..happy place, happy place..!

On the standby thing..who-all is going to try for where? Maybe I'll meet somebody if that doesn't throw a wrench in the gears.

Clark, If you know how many PP's you had from last year then the automated # will tell you how many you have for this year in each category...and you can compare the two #'s and see if you've been drawn or not. On the other hand if you know you had PP's from last year in a given category and you got ZERO now...you have been blessed with being DRAWN and just need to remember what area you put in for for that category.

Some years back I made up a Word doc that I update each year, with whether or not I've entered which Hunt and how many PP's I started with. When I call in I pencil in the date I've checked and update accordingly. I mark the booklet for the area I've applied for also. Been at this for 10+ years, figgured out a system after a while and have been drawn 4 times since '99 when I started doing "research" using the collection of Annual Hunt booklets info for each loaction . Got skunked, as expected due to low PP's, on 3 hunts so far this year but got 10PP's in EXO & GTS built up ...may get skunked as I;ve put in for super hard to get drawn places but ??? oh well!
OBTW if you are entering more than one hunter on the App, you need to be aware that the Total number of PP's between all the hunters are averaged together...and only one number is used for that App. Case in point: I have 10 PP's in EXO but my new partner only has 1 from last year...for a total of 11 between us...so we get 5 PP's for the App in the Lottery. Pizz Poor system IMO but it is the system being used like it or not. My old partner of 5-6 years had an accident Spring of '06 and is still bigtime hurt and dunno if he'll ever hunt again...but we had both built up substantial PP's which helped every year.
Hope this helps you unnerstand...just wish't Texas would use the Colorado system!!!!
Ron

Ron,

This is actually the first year I've applied for the hunts so if I have any preference points in a category, unfortunately I didn't get drawn.

By the way, my Father-in-Law got drawn for the archery Nilgai hunt. It'll be interesting to see if they get anything. You get your application in before the deadline?

-Dan

Pyledriver,
I'm going to try for a stand-by spot at Longhorn Caverns for sure, probably Mason Mountain, and maybe Enchanted Rock for doe / spike...depending on how the year goes.

Anyone else going to try those?

Blue

Clark, nope I talked to my hunting buddy and he could not make a commitment time wise for those dates. He is the Chief of Staff for an Admiral that uses him as everthing from a "dogrobber" to a hatchet man and only has a 30-45 day handle at most on his schedules most of the time except the dead of winter when things slow down a little for him. The Lottery hunts I put us in for are in January/early Febuary.
Other old time pard is still recuperating from a worksite accident in Feb '06 and dunno yet if he can ever pull a trigger again. Runnin around with the over 60 crowd takes a LOT of planning! LOL!
Ron

Try planning anything with a 14 month old! Not to mention hunting season always coincides with football season. I guess the good thing this year is, after Saturday, the Horns only have two more home games left this season.

-Dan

Clark - what can you tell me about Bastrop County as far as shooting ranges, gun stores, hunting opportunities (doubtful at best I'm sure) within couple hours and so on. Joe McBride in Austin & Bobby Nagel in SA are old friends but it's been 20+ years since I did any gun related bidnizz down there.

I'm trying to convince the better half to abandon Lake Texoma and Bastrop County looks interesting as far as land values and access to the Austin/SA corridor is concerned.

Got her close to pulling the plug on north texas couple years ago to move to Comal County when I found a 5 acre bargain out NWest of the Gruene Music Hall, but seems like I've missed the low price high value window anywhere east of Blanco and west of I-35 ...and land prices are looking like San Jose Kaleefornia has arrived in Central Texas according to a buddy who lives on Inks Lake.

OBTW RugRats are why minivans & station wagons were invented...BTDT back in the '70s before ALL this extra stuff required nowdays was ever invented...first thing she did was to ditch the station wagon when the boys got old enough to get in & out of the backseat of a two door coupe on their own! LOL!
Ron

I think Bastrop Co is very nice personally. I love the landscape. The only problem with it are some of the people that live there, which is unfortunate.

Downtown Bastrop has some beautiful old homes, river runs right through it, easy access to San Antonio, Houston, Austin, San Marcos, etc. For some reason though, it seems to have more than its fair share of white trash and the like. It is growing though and all that might change over time with Austin expanding like it is. That said, if you found the right place, I'd definitely consider moving. I'd just be sure to scout out your future neighbors pretty well.

If you do like the looks of that part of Texas, you might look a little further East around Smithville. I've always thought it was a pretty nice town.

The wife and I both would like to eventually end up in the area north of San Antonio. Boerne, Bandera, that area up there is really nice but like you said, prices have gone through the roof recently.

Since I'm in surveying, I've got a pretty good feel on most of the towns around Austin so feel free to hit me up with any questions. I grew up south of San Antonio so know that area pretty well too.

-Dan

Funny you mention Smithville, I spent 3 hours on the phone yesterday with a hunting pard from the 70's & 80's who is now running some sort of development/HOA outside Smithville that has a private lake on the property. He is an old time high dollar custom pool & home builder from Plano who landed in Bastrop first and then moved over to Smithville about 14 years ago. Gave me the do this/don't do that's about Aquos Water - $4000 for a new service water meter is bigtime BS, Blue Bonnet Power yadda yadda. He also mentioned something in passing about the RNWT issues's too but seemed to think the County would "grow" out of the problem over the near future like you said.

Let me get down there and look around some and get back to you for some insight.

The wife found a undeveloped raw land 6 acre place heavily wooded with 40'+ trees for $24k that sounded interesting with about 1/4 of it above the 100 year flood plain. She also found a 1992 built 1600sqft two story out north of the SP on 5 acres for a little over $100k within a mile of Hwy 21 on a county road...so there appears to be some deals out there at the moment like I used to see around Canyon Lake off Purgatory Road. Just need less than an hour's drivetime access to the Austin or SA metro markets. I looked at Boerne 3-4 years ago and saw prime residential small acreage plots at $20-$40k an acre, then it jumped to $60k+ in 9 months and when there was stuff hitting $100k an acre for 5-10 acre plots I quit wasting my time looking.

From where I am now overlooking Lake Texoma with a private boathouse on a small 75x100'lot with a 2-2 weekender 900 sq ft placethat is 4' above the recent, only 3rd time in a 70 year history, spillway breaching floods & with Dallas North Tollway will be ending less than two blocks from me in less than two years... this place is beginning to explode and raw land with FM hwy access or COE access has already jumped from $10-$12k to $40K+ an acre in the last 18 months. Right now I am 91 miles to downtown Dallas...and 3+ hours drive time in rush hour to make sales calls! BSBSBS! So put a fork in me about retiring in north Texas as previously planned, I'm done with that...but got 5-6 years of prime time left to make some bux before I want to pull the plug.
Ron