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New to HuntTalk and new to hunting

TN Wild Man

New member
Joined
Sep 19, 2015
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11
Location
Houston, TX
Hey everybody! I was just listening to one of the Hunttalk Radio podcasts and decided that it was finally time to take the plunge and join up here at the forum. I'll break the introduction into a short and long version.

Short and Sweet:
I'm new to hunting, but I harvested my first whitetail deer last winter outside of Gatesville, TX. Since then I've been slowly been chipping away a the deer in my freezer in Houston (where I live and work). I'm looking forward to learning much much more about hunting and hopefully meeting some great people here on the foum.

Longer version:
I was born and raised in southeastern Tennessee (a couple small towns north of Chattanooga) and grew up hiking, camping, scouting, and target shooting. My father grew up in the same part of the country and hunted squirrels and rabbits when he was young, but he had essentially lost interest in most outdoor activities by the time I was old enough to tag along. He and I did do a pretty fair amount of target shooting together which was fantastic.

I moved around the country a bit and worked through my early twenties and eventually ended up coming back to eastern Tennessee to go to college. Fast forward a few years and now I work as a Geologist in Houston, TX. My wife and I have been married for 10 years, and we've got three little boys (7, 4, and 1.5) and a baby girl on the way. About three years ago one of my coworkers introduced me to sporting clays (very popular around Houston), and I haven't had any reason to pick up a golf club since.

Now to the hunting...I never "hunted" anything aside from catching some crawdads in the creek when camping a couple of times as a teenager. There was something pretty cool about catching those little guys and cooking them up over a campfire! About two years ago I was listening to one of Joe Rogan's podcasts and I heard him talk with Steve Rinella and Steve's whole perspective on hunting (mainly food as opposed to trophies) really appealed to me. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with trophy hunting, but it just never really appealed to me. I got hooked on Steve's show and podcast, and that's sort of how I found out about Randy Newberg and ended up here.

After getting bitten by the hunting bug I went out and bought a deer rifle and started practicing at the range (a year and a half ago or so). I always enjoyed shooting, but this was my first high powered rifle so I needed some practice. The whitetail I got last winter was on a lease in Texas that my cousin has outside of Gatesville (not too far from Waco). He has what I gather is a pretty standard setup for private land here in Texas with a very nice deer blind set up 97 yards away from a corn feeder. I'm still struggling with whether or not this really counts and hunting or not. The deer didn't have to walk out in front of me and mill around while I got lined up, but aside from the shot there was not a whole lot of skill needed on my part. We arrived before dawn and set up in the blind, and right on cue the deer showed up a few minutes before official shooting time. I knew that I was going to be nervous, but I couldn't believe how hard I had to work to try and stay calm and do what I needed to do with my rifle. I got a shot off and was really happy with the results. The deer piled up right where it was standing and was dead b a few moments later. It was just a little button buck that my cousin was trying to get rid of, but I couldn't have been more pleased. We dressed it out and quartered it, and I butchered it back in my kitchen. The whole experience was just awesome. I'm 37, and I feel like I have really missed out on a lot of good years of hunting, but I know that there should still be a lot more coming if I put in the effort.

While I really enjoyed getting a deer last year, I am very interested in getting into more involved hunting. I know that with so much private land here in Texas, there a an awful lot of places where you just ambush hunt from a blind. While this seems like a great way to get some fine animals, I'd eventually like to get into some back country outings that involve spot and stalk hunting. I'd say i'm also like almost everyone else here in that I dream of one day going on that big western elk or mule deer hunt too.

That's probably way more than most people are willing to read. I don't really know that many other hunters here in Houston, but I know they are out there based on the sheer amount of bumper stickers I see driving around town. So, hopefully I will run into some cool folks here on the forum.

Thanks for reading!

Watch yer topknot,
Wildman
 
Welcome to HuntTalk. Congratulations on your first (of many!) harvest. I hope you continue to broaden your outdoors horizon. Inshore and offshore fishing would be just a few miles away, and maybe waterfowling to be had that avoids the problem of private land.
 
Welcome and great first post. You'll enjoy the ride as you explore the vast hunting opportunities available in this great country of ours. There's no shortage of Texans wanting to head to the Rocky Mtn states to hunt. I think a wonderful place to start out in your first spot-and-stalk big game hunt is pronghorn antelope. And anytime you talk nonresident antelope hunting, you talk about Wyoming. Lots of good stuff on the forum on Wyoming antelope hunting. Cheap. Fun. Ample opportunity. You'd have a ball. Best of luck and welcome to the forum.
 
Welcome, glad you found us. Im sitting right in between Knoxville and Chattanooga right now. Been here pretty much all my life minus a yr or two. Im sure we covered some of the same ground.
 
Welcome!

Don't ever let someone tell you hunting over a corn feeder isn't hunting. Out west you have 1000's of acres to go chase down the animal. In the private east you might have 160 acres, or less! Need some way to draw the animal to you. Yes I would rather hunt in the west every single hunt, but with where we live, just not possible. Different styles of hunting, which is better is up to personal preference. Do the best you can with what you have, and eat good!
 
Welcome, glad you found us. Im sitting right in between Knoxville and Chattanooga right now. Been here pretty much all my life minus a yr or two. Im sure we covered some of the same ground.

Hey there Tikka, I'll bet you're right about covering the same ground. I wasn't hunting when I lived in TN, but I did a lot of hiking, camping, and caving while I was there. Are you in McMinn county by chance? That's where my wife was born and raised. My inlaws still live there.

If you interested in doing any camping around Parksville Lake on the Ocoee let me know. I can point you to some good spots.
 
Yeah buddy I sure am. I fish the hiwassee pretty frequently but havent done much hunting or fishing around Ocoee but Im not against it either. There is just so much land to cover between the north and south cherokee NF and I usually end up in the Tellico ranger district.
 
Welcome, I've got a brother-in-law that's living in Huntsville that I've been trying to drag out west for an elk hunt. I'm sure you could get hooked up with some good guys out there.
 
Welcome, I live in Houston (Richmond) as well and found this site by listening to Steve Rinella. Now I listen to Randy's podcast while I drive to work (1 hr drive-one way)

I whitetail hunt here in Texas and it is completely different than western hunting. I am trying to learn more about western hunting myself. I am kind of turned off with how Texas has turned in a rich man's sport and everything is focused on high fences and large racks. It is commercialized deer farming and they call it hunting. I like to shoot big bucks like the next man, but I will not ever pay 10 grand to shoot a buck to hang on a wall.
 
Welcome, I live in Houston (Richmond) as well and found this site by listening to Steve Rinella. Now I listen to Randy's podcast while I drive to work (1 hr drive-one way)

I whitetail hunt here in Texas and it is completely different than western hunting. I am trying to learn more about western hunting myself. I am kind of turned off with how Texas has turned in a rich man's sport and everything is focused on high fences and large racks. It is commercialized deer farming and they call it hunting. I like to shoot big bucks like the next man, but I will not ever pay 10 grand to shoot a buck to hang on a wall.

Hey beargrass,

I suspect there are probably a lot of us "new to hunting" types who ended up here because of Randy and Steve's podcasts. I also listen to them on my commute or while I am washing dishes or doing other work around the house. I live on the other side of town in Spring. I've also been a little frustrated with how commercialized the hunting seems in Texas. That being said, I just got back from a really nice trip out to the Big Bend area (I posted a little write up in another forum here). That trip really did me some good and there is some fantastic public land out there to explore. There are some big game hunting opportunities out there as well, but they are drawn hunts and the chances of drawing a white tail or mule deer tag are pretty slim. That being said, it is a fantastic part of the state and I am definitely planning on going back!

I've also recently started looking into some public land opportunities north of Houston in the Davy Crockett, Sabine, and Angelina National Forests. I've never been up there, but it looks like there could be some potential there.

Do you hunt white tail on a lease currently? That seems like the standard way of doing things for most people in Houston.

Thanks,
Wild Man
 
Well, I am lucky enough to come from a family that has land for cattle ranching. It is not a lot of land but big enough and I am the only one that hunts. I hunt on my Uncles land as well but I get bored sitting in a tree stand over a feeder. I like spot and stalk hunting but I don't have a place big enough to do that type of hunting. I have looked at Sam Houston National Forest and hunting it some. Have you thought about there since its close to you? You could scout that pretty easy living up North of Spring.
 
Welcome. If you wanted to try elk hunting then you have some options in your part of the West. Some elk are running around Texas where escaped from exotic operations. Just saying.

Eastern NM is a long but doable drive. NM holds a draw where 6% of the bull elk tags in the draw go to non-residents applying without a guide. Deadline to apply is March 22 this year. There are also transferable bull elk tags in NM you can buy from landowners if you are not successful in the draw.

CO is another option for elk and a bit further to drive. They also have a draw and the deadline is in early April. They also have landowner tags and over the counter tags for bull elk.

AZ, NV and UT are tough elk tags to draw as a non-resident. WY is not quite as tough. MT and ID elk tags can be had each year. OR and WA are not worth the bother as a non-resident unless you want to go after the Roosevelt Elk variant.
 
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