This ought to be interesting William....

My guess is that either: First, we will not hear from Mr. Wonderful.  Second, he will wait several weeks before crawling out from that liberal rock he's hiding under, blather some useless drivel starting with "bwahaha" (or something similar), then go dive back under that rock again.  Third, try to blame Bush somehow by either blathering again or linking to some obscure leftist 'thinkless' tank.

In the five years I've been on this board that's how he's handled himself about matters like this, almost without exception. 

Danny,

Five things I hope will help:

First, getting a lease usually takes time.  Get to know the people who interact with ranchers like foresters, wildlife biologists (TPWD or otherwise), ag salesmen, or even oilfield landmen.

Second, unless you have deep pockets you'll probably fill a slot on an existing lease.  Get to know those guys as much as you can before you sign.  I've had real good success hunting with others on leases, but as many on this board will attest to there are some real horror stories because everyone is not as ethical or safe as you'd like.  Expect to pay about $1,500/gun minimum for a decent place.  There are exceptions, but generally speaking its not going to be cheap.

Third, since the cost is so high most leases in Texas are overhunted.  Find out how big the lease is and how many hunters will be on the lease, what the bag limits are, and what the guest policies are.  Before I signed I'd call the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists and get his opinion on the hunting pressure.  What works with hunter density in ETX usually will not work in WTX.

Fourth, I'd also get Google Earth or some other capacity to look at the lease to see what's around it as far as water, cover, topography, and the size of offset ranches.  Sometimes a smaller lease next to a big ranch is a real honey hole.  But, these days with high fencing and the like those are few and far between.

Last, there are a number of guys that hunt public land on this site, but most of those are bow hunters.  I wouldn't hunt there with a gun though - at least for the first week of the season, and around Thanksgiving.

Can't tell you how many years it was before I got my first deer....probably 5 or more. Keep at it though, and don't ever give up.  With the attitude you have you'll do just fine.  And, I've done the 'breathing on the scope' thing too - really frustrating.

I agree on the .30-06.  With that round there are no questions, especially in the thick stuff.  You'll often have quick shots in the forest, so that gun needs to be a natural extension of your arms, and you should know how it shoots inside and out.

You can change your first and last name, but once you select a user name that's it.  you can always chooses another name, password, etc and do it that way

The rut usually kicks in around the first week of November or so in Red River County to the west of you, but with a full moon the 21st you never know!

David,

If you're in NE Texas the rut will probably be over by the time you get on days off.  The first thing I'd do when I got home is to try to see if you can see any buck sign out on your property...especially rubs and scrapes.  Then, I'd set-up a couple of feeders on the best-looking areas, whether you find buck sign or just well-worn trails. You don't have to spend a lot of money on a feeder - check out how you can make bucket feeders with a hydraulic oil bucket (link here), or a tube feeder made with PVC (link here).  I've used both and in the right they work.  Give these things about 2-3 weeks for the deer to come in before you hunt them.  I suspect there might be a secondary rut in your area that would start some time the first or second week in December, so the timing might work out well. 

One thing of note: I hunted a 130+ acre parcel for a couple of years in that area, and one of the funniest things we encountered is that with only one entrance onto the place the deer began to attern us instead of the other way around!  That is, they'd bed by the gate and would spook the minute we can onto the property.  Maybe that was coincidence, but I'd be careful how I entered my once I started hunting it.  Also, be careful about scent.  I would recommend that you use rubber boots or some other hunting footwear that would minimize what you leave on the ground.  And, I would never wear those boots/footwear in my truck - I'd put them in a bag and keep them away from oils, food, and the like. 

One other thing - be careful because you probably have a points/spread limit in your county, and may have some doe tag limts as well (its been a while since I hunted NE TX), so make sure you check-out the hunting rules and regs carefully.  You can do that on TPWD's site by clicking here.  You can also find out the TPWD's biologist for your county - these guys are usually pretty helpful.

Hope this helps.

Paul,

I've hunted near Blackwell before, and the ruts I've seen are right around Thanksgiving.  In my experience in WTX how bucks behave during the rut will depend on buck-doe ratios as well as rainfall.  Good buck-doe ratios, regardless of where you are, will help with how the bucks will behave during rattling.  That is, the lower the number of does to bucks the bucks will respond much better to rattling and will have a greater tendency to expose themselves.  Rainfall is kind of an odd duck, but it definately has an affect, because lack of rainfall/food sometimes throws the does off, and they can be receptive early or late.  Where we hunt south of San Angelo the rut is usually right after Thanksgiving, and last couple of years due to low rainfall some does were in the first week of the season. 

Hunting pressure is often the reason I've heard for going hunting early in the season.  It is true that relatively unpressured bucks may be more predictable, but the big boys usually aren't (again my opinion).  That said, the biggest mature buck I've ever taken was during the first week...and the other was rattled-in during the rut in early December.  In the end, there's no replacement for being in the right place at the right time.

Because there is always a degree of rut unpredictability (it can come late too) I'd go prepared to rattle, grunt, stalk, watch, whatever.  Once I got there I'd try to get to a place where I can watch the most activity: usually food sources and/or fields. and see what the deer are doing.  Then, adjust how and where I hunt based on their behavior. 

I'd watch them a little first before doing anything.  The more aggressive behavior you see, at least in my experience, the better rattling will work.