South Texas

Anybody have a good south Texas deer hunt recommendation, looking to book a trip this year any info Is appreciated ,

Heart of Texas bow hunting. They have a FB page. I hunted a couple of iMessage with Kevin

Duval county ranch!!!!! Outstanding

Heart of Texas Bowhunting has a great website. Thanks for posting.

A few questions:
What is your hunt budget?
What size deer are you looking for?
High fence/Low fence?

Budget for me and my son is 10k give or take
Looking for a 170 and up plus managment buck if possible

For my son a 140 or so would be great , and I do not ever want to high fence hunt
Any help appreciated

I called the number on there website and it said it was out of service 🤦🏻‍♂️

I found another number and the gentlemen who called me back said they have a waiting list to hunt with them and he did not know when something would become available.

Mccrea Outdoors

If they aren’t booked. Several of us hunted with them years ago.

He had the deer then. He has low fence or did then.

I am afraid that a 170” will take up all of that $10k.

Might get two 140-150 class deer for 10k. Not to add a opportunity on a free range 170 anywhere is going to be a tough one to find. To put in perspective. I invested a little more than that and hunted Texas this fall for two weeks and only took the safety off once. Still came back empty handed.

Yeah I would say a legit opportunity on a 170” free range is not going to come easy, or cheap. Free range ranches definitely have deer like that, but putting you in position to kill them can often be difficult. I’ve seen it become difficult in highly managed fenced properties too. You’d have as good of a chance at a 170” hunting the Midwest for $3500-$4500 each.

A 170 low fence is not uncommon but is a prized animal down there. There are ranches that have them but they are not cheap ($10k or so) and they have long waiting lists. 150 class deer are the real bread and butter for low fence Golden Triangle ranches. Expect to pay about 6k IF you get one. Now, that does not mean you won't get a chance at a 170+ but you will need to be very clear that you would shoot and pay for such an animal if the opportunity arises. I would suggest getting on the waiting list for as many Golden Triangle ranches as you can and booking with the first one to call. It might take a couple of years or more.

For a near future hunt, I would aim for a couple of mid 140s to 150 type deer and see what you can find. Go on Texashuntingforum.com and go looking for threads about this. There are many if you take the time to look. Create a user account and start a new thread asking about what you are looking for. You will get feedback and honest information from those guys. Get on the phone and start calling outfitters.

If you have some patience, you can probably find a good place that you enjoy hunting at. One thing you should know is those ranches do not allow shooting bucks less than 6.5 years old and so they will not let you sit unaccompanied.

EDIT: There are a lot of areas in Texas outside of the brush country that have really good deer and do not have the intense focus on them that South Texas does. Unless you are just dead set on a brush country hunt, look into other areas as well.. Also, as others have said, a 170 free range is not an easy animal to hunt anywhere that I am aware of. I do not know of anywhere you can go and expect a shot at one.

Even in south texas..the free range 170 is a tough creature to guarantee…i think id pay for a trophy hunt and expect to kill a 150in deer an if i killed a 170..thatd be even better..170 is a monster and inch wise..hard to get on free range package hunts..expect to spend alot of money.

Absolutely right. I have been hunting low fence down there for years and I have not had an opportunity for a 170. I have seen one but the ranch owner (friend of mine) had already told me that was a deer he personally was after and he was off limits. I don't think you will find a high success rate on low fence 170s anywhere in the U.S. other than a few really high dollar ranches.

We grew some of the biggest native deer around..we were around the 4k acre mark towards the endbof my time there…we were exclusively high fence native deer..no deer breeding whatsoever..we did pticipate in a staye managed program that allowed us to select bucks and does andbput them in a pasture to re release in the fall..that was it…we killed maybe 5 200+ Deer a year and that was about as good as we could produce…we did produce a ton of 150-180in deer which is impressive..every guest we had killed at least one 150+ deer a season..special guests were allowed 170-190in deer..and family and select people were allowed pretty much one 200in deer..not necessarily a lifetime..but if you even got the opportunity….you wudnt killin anothern for awhile..unless you were immediate family…i know of very few low fence places capable of producing the caliber and age structure we had..none really..our sister ranch in dimmit co was 45k acres and capable of producing 10-30 200in deer a year..and they have about 10k acres of low fence..they can produce deer like that..but only if the stars aline an they get alot of rain

Yeah we have a place in Kansas we go to every year just thought we’d try south Texas , 170 is a high end best case scenario, a good 150-160 I’d be happy with as well

This is a very true statement! I have hunted in Texas and the Midwest a good bit. I was part of a lease in Illinois in the Pike Calhoun county area for 7 years too. I like Texas due to the fact that you will see tons of 160” 4 year olds that you can’t kill. I have seen 2 bucks in 2 trips that were 190-200”. That is extremely rare and I was blessed just to see them. Deer are extremely huntable in Texas. In Illinois you may see them in big fields at a distance but do to the weapon regulations and topography, they are not easy to kill. I think most ranches in Texas have extremely high standards!!!! You will learn a lot about big deer when you hunt with a guide down there.

I think on a good ranch a 145”-150” management buck would be a great target and once again, a 145” buck is larger than 99.999% of all of the bucks harvested in Alabama. It is a different experience but is worth the money!

Now the money for a 170”!!!!…. Just know what you are getting into ahead of time!

I should have mentioned also that Google will not be a useful tool in finding the best places to hunt. It makes sense that ranches that show up on a Google search will have a lot of hunters. That is why the Texas forum is such a great source of information. You may find a hidden gem there.

I would imagine Kansas is the same way to a certain extent: there are probably a lot of places to filter out that just don't have high odds of success on big deer.

I have heard that the Tecomate Ranch is top notch. If you got enough $$$$$. Pretty much a guarantee, my father and I both shot 170+ bucks and 2 of the nicest culls you would want to mount.

It was El Cazador ranch