Deer hunting in Texas should be on everyone’s bucket list

For more than 20 years, my brother-in-law Dr. Mike McComb has invited me to hunt deer with a group of Louisiana hunters in Texas. Every year, for unforeseen reasons, I was unable to make the trip.This year, everything came together and it was the hunt of a lifetime.I began the 712-mile journey from Luling after Thanksgiving and spent a week at Camp Flying Lead, which is located eight miles south of Sonora, Texas. According to the Texas Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, there is one deer for every 4.1 acres of the lease, which is the highest concentration of deer per acre in the country.

My plan was to check out the area before pulling the trigger. We were going to be there for seven days and I didn’t want to waste my buck tags on a smaller deer early and see a bigger deer later in the week.

For the first two days, deer were everywhere. On the third day, I was in a shooting house located on top of a hill that allowed visibility for a mile-long shot. Again, deer began showing up from every direction. I watched three big bucks and a 10-point dance all morning long. That afternoon, a mature 11-point walked out and I put the 190-pound buck in the crosshairs and dropped him.

Two days later, a cold front came through and our group managed to kill five deer. Fellow hunter Jim Woods killed a doe and an 8-point, while Ronnie Lemoine, of Destrehan, killed two does. I also managed to kill a doe that day.

In six days we were tagged out, with Lemoine, Woods and I finishing the trip with two bucks and three does each.

Hunting the mesquites and scrub oak trees in the rolling hills of west Texas was the most enjoyable deer hunting trip I have ever been on. It should be on everyone’s bucket list.