Colorado Bend State Park has a lot of whitetail deer, not to mention many feral hogs, and a few exotic species.  There are 4 weeks of deer hunting, but only 24 hunters per week. The 4th week of the hunt is for youth. Youth must have an adult with them…whew!

Hunters have to submit their applications earlier in the year to enter a drawing. They can, and are encouraged to kill any feral hogs or exotic animals they see, and can do so without a license. The hogs and exotics are not native to the area and the hogs do a lot of damage. While the exotic species are not seen often, there are some Aoudad around. The picture above is of an Aoudad shot this past week.

Hunters get Wednesday through 2pm Friday to hunt, but only in their designated assigned area that they share with 2-4 other hunters. There are 5 areas for the 24 hunters. They can kill 2 deer per license, but only one buck. The whitetails are quite small, with most of the deer being 60-65 pounds after they are field dressed. Dressed, not as with clothing, but being without their vital organs. They must bring their kill to the maintenance center to be weighed and tagged. Hogs and exotics are not counted.

It was quite an event to witness. So much different than the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana where I had hunted for elk and mule deer in years past. But only about 5% of Texas is public land, so hunters don’t have many choices.

Twenty deer, and one Aoudad were harvested the first week. We’ll see what happens this week. We’ll miss the rest of the hunting season as we pull out for Mesa, AZ next Monday.