By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

I’m just home from a short hunt in northwest Oklahoma with a good friend. Here’s the latest.

The first evening, I had three does trail past my ladder stand in a cottonwood tree. It was almost dark. In the distance, about 200 yards away in a CRP field, I could see a blocky deer silhouette--nose to the ground--following their same path. It was last light, too late to shoot, but I wanted to see if he’d come to a call. I grunted twice on a grunt call. He instantly came to me at a trot.
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By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

The weather and the hunting is hot and cold in the south. Early in the week the afternoon temperatures reached the seventies but another cold front is coming in and will move the thermometer down into the thirties, which is more condusive to deer activity. Southern hunters are adjusting from wearing a single shirt to bundling up with coats all within a week.

The hunting and the rut has been hot in some areas while the rut is still weeks away in other areas. South Carolina, Georgia and parts of Louisiana are in the rut right now. Reports are common of bucks chasing does and buck sightings and harvests are way up in these areas. Jared Daniels was hunting in Morgan county, Georgia on Tuesday and harvested a handsome ten-pointer that was following a doe. That was when the weather was still quite warm, yet the buck was on the move at 4:15 in the afternoon.
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By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

My season just took an unexpected turn. I am now a man obsessed, even more than usual. Here’s why.

Yesterday, November 6, I went to my “turkey and hog” tripod setup in the river bottom in the Texas Panhandle. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know that spot has produced only turkeys in the daylight, a few pics of hogs in shooting light, and numerous hogs after dark. Deer sightings have been slim to none for the past 30 days. But it’s November and things can change at any time!
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By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

The first real report of any significant rut chasing this week came from an old friend in north Texas. The story goes like this.

Hunter Mike Terry and his guide, the ranch manager, set out to hunt a specific old buck: a big-framed 10-pointer that had been seen at two different blind locations on trail cameras. Instead of taking a gamble on where or even if the big buck would show at either blind, the ranch manager decided the timing was right (pre-rut) to try rattling. The ranch is on MLD (managed land deer) permits, so rifle hunting is allowed in the month of October. [ Read Full Post ]

By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

I spent the afternoon of October 22 set up in a tripod stand near a corn feeder. It was hot, 76 degrees. That corn feeder sits near a river corridor at the bottom of a steep canyon. Wild hogs had been hitting the free feed every day, morning and afternoons, according to my long-range scouting work with the big spotting scope and the pictures on my trail camera. I knew if left unchecked, the hogs would keep the deer away.
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By Brandon Ray

Rut Reporter Brandon Ray is an expert on the region. Ray was born in Dallas and shot his first deer with a bow in Central Texas at the age of 15. The full-time freelance writer manages his family’s Texas Panhandle ranch, is a licensed New Mexico guide, and last year took a 184 gross P&Y non-typical trophy. States covered: TX, OK, NM.

Like a modern day biblical plague, wild swine have spread across the nation, especially in the southern states. Not so different from a plague of locusts, a herd of feral pigs can decimate a crop field in just a few nights. In my area, they consume milo, peanuts and wheat fields. Farmers hate them. That works to the hunter’s advantage, as gaining permission to hunt hogs around crops is almost a guarantee.
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