A friend and I were drawn for the Deer Either sex hunt and I finally got around to do a story share with the OB. The hunt was conducted on November 9-12 which is a little weird on the timing since it was Monday through Thursday. Although this is officially a whitetail hunt, you are allowed 2 sambar and 2 axis, but everybody there admitted they were hoping to get a sambar deer or maybe an axis (but there are not many axis there). Sambar deer are native to India and were brought to the Texas coast in the 30's and early 40's. They really only like the habitat in the WMA and some of the surrounding areas. Coastal plains with freshwater pools with aquatic vegetation. There used to be a lot of them, but the State has been trying to get rid of the exotics. The hunt coordinator told me they killed 45 last year with all 5 hunts on the WMA. The Powderhorn hunt is a compartment hunt with a couple blinds available in each compartment. You can do whatever you want, ride around on the roads/trails, stomp around, sneak around or sit in the blinds.



We arrived the morning of the hunt at the check station and there were already several hunters there, along with a decent number of standby hopefuls. After everyone had signed in and the standbys had signed up the Dan, the hunt coordinator, read all the standby name sheets, crumpled the sheet and put them in a hat. They only had one standby slot. Pulled out the names of a couple of old timers. One guy was using a rolling walker, I guess they were just planning on riding around in their truck or sitting in the stand. I don't know how they did.

After the standby theatre, Dan gave a brief orientation about gate closing, signing in, contacting the staff, hunt rules and safety. The he and his staff sat down and starting assigning compartments. Not sure how they assign compartments, seemed like they would allow at least one blind per person in your group. The compartments follow the roads and are bordered by some natural water ways and patches of thick stuff you would need a suit of armor to move through. We were assigned about 500 acres and blinds 20 & 19.




This is what all the blinds look like, about 5x5 and full of wasps



After they divided up the place, we loaded up and followed one of the staff to start of our compartment. She gave us a few tips of about our section and where the sambar could be. This was around 11:30 the weather was good, almost a little hot, but it was supposed to get much cooler and windy overnight and in the morning. We decided to drive the roads and trails to scout the place. It has been dry in Calhoun county this year and the roads were in good shape and the trails were all shredded so you would drive even in a regular truck. There are a bunch of small pools that you can see from the road or walk up on, however they were much smaller than normal. The sambar like to stand in the edges of the ponds and eat. Dan and the state biologist who was there said the don't pattern like whitetails and bed down during the day and you will see them anytime. We drove all the roads and didn't see anything. So, we sprayed down with Ultra Shield to ward off the ticks and started walking up on the pools you can see on the map, but not from the road.



More nothing. There were more open areas around the pools, but most of the place was very think brush like this. This is just off the road on either side.




We figured we would go sit in blind 19 around 4:00, since it was the biggest and the most promising. We were hunting together instead of splitting up. There was a trail you could walk up to the blind, as we got to the blind, we saw one standing right out in front of the blind about 150 yards. The vegetation around us was too tall to kneel and shoot using my shooting stick, so I managed to climb in the blind without spooking the deer. I got a good shot off and he dropped right there. I was using my .308 with Hornady Outfitter CX copper bullets. They hit hard.




Young one, only had about maybe 3" felt antlers. We thought it was a doe. I drug it out of the pool and called the park staff for them to haul it to the check station on their mule. They are happy to come to you and load it up, but they only offer advice and jokes while you field dress it. Actually, the staff was great. Got back to the check station and the biologist takes some samples to check for CWD and weigh it. 151 lbs. dressed. Skinned, quartered and on ice. Good first day.

Two other hunters also had success, one hunter (a fellow Aggie) had killed a larger stag than mine 240 lbs. with antlers that were about 18 inches, he decided to cape it anyway. Not many people have a sambar mount. The other guy got a large hind that was 300 lbs.

Next morning we went to the same blind (19), but only saw a pig and a bunch of buzzards and caracaras cleaning up the last remaining remnants of the gut pile. Blind 20 was on a large pool, but it was mostly dry this year. It looked like it would be a really good location if the conditions were better.

We left the blind and did the slow drive, stop and approach the pools plan, but only saw a coyote that morning. We decided to go to the check station and see if anyone had any luck and then get some lunch in Port O'Conner and plan the afternoon.

The hunter who got the larger stag the previous day had shot two axis does and was boning them out. He was hunting on the North side of the WMA with blinds 4 and 22 I think. The vegetation and a terrain was different than our section with more open areas with clumps of oak trees. He was walking and keeping the wind at his face.

After lunch we walked the old airstrip on our section and more along the North fence line to see if we could scare anything up. Lots of tracks, but we didn't really see anything and the cover was very thick and almost impossible to navigate.

After moving around all afternoon we went back to the big pool blind around 4:00. Wind was really blowing about 20 mph into our face. Sat there about 10 minutes and saw what I thought was a pig was moving around in the pool in the taller vegetation . Could not really see it very well so we watched it through our binoculars while some whitetail does came in from the other side of the pool from a group of oak trees.



After watching for a little time, my friend said I think that pig has antlers! Sure enough it was a nice stag, but it was still kind of covered. in the pool vegetation. The water plants are taller than it looks in the picture and the water is about a 8-10 inches deep. I ranged it at 175 and we watched for a little while waiting for it to come more into the opening to get a clear shot. I finally came out in the clear and I was my friends turn to shoot, but he had a gun "readiness" issue and told me to take the shot. I asked if he was sure and he said "go ahead, I'll probably miss anyway". I took the shot and it lurched and disappeared into the pool vegetation. We were watching to see if it would come out for a follow up shot, but it never did. Waited about ten minutes and then went looking for it.



Found about ten yards from where I shot it. Called the park staff to come help pull it out of the pool with the mule. I could not drag it.



Winched and drug it out to some drier land to field dress it. You can see the blind in the background. Heart shot. These things are hard to clean, because you really must cut the guts out, they won't just pull out like a whitetail. Loaded it on the mule and the park employee took it to the check station.


The staff took the CWD sample and weighed it. 371 lbs.
Got it skinned and quartered with some help from another couple of hunters who had not seen anything. Really appreciated the help, these things are tough and hard to skin, cannot pull it off and dulls your knives. Gave them about half of it since I already had the smaller one on ice and plenty of meat for me and my buddy.
We called it a successful hunt and went back to Dallas on Wednesday since we both had things to do back home, and my friend's family isn't really that much into the wild meat.

Great time, I would have preferred a more interesting stalk and kill story, but I'm not complaining. I had time in the field and success and it's going to make an impressive euro mount. That is the next project.

Staff was super helpful, friendly and professional. We checked back with Dan and the totals for the hunt, and he said they had a total of 8 sambar, 2 axis and 4 whitetails.

Talking to Dan and the staff, they said a few years ago when they started the hunts on Powderhorn, sambar this size were somewhat common, but not anymore. It's unfortunate that TPWD doesn't appreciate the resource and opportunity these animals allow for Texas hunters and try to preserve it for the future. I imagine they won't ever really eliminate them since they can swim over from the north and they really like this area, but their numbers are way down. If they were really serious about only native wildlife and eliminating them, they would be using a helicopter and killing all the stupid pigs too. They also said they had darted and sold about 90 a year or two ago, but the biologist said nobody has really had success getting them introduced anywhere else. Wrong habitat and they do not handle the cold well.

I enjoy the other hunt stories posted on the OB. Hope you liked my long winded write up.