Deep In The Hunt Of Texas - First Deer, NM Mule Deer, Hunt and Jeffro Cameo

Connor records a mostly solo episode of Deep in the Hunt of Texas. He's running late after a day of work golf, and he looks ahead to deer season. He says it's still warm, but a gradual cool-down should help the rut and the rifle season later on.

**First blood in Bowie.** His cousin Trey shot a big 8-point, roughly 130–135 inches. It was a last-minute Sunday evening hunt. The arrow showed liver-type blood, so Trey backed out instead of pushing the deer. Connor uses that to explain how to read blood on an arrow:

- Pink and bubbly usually means lung.

- Darker blood can mean heart.

- Flaky red blood means liver.

- A shoulder hit usually means the deer lives.

Liver-hit deer die, but pushing them too soon can send them miles away. While they waited for a tracking dog, everything went wrong. They got a bad waiter at their favorite Tex-Mex place, then hit a dead deer's antler and got a flat tire. A deputy sheriff questioned their friend at the gate, and Connor worried a game warden might show up. The dog found the buck 25 yards from the stand in seconds. Connor calls the whole night a "Murphy's Law" story.

**Lessons from hard seasons.** Connor shot nothing in 2024 and had to grind out a deer on December 28 last year. He says his biggest growth came in those years. He used to be a "slave to the corn." He now studies travel routes and bedding, and he thinks deer hunting is built on trial and error. He gives this advice:

- Take more risks if you have a lot of land, and compare it to diversifying investments.

- Be patient on strong spots like pinch points.

- Move cameras that show only cows and hogs.

- Trust your gut.