Ripley stories

[fire29]

I love hearing deer stories, but when you add Ripley into the mix it seems like there are allways some good stories about BIG bucks. I have been there 4 times and have seen lots of deer each time, doe, smaller bucks, medium bucks, and the two biggest antlered bucks I have ever seen. My buddy had a 110-120 come by early and he opted to pass, hour later he had a 130-140 he was drawn on when he caught a glimpse of another deer coming. This was a DANDY! It stayed out side of his comfortable shooting range and the deer headed straight down the ridge to me, he hugged the edge of the ridge I was sitting on, and dropped down into the bottom. The closest he got was 50 yards and I never did take a shot. If this buck wasnt 180 -190 inch animal Good Lord strike me down! It made it even that much more fun talking about it at camp seeing as me and my buddy saw the same monster buck. The one I saw last year beat me to my spot by about five minutes. I stopped at the bottom of another ridge to catch my breath before I started my climb, I was watching the ridge top in the early light of the morning when a nice BIG buck walked down the ridge past my stand site. It was far enough away where I couldnt get an accurate guess at his size, but close enough for me to know he was one of the two biggest bucks I had ever seen, If I had to guess I would say in the area of 170, give or take. As far as I know they are both still there. What makes Ripley so fun is ya just never know what the heck is gonna come by. Good Luck this year!

[rbs]

Thats exactly what I wanted to hear! This will be my first year. Any advice would be great!

[fire29]

The first year can be tough unless you go with someone that has been there before. Get the topo map do a little research and go from there.

[Wanderer]

rbs,

Just figure you'll be learning this year. It's a lot to take in. But BE READY. You will see deer and you'll never know when that'll be.

My second year was the first year I saw a buck in Ripley. He wasn't a monster but a nice 10 pointer.

I was setting up in funnel between a road and a lake, figuring as one would that the deer would travel it to get around the lake. While I was putting in my tree steps I could hear "bloop.....bloop.....bloop,bloop....". I looked out in the lake but couldn't see anything and continued to put in another step. The sound kept coming closer so I stopped and stared.

Well, yeah, I see this set of antlers coming across the lake to my side! The "bloops" were him taking under lily pads with his hooves as he was swimming. I climbed down the tree and got my bow and grunt call ready just as he was coming ashore.

He got up on the bank and shook himself off like a dog. I waited to see if he would close the 70 some yards and come to me or go away. He started to turn away so I grunted at him. To no avail. He had a destination in mind and crossed the strip of woods and disappeared.

I sat in that stand for the rest of the day. I had 3 does come right underneath me about an hour after the buck had disappeared. They were headed in the same direction he went and I let them go.

About an hour before I had to get back to the truck to leave for the day, I decided to pack up and head over to the nearby ridge and glass a wide open space adjacent to my spot. After about 15 minutes of glassing I found all 4 deer I had previously seen. They had bedded in a small stand of saplings in the middle of the field and were just getting up to browse for the evening. They weren't approachable at that time from any direction. Not enough cover for a quick stalk and not enough light left to mount a better plan. So I just watched them and how they acted when people and vehicles were in view.

Later I found out one of my partners was on the other side of the lake that morning and had "pinned" a buck behind some thick brush on the lake shore. He was sure he just had to creep up there and get a shot. Crept he did but POOF, no buck. He couldn't figure where that buck disappeared to until he heard my story.

So began my serious Ripley deer education.

[Kyle]

Im hunting ripley for the first time this year with a buddy. What is the trick to finding good spots to see deer? Do you just pick any old spot do to the large number of people, or do you spend the afternoon walking around? How do you find a good spot in the pitch black if you've never been there before? do you wait until like 10am to find a spot?

[sticknstring]

Look at maps prior and look for subtle funnels. Any obvious place will have 10 trucks there. Find a potential area, get in there and stay put. I'd probably wait for pink light and then walk in and check it out. Deer can come by any time in Ripley.

[Finlander]

Be ready to shoot anytime. I went in there last year as my friend told me to go to the two tall pines and set up there. I get there and lay my gear on the ground going to get tree stand up when all of a sudden 5 deer are running straight at me and all I could do was wave my hands at them so they wouldn't collide with me. They all stop and look at me while I try to grab my bow slowly thats on the ground. I see 2 of the deer are monster bucks, I mean monsters, then they all took off in a different direction and all I could do was watch. It took me until 8:00am to finally get my treestand in a tree as there were deer milling around the whole time until then. 8:30 a 150lb. forky buck made the mistake as he came within 10 yards of me and I couldn't resist not shooting him. He looked right up at me and backed up from the way he came and was real wary seeing me there. When I let the arrow go at 30yards he launched forward but at a good angle as the arrow hit the rear quarter but angled forward and hit a lung and piled up 150 yards away with a real good blood trail that was easy to follow in the snow. What a morning!

Next time there I will stay on the ground during sunrise and be ready as the morning the movement was crazy.

[mrklean]

i havent applied yet but always say im going to, i know there are tons of people out there but do you find spots where there is no one withing 200-300 yards from you? I have never even seen a map of ripley.

[sticknstring]

In one square quarter mile you could be the only guy and in the next piece over, there could be 10 guys. It depends. 53,000 acres of some of the most diverse whitetail habitat in the state.

[mrklean]

any maps you can look at online anyplace? just curious to look it over

[rbs]

look at terraserver or google earth. I have been scouting my area out since I got drawn. I cant wait to go!

[rbs]

I am planning on going to the north end probably just north of Mud Lake. Has anyone been up in that area here? I was hoping that since it is so far away from the gate that there won't be a ton of people there when I get there. If you don't wanna talk on here email me at ryan_becklund @ yahoo dot com Thanks!

[sticknstring]

It'll be packed, count on it. Everyone must think the same way.

Another good site is bing maps, birds-eye is available for much of the base.

[Bear55]

My best advice it hit the thick/nasty stuff, a buddie and I jumped a couple of big guys hiding out in some swamps. The trick is finding a good buck hiding spot and waiting for one of them to show up, or get chased to you.

[Cheetah]

My dad and I normally hunt about mid-way up the base. We have a few spots we like to go to the first morning, after that we scout around to get away from people. It can be tricky finding a spot to hunt, from the maps you can't really tell what areas are really thick with saplings and such, there are a few spots near where we hunt that are pretty much impossible to get into. The deer are probably stacked up in there, good luck getting at them though.

One of my first years up there I was hunting with my recurve and had luck on my side. I was on the edge of a ridge right over a nice trail that lead to the road and a closed area. I stayed close to the road, I was young and not keen on going too deep in the woods. I had at least three groups of does get chased past me. I missed three of four shots on those deer! All 25 or less yards. I couldn't believe it. Kept shooting over or under them. I've seen nice bucks in there as well, some while on stand but out of range, others while driving around. Always worth the trip just for the opportunity to hunt some place new or different.

[Kyle]

we are hunting 1st weekend. Im jacked about it. will be my first time so Im really nervous about wasting too much time trying to find a good spot to hunt where the deer will be traveling through. Not knowing the land at all, and being forced to walk out blind the first morning does not by any means do well for the confidence factor. If anyone who has been there before, and would like to help a new guy you can e-mail me at [email protected] would really appreciate any advice!

[sticknstring]

I was a first-timer last year. It's not as bad as it seems. Check out some aerials. Get a few places in your head of where you might want to try and check them out. Sit most of the day Saturday and use Sunday to drive around the base and scout out areas for the future. Bring a GPS.

[mnguy152]

well what we did was find a spot the first year on a map and sat there most of the day saturday. We got lucky found some deer. So we sat same spot sunday morning. Then after lunch we took a drive and marked a bunch a spots on the gps to check out on a map for next time. I was surprized how big the place is when you start driving around and mark spots.

[mrklean]

is ripley only a 2 day hunt?

[maros91]

is ripley only a 2 day hunt?

Yes.

[maros91]

Here is my Ripley story for this year. I will get there on Wednesday to get in line. Hunt for a half day Thursday, leave to go to the George Strait concert and come back in the morning to hunt Friday. Wife got tickets so I can't say no.