Successful Hunt...

The weekend hunt at the ranch was great. I didn't kill the big one, but I did come back with meat in the cooler in the form of a cull buck. I'm about to drop him off at the processor to have some tamales made. I've never had tamales made, so we'll see how this works out.

I'll give more details about Saturday evenings hunt. It was the wildest hunt I've ever had, but I'm pressed for time right now.

We're loading the truck and leaving in the next few minutes to head out to my parents ranch out in Rocksprings (6 or so hours West). Their ranch is 1100 acres with 12 owners (Shelly's dad and grandfather are also partners). In addition to white-tail deer, they also have Axis deer. Shelly is also planning to hunt, and I know from experience, if you want to put meat on the ground, put Shelly on the stand with a rifle. She only hunts once every other year or so, but she has killed one just about every time.

I'll give a full report when we get back. I'm sure there will be some interesting stories to tell since the cabin has no phone, no TV, and no cell phone service. It's also pretty small.

Have a good Thanksgiving.

Going hunting again...

There is a cold front coming through tonight. In the words of my Grandfather, it's going to be as cold as a well digger's butt. Hunting is always good after a front, so I hope it all works out. This weekend is going to be hard core hunting weekend. I'm going alone. No wife, no kids, and no Chihuahua. Just me, a rifle, some Little Debbie's, and a box of Diet Cokes.

Last weekend, we had some unexpected visitors at the ranch. The exotic ranch (drive-thru safari joint) about a mile away recently bought 100 acres that adjoins our ranch. They had a jailbreak, and these dudes were hanging around:

Of course, I wasn't there. My bro-in law and his family were there and they took these pictures. Their boys apparently thought the camels were cool. Being that they were from the exotic ranch, they associate people and cars with food, so they mobbed anyone that left the house and followed the cars. In the middle pic above, Ron has some feed in his truck, and they are working to convince him that it belongs to them. The owners came back and got them, Saturday. I wonder if they will escape again? How many people can say they have had camels roaming their ranch?

A Great Weekend Hunting... (3 weeks later)


That's a little misleading... I had a great weekend hunting. I didn't kill anything but time, but I still had a great weekend. We got a little later start than we had hoped for, but we were still at the ranch Friday evening around 6:15. We put Sweetie the Chihuahua in the house, then we went for a little drive around the ranch to see what deer we could find. We saw several deer, including 2 really big bucks. Thinks were looking good. After unloading the truck, we headed to Gatesville for a little dinner and a few last-minute grocery items.



Saturday morning, daylight was around 7:15 (pre-time change). I got up, went through my scent elimination routine, and was on the stand by 6:30. First, about the scent control and why I bother. My preferred morning deer stand is a ground stand on the side of a hill. The deer tend to come pretty close to me, so scent elimination is really important on this stand. Due to thermal currents, you almost can't hunt this stand in the afternoons because the cooling currents travelling down the hill carry what little scent you have down the hill. I'd rather not spook the deer, so I don't hunt this stand in the afternoons.

A little bit about the scent elimination steps I went through opening weekend... Shelly thought I was nuts, my bro-in-law was a little disturbed and he's glad he wasn't there. Before going, I washed my hunting clothes in scent killer soap. I got up early in the morning, got out my clothes, and hung them all on the clothesline outside (outer clothes and underclothes). I also put my boots and hat outside after spraying with with scent killer spray. Next, I took a shower with scent eliminator soap, then got dressed outside (went streaking to get out there) so I wouldn't have to take my clothes back through the house. Yes, a little extreme, but necessary when hunting a ground stand...as I would find out later.

On the stand, a doe and a yearling were moving at first light. They fed for 48 minutes, as close as 30 yards from me. A little while after they left, a young 6 point buck came through. About 30 minutes later, I was sending a text message to my Dad when I heard a noise to my left. There was a deer standing literally 3 feet from me to my left. I had the left side window on the stand closed all but a small crack because there is really nothing that way but a cedar thicket, and I'm concealed a little better in the stand with only the front window open. And the deer stood there for what seemed like an eternity. It was that same 6 pointer from earlier. Man, what a rush to have a deer that close to me and have no idea I was there.