Monthly Archives: September 2012

Hunting

Waiting

Last night, with Layla getting over her case of flu, the doc said it was allergies I went out, stayed after dark and waited for a hog, the infamous black hog to show up.  My wait was in vain because it never showed, however one of my food plots bore the damage a full size hog can wreck upon it!

As I waited for the sun to set, with sweat pouring off me, it was 92 around here yesterday I snapped this “shot” of all the undergrowth around MaMaws blind, that means a lot of clean up for me.

Then, a good buck, the young 8 pointer with short brow tines walked up and looked the place over.  As I’ve said before, “If he makes it past this season, he’ll be a good one!”
    
No hogs, but my red hunting light worked just fine, probably Saturday evening, I’ll try again.

Now for something unusual, this past Monday, my daughter Suzanne, who teaches third grade in Paris, Texas, sent me a picture of this bobcat, a male and very healthy, that had caught himself in the school’s soccer net.  She took this picture of the cat just before a maintenance man cut him down. I bet the cat and all scattered quickly when he was cut loose!

Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, September 25, 2012

Sometimes I get some real good “shots” of the wild game that comes into the feeders and the water trough.  This “shot” shows the “Lop Sided Buck”, see my post of [August 17, 2012] that describes just how this buck got lopsided.  Here he’s running off some competitors, younger deer, at a feeder and he’s pretty serious!

There’s a first time for everything and this “shot” shows a young coon ambling off and a skunk getting water, this is a first for a skunk getting water.  The coon better hurry or else it’ll get a good stinking.

The first time the hog, a black one, showed, August 27, 2012, it was just scouting and didn’t come into the feeder enclosure.  Then, a 2 tone, hog showed up on September 18th and “my” black one actually came into the feeder enclosure on the 20th.  Still, I haven’t come across a “shot” at the water trough, but maybe I’ll get a real shot at him soon!
     
Then on September 20th, the doe on the right, obviously the dominant doe, is plum serious about something and it looks like the one on the left is “cowed” by her, since her ears are back.

Two “shots” of a neat occurrence, on one the fox squirrel has taken off from the safety of the feeder post and is “flying” through the air and on the other one it’s head first for some corn.  These squirrels are small and not the flying (better said, “Gliding variety”) variety, but their antics around the feeder are neat!

    

Pictures

Critters

The feeders attract some different animals, hogs, rabbits, bobcats, chupacabras (seen only in Texas), and various, other ilk.  The water trough draws animals, birds, snakes and of course chupacabras (seen only in Texas).  However, we’re too far north of the border to see any illegals, but I’ve seen game cam “shots” of them standing around a water trough and I’ve seen “shots” of mountain lions and javelinas.

Driving down to San Saba for some dove hunting last year, on the afternoon of September 1st, I did see a mountain lion chasing a herd of deer running across State Highway 16.  This is the Texas Forts Trail and I reported it to our local game warden, he said that he’d seen tracks and deer kills too, but never a mountain lion in Mills County.

Early in the morning of September 14th a young buck, a 5 pointer, was browsing in the feeder pen and a cottontail rabbit sauntered in, the game cam got them both.  This buck only shows 3 points, but he has 2 on the other side and he has no brow tines, he’s only 2-1/2 so he’ll fill out and be a nice one.

Then at almost straight up midnight on the 17th, a bobcat was caught on the game cam, its short tail is apparent.  Around the water trough, 3 weeks ago, one of the “Comedy Crew”, a young coon, fell victim to a furry predator, all that was left were bones, but I identified it by the skull.

Early in the morning of the 18th a hog, the second one I’ve seen on my ranch showed up.  Recently I’ve also seen hog sign, rootings around the water trough.  This one comes by the feeders and I haven’t got a “shot” of it yet by the water trough.

Now for a “shot” of a chupacabra (seen only in Texas)!

Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, September 19, 2012

This past week the corner feeder was a hotbed of buck activity.  The young 8 pointer has all of the velvet off his horns and he will be a magnificent buck, if he gets through this season and that’s a big if!  I know that I’ll not shoot him.
    
But on September 12th a new buck showed up, a big one, a nice 7 or 8 pointer, I imagine he broke one off, but it’s sure early for them to be fighting.  He’s probably 4-1/2 years old, a little bigger body and good wide horns!  It’s a shame he broke a tine off!  You can see the lump on his right horn in the pictures below.
    
Here’s a picture of both big ones, the lead buck is a little bigger and both of them are pushing a 20 inch spread.

Just think, only 45 more days until the rifle season opens!

Hunting

The Honey Hole Revisited

Getting up before the chickens, I got to Patrick’s house at 4:30 AM and Brian his neighbor had overslept, however we were on the road by 4:50.  Our drive, except for the dozing was uneventful and we pulled up to the “Honey Hole” an hour before shooting time.

The water was higher than I’d ever seen it, so we loaded our gear into Patrick’s boat and took off on a very slow trip across the pond.  Shooting time came and went, we heard some booming in the distance, but no teal were attracted to our spread.  The picture shows Patrick and Brian in their hide.

Soon Brian’s gun boomed and he knocked down one of the speedsters, the teal coming in low and not flaring until the last moment, this was the first blue wing teal of the morning, Tank picked up the duck and our morning started.

Tank, the Lab, pictured below with a teal he retrieved from the thick stuff behind us,

On some teal we shot holes in the sky, but overall we got half a limit.  Here’s our “strap” of teal, 2 blue wings and 4 green wings.

Weather

Rain

It’s been raining for the past 2 hours, not a deluge, but a good steady rain, praise the Lord and the forecast for today is 100% chance of rain, 60% for tomorrow, 50% for Saturday and 30% Sunday, that’s hard to beat!  The reason for this wonderful forecast is a “cold” front colliding with an upper level low and slowly moving toward the southeast maybe it’ll bring some relief to our drought stricken Country?

It figures that the rain would screw something up, Mickey Donahoo and I had a dove hunt planned for this afternoon and he just called and we both decided that getting wet wasn’t the best thing to do.  However, the practice would put us in good stead for Saturday morning’s opening of our State’s Special Teal Season, we are planning to go to the “Honey Hole” and have a go at the little ducks.

We did get some practice this past week on the white wings with some half limit shooting, but if we hadn’t missed some easy shots, we’d been close to limiting out.  Sometimes, around the little lake, the footing isn’t the best, chalk that up to some misses, then the situation where a snap shot is taken, more misses and finally, sometimes we shoot in front of the doves, sometimes, more likely, behind them, but it can’t be beat being outdoors!

There was an opportunity for one picture.  There’s a spoil bank where the owner opened up the far end of the lake to drain the water into the deeper parts.  Mickey and I were going to stand back to back, each looking in a different direction, and not having to yell back in forth, “There’s a bird behind you, or coming in from the right or left.”  So much for that plan!

Pictures

The Water Trough, September 10, 2012

Starting things off last month, on August 30th, this “shot” of a fine young, 2-12 year old, buck.  Right now he doesn’t have any brow tines, but he’s got good form to his rack, the brow tines will come.

Now for the big ones!  Just before sun up on the 30th, this young buck, 3-1/2 years old, he’ll be real good next year when he grows some more.  This buck stays around the feeders now, but by next year, we won’t get as many “shots” of him.

Early in the morning, 3:00 AM on the 30th, this nice 8 pointer was leaving after getting water.  He’s well outside his ears, looks to be 5 or 6 and he’ll be quite shootable in the fall!

Then at 3:40 AM the same morning this better 8 pointer showed up, he’s 4 on one side, I imagine he’s 4 on the other, has long brow tines and is very healthy!

Then after 1:00 AM on September 7th, this partial “shot” of a very good 8, I imagine, was taken.  His particulars, size, age and health are unknown, but from the “shot” he’s way outside his ears and has long brow tines!

Hunting

Dove Hunt

This past Tuesday afternoon, I went to a friends ranch and had some fantastic shooting, the white wings were plentiful and my new shotgun actually felt comfortable!  The only problem, it was hot, 102, and the shade, even though there was a nice breeze, was hot too!

The small lake was originally about 5 acres, but with the heat, the cattle watering and the lack of rain, it has shrunk to stock tank size.  The picture shows the extent of our drought.  The past year I hunted far to the right of the picture, under the copious oak trees, around the bend of the lake.  The lake is down about 10 feet and our conditions are much worse that last year’s record drought!

Taking up a position, in the shade of course, behind the lake dam, I eagerly awaited the white wings.  Slipping two shells into my shotgun, I cycled the action, thinking there was a shell in the chamber, waited and sweated.  My wait wasn’t long as a group of birds, 8 or 10, came barreling in, picking one out and pulling the trigger, click, nothing happened, no puff of feathers, nothing but the click and later I found out that the chamber should be loaded first, duh!

After about 10 minutes, the doves really started piling in, picking one out, boom, I knocked it down and if it wasn’t for the white stripe on the wing this one would have been very hard to find.  Also, I was shooting gray shells, they were really hard to find!

The second white wing was a head on shot and it almost fell into the water, landing right on the edge.  Close to the edge it was boggy, looks can be deceiving, it will look like good footing, but one step too many and down to the boot tops, so I found a long stick, rolled the bird out until it was clear of the mud and added it to my bag.

Stopping shooting with 8 birds in my bag, 10 shots all told, but I only found 9 gray shells. If you count the failure to insert a shell into the chamber on my first bird, 8 for 11 attempts, still not bad.  Limit shooting would have been easy, birds were everywhere and my shooting was, like the weather, hot, but in the excitement of the hunt, I forgot my water, left it at home and was dry, “spittin’ cotton”, thank goodness it was only a 10 minute drive to my house.

Adding a note about picking up the shells, cattle will chew up any shells left on the ground, the brass can’t be digested so all shells should be picked up!

Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, September 4, 2012

Dove hunting, better called, dove shooting (at) wasn’t very productive!  The birds were flying high, the conditions were hot and windy and to top it off, I couldn’t get comfortable with my new shotgun, but at least, I was hunting something!  Maybe it’ll get better today?

The real story begins with the young 8 pointer chasing a fawn off from the feeder obviously he wanted to enjoy the corn and protein pellets all to himself.  I wonder if this is the same one that he bit last week?

Then the plot thickens a new big buck shows up at the feeder.  This must be one of the three that my neighbor, Lester, told me about last week.  He said the bucks were the biggest he’d seen since he bought this place 20 years ago and that they were huge!  This one qualifies as huge too!  The younger 8, hasn’t seen the big one yet and keeps on feeding.

In this “shot” the smaller 8, sees the bigger one and definitely he appears to be “cowed” by the bigger bucks presence.

Now, after the big buck has eaten his fill and as he leaves, he’s had the feeder all to himself!  Wow, what a buck!

Hunting

Dove Season Opens, September 1, 2012

It’s here, dove season has opened and Mickey Donahoo and I are welcoming it in again down in San Saba and I’m sure we’ll be banging away at the gray ghosts!  Tomorrow, September 2nd I’ll have the story, great shots, great misses and all.

Our targets will be mourning dove, white wings and European collared dove.  The last, Europeans, are classed by our State as non game birds and they can be hunted year round and there’s no limit either and we should see a fair amount of them.

Two days this past week the game cams took 2 “shots” of interest and I just had to show both.  The first was of a feral pig, the second was of a large buck.

Monday evening, something showed up on the game cam, a hog, or a feral pig and this is the first one we’ve ever seen on the ranch, 10 years with no hogs, but they’ve been reported all around us. Late Saturday afternoon looks like I’ll be sitting in MaMaw’s blind with my .243 hoping the pig comes around again. There must be a hole in the fence somewhere, or else, the pig made a new one, based on the pig showing up, looks like a trip around the fence for me.

Also, on Wednesday morning a new buck showed up at the corner feeder, this one is 4-5 years old, well formed and quickly established his dominance over a young 8 pointer, but I’ll have this story on another post.