Our host had declared war on the numerous feral hogs that were on his ranch. He was hunting and trapping them, but it seemed his efforts were all futile. The more he killed, it seemed, the more he saw. Finally, he made a deal with some locals to trap and eliminate the hogs, once and for all!

On this particular late, January morning, after quailing for a while, the rancher and I were admiring three nice hogs that overnight the locals had trapped. Somehow, as the hogs were being unloaded from the trap into the cage on the back of the truck, one big, boar hog, a 200 pounder, wriggled free, and all ‘Hell’ broke loose!

Onlookers scattered, everyone looking for a suitable tree. As a note, most mesquite trees, of which there was a copious number of them on the ranch, offer little in the means of protection. Two of the locals, showing great ingenuity, jumped up on to the hog trap. Running was out too, since a hog can run faster than a man. Maybe it was just better for me to stand my ground?

While standing my ground, the rancher yelled for me to shoot him and unlimbering my .357 Mag. revolver, my first shot at 20 yards missed! The hog hesitated, stopped, and my second shot hit him dead center, rolling him! The third shot, in the ear, finished him. Two of the locals hefted the hog into the back of their truck and probably made ‘puerco’ tamales out of him!

Finally, a strong, hog proof, high fence and lots of trapping (and a lot of tamales) actually eliminated the hog problem.

Mills County, Texas did itself proud on Saturday, January 8, 2011 and successfully completed its first Wounded Warrior Hunt!  It was a success from the start at noon, the weather was nice, there was a terrific lunch of beef stew, biscuits, peach cobbler, coffee or sweet tea and the soldiers loved it!  After dinner we matched up the guides, the landowners and the hunter-soldiers and moved the festivities out to the various ranches.  All told over 30 ranches and landowners participated and over 50 soldiers with various wounds hunted.

A little after 2:00 PM, when we arrived at our place the hunters were anxious to get on with the hunt, but being too early we watched football until 3:30. Then I told them we better have some weapons familiarization training and we heid out to the range.

First to go was Phillip, a vet with experience in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  He was using my .270 and his shots were right on.  Tim Albee was guiding Phillip. Next, was Ted, but because of his severe wounds from an IED on his last day in Iraq, his Son was taking his place and his shots were true.  My son Randy was guiding Ted and Howie.

Here’s Phillip shooting from a squatting position.

Onlookers watching Phillip shoot.

Next up was Tim, with his black powder rifle, the same  one he used to shoot a nice buck on November 23 in “[Gruntin]”.

After the smoke cleared, the hunters and their guides headed out to their assigned spots, Tim and Phillip were hidden in the brush behind the Porta Potty Blind and Randy and Howie were in The Tree Stand.  At 6:30 PM we were to be at the fried fish supper provided by the Texas Games Warden School located in Mills County.

Five minutes before the supper was to start, in came the hunters.  Phillip had shot a doe and Howie hadn’t scored, but in the rush to get into the fish fry I didn’t get a “shot” of  the deer.  Arriving at the supper all the troops were excited.  The total harvest was 30 doe and spike, 1 black buck and 1 coyote, overall a very successful hunt.  Talking to one trooper in a wheel chair, I found out the he had scored on a nice doe, their wounds not preventing them from having fun and getting outdoors!

Supper was a roaring success, fried, cat fish, hush puppies, French fried potatoes, slaw, jalapeno peppers and sweet tea – a feast fit for a king!  The troopers loved it, the guides loved it, the ranchers loved it and I kidded the Wardens frying the fish that it was probably confiscated fish and the fryer’s reply was “Of course it was confiscated, because that’s the best kind!”

For everyone it was a very rewarding experience!

Coinciding with our State’s Special Late General Season Deer Hunt, today, many ranches in Mills County will be hosting our first annual, Wounded Warrior Hunt. It’s for U.S Army troopers from Ft. Hood, the Warrior Transition Brigade and shows our County’s appreciation for those that have been wounded in combat. It is my understanding that this hunt, organized by Steve Bridges, Editor of The Goldthwaite Eagle, will be the biggest one in our Country for these wounded troopers.

Each ranch participating in this event will supply a hunting guide; an appropriate blind, either a ground blind for those will mobility problems or an elevated one, a good deer rifle and The Eagle will provide a goodie bag for each participant. Also, there is a State, Game Warden’s School in our County and the students and instructors will be participating and providing a fish fry after the hunt. My Son, Randy and Tim Albee will be coming up to offer their services and Tim is bringing along 2 volunteers to help with the video of the hunt.

It’s a big deal for our County and there will be lots of pictures, pictures of the deer harvested and pictures of the fellowship before and after the hunt, but keeping everything in perspective, it’s the least we can do for those that have given so much!

It is said that in the things Texans do and the way they accomplish difficult tasks that they have grit.  This grit was shown to all of us this past weekend on the RRR Ranch in Mills County, Texas where Dale Allen, Mickey Donahoo and Warren Blesh, the owner of RRR, combined to shoot a doe.  What makes this a showing of grit is that Dale Allen, the shooter, is BLIND!

Previously Mickey had rigged up a .243 rifle with a laser sight and Dale had been hesitant to try and bag a deer, but on this past Saturday afternoon, he and Mickey went out to Warren’s, RRR and harvested a doe.   Dale shouldered the gun and on Mickey’s instructions, moved it up, down, to the right or left.

Out came a doe and it was moving and lasing it was difficult, then Warren gave out a whistle, it stopped and when the laser dot was centered on the doe’s shoulder Mickey said, “Fire” and the results are shown in the picture below, Dale is on the left and Mickey, right.

This is an outstanding achievement, almost miraculous and displays a lot of grit!

Sunday, January 2, 2011 our white tail deer season ended with, not quite a bang!  We chalked up 3 doe and 2 bucks, with Tim Albee getting a doe on the last day.  Because of timing, I didn’t get a pic of the last doe.

Starting things off, I shot this nice buck on November 12.

Then Tim bagged one with his black powder rifle on November 21.

Mickey Donahoo harvested these 2 doe, one on December 10 and the other on December 13.
    
Overall, in spite of effort, my Grandkids didn’t score this year, but maybe 2011 will be better.  Speaking of better, we will have our Mills County, “Wounded Warrior” hunt on January 8th and it should be an awesome experience, allowing us in a small way to pay back those troops who have given so much to our Country!

Over the years we have had success rattlin and gruntin’ for bucks.  When the rut is going full blast, both of these methods work well.  See my November 10, 2008 post “]Rattled In]”, in this one Brad and I successfully rattled up and shot a nice buck.

Thursday afternoon, a week ago, 2 of my Grandson’s, Colton Mitchell and Wesley Culbertson, and I decided to have a go at rattlin’ up a buck.  Even though it’s well into the third round of doe coming into estrus, we hoped that we could entice a buck to our simulated sparring match.  Based on personal sightings and game cam photos we believed that the tripod stand in the extreme, southwestern corner of the ranch would be the best spot to weave our, hopeful, web of intrigue.

The brush is real thick in our part of Central Texas, so for last Thursday’s rattlin’ we chose a tripod stand, cut back into an oak motte.  This was our choice because the area below the stand offered Wesley, the cameraman and me, the rattler, the most cover.  Colton, already 17, and restricted no longer to hunting only with an adult, had the topside perch in the stand.  He would be the shooter.

Before watching the video, there is one important thing to notice, the tips of the horns have been rounded off!  Deer horns are very hard and if the ends aren’t taken care of, it could result in some very painful ‘nicks to hands and fingers!  I bear witness to this remark!

As the video plays, I start it off with a few grunts and then the horns clash.  During the “fight”, simulating the bucks thrashing around, I disturb the ground with my legs and the horns.  The elapsed time of the “fight” can vary.  Early in the year, when the rut first begins, a mere touching of the horns could be sufficient to lure out a bashful buck, but as the season progresses and things get serious, really clanking them together may be necessary.

After the feeder went off and during our rattlin’ the doe came in to feed.  The rattlin’ and gruntin’ didn’t run them off, they just seemed to kinda’ squat down a little, looked around, then resumed feeding.  They seemed not to mind the “boys” making a little racket over them!

We rattled 5 times during our 1-1/2 hour hunt, and no, we didn’t get a buck, but we had a lot of fun and the boys learned something!  We gotta’ be sure and pass these things on!

Tim, Mickey and I all went hunting on Saturday morning, the 11th with visions of us bagging a couple of fat doe. Well before sun up, we all loaded on to my tractor and took Tim to Ma-Maw’s blind. He saw several doe but couldn’t get a good shot with his black powder rifle.

Mickey and I tractored over to a good parking place, left the tractor and proceeded to walk into the tree stand on the back of the property. Having successfully walked into this stand many times during darkness, not this time! We tromped around in the thick stuff and couldn’t even come close to the stand, so before we totally messed everything up, I parked Mickey in a tripod stand nearby. We must have totally messed everything up because Mickey didn’t even see a deer.

Not so for me. Climbing into the corner, tripod blind, I made a lot of noise and was sure this would scare all the deer off. Added to the noise, the previous morning, Mickey had been in this stand, had shot a nice doe and cleaned it close by. Where he did the cleaning a big, bloody spot was still evident. These actions didn’t stop the deer because at sun up, a yearling walked up and began feeding.

Then, as the pictures show and I’m sure the game cam in the back will too, two more joined in, then three, then four, then a big, old doe came out, and not hearing Mickey shoot, I decided to take this one. Raising my rifle, the metal clasp on the sling brushed against the stand rail and whoosh, the deer were gone. A bad case of pilot error!

The entire morning wasn’t good, I should’a made a video of the deer, but as my Dad once said, “If you got something every time you went out, it would be called shooting instead of hunting!”

The weather forecast said the temp would be around 40 yesterday, morning, but when I collected the SD card out of the game cam, I was bundled up and just knew that the temp was colder than that. The game cam snapped this “shot” of me lumbering up for the card and, sure enough, the temp was 32!

Mickey Donahoo, my neighbor and softball buddy, and I had gone out before sun up yesterday morning on our annual doe hunt. Having lots of doe, we donate one, or more, to needy folks in the County. Layla and I provide the doe and Mickey shoots them with his .204 Ruger, pops them in the head, with no wasted meat!

Around 7:00 AM, two doe had come into the feeder Mickey was guarding, but a big buck with heavy antlers showed up chasing them off. Since my buck ticket had been punched, I had told him to shoot a buck, but he passed on this one.

Over in the tripod stand where last month I shot my buck, see my post of November 14, 2010, “[Cedar Fever vs. Hunting]”, nothing happened until 7:45, then a yearling showed up, just browsing along. Then a big doe came running along, head down and I got ready. Sure enough, she was being chased by a spike and raising my gun, I cross-haired the spike. But, seeing movement in my peripheral vision, I didn’t take the shot, but glanced to my right and saw that I’d been “made” by another doe that I’d not noticed before. She was standing with head up, looking right at me and the yearling spike and other doe melted into the thick stuff.

Frustrated at not taking the shot, I thought I’d try to get the spike to show himself and I issued a challenge series of grunts, grrrunt, grrrunt, grrrunt. No spike, but less than two minutes later, out stomped a huge, 10 pointer, the second biggest deer I’d seen on the ranch and I mean he stomped out, neck swollen, tall rack and all, looking for a fight!

Right away I put the scope on the buck, ready to shoot and up jumped my conscience. Being a Christian and a lawful person, one, my buck ticket had been punched earlier and two, Mickey who is a good, Christian man, would be put in a delicate spot. He is also the best taxidermist around and would have to lie about the buck, so I looked and didn’t shoot!

As the buck was walking away I put my gun down, pop, Mickey’s .204 Ruger, broke the spell and I knew he had gotten a doe. Climbing down out of the blind, I hurried over to Mickey’s stand and he confirmed my thought.

Here’s a pic Mickey, his doe and his .204 Ruger.

My seven deer hunts were spread out over 33 years and my last previous deer hunt, in 1978, had been with Randy, when he bagged a spike on Sapelo Island. When you’ve crowded 7 hunts into 33 years, it’s easy to remember them all! However, over this same time period, my dove, quail, goose and duck hunting had taken me all over the U.S. and even a few stops in Mexico.

Moving back to the Houston Metro area in 1979 and immediately finding some nearby areas that my boys and I took advantage of, see my March 25, 2009 post, “[Woodcock ‘ Lakewood Forrest, Section 5]” and even quicker getting on a 3,600 acre goose and duck lease, see “[A Double, Double]”, February 5, 2008. We had plenty of hunting, but my brother-in-law, Jim Buck, and I wanted to take our boys, Brad and Randy, and his son, David on a family hunt, one problem though, Jim’s hunting lease, a really good one west of Lampassas, didn’t allow family style hunting.

Finally, in 1980, before the season opened, Jim found a place outside of Llano that offered a family style hunt and we reserved the second weekend of the season for our foray. The place, 2,000 acres, on top of a mesa, was limited to two families and shooting areas were clearly spelled out. One problem though, to reach the top you needed four wheel drive and, as you would guess, we didn’t find this out until we were staring up the steep, rocky, some might call it a road, track to the top.

In late October we made all the arrangements that included paying the rancher one-half in advance (no refunds) and, believe it or not, this was still 1980 and the “steep” terms left a little to be desired! Come the appointed date, a Friday afternoon, we found ourselves staring up the steep slope. With a 4WD truck, the slope wasn’t a problem for Jim, but for us, we had grave doubts that our 2WD, Suburban, loaded to the gills, would make the grade?

Huffing and puffing, we made it to the top and figured the big load in the Suburban held the rear end down and gave us the traction needed. Our allotted hunting space was on the east side of the mesa and while driving over to it, with my .22 pistol, I potted 2 quail, “Camp meat,” I told the boys.

While the boys went out to hunt, Jim and I made camp and started supper, steaks, baked potatoes, green chilies and onions and the quail,. Before dark we heard a boom, fairly far off and figured the hunting group on the other side of the mesa had gotten a shot. After dark, our boys came in, followed by a stranger, a high school boy, like Randy.

Very politely, he asked if we’d come over and help them find the deer, a spike, they had shot. We loaded everyone up on to Jim’s 4WD and motored over to the other side of the mesa and within 30 minutes, had found the deer. For our help, we declined the offer of a drink, and went back to our side and had a late, cold supper.

Saturday morning, up before the sun, wolfed down Twinkies and coffee and Jim and the boys, flashlights bobbing, went out to hunt. Me, not being sold on deer hunting, stayed in, with a borrowed rifle, and guarded the camp, reading the latest tom Clancy book, “Patriot Games”. Come sun up, it started to mist, so I pulled in under the tent flap. Soon, it started raining big drops, causing our hunters to come in. It continued raining through lunch and we thought we’d better get a weather report. The news said that the rain, caused by an overriding condition in the upper atmosphere, would continue through Monday, maybe Tuesday.

Based on the weather report, we decided to call it a hunt and get on down the hill before the road washed out. Getting down the steep, incline, with the loaded Suburban, was more difficult this time. Putting the gears in Lo range, and liberally using the brake, I made it down, while the boys, for their safety, walked and yes, they had ponchos on.

My seventh hunt was a wet, flop! For my family, food and hunting rights had cost over $300. 00 and, for me being tight, this was unacceptable. Driving home I thought to myself, If my boys want to hunt deer, I’ll have to find a family lease. Little did I know, less than a year later, that in the fall of 1981, I’d find the perfect hunting lease that we would stay on for the next 11 years!

On my first deer hunt I was 12 years old and for the next 23 years I would only go on a total of 5 deer hunts, but my time in between wasn’t wasted because, some of the time with my two son’s, Brad and Randy, along, we’d hunted dove, quail ducks, geese and fished to my (and our) heart’s content all over our wonderful Country. My last post mentioned that in the fall of 1978, the week before deer season opened, I’d killed a buck in self defense, (see my post [“A Fight To The Finish”]). Then, two weeks later, going deer hunting (my 5th hunt), now I was going again in the same year, because Randy and I had been selected to participate in the Georgia Game and Fish’s, Sapelo Island Youth Hunt.

This was Randy’s hunt and we had a big time, the (State provided) food was good, the fellowship was wonderful and best of all, Randy got a nice deer. These deer on Sapelo Island, are Key deer, mostly found in Florida, that rarely weigh over 110#. However, now I’ve heard that feral hogs almost outnumber the deer with some of them going over 250#. Now both hogs and deer can be harvested!

The whole story of this hunt can be found on my July 24, 2007 post “[Buck Fever]”. In the story, Randy’s lows and highs are the same that every hunter goes through based on hits and misses, but seeing his reactions up close, gave me memories that I’ll cherish for all of my life!

After this hunt, the seed was definitely planted in my mind that, enjoying it or not, I’d better take up deer hunting.