Last spring Randy Pfaff hunted at Warren Blesh’s RRR Ranch and bagged a nice axis buck. When Randy shot him, the buck had been busy “fighting” a tree and Randy picked up the loose tree scraps and took the cape and the tree scraps back to his home in Colorado.
He found a local taxidermist, presented him with the cape and tree scraps and described how he would like the finished product to turn out. Randy recently picked up the trophy and then sent me the following picture.
The taxidermist did a great job in capturing the moment, just like Randy wanted!
Category Archives: Hunting
Hogs
- Wednesday morning a neighbor told me that part of my fence along the county road was torn up and it looked every bit like hogs, feral pigs,Sus scrofa, were the culprits.
Checking right away, sure enough, a ten foot piece of the fence was torn up and tracks flooded on to my ranch.
There was no rhyme or reason to the tracks, they fan out, spreading across my place. Wednesday evening, found me sitting up against a mesquite tree, facing the wind, 50 yards away from my torn up fence, but the hogs didn’t show. Some of the tracks headed toward the water trough, where I’ll be sitting the next few evenings. Since water is scarce around here and hogs are mostly nocturnal, this may be my best chance.
There’s not much sign of hog rootings and because of our drought, the ground is like rock, but during deer season we did put the “cleanings” in a trash hole and that evidence is gone now. Hogs have great noses, will eat almost anything and maybe the rotting entrails attracted them?
Having multiple litters each year, the hogs are taking over our State and fixing the fence is a given, but you can rest assured that trap ’em, shoot ’em or whatever, I’ll try to reduce their numbers!
A Successful Deer Season
Our deer season closed this past Sunday and my family did our part to thin out the deer herd in Mills County, Texas. Our freezers have a lot of deer for the off season; Brad with 2 does and one spike; Jon with 2 bucks; Randy with the largest buck shot, a 15 pointer and a spike, and Colton with a doe. We had one guest that shot a medium buck.
We didn’t take pictures of Colton and Brad’s deer, but Randy’s buck, pictured with my Grandson, Sean, was a nice one!
I shot 2 bucks, one a cull deer with 3 legs
And the other, a heavy, 8 pointer.
Later in the season, Tim, one of Brad’s Army buddies, and a Wounded Warrior shot this 8 pointer.
This year we had a lot of fun, fellowship and some good hunting! Changes are in the wind from our State relating to a minimum spread for buck’s horns. This has spread across our State and resulted, where implemented, in less bucks being killed, but the ones killed were bigger.
A Whopper
Dad is all smiles, and his son, the lucky hunter, is beaming over the very nice, mature, buck he shot in late, December at the {RRR Ranch}, here in Mills County. The buck scored a gross of 130 B&C and netted 126.
The buck has a very wide spread for Mills County, but these older deer look much different post rut having slimmed down and lost up to 30% of their body weight.
Now for ‘the rest of the story’.
Pictured are the 2007 sheds for this deer.
This year’s gross score 130, last year 126. Base in 2008 was 4.2 inches, 2007, 4.0. G-1 was 3.1 this year and 3.0 last. G-2 in 2008 was 11.1 last year was 10.0. G-3 in 2008 was 9 last year was 8.3. This deer had reached maturity and had added no points but 4 inches overall!
This was a real nice trophy for the young hunter!
Cats
The last couple of weeks several of my friends have sent me pictures of cats in the wild.
Dave Lazor started it with a picture of a big, mountain lion in central Washington. Dave and I spent a lot of time together playing senior softball and fishing for speckled trout, but he’s moved back home to Washington. No more speck fishing but the lucky guy gets to fish for steelheads and salmon!
A local Goldthwaite man, Clayton Gist, sent me a picture of a big, 28, pound, female Bobcat he trapped the last week of December. 
This is the second big one he has trapped in the past two months. November 30th I posted a story,{“Clayton’s Bobcat”} along with a picture of the cat.
Randy Pfaff followed these up with a picture of a fine, mountain lion he shot in Colorado. Randy was Warren Blesh’s guide for the nice muley that Warren shot in November and it was pictured along with several other pictures from Randy, in {“Pictures from Randy Pfaff, Outfitter, Colorado”.}
Mills County has a lot of sheep and goats and they draw bobcats like “flies to honey”. We have one that lives around our place and , maybe, I’ll get a shot at, or of it, this turkey/predator season?
And, we also have a lot of cattle and deer, and they draw mountain lions. The closest lion was killed 2 years ago about 20 miles south of my place. They haven’t moved any closer, but who knows, maybe this year?
Paul’s First Deer
Paul’s First Deer
Layla and our 2 Daughters, along with 2 of our Grandchldren, Colton, age 2+, and Mikayla, Age, -1 were visiting at our house in Houston, while Mike Mitchell and Paul Culbertson, our 2 Son-In-Laws and I had taken this opportunity to crowd in a day and a half of Deer and Quail hunting at my “Big Country” lease at Millersview, in Concho County.
Driving to Goldthwaite, I picked up the boys and we hurried the 55 miles to the lease. Arriving, Mike who had been working all day, decided to take a shower, while Paul and I choose Deer hunting.
During past hunting trips to the lease I had scouted for Deer extensively and had come up with several spots that showed promise. One of these was a dead mesquite that overlooked a game trail leading to the stock tank 200 yards south, and as Paul scrooched down behind the tree, I spread out several hands full of corn along the trail to, hopefully, coerce a buck to stop and take a bite. I headed a half mile, to the north, along another game trail, spread some more corn and climbed into a 15 foot Deer blind, tower.
The wind picked up from the east, 12 to 15 MPH, as I checked my watch, 4:15 P.M. and began to scan my immediate area. Here came a Turkey, he’s got a beard, so I just watched it nibble at the corn. The rancher leases the ranch to a Turkey outfitter in the spring and doesn’t allow us to shoot one. The 2,000 acre, ranch had hundreds of the wily birds, so all I could do was watch!
The wind picked up and here came more Turkeys, toms and hens, and they vacuumed up all of the corn I had put down. Counting over 40 big, birds, I continued to scan for horns. No luck, I only spotted several does, no bucks, so when it became too dark to shoot, I climbed down and walked back toward Paul.
Hearing no shot, I didn’t anticipate the smile on his face and he’s not behind his stump, but standing beside a downed Deer. Walking up to him, I saw it was a nice buck and counting 9 points, I said, “I never heard you shoot!” He replied, “Around 5:15 the buck came walking along the trail, stopped and took a bite of corn, and bam, down he went. I’ve been sitting here admiring him.” Below is a picture that Paul snapped the next morning of his first Deer hanging on my windmill.
We headed back to the camp house and found Mike dressed and packed. He had just gotten a call from Laura that Mikayla had pneumonia and they had checked her into the hospital and for him to come to Houston, 5 ½ hours away, ASAP!
We hurriedly cleaned the Deer, packed, loaded up, stopped the Deer and Paul off in Goldthwaite and headed on to Houston. Mikayla recovered nicely and today she is a beautiful, 7th grader!
Nailed
Putting this hunt in perspective, winter started 5 days ago and this fall, we’ve only enjoyed two cold snaps with freezing temps. Being a 5th generation Texan, I call myself a ‘flatlander’, have thin blood, am adverse to cold and cold to me is 45. But like most men, a little self-punishment is good for the body.
Monday morning in Mills County, Texas was foggy, the temp was 27 and it was way too cold to go sit in a blind, but Monday afternoon was different. It was cloudy, 34 degrees with a southeast wind of 10-15 MPH, and a wind chill of around 23. Rather than stay in by the nice warm fire, I decided to go hunting and try to shoot a big doe and I picked a tree stand overlooking a small food plot. Since the deer have over grazed the plot and we’ve had very little rain in the past 2 months, I use the term, food plot, as a description only!
With my .270 unloaded, climbing up into the stand, I was about 15/16th in and just sliding into the seat when I saw movement on the edge of the plot and I froze. About 80 yards away, a yearling doe picked that time to came out and browse a little. Not being able to move, I felt kinda’ silly “half in and half out’, but all I could do was just remain in that cramped position.
Then out comes a big doe, a shooter, obviously the yearling’s mom, and she starts grazing. No scent problem since the cold wind is off of the deer, blowing into my face and both of them have their rear ends toward me and as I ‘scrooch’ down into the seat, up go their tails and they bolt off! The sound of cloth on cloth must have spooked them.
Finally loading my rifle and tying my camera to a convenient limb, I settle in and wait for another doe or a good picture. Being ‘bucked out’ since the 8th day of the season all I can shoot are does and we have plenty of them!
The longer I sit, the colder I get. The wind ‘finds’ every crack and space in my garb, even the eyes of my shoelaces. Of course, being cold and thinking about it only makes me ‘more’ colder. My thoughts race – “Maybe another doe won’t come by?” “Maybe not even a picture opportunity?” “Maybe it’s too cold to even clean one?”
Just then a spike comes out of a trail not 20 yards to my front and turns and stares at me. He must be thinking, “What in the world are you doing out in this weather?”
As he ambles on down the trail, I answer that question for him, climb out of the stand and head back to my Jeep. No deer today, and as my Dad said many years ago, “Boy, don’t worry about today’s bad hunt. Just remember if it was easy each time out, it would be called shooting instead of hunting!”
A Quail Hunting Bonus
Fred Walters had just signed on to a 600 acre quail/dove lease outside of Lockhart, Texas, and in early December, had asked me to join him on a quail hunt, and he reminded me to bring along some heavy shot for, maybe, a passing duck. Following his orders, along with 20, 7-1/2’s for quail, I slipped 5, number 6 shot into my hunting coat pocket.
Having no dog, we had busted into 2 average sized coveys and had reduced their numbers by 4 birds. Luckily we found all 4, and as we looked for the last one, in the brush, some 300 yards ahead, we spotted the damn of a stock tank. Fred said, “While I look for this bird, why don’t you walk on up and see if there are any ducks on the tank? If there are, go ahead and shoot ‘em.”
Changing out the 7-1/2’s in my pump for 6’s and clipping the other 2 between the fingers of my left hand, I quickly, but quietly, walked up behind the damn and eased my eyes over the edge for a look, and to my surprise there was 75 to 100 different varieties of ducks swimming and feeding in the small tank. Quickly ducking back down, my mind racing, I tried to wave for Fred to come up, but he couldn’t see me through the thick stuff, so I decided to tie into them by myself.
Taking a deep breath, I eased over the top of the damn and the surface of the water exploded with ducks taking flight. Not shooting into the bunch, but picking out one and bam, down it went along with several others; switching my aim to another, bam, down it and several other went; my mind still racing, I decided to take only a clean shot at ONE duck and bam, it plopped to the ground. As the ducks caught the wind they swung back over the tank and I quickly stuffed my 2 finger held shells into my pump and bam, bam, and down went 2 more.
At the time, daily bag limit was 5 and possession limit was 10. Counting Fred’s limits we could have 20 ducks, but 20 was a dicey number with no more than 2 Pintail drakes and no more than 2 Mallard hens. As I started to retreived the ducks, I had 11 on the ground and 8 in the pond, Fred walked up and we both began picking up ducks and ‘chunkin’ them out of the water.
As best I remember, we were lucky, the bag included one Mallard hen, 2 Pintail drakes and a mixture of 16, Teal, Widgeon and Gadwalls. We picked, singed and cleaned the ducks, filled our cooler and headed home.
Without “pot shooting” them on the water, 5 shots and 19 ducks was still OK!
“The Legend†Passes The Test
Pictured is a west Texas desert mule deer taken with “The Legend”, Warren Blesh’s 22.250. The mulie scored 165 B&C and was taken on the Caddo Gage Ranch. Warren mentioned to me after he shot his Colorado mulie with a 25.06, see “{The ‘Bull’ Goes To Colorado}”, that he would like to get one with “The Legend”, a 22.250.
In Warren’s words, ““The Legend” met it’s toughest match this past week. We faced vast rough country and very elusive desert mulies. Mondays weather was 70 degrees and winds out of the south at 30mph. Tuesday morning, in our assigned ‘pasture’ of 14,000 acres, we saw lots of young bucks.”
“Around noon the weather changed to a hard norther with winds 30 mph from the north and rain turning to snow. I was intimidated by the hard hunting, hard weather and this was far more hunt than I had planned for “The Legend”.”
“My guide and I spotted this big mulie chasing a few does. The wind was howling and I had to take my first shot from the pick up. The pick up shook, the Legend fired and I must have missed. Oh my!”
“The next shot rang out as my guide said keep firing. The next shot a solid mid section shot. Then, I remembered that my buddy in Colorado had told me that a high shoulder shot would take any mulie down. So, my next shot was high shoulder. The buck took a fall and both me and “The Legend” passed out from exhaustion!”
A Non Hill Country Deer
On his family’s low fence, ranch in Lamar County, in far, northeast Texas, this 14 year old, hunter, who has been hunting since he was 8, bagged this nice buck. Before field dressing, the buck weighed 180 pounds and scored a whopping 168-7/8 B&C points.
My Daughter, Suzanne, who teaches in the North Lamar School District, where this young man attends school, sent me this picture and short story about this great deer that was shot in Lamar County. In most cases, you’d think that this deer would have been shot in the western part of our Texas hill country, or south Texas.