My Son, Randy, is the pastor of Fellowship of San Marcos Church and he has to carefully pick his times to come up to the ranch and hunt deer. He missed opening day this year, but really made up for it with the trophy he shot.
Here, my Grandson, Sean, proudly shows off his Dad’s deer. This picture was snapped from Randy’s iPod and I’ll have better ones later this week. This big buck was 3-1/2 years old and had 15 points! Randy will have the horns scored when they dry out. We’d not seen this buck around the ranch.

Previously, I had mentioned seeing out in my field, a nice deer, with tall, uneven antlers and a pronounced limp and I had decided that if given the opportunity, I would dispatch it.

My neighbor captured a picture of the deer coming in to his feeder and it clearly showed that it was missing its rear, right hoof and leg, just below the joint. Barbwire or a bad shot, we couldn’t tell. As expected the deer’s left horn was deformed and much smaller than the right one and with only one rear leg, I was wondering if he could perform his yearly reproduction duties?                                                                                                                                         Last Friday was the first cool morning of the year and I was in a tree stand overlooking thick cover and a feeder 110 yards away and here came three does right to the feeder. On time at 7:30 AM, the feeder spread the corn, the deer jumped over the low fence and chow was on!

Tuesday afternoon, even though it was 86 degrees and 25 MPH winds, I went and sat in a tree stand near a corn feeder, thinking that I would probably see some deer, maybe even a nice one.A nice one wasn’t to be found, but I did spy, and took a picture, of a young buck.                                                                                                                                                               This was the first one that had stood still for me since August 4, in my yard, near my compost pile, and, thinking back, since this stand is the nearest to our house, it could have been the same one.

Several doe came to the feeder and this young one couldn’t understand why the feeder had stopped throwing corn

We had a cool front come in early Thursday morning with .1 of rain and, to change my habits, I went out at 8:30 AM and stayed until 11:00. No luck and no camera ‘shots’. The big ones still aren’t moving, the does are bunched up and the rut around here hasn’t kicked off.
Who knows, maybe today?

Day 1-Saturday
Opening morning of deer season dawned bright and clear, with the temperature hovering around 60. No one told the deer that they should be up at sunrise and the usual fusillade of shots didn’t happen, just a few scattered bangs.

Ice tea, sweet or un-sweet, must be the State Drink of Texas. On this trip, ice tea saved the day!
Layla, decided she would start Deer hunting and on a warm, sunny afternoon in early November we were alone at our lease in McCulloch County, and had selected our ‘hides’ for the afternoon.. She had chosen a small ground blind along a draw on the north side of the property and I was snuggled, near a feeder, into a clump of buck brush on the edge of one of our small, Texas, ‘mountains’.

A group of Turkeys was visiting the feeder that I was protecting and I was trying to pick one out, when, boom, from Layla’s blind! Quickly collecting my wits and gear, I followed “the sounds of the guns” until I saw her. A big smile on her face, standing over a Deer and as I hurried closer, I saw the horns.

She had just shot her first buck! She was excited, happy, laughing, and as she ran up to me, said, “I saw his horns, put the scope on his heart, shot and he fell in his tracks!”  Picking her up and hugging her, I offered my congratulations and told her we’d get it mounted!

  Layla’s first Deer
We gutted the buck and loaded him into the back of our Jeep Scrambler. Before we headed to the processor in Richland Springs, we stopped by the camp house and fixed us celebratory glasses of ice tea and headed out.

Driving east on U.S. Highway 190, we noticed a smoky smell and looking around, couldn’t see any signs of a range fire, so we proceeded on. A half, mile farther, looking into the rear view mirror, I saw the source of the smell. The Jeep was on fire and trailing smoke!

Quickly pulling on to the shoulder, we both hopped out and I crouched down to inspect the source of the fire. The smoke was pouring out just above a skid plate that was hung below the transmission and closer inspection showed a mass of weeds and debris had collected in the space between the two pieces of metal. The only thing we had to put the fire out was our ice tea and gathering both glasses and crawling under the Jeep I slung/threw the contents of both on to the fire. Luckily, it worked!

Not having my gloves on, they were in the Jeep, I found a stick and started poking the weeds and debris out. My stick broke so I reached into the space and, ouch! I had grabbed a sand burr that had been picked up during our off roading. Getting my gloves, clearing out the space was no problem and we headed on, “tealess” to get the buck processed.

Thinking through as to how the fire got started, driving through the weeds and brush, we had, unknowingly, packed this space tight and the heat, magnified by the tight space, had ignited, hence, our fire.
Thank goodness we had our tea!

Monday morning, on my way to town, on my ranch, not 400 yards from our house, there stood a beautiful 10, point buck, an easy B&C 160 pointer. The morning was cool, his neck wasn’t swollen and he was just standing watching me drive by. Of course, by the time I got my camera up, he had trotted into the thick stuff. The last time I saw him was about a month ago in our hay field. Too bad for him if I seem him this Saturday!

The last 2 mornings, I’ve been sitting in deer stands trying to determine deer movement. Yesterday, when I climbed up into the tree stand, a spike was feeding in the food plot, but my creaking up the ladder spooked him off and I didn’t get a ‘shot’. But, here came a squirrel passing through and I got a good ‘shot’ of him.
The condition of the food plot is awful. The oats are barely discernable and after getting a perfect rain two days after planting, we’ve gone 3 weeks without a drop. The oats are up but really need moisture, and to compound the problem, the deer are clipping the young shoots off.
This morning I was sitting a corn feeder and got a ‘shot’ of 2 deer picking up the kernels.
I’ll be back out Wednesday afternoon and maybe, ‘Big Boy’ will stop by?

October 15, 1973, was on a Wednesday and around 11:00 AM, I stopped by Brad’s school, Cocopah Middle/Elementary School and told the Principal that Brad had a doctors appointment that afternoon and he wouldn’t be back. It was an easy OK for the principal, one less kid to worry about. At the time, Cocopah, besides being an open school and unbelievably noisy, was the largest school of its type in the U.S., with over 3,000 students.

Brad’s doctor’s appointment was really a Quail hunt on the southern slopes of Sombrero Peak, two hours northeast of our home. Jake Schroder and Candy and Ned, his Brittanies, accompanied us. The week before, during one of our quests for Indian artifacts, we had scouted this place and knew it would really pay off!

It was hot, well over 100, as we parked our 4WD truck, unloaded Candy, Ned and Rooster (my Brittany), on a road that overlooked a mile long sloping hill that ran toward the upper part of Tonto Basin and within a hundred yards the dogs were down on a hard point. The three of us walked in, up came the Gambels and our guns erupted, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam and 5 birds fell.

We held our ground as the dogs ran down the cripples, and then moved ahead for the next covey. This scenario was repeated 6 times and by sundown we had 3 limits of Gambel Quail. The coveys were huge, 50 to 100 birds each, and even after chasing the singles and taking 45 birds out, there were still over 400 left for later! The dogs and all 3 of us were worn out, but what a great hunt!

On the way home, Brad told me, “Dad, this was a lot more ‘funner’ than school!”

Thursday, Brad and I cleared out the underbrush from around Layla’s blind, so Friday morning I was out early to check things out. To the front of her blind is a corn feeder and the left side overlooks a two food plots. There was good deer movement in the area including 2 nice, bucks that wouldn’t oblige me for a picture.

A doe and her two yearlings came into the feeder and I took a ‘shot’. I figured that it was too early for a picture, but what the heck!

Last Friday, Brad and I planted oats in all five of the food plots and God was great furnishing rain on Monday and Tuesday and by Thursday morning the oats were up and the deer had already found the tender shoots. This early morning picture shows a doe enjoying the new sprouts. I was still afraid it was too dark get this ‘shot’.

After getting out of the blind, I noticed movement to my right and looked over at a doe that was wondering what that old guy was doing climbing down out of that funny box. I got a good ‘shot’ of her.
The bucks are still running together, but this week I found the first rubs and scrapes. Things are starting to heat up!

Sun up yesterday, a light mist was falling, as I climbed up into a tree stand on my ranch. No deer were moving and I really didn’t expect to see anything, but below me, all of a sudden, a yearling walked out on to the trail, crooked its ears down the trail and quickly scampered off back into the thick stuff, too fast for me to get a picture. The wind was in my face blowing off of the young deer, so he must have heard something!
That ‘something’ was a 1-1/2 year old, 4 pointer that walked under my tree and started nibbling on the acorns.

Because of the branches it was difficult o get a good picture of him, but I ‘shot’ one through the limbs.
Then he walked through an open space and I got this picture. He looks very healthy and maybe he’ll grow into 10 pointer in two or three years.

In Texas, quail season starts shortly and my good friend, Bob Baugh, sent me a recipe for quail and wanted me to post it on Outdoor Odyssey. Vouching for the recipe and having enjoyed it many times, the quail are delicious and it’s also very good on doves too!
Quail Jon
“Every good blog needs recipes to add spice for the readers so here is the first recipe for you
Jon and I started bird hunting together back in the early 80’s on a deer lease we had just east of Brady, Texas. While the deer hunting entertained the rest of the hunters on the lease, Jon and I would sleep in and have a good breakfast while the rest of the hunters sat in a blind and enjoyed the cold weather. After the sun was up and the chill was off, we would embark on our style of hunting. It was always enjoyable to watch the dogs work and find a covey of birds. Jon and I had many a successful hunt and after cleaning the birds, Jon had a favorite way of preparing quail or Bobwhites as we called them.

12 cleaned quail
2 cans Rotel (Mild or Hot your choice)
Salt, Pepper to taste
1 onion coarsely chopped
1/2 bell pepper coarsely chopped
3 tsp garlic
1 beer (Miller Lite)
Salt and pepper each bird and place in large baking pan. Spread onions, garlic and bell pepper evenly over birds and pour Rotel over birds.
Seal pan with foil and place in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes. Quail should be tender when done.
Serve with sauce from pan
I almost forgot the beer! That’s for me to drink while I watched Jon cook

Enjoy !!!!”
Personally, I call this recipe Steamed Quail.