Toward the end of quail season, Rob Haney called saying that he had a free Saturday and it looked like the expected, big “norther” wouldn’t hit his area until Sunday night. We, the we being myself and Sonny, my Brittany Spaniel, hurried up to Rob’s ranch, only a 6 hour drive in my Company’s Suburban, arriving just as night fell, for a go at the quail the next day.

Low clouds greeted us Saturday morning along with a medium, south wind that offered us wonderful scenting conditions. Sonny found the quail and we scored heavily during the day. As shooting time ended, our limits stuffed in our game bags, we decided on something different for our evening meal.

Instead of our usual steak cooked over mesquite logs on Rob’s “old timey”, fired brick, bar-b-que pit, we grilled 8 quail halves. They were spiced up with a half of a jalapeno pepper, then wrapped with a piece of bacon and grilled until the bacon was done. We added a baked potato, along with chopped, green, Ortega, chilies and onions and we had a feast!

Up early on Sunday, Rick went to church, and Sonny and I headed out for a quick repeat at the quail. Parking the Suburban along the main ranch road, we were greeted by more low clouds and a steady, light northwest wind. Uh-oh, it looked like the “norther” had arrived early, beating the forecast by a good 8 hours!

An hour later, we were hunting into a strong northwest wind with large flakes of snow blowing all around us. Sonny, mostly white, with a few reddish brown spots, was getting hard to see as he worked 50 yards to the front.

We bumped into 2 coveys, I knocked down 4 birds, but the balance of both bevys just melted away into the falling snow. We soldiered on for the next hour, fighting the wind, snow and poor visibility, until we were “whited out”. No Sonny out in front, one mesquite tree, out of the thousands on the ranch, close by, nothing but white, up, down and around me! Stopping in my tracks, I whistled for Sonny to come in, sat down in the snow and surveyed my situation.

As I debated my options, Sonny and I huddled together in the snow for nearly 10 minutes,. Those minutes of debate and indecision, along with never having, or dreaming, that I would be caught in a situation like this, caused my psyche to race from panic, to fear, until logical thought took over. Then I used my head for something other than a hat rack, and figured out what to do.

No compass, of course, since I was ONLY hunting on Rick’s 2,000 acre, ranch. I knew northwest was to the front, since we had been hunting into the wind. I knew the ranch road, where I had left the Suburban, was behind me. So, I decided to try to walk back to the truck. Even if I missed the truck, I could stay on the ranch road until I got back to the main ranch house.

Always carrying a check cord for the dog, I snapped it on to his collar, he heeled along with me, and keeping the wind to my back, carefully walked the mile back to the ranch road, guessing correctly, turning right and. it turned out, that I was within 200, yards of the truck. Of course, it was white too! Before heading back to Houston, I waited for over an hour for the snowstorm to break, then for the next 8 hours (normally an easy 6 hour drive) slowly drove home.

All of my life I have tried to beat nature and weather forecasts, and, one more time, I lost!

Well, the final count is in, Tim shot a nice buck, a 9 pointer, I shot the big one, a 10, Tim added a doe and a spike to his tally and Sean shot a spike. Colton only hunted once all season, college you know, so there was no massive kill of doe and spike, just kidding!

At legal shooting time this past Sunday, the Special Doe and Spike season ended, there were no hunters at my ranch, period, for the entire special season and December 30th was the last time that I went out! My big buck will be ready today, I’ve called Mickey with no response and, when he responds, I’ll go right oven and pick it up, otherwise, not much going on around here, the season is over, the hunters have all gone home and our “honey hole” isn’t providing any duck shooting, poor me! With the very dry spring and summer there’s no food and ducks are really scrambling.

Getting ready for the upcoming season, no not hunting season, Senior Softball starts in March, Mickey and I will start working out in mid February. However, he’s really stumping around with an Achilles tendon problem. It pained him last year, but ibuprofen enabled him to play for the entire season, but who knows this year, maybe an operation for him is in the future?

It rained on January 8th and 9th, a signal event because we’d only had sprinkles since June!  Here’s a picture of rain puddles “shot” on the 9th.

Last week I spent in Paris, Texas taking Suzanne for her treatment in Dallas.  Things went fine and she’ll be back at work on Monday, then another treatment on January 28th.  This will be the 8th treatment, only 4 more to go!

It looks like only one of the bucks made it to next season this is the “fighter” that tried to pick one with the buck that I shot on November 7th, see my post on November 8, 2012, “[Challenge Unanswered]”.  This buck made it through the 2012/2013, season.  He will be 4-1/2 next year and notice his main beam, on the right, is broken and both brow tines are broken off.  He’ll live to fight another season!  A rabbit is also shown in this “shot”, it’s been a tough year on rabbits with the drought and all.

Here’s a fox that came up to the water trough on the early morning of the 16th.

Another “shot” of the “fighter”, I believe that will be his name from now on.

This special spike and doe season ends at 5:59 PM tomorrow, we’re having company so for sure, I won’t go this afternoon, but who knows about Sunday?

The Christmas Holidays and New Year celebrations have passed, the world didn’t end on December 21st and everything is relatively normal except for the cold!  It’s bone-chilling cold around here, the high today is a whopping 38, it was 22 this morning and the forecast is for a winter storm to come in this evening.  The weather forecasters are predicting rain changing to snow so tomorrow we might have a white January 4th, (that’s a pun on white Christmas).

I went over to Mickey’s house today and found him hard at work on his taxidermy business, today he figured he was half way through with this year’s crop of heads.  My big one will be ready on the 25th and the final results are in, it was 5-1/2 years old and scored on the B&C 142.5.  Bragging, it was the biggest one out of the over 120 he had to finish!

Randy came up from San Marcos on Monday, hunted Tuesday morning with Rebecca with no luck then took Sean out in the afternoon and Sean shot a spike.  Due to a miscommunication with ‘Becca he had to be home on Wednesday so she could attend a drill team line, dance lesson.  Wednesday morning it was 24 degrees, the spike was frozen almost solid so I loaded it in the back of my pickup and took it to the processor.

Here’s the spike he shot, it’s the one in the background.

Randy and Sean looking for the spike that had run about 50 yards into the thick stuff.

The season closes at sundown on January 6th, then on the 7th a special season, running for 2 weeks, for spike and doe begins and, maybe, I’ll go out and get me the other spike!

Well, the world didn’t end on the 21st there weren’t any cataclysms, in fact, nothing unusual happened, around here at least, but deer season moved one day closer to its end.  You know, everyone got their pants in a wad over the Mayan calendar and its predictions, as usual end of world predictions were baloney, the only end we’ll ever see is when Jesus Christ returns and what a wonderful day that will be!

Back to deer season, Tim, shot his second doe yesterday morning. He and I talked for a while, and no, I didn’t get a picture of it, because my camera was at Patrick’s house, I left it there after our very unsuccessful duck hunt!

Last week a friend of ours wife, hunting on a neighbors place right down the County Road, bagged a nice buck that scored 140 B&C points.  That made me to scurry through all of my deer pictures and “shots” from the game cams to see if I’d ever recorded the buck.  No, I never did and no, I don’t have a picture of it to post, but I’ll call the paper tomorrow to see if I can get one.

Then, there’s a 10 pointer, minus brow tines and 2 points on his left main beam.  Theses were broken off sometime prior to the 12th of this month because here’s a “shot” of him on that date, then another on the 18th.
    
There’s still a couple of nice bucks running around looking for doe and the following shows the ones that have come by cams.  This buck, on the 18th visited the water trough around 9:30 PM then almost midnight swung by the feeder.  From the looks of his horns, no points broken off, he’s won all of his fights!
    
Then, on the 20th this 8, with short brow tines, the same on that tried to pick a fight with my big 8 and was kicking up dust all around him, maybe enticed another doe at the water trough.

Two more weeks of the season and I sure hope these big ones make it to next year!

Our norther came in hard on last Sunday, dropping temps Monday morning to 19 or 20 depending on where you lived.  Tuesday wasn’t much better, 24 and no wind, I’m surprised that as hard as the wind was blowing on Monday morning that the temps got that low!  Our drought continues though, the front came through dry, but thankfully we had dew the past few mornings (ha-ha).

Colton and I went deer hunting this past Tuesday, the 11th, I went to a stand that Tim had helped me to move last Saturday.  It was cold and the wind was blowing, of course, I saw nothing, way too soon after moving it, but I did scope out all I all the limbs that I would have to cut to get some fields of fire.  Colton, on the other hand, saw 7, a mixture of yearlings, doe and button bucks, shooting neither.  It appears that the doe have cut last years crop of young and have concentrated on running with the bucks.
     

    
However, there are still some good bucks running around, some really good ones as these “shots” from the game cams show, the last two show “Big Daddy”, he’s still around, in fact, I saw him at lunch today.  It was “buck city” around my ranch at noon and as I was going to town to eat, one was running down the road, then a buck, not 2-1/2 years old ran across the road, jumped the fence and as I looked to the left, there was “Big Daddy”, standing in a clearing, his rack was pristine, no points broken off, deciding that I was a threat, he wheeled around back into the thick stuff!

Hopefully, these bucks will make it to next season!

This afternoon, Sunday the 9th, we had a doozie of a norther come in!  Forecasts are for the temps around here are 26 to 28 and, of course, it came in dry, compounding our drought conditions.  In fact, this past October/November was the driest since 1926, they had 56 straight days without rain and we’re on 48 and still counting.  October was a bad one too, the driest month on record and we had a whopping .2 inches of moisture!  Until today, we’ve been under a heat wave, one small front came through dropping the temps to the upper 30’s, but it only lasted a day and a half, it was beginning to seem like we’d have a perpetual summer!

Back to the deer season, Tim Came over this past Thursday and shot a doe and no, I didn’t take a picture.  The count now is 2 bucks, mine that scored 142.5 B&C and Tim shot one probably a 125, and he said, “It shrunk on the ground!”.  Here’s a “shot” of a wounded doe on December 4th, she’s carrying her leg very funny and it looks like the shot hit her on the upper leg.  We’ll have to get busy and find her, then put her out of misery.

Here’s a “shot”, look to the upper left of the trough, of an armadillo stretching and getting a drink.  The water trough has been there a long time and I’ve had a game cam there for over a year, since our big drought, and this is the first ‘dillo that’s been around.

We’re getting a lot of different animals coming for water, this bobcat came strolling by the trough, obviously to get water, but the camera is set on one “shot” per minute and missed the drink part.

The bucks are still fighting!  One buck especially, he one that I’ve been following for over a year, last year he was 2-1/2, an 8 pointer, a corn and protein pellet thief as this picture shows, he’d rear up on his hind legs, stick his nose into the feeder mechanism and eat away, but this year his horns are too big!  Besides he’s grown up now, 3-1/2 and fighting over the doe too!

He’s grown up and will be a fine buck next year if he survives this season.  This “shot” before the season opened shows just how grown up he is, notice the small brow tines and the curvy tip on his right, G-2, the main beam.

He even tried to pick a fight with the big 10 pointer that I shot on November 7th, see my post on November 8th, “Challenge Unanswered“.  Notice his head is down, but the curvy tine on his main beam clearly shows.

But notice now, it looks like he’s bulked up, both brow tines are broken off and the curvy tip on his right main is gone.  But, as he eats away, competition lurks in the background another 8, with love on his mind and it looks like all his tines are intact, sneaks up on the button buck. From the direction he’s coming in to the feeder, he’ll be surprised when he finds it’s a button buck and I’m sure the 8 with points broken off will welcome him right on in.  The second “shot” better shows the damage done, brow tines almost gone and the curvy tip to the main beam gone.

It’s been hot, dry and windy for a couple of days, no rain for 3 weeks, we are way behind on rainfall this year and I’ve not spent too much time in the deer blinds and stands, however on November 30th I went out and sat in a tree stand and the results surprised me.  It’s been hot too, up around 80 and I worked up a good sweat walking out the stand.

Surprising results because walking our toward the stand, I came upon this track, a coyote track, right in the middle of the road and I might add, this track was on top of my tire tracks.  I had driven down this road probably 3 hours earlier to replace the memory cards in my game cameras, I knew it was a coyote track because they are rounded on the toes and a dog’s are more pointed, but this coyote choose to walk around in the middle of the day.  It was headed toward the water trough, I still have a game camera there and it’ll be interesting to see if he went to water.

Taking a picture of the track, I placed the camera into my camo hoodie and climbing into the stand, I must have changed the setting on it for very negative results!  Being in the stand for less than an hour, along came this fine 8 pointer.  He’s been hanging around for a month or more chasing doe, in fact, I watched him for several minutes this past Monday morning chasing a doe right in my front yard!

Here’s a “shot” of him in a game cam in better days, better days, because he had broken off a brow tine plus one of his main tines and he was noticeably limping.  Getting out my camera, taking a picture of him, I noticed that checking for the picture, it wasn’t there?  Then I checked the camera and somehow I’d set it on night exposure, so I didn’t get a picture of this wounded, limping buck.

Back before the turn of the century, 20th century of course, Jake Shroder invited me out to Arizona to go quail hunting, 1999 was the specific year, but this was to be a different kind of hunt. Jake was big into field trials and his Brittany’s had won many of them in the Midwestern states. He and his wife, Peggy Jo, would drive up, starting in Montana, then attend the local trials there, then slowly make their way back to Arizona, attending field trials and winning many, the field trial portion of the trips were always made on horseback.

He had one particular dog, big for a Brittany spaniel, Ned Pepper, that was a champion field trialer and Jake decided that on this hunt we would ride, ride horses that is. Not having been on a ‘hoss for years, not since my “cowboying” days, it sounded like a fine plan to me, but by day 2 the saddle, a McClellan saddle, and I’m sure the U.S. Cavalry used the same one during the Civil War, it had rubbed me raw! Rubbing pain aside, we would be hunting Gambel quail, an elusive, hard running bird that had confounded many a hunter! Confounded us too!

Jake’s idea was fine, we’d be “a horse”, even on the horses Ned Pepper would be running way ahead of us, we’d see him point the birds, then ride up, unscabbard our shotguns, walk into the birds, then shoot them on the covey rise. At least that was the plan, the plan was sound, but the Gambel quail would simply run off during the time we’d ride up.

Arizona has lots of Federal and State land, semi arid, almost desert and we tried this approach for 2 days, and I might add, getting “0” birds. As I said, the plan was sound, but the Gambel’s wouldn’t have any part of it. So, the 3rd day, my last in Arizona, we went back to our traditional hunting style, driving and walking!

We’d pick out a likely looking wash, drive down it until we flushed a covey, then get out of the truck and chase the birds. It seemed as if Ned Pepper never tired, he chased birds for the first 2 days and was ready to go on the 3rd day too, what a dog! The 3rd day was a charm, we must have run across 5 or 6 bevys, had some real good shooting and limited out easily.

My troubles, badly chapped thighs, didn’t end with the quail hunting. Our government had just begun checking articles packed in carry on baggage, remember this was 1999, but checked they did. In my haste I’d neglected to remove 3 shotgun shells and put them into my luggage. Of course, the Southwest Airlines attendant, this was before TSA, checked and found the shells in my carryon and this created quite a stir! Before you know it, I was up against the wall, hands and feet spread like a common criminal, but cooler heads soon prevailed and I was allowed to board, without the shells of course. A fitting end to a “raw” hunt!