Lauren Wins at the Longhorn Archery Open.

Lauren had a great showing at the 2012 Longhorn Indoor Invitational and took first place in her division.  Overall Lauren shot a 515/600 to round out the JOAD circuit.  Lauren is still continuing to  shoot with her intermediate group on the weekends and her JOAD group during the week concentrating on participating in upcoming SYWAT (Shoot your way across Texas) competitions.  She has come a long way!

 

 

 



Update on The "One”

Gimpy survived me and the entire archery season, I know this because when I got home from this last trip and went over my trailcam photos, he was last seen on October 27^th.  He is still getting around on that bum leg, but now he has another problem.  It appears he has developed an ulcer on his left rump.  Maybe it’s a complication of the leg injury, maybe a coyote; maybe some archer missed his mark?  Either way, Gimpy is still out there surviving like the stud he is and I will still be looking out for him next season.

 

This is one tough old deer.  If the broken leg, the gangrene and infection don't do him in I will be honored to harvest this magnificent animal.



No More Passes

In October on the opening day of Texas Archery Season, I was filled with hope of finally getting my opportunity to harvest “Gimpy.”  After all, I had seen him morning and evening on numerous occasions just 10-20 yards from my stand beginning in August (this was going to be easy I thought).  This being the opening day, surely he will be there like clockwork?  Well, out of three days of hunting the opener, he never showed up.  However, I did encounter a 2.5 year old spike buck that I had seen before and had captured on camera prior to the season. 

At Gurra, we have a lot of spikes caught on camera throughout the year and try to cull them out whenever possible but I let him walk in hopes of arrowing Gimpy.  After three days of hunting and never having an opportunity besides the spike I passed on, I went home empty handed. 

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving I was back on Gurra Ranch this time it was now General Season (Rifle) but I still wanted to take a deer with my new Horton crossbow.  I had not seen Gimpy or any other deer for that matter seems they all went nocturnal by now.  Then on one morning that same spike showed up again early in the morning before legal shooting time so I watched him, glassed the other avenues and waited for the sun to come up some more.  He did look back as if something else was coming and I was excited that maybe a bigger deer would come out as well.  I waited another 15 minutes and nothing else came in, the spike was still there and I decided I was going to not pass on him again.  He had been broadside to me for almost 10 minutes; I steadied my stick, took aim, checked my wind flag and let it fly.  I could see the bright green nock pass right through him and stick in the ground just behind where he stood.  Unknowingly he was about to meet his end, he kicked up, bolted 25 yards, stopped turned back and looked up directly into the blind as if he always knew I was there,  he then walked off down a trail and into the brush; "I’ll give him an hour I thought" as I watched him with the binoculars.  As I began to calm myself down, I looked over and a 6 or 7 point saw what was going on and nervously turned and walked back into the brush; I was not prepared for a followup shot.  I decided to wait for that buck to return while I waited the clock down before I went looking for the spike.

The larger buck never reappeared and I found the spike down the trail, it wasn’t hard to track him, the broad head had done its job with a through and through of both lungs.  



 

1 Shot 2 Turkeys

Later that morning, I was calling back to five or six toms that were out of site, they were hung up and not moving to me so I decided to go to them.  I exited the blind and moved east down the sendaro towards the ruckus, calling periodically to vector in on their location.  Eventually I had to get down in the brush and crawl along the game trails.  I never saw them and they exited the property.  Just then, all hell broke loose as it sounded like a huge fight broke out as I have never heard anything like it in the woods!  Out of sight it lasted for a good five minutes and then just stopped.  I continued calling with my Jake call, but there were no responses.  Three minutes later I noticed several Jakes to the North heading uphill and winding back around to Gurra the property.  This time I started to get some responses off in the distance.

After five minutes I decided to make a move down the property line to the north, where I incidentally have a trailcam.  It’s about 70 yards down to that spot so I got up crept out into the opening and when I didn’t see anything down the draw, I stood up and that’s when three Jakes spotted me naked.  I was definitely a bust!  I kept my cool, froze in my tracks and they did the same - craning and straining.  I knew I had to get small, very small in a hurry or I was going to blow this stalk.  I managed to get small and back out of the open, I got back to my hide, which is an understatement, and reset moving the safety to the fire position.  I decided to give a few calls and listen. No response.  I tried once more, no response.  I leaned over to the left to start recording and get my pump back up on my knee when I looked up and there were the three Jakes just 21 feet away.  I was busted again and I wasn’t able to begin the camera recording!

This being only the third time I intentionally was in a position to take a turkey, this didn’t even come close to being “ill prepared;” this was a hilarious catastrophe.  By the time I was able to mentally process how deep I was in the stuff and the steps I needed to get a shot off in just a few seconds, more turkeys had arrived and the pressure was on – I was going to get my turkey, I would outsmart and out maneuver these tricky birds and triumph as a predator in the top of the food chain should!  Where it became hysterical was all the time I was trying to get into position, more and more turkeys kept showing up and pushing forward on the leader as if trying to see how many turkeys would fit in a phone booth!

I finally got my shotgun to my knee and pointed at the throng of turkeys trying to line up on the leader who was weaving and bobbing because he knew I was there, but stayed to try to figure me out.  The planets aligned, I had my shot, I squeezed the trigger and nothing happened!  Safety?  My trigger hand moved ever so slightly felt along the trigger housing for the safety; safety was off. ??  Finger back on trigger, lined up perfect shot again, squeezed trigger – nada!  Another safety check, in the “Fire” position!  ??  Totally baffled I continued to line up another shot.  What could be wrong?  What am I missing?  Then it hit me like “Homey D Clown,” the slide was not fully forward; it must have moved back battling the brush?  I knew what I had to do now, but also knew moving it forward would give off a metallic “click” and I had to be ready to shoot.  Now or never I waited again for the shot, 15-20 turkeys all piling up not wanting to cross some imaginary line on the path – CLICK – BAM!

Never before have I had so much confusion, torment and exhilaration on a hunt.  The whole encounter lasted 6-7 minutes, 15+ Jakes staring me down just 20 feet away and now I had two wild turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner, did I mention I only used one shell? 

 

Hog Wild

I finally made it back out to the stand mid November.  Once again, Gimpy was a ghost and all the other “bigger” bucks had gone nocturnal.  This trip I was “hardcore,” I left work at 5:00 pm and headed southwest to Gurra Ranch.  I arrived at 10:45 pm and began offloading everything that needed to go down the mountain.  After hauling everything down, setting out bait, erecting the blind, pulling a couple of camera cards, I settled down inside the blind for a nap; it was now 0200.  I set my alarm for 0500, got up and after a brief nature call I was back in the chair.

At 0600 three big hogs ran out in front about 45 yards away, by the time I saw them they were out of sight and crossbow range when a fourth stopped on the trail and looked my way.  He decided to come on in and five others followed him.  All six of them were all over 150lbs each; the biggest around 225 was the one that decided to come in.  There they were all lined up like F-150s in compact car parking spots facing me.  I had the option of using my crossbow, a -06, or an FNAR in .308.  I have wanted to see how many hogs I could take with a semi-auto .308, but I really wanted to get a kill with my new crossbow.  I was torn.

The whole reason I “needed” a crossbow was to have a silent method of killing a hog or turkey when sitting on blind while deer hunting.  I kept adjusting my shooting stick for either one, even standing with the FN and sitting back down and picking the crossbow back up several times!  Not being able to decide and getting close to daylight, the crossbow won out.  I wanted the big boar in the middle but didn’t have a shot until one backed out of the parking space and came around to the right side but still quartering towards me.  After what seemed like an eternity and expecting the hogs to bolt at any second, this one finally turned broadside I took the sdafety off and and I let it fly.  I had an illuminated nock on the bolt, but I didn’t see it lit; what I saw was a spark near the under belly of the hog and feared that I shot too low.  After the shot, they all ran off in a confused manner and disappeared on the adjacent property; about 2 minutes later I heard the hog's last dying breaths. The sun came up and around 0930 I went in search of my bolt.  Located about six feet behind a small bush was the bolt, broad head and trocar tip smashed, nock in pieces and the rear of the bolt split about 2 inches, did I mention it was soaked in blood?



The "One"

This will be my first year hunting in Texas during the archery only season.  I have read a lot of good articles about how the first day of archery can be pretty triumphant since the deer are still patterning themselves due to low pressure.  That is not to say that just because there has been no hunting pressure, there is no pressure.  You still have to move in and out of the area to recover camera cards, fill feeders, and mend fences, repair waterlines, trim growth, clear paths and the list goes on.
I also read a good article on how a lot of hunters are patterning deer and selecting just one that they want to pursue for whatever their reason.  It’s sort of strange when you think about it to just pursue “one” when you could take just about anyone you wanted (within QDM practices of course).  Then I thought about it some more and realized that even as a “green” deer hunter, I am doing just that. 

I did it last year with a buck I nicknamed “Clean” (never saw him after July 2011), that Axis buck I wanted so badly in August that never reappeared after May.  This coming Saturday September 29^th, I will be on stand waiting for this guy that I have nicknamed “Gimpy.”

You see Gimpy has a broken left rear ankle and it's been infected since mid August as far as I know.  He appears to be pretty healthy and can walk pretty well, just that his trot is off a bit.  He's got a different color than most whitetails I've seen in Texas, and his tail just has a black patch of hair at the tip.  He also walks around with all his "junk" hanging low; maybe this is an indication that he's in pain?  If so, I intend to end his pain Saturday morning.
Back to my point.  If you’ve done your (passive) scouting throughout the year and know where your bucks are coming from and going to at all times of the day/night, it stands to reason that on the first hunting day, the “one” will be where and when you expect him to be.

Good Luck to All.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Austin Archery Country

Today Austin Archery Country is celebrating their 1 year anniversary. They are showcasing a lot of local talent, Mathews pro staff, taxidermists, food preparers and some awesome deals on bows and equipment. Right when we walked in the door, the Governor of Texas was also taking part in the celebration as he is an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He's a great man and took several photos with us to prove it!

 

Can't find the kids!

The Governor and Lauren talk archery/hunting.

All together for this one.

Axis hunt was a no-go!

I said I would post an epilogue to the story posted last month, and this is it.  I did get out to the Gurra Ranch the middle of August and again, the last weekend in August.  I never saw any bucks, just one Axis doe and yearling; I guess the rest were staying cool somewhere.  Well, there is always next year!  I know he is around from April to May (in velvet) and maybe I'll see him then with another year's growth added to that rack?

In the meantime, I challenged myself to learn all I could about the Axis species and now I will forever have that knowledge which I hope makes me a better hunter.

Axis Hunt is a GO!

3 months in the planning just ended 5 minutes ago.  Now it's time to find this monster and get him to the Taxidermist and the Processor!  Will post a followup on this saga either way it turns out.

Wish me LUCK!

Chronic Wasting Disease appears in Texas

Chronic Wasting Disease appears in Texas

"It was found in two mule deer in an area truly sparsely populated with deer. And the deer didn't show signs of the disease, they had been shot and had their brains removed for testing for CWD."

Port A Update

Sitting by the pool, got bested in salt water fishing by Anders again. We both caught our limit of snapper, I even caught my first shark! However it was a Night Shark, a protected species and it was tossed back. The boat had a great overall catch. 



Heading to Port "A"

Tomorrow I will be heading to Port Aransas, Texas for some R&R, beach with the family  and of course, fishing with my "Bro."  My friend Anders always kicks my ass in salt water so I wonder if this streak will hold true another year?  I will post back with pictures of our catch when I return.

Show Some Respect

I have been meaning to write about this subject for some time now, when I ran across this photo on a message board about Axis Deer, I felt it was about time to get it off my chest.  (I am not dissing the hunter, I wasn't there; he may have been alone when he took this photo, but he could have taken a few moments to “clean up” the shot (photo) that would have yielded a much more respectable photo. 

Not too long ago I read an article in some publication about the best methods for a great after photo of your whitetail.  What the article didn’t address in any depth was posing the animal in a respectful manner; after all, this animal just gave its life so the hunter could experience the thrill of the sport and put meat in the freezer. 

Last season one of my hunting buddies took his first Texas Whitetail buck and was getting ready to dress him when I said, “Hey, did you get any pictures?”  “NO” they replied.  They got ready to snap a few photos and I interrupted.  “Hey, don’t take a picture with him lying on his side with his head all down on the ground.”  I proceeded to “pose” his victory in a manner that displayed a bit more R*E*S*P*E*C*T for God’s animal he had just harvested.

Now that I look back on it I feel bad that I intervened in the matter; that was his business.  I couldn’t help myself though.  It’s now one of those things that I am really passionate about; even more so now that I am solo filming my own hunts.  Why, because I am guilty of doing just that on the first deer I hunted, and the photos make me feel somewhat ashamed.  I got overly excited and forgot to think about the animal. I was more concerned about taking a "proof of kill" photo thinking that I needed to document a point in time, I was just trying to help my buddy from ever feeling the same way and also have some great photos that would remind him of the thrill of the hunt and the magnificent animal he had harvested.

Gurra Yotes

The other morning I did some research on Axis Deer since I now have quite an abundance of photos of them on the land that I am privileged to hunt.  I followed a few links on scoring and aging Axis and I landed on the Buck Manager site and from there I saw some very disturbing photos.  Two coyotes had taken down a nice buck in all of about 21 minutes and my stomach turned;  we all know it happens in the wild, but to see it on film - is horrifying.  We tend to know they are pretty much everywhere there is compatible habitat for them, namely a food source.  On Gurra Ranch, in the 5 years I have hunted there, I have never seen any evidence that coyotes were present until I found 3 photos out of over 8,000 that I was cataloging.  I now have a renewed sense of determination to keep that population from decreasing the deer herds.

I now have a renewed sense of determination to keep that population from decreasing the deer herds.

Please visit the Buck Manager site for some good info on deer hunting

Judge Julie

I had the pleasure of running into the Hon. Julie Mogenis of Huntin' With The Judge while she was in town for a Veteran’s Benefit in Port Aransas, Texas.  She was very nice to take a photo with my ugly mug and sign an autographed photo of herself from her New Zealand hunt!  A very classy lady.  A Big Thank You from this veteran.

Lauren Scores a 50

Lauren had her 4th private lesson last night at Austin Archery Country, her instructor had made some adjustments to speed the bow up a bit last week during the lesson, but she complained all the way home that it was too "hard."  Well, last night Roland decided to score her for a baseline and she did amazingly well.  To score, they shoot 5 arrows in 6 different rounds (30 arrows total)  best possible score is a 300.  On her first scoring she had a 265/300, on her second round she scored a 280/300 with 8 Xs!  She will keep practicing, become more consistent and will begin competing in the Basic category shortly; in 2013 she will be 12 then she can compete Intermediate.  Here she is scoring 50 on one of her rounds.



Lake Travis 4/22/2012

Finally got to get out on the boat after 6 months; the low water from the draught kept my marina from launching the boat.  Consequently, I missed the Fall and Winter fishing seasons.  The water temps have come up from the high 50s of the winter to the low 70s; this means fish are beginning their spawn and some of them are hungry.

Anders and I both got out there early Sunday morning and fished until 2:30.  We caught 5 fish in total, but the surprise of the day was to catch 2 nice sized stripers on the umbrella rig at the same time.  I may have had 3 on originally because one jig and leader were completely missing from the rig.  Hopefully the bite will continue long enough to catch a few more.



Hot Springs 2012

Lake Ouachita 2012

For the 3^rd year in a row we made our pilgrimage to Hot Springs, Arkansas for our Easter fishing vacation.  This particular trip, we were elated that our permanent striper guide, Capt. Terry Brodnax, had invited us out for a gratis fishing excursion the day before our scheduled charter.  We met him at the dock in Crystal Falls, same place we fished out of the year before; you know you need to turn into the Lake when you see this sign.

I’m not sure whether the “biten” means ‘bitten’ or ‘biting’ dogs?  I know what automatic shotguns do!

The weather on our first trip was fabulous!  “Clear, Blue, and 22” as we pilots say; fishing wasn’t half bad either.  Capt. Terry had brought along his daughter Alley to assist in boat driving, navigation, and all of the other things Captains need to learn – she did a fantastic job!  We caught 3 really good sized stripers and called it a day around 4PM.

The next morning we met Capt. Terry and Alley back at the pier at 0600.  Traffic was bad with trucks, boats and trailers since they had a tournament going on and everyone was trying to put in at the same time.  Our Captain was already in the water and waiting on us, what a pro!  It was in the 50s, and fog hung low on the water – visibility about 50 yards, the smell of exhaust fumes from the boats reminded me of the JP-8 burning on the flight line – I digress.  It didn’t take long to get the lines wet, and after a few passes we were “Fish On!” 

Go here to see a short clip in Full HD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ywx-QK7sQ

We trolled past another guide boat in the vicinity that was using planers and shad and about 8 dudes on her, never saw them pull in one fish….but they saw us pull in about 6 or 7!  We have really loved the time spent in Arkansas and we always talk about the next year’s trip all the way home.  Terry, thanks so much for making our vacations memorable!

Spring Turkey - After Action Report

Our good friend Mike wanted to give an update on their turkey hunting adventure to Gurra Ranch some time ago, however, my computer suffered a hard drive crash and that put me behind with photos, emails, and postings.  Below are excerpts from Mike’s report...

“John, his son Kyle, my daughter Jessica and I had a fantastic time at Ranch Gurra (RG) as anticipated - and as John and I would expect as always because this is just such a totally awesome place.  Shot some Pdogs on the way down and after getting to RG Tuesday evening and setting camp in the dark (because we just can't seem to have it any other way) we had some chow, a drink or two and after the kids went to bed we stayed up until the skies opened up around 1130hrs.” 

“Morning one at RG we all got some much needed sleep and were awakened by at least three gobblers not far from camp.  Since we hadn't set the blinds yet, we made coffee and broke out the calls.  John would call using his box call and they would answer.  I would blurt out a call with mouth reed and they would answer.  We were pretty damn smitten with ourselves.  The turkey situation was looking good and we figured the locals thought some new girls were in town and were pretty smitten as well.”

“John set his blind near the location that Ron shot his gobbler and I set up on the 100 yd range.  In the late afternoon, Jess and I headed out to the skybox feeder to the same location that Alpar drilled his hog at the week before.  The evening went by as most evenings camp feeder hunting do - lots of conversation and good company, camp barbeque, a few nearby grunts and snorts and of course, the Brother's Labrot and Graham and Mr. Tito stopped by.

 

“NEVER GET OUT OF THE BLIND”

“Morning two brought the gobblers out in force again as we all sat in our blinds calling and competing for their attention.   John had one intercepted until he got spooked and went screaming by the boys and their decoys headed southwest towards the canyon.  At that time I was calling and receiving from two gobblers - one was the gobbler John was trying to blast, and one that was up towards windy point.  The one that went running by John (unknown to me at the time) went silent for awhile but the other one to our West was still returning calls, just not getting any closer.  After about 20 minutes, I sent out a call and a gobbler (the one John had a bead on) was right behind us, I think by Ron's feeder and he was loud.  I would call, and he would get closer.  Then it seemed like he just stopped - but he kept answering.  This went on for 30 minutes or so and I began to reason with myself that he wouldn't climb up the steep hill from Ron's feeder to the flat where I was to see my decoys.  A fateful decision was made to get out of the blind, and sneak over to Ron's tree stand so I could stalk him.  Bad move.  He was closer than I thought.  We got out of the blind, walked five paces to the South and I saw him - and he saw me.  The last thing I saw was his ass headed east - fast. Aw hell, he was a BIG bird too.  My heart sank, my head dropped, I uttered a few choice words that a truck driver would be proud of and went back to the blind hoping to get the windy point bird to start up again.”

WHOOOOF, HUUUFFF

".....we counted four hogs feeding voraciously around the camp feeder.  They could have cared less that they were being targeted.....or that we were there.....they were way too busy vacuuming up all the corn and stinky stuff we baited for them.  I called out the order of battle - John and I would each pick a hog at opposite ends of the feeder corral and Kyle would pick a hog within his dad's laser collimator broadcast - but between John and me.  The call would be:  "Standby - three - two - one - shoot on zero".  As soon as all of us had our targets and I confirmed that the boys were ready, the safeties came off and I started the call:  "Standby…..three…....two........one"  .....BOOM.  A perfectly executed three-round report.  No pigs on the ground.  That was not good.  We waited the 15 and all of us walked up to the feeder corral.  No pigs.  Nothing but silence and the remains of what they didn't eat.  You could cut the dejection with a knife.    Morning three was business as usual, Jess and I - on a hunch - decided to go back to camp by way of the camp feeder to re-inspect the feeder corral more closely for what food was left over in case we needed to re-bait,  blood or any other signs of carnage.  Of course, Jess spotted the blood first.  Sure enough - she saw blood – a lot of blood in fact right at the spot where my pig was last seen before the shot.  We decided not to track the pig on our own so we went back to camp and told the boys what we found.  John got his AR to back us up and we went to go find the pig.   We tracked the steady stream of blood about 15-20 yards to the northwest and sure enough there she was.  She had expired under a tree, hit in the shoulder (gristle plate) and had bled out quickly, probably on the run.  The entrance wound looked like she had been hit by a 50cal.  That 168 grain AMAX hand load sure did its job in grand fashion.  



Mike, thanks for the great report.  Adventures like this always make the drive from Colorado a bit more enjoyable going back!  Nice piece, nice pig!

New Quiver for Lauren / Girls Hunt?

At the beginning of March, Lauren began taking private lessons for Archery.  After 1 hour of lessons, she was invited to train with the Intermediate group but will not be able to compete at the intermediate level because of her age.  She was invited because she was already staying on paper at 20 yards, as where in the Basic Group only shoots 10 yards.  Last night she got a new leather quiver and wanted to try it out so we set up a 10 yard range in the backyard and she emptied a couple of quivers full of arrows.

Nice shooting Lauren!

Mike also has a daughter who is into the outdoors and is going turkey hunting with her Dad this coming weekend.  Here is a picture of Jessica at the range with one of the various upgraded weapons.  Jessica, leave the fan and beard next to mine on the "brag" board, take some pictures and we'll get you up on the blog proudly with your new Tom Turkey!  Good luck on the hunt!



Spring Turkey Opener

Last week I wanted to write a pre-Turkey Season post about getting ready for the weekend, where I wanted to hunt and when, but now that that weekend has passed - it all seems pretty pointless.   We headed out to Gurra Ranch Thursday afternoon hoping to all get Tom Turkeys on Saturday and some hogs throughout .  Alpar a fairly new addition to the assorted crew rode out with me and Anders followed shortly thereafter.  We arrived, set up, and went to bait, and drank a few beers after Anders arrived.  We planned our hunts, locations and times.  I would start out on the NE corner where I saw the turkeys in December also where I shot a hog.

Saturday came and the morning hunt produced nothing.  After a late breakfast and some minor chores, we met back at camp for lunch and more beers.  A gobbler was going nuts about 150 yards to the SE, we had heard him Thursday and Friday, but now it was legal to take him; only problem was, he was across the road down in a gully on another ranchers land.

I made a couple hen and jake calls from camp and he was responding to every other one.  I grabbed my Benelli and went to see how far away he was.  I closed in on him moving several times closer when I could tell he was crowing away from me.  I had pretty thick cover and I was moving really slow.  I took up a position against an oak; I must have been 75 yards I estimated from him at that point.  I returned to camp got my camera (point and shoot POC), turkey vest and all of my calls and headed back to that spot.  I sat there for another 20 minutes conversing with this stubborn ass mule of a Tom.

I moved again to a closer, better position to wait him out.  I got the camera affixed, did some calling; by now he was getting closer.  After 20 more minutes I caught a short glimpse of him making his way to the road and then he disappeared.  I figured he would keep coming if a called a few more times as he bracketed my position; I put down the calls, pointed my shotty where I figured he would come out, it wasn’t 1 minute later he stuck his neck out from around the grove.  Lights Out! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yZkzli5uII

(My crappy camera couldn't take the shock of the gun blast and the video went into a tizzy.)

12ga Benelli Nova Pump, Winchester Supreme High Velocity Turkey Load, 3” 1300 FPS, 1 3/4 oz, #4

Why it's always a good idea to invest in quality scouting equipment, keep it in good working order, change the batteries, swap your cards as often as possible and spend some time analyzing your footage; if nothing more than to keep you motivated for the next season!

Spike. Look at the torn left ear?

Bigger this year!

Who knew it'd snow? 

What? Another Spike?

Two Spikes.

Minding my own business.

Intruder Alert!

I'll just be leaving now.

"Big Hoss," missed my chance at a clear shot on him in December.

 Stay thirsty my friends and

Get Some!