West Texas '08

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So...There I was. In line to vote and had just recently found out that the New Mexico Bear hunting trip would have to be cancelled due to quotas being met. Then the phone rings, and it's my boss's boss. For ease of telling the story, his name is David. He proceeds to tell me that he knows it's short notice, but would I like to go hunting this weekend. HMMMMmmmmm. HELL YES.



So he tells me that his boss (Chuck, who is third in command of all of Anadarko) invited us to his place for some killin. Chuck, by the way, just recently bagged a deer (208 gross, and 191 net) that is both a B&C and P&Y trophy book deer. It was a 63 yd shot with a bow. Anyway, he invited us to go get bloody. So we went.



However, since Woody has ALL of my hunting gear in Denton, I had to go on a borrowing spree at my friend Blanton's place. for those of you who dont know him, he has at least 37 of everything there is and most of it is in un-used condition. the trick is you have to find it. Anyway I got a 162qt cooler and a 7mm mag.



On the way to Coleman, Chuck told us he need all the pigs and most of the deer on his place killed. My ears started perking up and my right index finger spontaneously started twitching. His property is 1000 acres of shin-oak habitat. He just put up a high-fence in February and is starting to manage the natural herd. None of this "buy 100 big bucks then hunt them 'til they're gone" type stuff.



Fast forward to Saturday morning. On the way to the stand he said to shoot pigs first, but if there aren't any go ahead and shoot does and spikes.



O-K



I'm in the stand 30 minutes before daylight thinking, "don't get your hopes up. These critters are still wild since they have only been captured for less than a year." I sat and sat and sat and never saw anything. Uh huh I know how this is going to play out. Eventually some deer came in down wind of me, and just meandered around, but never came to the feeder. Finally the feeder went off. The deer came closer, but never got to the feeder. Then--what's that?--A PIGGY WIGGY.



KA-BAAAAMMMMMM... he dead.



I looked at the deer, and they were peacefully minding their own business and didn't have a care in the world. Not wanting to show my true colors to the two big bosses, i passed on shooting a deer. When Chuck came to pick me up he asked if I had seen any deer. When I told him, he was kind of put off that I hadn't killed one of them.



Well, throughout the day, he drops numerous hints that we should kill some deer. Finaly he came right out and said it, "Gentelmen, tonight's all about the body count. I want 2 deer from each stand killed."



Yes sir.



The feeder went off at 5:30. He dropped me off at 5:20. I still wasn't sure about the skiddishness of the deer, but he said not to worry. Within 15 seconds of the feeder going off, there were13 deer standing under it.



Which one???? I picked the biggest doe and waited for her to single herself out. Finally a shot...KA-BAAAMMMMMMM and she hunched up in the middle and slowly ran/limped off in the brush.



"DANG!! I gut shot a deer at 50 yds. That's embarassing. I jumped out of the stand and went after her in the process scaring all the deer away that never moved or flinched when I shot. Thank goodness, I found her about 75 yds with a perfect behind the shoulder shot. I guess a 7mm mag at 50 yds will do strange things.



I went back to the stand and sat. The feeder went off again at 6:30 and this time only 12 deer came within the first few seconds. Another piece of lead flew and this time it did just right. Dead spike on the ground. I gutted them left them at the side of the road and urgently had to go have a BM. Luckily the house was only about 200 yds away. by the time I got done, they were already on their way to pick me up, so I didn't have time to hit another feeder. Chuck killed a pig that evening as well.



Sunday morning made a fool of me. First off, David's son, seven years old named Pierce, killed his first deer ever. Right-on. I always like to see that. David killed a spike. Chuck was bow hunting and would have killed a pig, but this happened....



I'm in a different stand in the back of the property and as soon as I could see, there were some pigs about 200 yds out in a food plot. The feeder went off and they didn't budge, so I decided to shoot one. Please keep in mind it is a borrowed gun. I missed, and they ran off. About 10 minutes later a different herd of pigs came out in the same place in the field. I sent another lead down range only to hit dirt. The pigs took off running, but they were running right at me. Back in the day this would have been a HUGE mistake. However, with Blanton's gun and being out of practice for a long time, I started unloading. At the end of my clip, only one pig lay dead. I was quite embarrased. About 20 minutes later some deer came out. I saw a spike with one antler up and the other growing straight down the back of his head. I shot again and nailed it into the dirt.



That, by the way was my last Barney Fife bullet so I gutted them and loaded them in the back of the mule. We still had about 1 hour to hunt so I decided to head to the house and get some bullets and go hit another feeder. I went about a mile then all of a sudden here stands Chuck in the middle of the road. Seeing me not miss the previous day and hearing my war going on, he thought I'd be covered up in pigs. Turns out, he was just coming up to draw on a pig when my shooting started. Then I kept shooting, and Chuck thought it might be a good idea not to shoot another pig since it would take atleast 3 hours to dress all of my animals. Needless to say I got made fun of quite a bit. It was good times, good beverages, good food, and good hunting.



final talley -- 2 does, 3 spikes, 3 pigs.



Sausagefest 2009 has a good start.

Someone go outside!

Damnit, it is getting pretty slow around here, somebody do something, quick!