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Home Camp - 2008
Reports and Photos
Please note: Hunt reports are posted in reverse order. The first hunt of the season is found at the bottom of the page. The most recent hunt is posted at the top.
Also note: click on a photo to enlarge it and to get more information.
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Hunt E Jan. 11-15
When this final hunt of the season arrived, you would think by this stage of the game, there wouldn't be anything new left to see. Wrong. There were plenty of "firsts" left to go. What a way to end a good season.
In camp were several of our most senior and veteran hunters. John Newsome (plus his amigos Bob Huey and Myron Woomer) have been here countless times, including Hunts B and 8 this very season. Accompanying them this time were Bill Frese (first here last season) and Kurt Davis. All are from the Effingham area of Illinois. Kurt came to take his first-ever buck. But there was another hunter here for the same purpose.
Howard Seigfreid has been here almost as many times as John Newsome. This year he brought along his wife, Judy. As fantastic as it might appear, Judy, now with a total of eighteen grandchildren to her credit, has finally decided to take up deer hunting. For the past year with her trusty pellet gun, she has sharpened her shooting skills on some pesky birds that have plagued their homestead there at Berwick, PA. Although she's a rank rookie in the sport of deer hunting, Judy has heard plenty of stories from Howard and all his friends over the years to the point that she has learned to "talk the talk". Now the time had come for her to "walk the walk", the evidence of which was her announcement upon arriving in camp that she had come to take a "fifteen-pointer with double-drop tines". By the time the hunt ended, believe it or not, she had damn-near done it.
Before we get to that part of the report, please meet the two other hunters in camp. They were a pair of brothers - Terry and Robert Conrad from Silver Spring, MD. Both have hunted that area for years and consider themselves lucky to just get to see a buck anytime they hunt back home. As is the case with similar first-timers at the Adobe Lodge, they simply couldn't quit talking about the sheer number of bucks they were seeing. Please don't forget that we are on our final hunt of the season, too. So it is safe to say that hunters in 2009 will find plenty of bucks to hunt.
Thankfully, the weather throughout the entire hunt was good. Sure enough, the nights and early mornings were plenty cold, but hey, it is January, for goodness sake. The days warmed to shirt-sleeve weather - all bright and sunny - and the dastardly wind didn't blow until the final morning when yet another dry front move through the area.
Now. Back to the story of Judy. For the first couple of outings, Howard elected to coach Judy on evaluating the size of bucks. He wanted her to find something respectable to gain the honor as her first buck. So on the second morning, and now hunting alone, Judy found the one she wanted. But when she squeezed that trigger, the buck ran off. The story was reported to guide Larry Meeks and Howard by the walkie-talkie. When the men arrived at the blind, they found Judy distraught and crying, more from the momentous event she had just experienced than from anything else. But real tears of sadness came later when their extensive search of the area found only a modest amount of blood. Dad-gum-it - no sign of the deer. With the "draw-blood" rule in effect, Judy's hunt was over. All returned to camp at lunchtime, vowing to return to the area for more searching that afternoon. Needless to say, these unfortunate event are akin to pouring cold water on the spirit of the camp. Everyone was pulling for Judy and the guys to find her first-ever buck.
But Howard had a better plan. He offered Judy the opportunity to harvest his buck instead while he and Larry continued their search for Judy's first buck. Thankfully, that night, indeed Judy did put a bullet squarely into the shoulder of another one, and we took her photo with a handsome eleven pointer. Finally, Judy had here FIRST BUCK. Now, Judy and Howard would be hunting antlerless-deer.
But the news quickly changed the next morning when guide Larry Meeks, having put Judy and Howard in likely blinds for their doe-harvesting, went to sit in a blind himself to scout the area, and guess what? He found Judy's first buck. But he wasn't dead. He was fully alive and eating corn at a feeder. Larry knew for sure it was Judy's buck because he could see blood on the deer's brisket, and moreover, the buck's antlers fit their description to a "T". All this good news was relayed to Howard, and plans were hatched for Howard to try to get Judy's first buck, finally - once and for all - on the ground. Which he did that very afternoon. And guess what? That rascal that Judy had picked out for her first-ever buck had 15 points. Judy was so elated at Howard's "save", she forgot all about that double-drop tine requirement.
Two real dilemmas arose to puzzle all of us on this Hunt E. The first was this story of Judy and Howard. Which do you count as her first-ever buck? Think about this for a while. Lawyers could manufacture lots of billable-hours in wrangling over this issue.
The second dilemma came to be when Bill Frese collected his buck. Here's that story: Bill was seeing numerous larger bucks in the area where he was hunting that day, but his attention was drawn to one particular old boy which carried a set of gnarled, twisted antlers. He'd rather take home something unusual. Anyone can collect a typical set of antlers, he reasoned. Bill's shot was a good'un and the buck ran only about 40 yards before the lights went out. When they went to load the buck in the truck, good grief, what's happened? Both antlers had shedded then and there when the buck hit the ground. There they lay - one on each side of his head. Do you now see the huge question? Should the dead critter be brought to camp wearing a doe tag? Or a buck tag? Clearly, there "weren't no antlers on the carcass". Where is Solomon when we really need him?
Both Bill and his hunting companion Kurt Davis are law-enforcement guys back home in Illinois. Kurt was the second hunter in camp to take a FIRST BUCK, and that is always a major event in any hunter's career. Congratulations to both Kurt and Judy.
The only downer for the entire hunt was the DNF (did not find) we had to put by Bob Huey's name. But this discouraging event can be discounted because back on Hunt B in October, Bob had taken one of the season's best bucks. So Hunt E produced eight bucks and nine does for the nine hunters in camp. A great ending for a good deer season.
Now our attention will be turning to the spring turkey season which begins April 4. From the reports of countless hunters over the past three month, our turkey numbers are outstanding. Drove-after-drove of gobblers have been seen. If ever you have thought about collecting a Rio Grande gobbler, this coming spring is shaping up to be a good time to do just that. Contact us anytime for open dates.
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Hunt D Jan. 6 - 10
We don't often get other outfitters to hunt with us, but that's what happened on Hunt D. And the best news was, get this: they brought some of their clients along, too. That's better than "writing home for a five and getting a twenty."
Here is how such a strange turn of events came to pass: Frank Daley from Amherst, NH has hunted with us numerous times, often bringing his brothers and other amigos. But Frank also hunts with Eagle Eye Outfitters at Penn Yan, NY in the Finger Lakes region of the state. A common topic of conversation in a hunting camp is - no wonder - good places to hunt. Frank told Eagle Eye proprietors, Dale Lane and Mitch Lehman, about our Texas operation so here they came with a party of their long-time clients. Good grief - we ought to put Frank Daley on our sales staff.
In fact, Dale Lane came in early bringing with him a Canadian, Dean Slaney. Dean is quite a turkey hunter with dozens of birds to his credit, but didn't yet have the Rio Grande specie in his collection. Dale guides and calls turkeys for many, many hunters during their spring hunt back home in upstate New York. Since our Texas fall season was to end before their Hunt D was to begin, Dean and Dale arrived a few days early to try to collect a bird. It is critically important to get this clearly understood, just in case a Texas game warden somewhere might be monitoring this web page. In comparing the date of this hunt listed above with the photo below of Dean and his bird, a red flag would be raised if we failed to offer this disclaimer. Indeed, Dean got his Rio before the season ended on January 4.
Mitch Lehman chose to come as a non-hunter to focus his time on helping his sixteen-year-old son, Chris, take his first-ever buck. With dad along to coach and help evaluate bucks, they finally were successful and Chris got his photo made with a very nice first-buck. As a matter of fact, that buck Chris took was the heaviest of the bunch until the very last day of the hunt. So this first-ever buck was the true trophy to the North easterners since their focus happens to be not on the antlers but on the weight.
The other two hunters in the Eagle Eye party were Chris (Woody) Wood and Chris Van Duzer, better known as Junior. Nicknames were helpful with a third of the hunters in camp being named Chris. Living in eastern Massachusetts and making their living from salt water-related industries, Woody and Junior told all us land-lubbers of their work and adventures fishing off the New England coast. All fascinating tales for a bunch of West Texas cowboys. Their photos helped us understand what in the heck they were talking about. If you catch the right kind and size fish up that way, one good one will buy you a new, loaded pickup. And if he's big enough - a new house. Everything is supposed to be big in Texas, but truthfully, we cannot top that story.
The final two hunters on Hunt D were a father/son pair. Dad Jim Mousseau lives in Clarkston, MI and son Jim lives in Conifer, CO. This was their third successive year to hunt with us on this date, and God Willing, they will be back once again next season. Jim Jr. is quite a photographer and shared numerous good photos he took each day while hunting. Both collected fine bucks along toward the end of the hunt.
The kickoff meeting at noon on Tuesday had to be held inside the lodge what with the wind blowing a gale out of the west. But the next three days, the weather turned out to be unusually warm for January. Shorts and tee-shirts were appropriate attire during mid-day. Such weather is an opportune time for a West Texas tradition - rattlesnake hunting. Sure enough, on Friday, off-duty guide Jerry Watts, brought all his accoutrements of the sport to take young Chris and Mitch to see if they could find any snakes.
As far as we know, Boone and Crockett records don't include these reptiles, but if they did, the rattlesnake they caught that day would surely make the records book. He was taped at 5' 4", which is a full two inches longer than any yet taken on the Duncan Ranch. The snake was brought to camp in the special box Watts uses for transporting such cargo. He will eventually be mounted by a taxidermist - a fine trophy memorial for Chris, along with that buck he took.
The other big event on the hunt was a good news/ bad news kind of deal. Guides Tillman Lawdermilk and Albert Zapata found a drove of small feral hogs down by the river on the Bryant Estate ranch. Some areas of Texas are overloaded with wild pigs, but thankfully, we see very few of them. We don't want them here, and we encourage hunters and guides alike to shoot any and all on sight. The two guides managed to kill a pair of the young pigs (the good news), but the rest escaped (bad news). A mother-hog was not seen, and where all these juveniles came from - who knows? Maybe our hunters can exterminate the rest of these terrorists on the next and final hunt. Keep your fingers crossed. It is said that Texas has but two kinds of ranches: those that HAVE hogs and those that WILL HAVE hogs. Sad to say, but it appears that we are moving from the former to the later category. We remember the big hog taken back on Hunt 2 by Justin Boehler. That makes three for the season. Way, way too many. No telling how many will be taken in 2009.
To summarize Hunt D, here are the results: there were eight in camp, but only seven hunters. Six bucks were taken, eleven does (plus a DNF doe), one turkey and the two porcine taken by the guides. And one huge rattlesnake. If second bucks were still being offered, there would surely have been even more bucks on our tally board. Both Dale Lane and Dean Slaney saw butter-melting trophies after taking their bucks.
One final hunt remains before we call it a season. Look for our report in a few days, and then we will try to summarize the whole she-bang with an update of the Home page of the website together with a collection of photos of the season's best bucks.
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Hunt 12 Jan. 1-5
After pert-near twenty-five years now in the hunting business, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Our hunters almost, but not quite, got skunked. Seven hunters put only one buck on our tally board. Almost as bad, we could tabulate only six does.
No longer can we complain about the Dallas Cowboys fading late in the season. Here we are - right in the same boat with them. There just ain't no way to put a positive spin on this one, faithful readers. It was a grim story from start to finish. We remember years past when half of the season's Top Ten bucks were taken after Christmas. Tragically, this Hunt # 12 in early January produced nothing to crow about. A few things went right, but the buck harvest wasn't one of them.
We had started out with high hopes. There were going to be seven hunters in camp, all but one being veterans. And like on our previous hunt, we had a collection of family groups - always a special treat for us. Bob Booth and son, Robbie, have hunted with us for about six or so years. Accompanying them, as he usually does, was Mickey Koster, Robbie's granddad (and Bob's father-in-law). All live in Seaford, Delaware. Bob and Robbie had just come off a "warm-up" hunt down near Kerrville, TX and were primed and ready to go. They know our drill well, and we expected them to hunt for something special. Alas, things began to get complicated in a hurry.
The hunt started out disjointed when two of the other hunters missed getting here for the kickoff at noon on Thursday, the first day of the hunt, when they got bumped to a later flight. Being January One, what a way to start the new year, eh? This father/son pair, David Rippee and David Jr., both from Tallahassee, FL, missed the first half-day of the hunt. Of the seven in camp, David Jr. was the only newcomer to us. David Senior hunted with us for the first time way back in 1993, and was here once again as recently as 2005.
The other two hunters? Bruce Dennington, from Ft. Myers, FL has hunted with us several times. He was looking forward to hunting with son, Justin, who lives in Tallahassee and was here for the second time. Interestingly enough, the Denningtons and Rippees have known and have hunted with each other for years, but until their arrival in camp, none knew they would all be here together for a reunion. The Rippees had only booked this trip a couple of weeks ago.
So with all the dads and sons, it should have been a grand-old time. It was not to be.
The first night in camp, Bruce got sick - really sick. He was up all night with some kind of stomach virus and the next day, he barely left his bed all day long. Justin had no alternative but to hunt alone with his guide, Buryl Williams. Poor Bruce. We got him some Gator Aid, some soup, some bananas - anything we could think of to relieve his misery. Bravely, he kept assuring one and all that he was getting better, but he made mighty slow progress. Nausea was his constant companion and he barely left the lodge for the duration. As the hunt was concluding, he was finally a bit better but weak. Hunting a deer had not been one of his priorities.
But little good it would have done him - the six hunters still in the game, admittedly looking for something exceptional, were seeing few shootable bucks. By the half-way point in the hunt, there were zero deer of any kind on our tally board. To start the final quarter, finally there was one lone doe listed. But that was it. One single, solitary deer for the six hunters in the field. (By now, we couldn't count Bruce - he got red-shirted). So what in the world was going on?
For one thing, the weather was near-record warm for Day Two and Day Three. It was close to eighty degrees during these first few days of January. And still bone-dry. Interrogation of the hunters together with their video evidence of what they were seeing showed that, sure enough, these veterans were being super-selective. They were passing-on bucks that probably would have been taken back during an earlier time.
We don't begrudge selectivity. We encourage one and all: wait for the one that melts your butter. But experience tells us that for our multi-year veterans, the boiling-point of their butter has a tendency to increase exponentially. This is one of the reasons we offer our "Trophy Option" price. For a complete discussion of this topic, we have added a new page under the "Price List" page on this website. Please read and understand our thinking on this subject when you have time.
With Bruce still having his head under his wing, and with the plumb-hot weather and disappointing deer sightings, to compound the bad news there were a couple of missed shots.
David Rippee was guilty of one of them one night. When pressed for details, he was encouraged to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". We knew we were in for a good story when he started his testimony by declaring cheerfully: "There I was at my blind, at least 485 yards from the feeder - - -". (FYI- our blinds are located maybe 100 yards from the corn feeders). An exhaustive search of the area the next morning produced no evidence of David's shot finding hide, nor blood, nor hair. It was a clean miss and David offered no excuses (if you don't count his exaggeration of that distance). Cut the hunter a little slack - that's our motto. Example: the identity of the other hunter who suffered a missed shot shall remain anonymous.
The heat of the first couple of days left us when a strong, cold north wind blew all day Sunday. It was yet another dry front. As is their pattern and habit, the deer's activity level is most always subdued by such conditions. Going into the final morning, there were still no bucks on the board. By now, the weather had done a one-eighty. Freezing rain was falling. Only four hunters elected to take the field Monday morning. Mickey Koster stayed in, suffering from cramps in both legs and said "To-Heck" with hunting. Justin Dennington stayed in, as well, since he and Bruce had an early flight. A bit of drizzle put ice on the windshields of the trucks, and the wind made it downright cold. Thankfully, David Rippee, Jr. saved the game from becoming a complete rout on that final morning by taking a big six-pointer that was a respectable 19" wide. David Sr. and both Booths saw some bucks that last morning but passed on all of them. So the final tally of one buck and six does goes into our record book as our all-time worst record ever. Plus - Bruce gets the title of being our sickest-ever hunter.
Sadly, the bit of moisture which fell won't do much good. It didn't even measure a tenth of an inch. Even more bad news.
In taking the Dennington's to the airport, we ran into Mike and Georgia Salls who operate the Weather Rock Ranch, about 40 miles north of here. They reported a similar lack of big-deer movement recently. Like our hunters at the Home Camp, the Salls have been seeing plenty of smaller bucks, but their old war-horses are hid-out somewhere.
But hey - something about the satisfaction of Adobe Lodge hunting isn't measured by just counting the filled-in squares on our tally board. All seven hunters re-booked for 2009 before they left camp, and David (Dead-Eye) Rippee is even bringing yet another son next year. So the seven hunters will grow to eight in '09. With this encouraging string of sequential numbers, looks like we can count the hunt to be a success after all. But we told Bruce he needs to bring a note from his doctor next year assuring us he will remain healthy for the duration of the hunt.
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Hunt 11 Dec. 27-31
Any Adobe Lodge hunt which occurs between Christmas and January 1 is likely to find kids and families hunting here due to the holiday closing of schools. Such was the case on Hunt 11.
Jerry Tibbott was here on Hunt # 1 back in early November with a group of Pennsylvania buddies, but this trip, he brought along his son, Austin. Come to think of it, he did exactly the same thing last season. You can accurately predict that if Austin doesn't make an accomplished hunter some day, it won't be his dad's fault. But frankly, young Austin is already one heck of a hunter. He continues to prove it each time he hunts with us.
Austin is eleven now, but he hunts and shoots like an old-pro - and never mind his age. In fact, Austin took not only his buck, but his dad's as well. Both of them were good'uns, too.
The other five in camp were all named Krevel. Charles Senior accompanied his two sons, Chuck and Ed, who, in turn had their two sons, Colin and Kyle. Colin belongs to Chuck, and Kyle's dad is Ed. Actually, Ed was here as a non-hunter in order to accompany Kyle. So to keep this report and our statistics pure as the driven snow, we had only six hunters armed and on the field of battle.
It has become almost a standard trait for 2008: each hunt that comes along in succession will have a super-windy day sometime during the duration. Sho'nuff, the first afternoon the hunters were in camp, the wind blew dry and hard out of the north. Then, thankfully (maybe) the three middle days of the hunt were mild and almost warm. The final morning, here came more cold north wind. Trying to tie deer movements, or lack of it, to the weather is a temptation for all us hunters. Deer sightings on Hunt # 11 were "below normal" (a subjective term if there ever was one). Hunter's reports each half-day were a bit discouraging compared to what we get used to hearing.
But facts are facts, and here is one to chew on: one of our "No-Frills" hunters on a ranch about 75 miles to the west reported a similar lack of deer movement where he was hunting. So then do deer coordinate their movements by the internet, or by telegraph, or how? For those who study such things, the new moon occurred on the day the hunt began and the nights were plenty dark during the four days of the hunt. Thankfully, the no-frills hunter, Gary Keaton, originally from Texas but now living in Connecticut, was ultimately successful out west, but like most of our Home Camp hunters, he didn't collect his buck until late in the hunt.
The granddad, Charles Krevel, was the first to collect a buck on the second afternoon of their stay. The next morning, grandson Colin hit one, but when his guide, Jeff Branon saw stomach material where the deer had been at the point of the bullet's impact, he wisely postponed any search for Colin's buck until later. We have learned the hard way that it is best to not push a wounded deer. So the hunting party returned to camp for a leisurely lunch and a lay-about for a while. Luckily, when they returned to the scene, the buck was found after about a sixty-yard trail, but who knows how far he might have gone if the search had commenced earlier? It would have been a crying shame to lose one like this'un - a 21" ten pointer. Congratulations to Colin and to Jeff - well done.
That night, the news got even better when Kyle Krevel took his first-ever buck, and what a deer he was for that momentous honor. Young Kyle has now set the bar mighty high for himself. Kyle's buck would make any hunter proud, but as a FIRST BUCK, he is one heck of a fine ten pointer counting a couple of kickers here and there.
The next day, finally, Austin Tibbott put one on the ground, and like Colin's buck, his was another ten pointer and mighty wide at 19 1/2". Jerry Tibbott taped all four bucks (from Charles, Colin, Kyle and Austin) and found less than three inches between all of them.
Chuck Krevel took his buck on the final night of the hunt. Right after taking Chuck's formal portrait in our studio, we got to take Austin Tibbott's picture with yet another good buck. Jerry, as most dads will understand, would rather see his son do his shooting instead. Then, on the final morning, Kyle collected a pair of javelinas while his dad, Ed, watched/coached.
What with the deer movement being subdued, the doe hunting proceeded slowly. Only eight antlerless deer were taken by the group of six hunters and half of them were small half-year olds. But never mind - most hunters come here to collect bucks, and these guys were six-for-six on the tally board since we credited Jerry with Austin's second buck. And let's not forget those two javelinas. So it was an altogether successful hunt for the two families.
Except for Austin and Jerry Tibbott's travel experiences. Their arriving plane was delayed a couple of hours, and upon departure, the airline wouldn't accept their gun case because the inspectors found some damage where the pad lock should be. Never mind that the damage was originally caused by, guess who? Yep, the airlines. Our thanks go to Jerry's guide, Mike Thomson, who repaired the gun case (cowboy style), and gave it to the Krevels who were all on a later plane to deliver to friend Jerry back home in PA. Now that we think about it, poor Jerry had hell getting here last year, too. Always alert to our hunter's best interests, we have earnestly cautioned Jerry to avoid purchasing lottery tickets at the airport. Not his lucky place.
When it comes right down to it, you have to applaud fathers who hunt with their sons. There is simply no finer way to spend time together, and we welcome their participation whether it is an adult son with his father; or with his young son; or, as was the case on this hunt, with both. Fathers hunting with sons; sons hunting with fathers - "hit jist don't get no better". And we don't discriminate either - we welcome father/daughter pairs just the same.
Isn't it about time you planned such an adventure?
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Hunt 10 Dec. 18-22
The noontime kickoff meeting which begins each Home Camp hunt includes an introduction of all the hunters and staff, a review of the rules, plus
deer-judging and shooting tips where we try to answer questions anyone might have. The event ends with a prayer. For this last hunt before our Christmas break, the meeting had to be postponed until nightfall. Airplane travel was delayed by fog at DFW and the three hunters from Florida didn't get to camp until about 5 p.m. They lost a half-day of hunting, but hindsight says it was not that big of a deal.
The three Floridians, Ken Hyry, Jesse Wooten, and Justin Bunch were all newcomers, as were a couple from Bremerton,Washington - Robert and Lily Maguire. When Continental Airlines pulled out of the San Angelo airport a couple of months ago, the closest they could get on their ticket was Midland, TX. They rented a car for the final leg of their journey. Despite these bumps in the road, none of the five airline travelers got their feathers ruffled. We appreciated their positive attitude, and we remember the old saying: "When you have the time to spare, go by air."
In addition to the five Adobe Lodge rookies, we had three veterans drive in for this hunt - all Texans representing our state's largest metropolitan areas. They were Pat McManon (Houston area) and son-in-law, Jason Bell (Dallas area), both back for their third hunt with us. Here for the second time was Tammy Toombs who lives in San Antonio.
The first afternoon, Thursday, the weather was super windy. Thankfully, Friday and Saturday were quite balmy - with afternoon highs in the 70's. Nights were quite enjoyable, especially if you were sitting around the old campfire. Then Sunday, another dry front hit. Skies were perfectly clear, but it was downright cold all day with that strong north wind. The final morning (Monday) it was still plenty cold at 22 degrees until late morning. Hunter's reports of deer sightings each half-day ran hot and cold. Some would see many; others only a few. With most of the rut behind us now, finding a buck without damaged antlers is getting to be a challenge.
Speaking of damaged antlers, last season, Jason Bell collected one fine buck, about twenty inches wide, which, unfortunately, was missing the end of his left main beam. On this 2008 hunt of his, Old Friend's Taxidermy brought out last year's buck, now repaired and restored to his former glory before losing that antler tip in the buck battles of '07. Check out his photo below. The lesson here is that damaged antlers can, indeed, be repaired. So therefore, hunters might think twice about rejecting a spectacular buck just because he doesn't have his full, original set of antlers. A case in point would be the buck taken by Justin Bunch on this hunt. You will see in their photo below that the old boy lost half of his right main beam together with what was surely one heck of a G-2 on the left side. He is impressive enough as is, but once repaired, he would melt almost any hunter's butter.
Ken Hyry unintentionally collected a pair of bucks on the hunt. On that final, cold night, Ken thought he'd missed a buck. He was furthermore distracted by a pair of raccoons and was intending to redeem himself by lining up a shot to take out both of them with the same bullet. Just then, another buck showed up. Foregoing the varmint hunt, Ken put the new buck on the ground. When they went to get him, uh-oh - there lay the first buck, too. Chalk it up to good luck, or bad luck, or the cold weather, or George Bush - take your pick.
Javelinas can sometimes be the hardest of critters to find when you really want one. If you are intent on buck hunting, a pack of javelinas are guaranteed to show up and run the bucks away. If you particularly want a javelina, guess what - you will be knee-deep in antlers. Lily Maguire has taken plenty of deer in her career, but after collecting her first-ever Texas whitetail, she was keen on adding a javelina to her collection of game animals. On the final morning's hunt, guide Mike Thomson wasn't about to bet he could put one in front of her. The odds would surely be against him. But as luck would have it, he did, and she did, and now Lily has her javelina. Good for them. It was a "Hail Mary" hunt for sure.
Now you want to talk about photo-finish hunts? Pat McMahon hunted hard for three and one-half days, seeing very little that impressed him. He seemed to be seeing fewer deer this year than the two previous hunts with us, and, as you would expect, we offered excuses and alibis for this failure. But on that last cold, cold morning, finally Pat found the one he came to get - a 19" ten pointer which lacks only 5/8 of an inch equaling the best that has been taken at the Home Camp this season. So a good javelina and a super buck ended Hunt # 10.
A re-cap shows that the eight hunters took nine bucks, twelve does, one DNF doe and one javelina.
We wish all our faithful readers a Merry Christmas. There are four more whitetail hunts yet to go before our Home Camp deer hunts end in mid-January. Our report on the first of them should be posted around the first day of the new year.
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Hunt 9 Dec. 13-17
Conventional wisdom has it that whitetail deer hunting is a waste of time when you have a full moon. Other learned pundits will tell you that hunting is futile during a windstorm. During such unfavorable conditions, they say, you are to stay at home and hone your hunting skills by watching outdoor shows while reading hot tips from the experts in magazines.
It's a good thing our troops on Hunt 9 ignored this advice. The season's # 4 buck at the Home Camp was taken during a ferocious wind storm on the first afternoon after the full moon . With 146 inches of antlers on his head, this spectacular dude had, get this, your basic eight point frame with a miniscule 1" kicker. Any eight point that scores over 140 is one impressive animal. The lucky hunter was Mitch Purdue from Benton, LA, a first-timer at the Adobe Lodge. Could anyone find a better buck than this'un? Especially with that moon like it was? And would the weather be "good"?
With the rest of the others in camp being nine wily veterans, we thought Mr. Mitch had a lock on the best buck of # 9. Sho'nuff, the next day, conditions were hardly favorable for hunting when the 82 degree afternoon temperature tied a record. Despite this turn of events, Carroll Lineberger, Jr from Crouse, NC put his tag on a 12 pointer. One impressive trophy, for sure, but Mitch was still in the lead. And on that balmy night, only two days now after that dastardly full moon, Matt Vienne, Mitch's buddy from Shreveport, LA collected a super-high eight point.
By the next morning, the weather had turned upside-down. It was 23 degrees and the wind made for a 7 degree chill factor. It was miserable all day and no bucks made it to camp.
The wind laid that night and it was plenty cold until noon the following day. Remember we are still only four days post-full-moon. So what happens? Into camp comes a total of four bucks, one of which just happened to be the season's best to date at the Home Camp - a 152+" whopper taken by Rick Pierce, Shreveport, LA. What a buck. He started out being a basic ten pointer, but had one additional tine on his left side. Add another couple of points because his eyeguards have deep forks. So call him a 7 x 6. Don't reach for your calculators - we'll do it for you. He is a 13 pointer with a spread of 18 1/2 inches. Only a couple of weeks ago, Rick had invited Mitch to come along, and it was only fitting that Rick should be the one to best that impressive trophy taken earlier in the hunt by his amigo, Mitch.
Six of the ten hunters in camp had all met on their hunt here last season and had resolved to return as a group in 2008. Carroll Lineberger, Sr said it best: "It's not a hunt - it's a reunion". Sure enough, that's what came to pass for the Linebergers (Sr. and Jr.), plus Rick Pierce and Matt Vienne from Louisiana, plus Virginians H.B. Lantz and Warren Widmyer. Besides newcomer Mitch, they all welcomed the Shantz boys, all Adobe Lodge veterans, to their fun-loving, rowdy group. The Schantz family (dad Roger with his two sons, Wayne and Roy), originally from Long Island, NY are hard to disguise, what with their accents and all. But Roy now lives in the Pocono area of PA and believe it or not, Roger and Wayne have re-located themselves to Texas, of all places, down around Austin. So these two are now able to hunt with resident licenses, despite their accents. Sooner or later, we'll have them saying "Y'all" just like us natives.
The reunion aspect of the hunt proved itself for sure when a couple of our off-duty guides, Buryl Williams and Albert Zapata, came out to camp to visit with their former clients from earlier years.
In addition to the highlight of moving new bucks into the # 1 and # 4 position on our Home Camp list of best bucks, a good bobcat was taken by Carroll Lineberger, Jr. We could have claimed the season's first coyote, too, but Mitch Perdue's bullet missed its mark and connected instead with a small deer. The missed coyote was one of several seen by Mitch. Speaking of misses, H.B. Lantz failed to hit a bobcat and doggone the luck, anyway. Despite these setbacks, the hunt was an unqualified success, and we truly hated to see this fun-loving bunch leave camp. They all arrived in camp expecting to have a super good time and presto, it became a self-fullfilling prophesy - due in no small part to the case of homemade wine brought along by Carroll Lineberger, Sr. He converted several of us hick beer drinkers into connoisseurs of his private label brand of fine wine.
Regrettably, Wayne Schantz hit a buck that we simply could not find. And brother Roy, the sole non-successful buck hunter in camp, never saw the trophy he was looking for. In summary then, with ten hunters in camp, we counted eight bucks, one DNF buck, twenty-four does, and one bobcat. Six of the ten took all three does; two hunters collected two does each, and two hunters managed to take only one doe each.
So the evidence is clear: neither a full moon nor a wind storm is a valid excuse to stay home and miss out on Adobe Lodge style hunting. Don't worry about such things - just get yourself here to hunt with us and never mind the negative details. There is only one way to be successful in this sport - you have to get out amongst'em. Come hunt with us anytime.
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Hunt 8 Dec. 8-12
For many years now, John Newsome from Shumway, IL has hosted family and employees on this hunt date. We always look forward to seeing John and whoever comes with him. Since final plans to bring the whole group did not gel for a while, we had already booked a couple of hunters from South Louisana on the hunt date, but even with extra folks in camp, a large time was had by all. The Louisana boys fit right in with the Illinois group although they were outnumbered two-to-eight. Come to think of it, there were only seven from Illinois. One of John's guests, Tom Anderson, lives in Tennessee.
The hunt proceeded normally despite the doggoned weather. Hunters arrived in camp at noon on Monday with things pleasant enough, but on Tuesday, here came a front with just a spit of moisture and lots of wind. Such weather is good for business at local car washes. With these conditions, you will actually find mud on your car, even if it never gets out of the driveway. Blowing dust and rain - by golly, this must be West Texas. By Wednesday morning, it was 18 degrees and downright cold, especially with that brutal north wind. Things got much better on Thursday when it returned after lunch on that day, thankfully, back to shirt-sleeve warm again . In fact, the weather was perfect. So you don't like the weather here? Wait a while; it'll change.
You are wondering how the hunting fared under these conditions? On the final morning, a study of our tally board showed ten hunters collected ten bucks and sixteen does, one DNF doe, and one turkey gobbler. Everyone rose to the challenge. 100% on bucks is about as good as it can get. In the interest of accuracy, we should point out that one of John's guests turned out to be a non-hunter, Jeff Petrowich. Jeff's buck was then taken by John, but Jeff proved to be a valuable asset around camp when it was learned that he is a capable musician with a great bass voice and plays a mean guitar and banjo. We wanted to keep Jeff around for the balance of the season, just to give the place a little more class and culture. Sadly, he went back to Illinois with the rest of the group.
As he has done a couple of times here before, John Newsome collected his two bucks with one shot. With John, such events are not the result of luck. We continue to be amazed at his abilities with that gun of his. And he is just as deadly with a pistol. He carefully studies every shot he makes and rarely misses anything.
Speaking of misses, John's pal, Bob Huey, thought he'd missed his buck one evening. He had forgotten to bring along the walkie-talkie radio to let his guide, Jerry Watts, know if he had pulled the trigger. By the time Jerry got to Bob's blind to learn of the shot, it was already quite dark. Since no blood was found where the buck had been, the mutual conclusion was that, indeed, the shot had been missed. But on the trip back to camp and in listening to Bob's "instant replay" of the events, Watts heard something that might be a lesson to keep in mind. Bob remembered the buck had been quite active in the area while chasing does, and like a wing-shooter would do, Bob lead the moving deer a bit when he shot. Immediately, Bob said, the buck changed directions and headed for a nearby tree line. In pondering this news all night, Bro. Watts decided a missed buck would not have changed directions like that. Why should he? So just to be sure all bases were covered, Watts returned for another look at the crime scene the next morning. Finding not one drop of blood until he arrived at that tree line, Jerry finally located just a speck of red, then another, then another. Ah Ha!!! He trailed the dim blood evidence down through a rocky draw to a point where he was at least 150 yards from when he began at the edge of that tree line. Now fully 200 yards from where the buck was shot, Ho, Ho, Ho and Merry Christmas. There lay Bob's buck. Hit right smack through both lungs, too. Bob, like his old friend John, is a pretty fair shot. It just took a while to prove him so.
No doubt, some deer will surely bleed when shot, but some don't. "Hound Dog Watts" just earned another feather for his cap. This wasn't his first rodeo. Jerry Watts has proved his point many times, to wit: in reality, there are very, very few MISSED SHOTS. You just have to look for evidence, and this can take a powerful long time.
Bryan Freeman, from Lake Charles, LA took his buck on the first afternoon of the hunt before the wind got bad. While hunting does for the remainder of the time, Bryan took along his trusty Nikon and collected some outstanding photographs of what he was seeing, photos which he graciously shared with us. In an effort to keep the number of photos contained in this hunt report to a more manageable level, we are moving Bryan's photos to "Latest News". Go check them out once you have studied the hunt photos below.
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Hunt 7 Dec. 3 - 7
When every hunter in camp is an Adobe Lodge veteran, you can bet that their "selectivity" factor will be running high. So it was on Hunt # 7. Well into the second half of the hunt, there were only a few bucks on our tally board.
Having hunted with us every year on this date since 1997, we always look forward to seeing Bill Knapp from Wethersfield, CT. Three times in the past, Bill Knapp has taken our "Buck of the Year". He has an amazing ability to connect with big bucks.
Indeed, the Home Camp's largest buck of the year so far in 2008 was taken on this Hunt 7. But it wasn't Bill who got him. This year, the ball bounced a different direction. This time, the lucky hunter was another New Englander, Mike Rogers, from Wakefield, RI.
Mike's exceptionally heavy-horned trophy takes the lead by a mere five-eights of an inch over the big ten point taken a few weeks ago by South Carolina hunter J. Bird Todd. Will Mike's new Number One hold its position in our Home Camp? There are several more hunts yet to go before we call it quits in January. Stay tuned. Remember what Yogi said.
And darned if Mike's brother, Marvin, didn't move into the third spot for the best of the 2008 at the Home Camp. Any hunt which moves new bucks into the # 1 and # 3 spots is bound to be a good one. Marvin, interestingly enough, lives at East Hampton, CT, right down the road from Bill Knapp. Those New England Yankees are fine deer hunters, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
For the past several years, Mr. Knapp has been accompanied by his son, Eric and their long-time amigo, Ray Reynolds. All three are from Wethersfield and all have a background in law-enforcement. This year, neither Bill nor Eric was able to find a buck worthy of their consideration. Deer hunting can be that way, especially if you have set the bar way up there, as both Bill and Eric did. Eric, however, managed to collect what (he claims) will possibly turn out to be "The Fox Of The Year". For some reason, there were two more foxes taken on this hunt, as well. Must have something to do with the recent alignment of those planets and the moon. Regarding foxes: Good riddance, we say. Those canines eat our quail.
The third Wethersfield, CT hunter, Ray Reynolds, did, however, put his tag on a high-horned eight point that was one heavy rascal - 180 pounds - an amazing weight now that we are well-into the rut. No telling what he might have weighed a month ago. Since five of the hunters in camp were from New England and one was from New York State, we are obliged to pay special attention to the weight of the bucks. The reason? This seems to be the focus of this breed of deer hunter. Strange as it might seem, your basic deer hunter in New England is more interested in the weight of a buck than what headgear he might possess. The Rogers brothers will confirm this fact to you. We are doing our best to re-direct the attention of all our Yankee friends to the more important aspects of a whitetail buck deer - antlers. Slowly, we are making progress.
Speaking of a deer's weight and its relative importance, it should be noted that Marvin's new # 3 buck weighed only 129 pounds. Could it be that New England native Marvin would have passed on this puny specimen? Nahhh - probably not. Marvin says this buck, with 144 inches on his head, is his new "Personal Best". Mike's buck had a more respectable weight of 170 pounds. With their fixation on weight, sometimes you have to wonder about the thinking of people who live up in the northeast part of the country. They even have Harvard and Yale up there, too. Go figure.
It wasn't until the final night of the hunt when Mike Terrace, from Chester, NY finally found the buck he wanted, and a good'un he was - well worth the wait. He was 17 1/2" wide with a beautiful ten point rack. With his skills in caping out deer heads, Mike and his scalpel caped-out several bucks in his spare time in the skinning shed. Normally, we leave this super-technical work to a taxidermist.
Remember John Sars, the hunter on Hunt # 2 who cell-phoned his wife back in Virginia telling her to call us to have his guide bring more bullets? He was back for this hunt, and since we had only seven hunters booked, John bought the eighth slot so he would be able to take a second buck on this hunt. (For those of you who might be keeping score, it is perfectly legal under the "Managed Lands-Deer" program to take more bucks than are allowed on a standard Texas license.) John collected a couple of 19" bucks, one with ten points, the other with eight. Both were fine trophy bucks, and John even managed to take out a nice fox. Plus, he took three does. Since we got no phone calls from his wife back home, we are assuming that John had sufficient bullets on this trip for the tasks at hand.
Every Adobe Lodge hunt seems to have some kind of unique event. Here was the one for Hunt 7: Marvin Rogers, while lining up his shot at that monster buck he took, was distracted by a pesky bird. Seems that the hyper creature couldn't find a nice, quiet place to finally perch. He was scratching on the roof of the blind; he was flying from bush to bush, right in Marvin's line of sight; he was darting hither and yon. Then, Marvin remembered, as he was drawing his final, keen bead on that buck with his gun barrel outside the window of his blind, and understandably a wee-bit nervous (he admitted), the bird landed right there on the barrel of his gun. Talk about a distraction of Biblical proportions! It's a wonder Marvin was able to make the shot. Even an ornithologist would have been offended by this egregious lack of bird manners. Somehow, despite all the unwanted feathers, Marvin was able to make a perfect shot.
With seven individuals in camp, but counting John Sars as two hunters, the tally board showed six bucks, thirteen does, and three foxes. The three Wethersfield, CT hunters, having an early morning flight, missed the final morning's hunt. So we didn't have our full team on the field for the entire game, but the hunt turned out to be a pretty good one, as you will agree when you study the photos below.
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Hunt 6 Nov. 28 - Dec. 2
Hunt Six began at noon on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. All the slots were booked by Sub Sea 7, a company in Houston which is involved in off-shore oil production. For the past several years, this company has sent numerous hunters to us, but until they arrive in camp, we never know for sure who will be in the group. These guys are incredibly busy people, and their schedules can change in the blink of an eye.
This year was no different. Only one of them arrived to hunt the first afternoon with a couple more showing up after dark. Then, two more arrived the next day. And as is their habit, one had to leave early to get to an important meeting. By the final night, only one was left in camp. As we said, these guys are busy, and with their important work of getting that oil out of the gulf so the rest of us can fill our tanks with gasoline, we are glad they can squeeze in just a little hunting, so long as they keep that oil flowing.
There were two familiar faces this year - Taylor Thibodeaux and Tom Dade. Both took exceptional bucks back in 2007. Indeed, Taylor's buck had so many points, they were impossible to tabulate. And last year, with his bow, Tom took a buck that had a third antler arising from his head next to the right one. Both hunters elected to try bow hunting this time, but unfortunately, the weather was not friendly. The doggoned wind blew a gale out of the north for two solid days and nights. Since most of our bow blinds are set up for the prevailing south wind, the options for effective bow hunting were limited.
Even so, Tom saw an abundance of bucks from one stand. They never gave him the shot he wanted (Tom is a good bow hunter and will not take a chance on a shot, which makes him our hero.) Tom managed to collect a couple of antlerless deer with his bow, but Taylor never found the right combination to do so. With the wind continuing to show no mercy, both hunters reached for their guns held in reserve, and both succeeded in taking outstanding bucks. Wait till you see their photos below.
Jeff Measamer, the hunter who arrived early but had to leave after just a couple of days, wound up with three does, but unfortunately, he never saw the buck he wanted during his short stay. If he could have skipped that meeting, maybe he would have. But in that case, maybe our oil supply would be in jeopardy. Gotta have that oil, even to run a hunting camp.
Two more hunters, Dave Eggers and David Sheetz, although arriving late, collected a pair of nice bucks and three does between them, but they, too, left camp a full day early.
Even with all five hunters having abbreviated stays, they did pretty good. We counted four bucks and eleven does. Not bad at all. But the biggest story of the hunt had nothing to do with big antlers, deer or deer hunting.
With pert-near twenty-five years hosting hunters, we thought we'd seen most every sight to be found in a deer camp, but this was a first. Brother Tom Dade found a small rattlesnake, which is rather unusual this time of year anyway, and somehow got the serpent inside a bottle. Any reasonable person would demand proof of this feat, and we offer, with absolutely no trick photography whatsoever, a couple of photos below.
As you will see, it is impossible to determine the length of the enclosed, coiled reptile. When asked this question, Tom held his hands maybe 16" apart. Guide Jerry Watts, guessed somewhat less. But no matter how long he is, you have to wonder about the mental health of someone who would even attempt the feat. The neck on that bottle isn't all that large anyway, and how in the world he got the head in there remains a wonder. We'll grant you that with the cold front blowing through, snakes are more lethargic, but get this: Tom held the snake BY HIS TAIL for insertion into said bottle.
Tom has a bit of experience with snakes, but he says this is the first rattlesnake he's ever seen while hunting. He's going to take his new prize home to show his kids. We think he ought to make an appointment with a psychiatrist instead. Or maybe Tom is just mixed up here. Maybe he thinks he's found a new device to "rattle-in" a deer?
A couple more photos are shown below. Our ten-year-old grandson Cody Holt, from Seneca, Oregon took his first-ever buck after all the hunters on Hunt 5 had left the day before Thanksgiving. Cody's parents, Jim and Jennifer Holt, were in the blind with him for this momentous occasion. We are indebted to Frank Kollar on Hunt 5, who told us of seeing this buck one day. From his description, it sounded like the "perfect" buck for a young hunter's first-ever. Cody, who took a nice doe last year during their holiday visit, comes from a hunting tradition, for sure. His granddad, Red Perry, back in Oregon, builds conventional bows and has taken some monster elk and mule deer with the things. Daughter Jennifer hunts with them, as well. They live on a ranch in eastern Oregon with good herds of elk and mule deer. Cody is following in their footsteps. The lad is now a card-carrying deer-slayer for sure. Congratulations, Cody.
The other photo shown is David Gonzales, master skinner, meat specialist, and addicted arrow-head hunter if there ever was one. David, hanging out at the skinning shed one afternoon, looked across the wheat field and saw a buck that was obviously not going to make it through the winter. The buck had a bad front leg and needed to be put down. When Kyle Ezell gave him the go-ahead to do so, David put the deer on the ground with a shot that was reported to be 300 yards. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. One has to take such reports from a hunting camp with a jigger of salt. Anyway, the buck is a nice one, and David did his good deed by ending the distressed buck's life.
So Hunt Six has come to an end and it was great to see all the Sub Sea 7 guys and their guests. We marvel at the work they do, hooking up oil wells that are thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean. Heck, just keeping our ranch submergible pumps running is a continuing challenge for our plumbing abilities.
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Hunt 5 Nov. 22-26
When there are five Adobe Lodge veterans in a group of eight hunters at the Home Camp, you can bet there will be lots of selectivity and "shopping around" for bucks. Those who have been here before are more prone to wait to see what might finally show up. Adobe Lodge rookies, however, are quicker to make a decision.
At least that's what we've always noticed. It kind of happened, and it kind of "did not" happen on Hunt Five. One of the veterans found the one he wanted the first afternoon. One of the rookies waited until the final night before collecting his buck.
It quickly gets even more confusing. Two of the veterans never did find what they were looking for. Two more veterans did pull the trigger, but unfortunately, one of the bucks turned out to be a mistake.
Maybe we better stop analyzing so much. There is some explaining to do.
It was John Wright (from Alvin, TX, down near Houston), back for his second hunt with us, who found just the buck he wanted on the very first afternoon of the hunt. Such good fortune can never be predicted. Fair-chase hunts are that way. A hunter, if his butter melts, has to be prepared to take a buck even early in the hunt. What if you don't see another one? Sometimes you don't. All football games aren't won in the final minute. Why should a deer hunt be any different?
Frank Kollar, from Crozet, VA and John Romine, from Oklahoma City were two of the first-timers here. Both successfully collected bucks early in the hunt. Frank has numerous hunts elsewhere to his credit, but for John, this was not only his first-ever buck, but his first-ever deer. Truly this is a big event in every hunter's life.
After taking (or maybe while taking) several does, both of these Adobe Lodge rookies, armed with their cameras, collected some outstanding wildlife photographs which are posted below. Though on his first-ever deer hunt, John got to see something that very few sportsmen ever witness - a sure'nuff, down and dirty, rock'em and sock'em buck fight. He had the presence of mind to take lots of photos of this violent event. We are publishing only a few of the ones he took. A video of the battle, if it were available with sound, would be shocking. Shocking. These bucks are in a battle for their lives.
And it was Frank Kollar who collected numerous "up-close and personal" photos of a pack of javelinas. "Hey, Frank, those critters will eat your leg off." (We remember when this very thing happened to a dead buck a few hunts ago.) Anyway, Frank's photos below reveal just how close he got to those desert swine. One time years ago, we remember a hunter and guide who had to spend the better part of an hour in a mesquite tree until some javalinas finally quit the scene.
It is fair to say that both Frank and John had unique experiences while here.
The other Adobe Lodge rookie in camp was Jake Crawford from Ranger, TX, about 120 miles northeast of here. Jake admitted to suffering some mighty poor hunting experiences around San Angelo over the past few years. Thankfully, he didn't write-off our entire area and was willing to give us a try. It was Jake who waited until the final evening to collect his buck, as you might suspect since Jake has plenty of experience hunting Texas deer. Jake was accompanied on every outing by his visually-impaired father, Tommy, who came as a "non-hunting companion".
Lyle Olson, from Chapin, SC first hunted with us several years ago as a "last-minute" hunter. Lyle returns to hunt with us every season and now has years of experience hunting our West Texas bucks. It took him until the third day before finally finding the one he wanted. Trouble was, the rascal wouldn't offer Lyle a decent shot. Among the several deer (and bucks) in the area, the dude was here, then he was there. He appeared and disappeared. Typical behavior for a buck during the rut. Wisely, Lyle waited for a fair opportunity. Finally, here he came, accompanied now by a lesser buck. When he stepped out from behind a tree, Lyle touched one off and saw the big buck bolt off. Remembering the advice from the pre-hunt kickoff meeting, Lyle waited for an hour and a half to give the fellow plenty of time to bleed. He even managed to take a couple of does during the wait. When finally he walked down to inspect the two females and to look for a possible blood trail from the big buck, uh-oh - there lay the smaller buck grave-yard dead. In reconstructing the event, Lyle realized that the bigger buck had (luckily for him) fallen behind the smaller buck on the other side of that cedar bush. Lyle had made the perfect shot, but it was the wrong deer. Lyle was good natured about the unfortunate turn of events and marked-up the mistake to bad luck.
Hunt Five did produce a story-book ending for the second-year veteran Ed McFarland, Lyle's buddy from back in South Carolina. Ed was content to wait'er out, in hopes of finally getting something exceptional. On the final night, we got to take Ed's photo with a big 20", 9 pointer.
A father/son Pennsylvania pair, Charlie and Kenny Gruber, who need no introduction to those who follow the chronicles of the Adobe Lodge, hunted hard for four days taking five does between them, but neither found the buck he wanted. It must be explained that the Grubers have made regular appearances in our Top Ten listing in prior years and are only after the best of what we have. Charlie, in fact, saw Mr. Big early in the hunt but couldn't quite get on him. Kenny said he saw "a few nice ones", but anymore, that just ain't good enough for Kenny. And that's plenty o.k. with us. Maybe next year we can show him something he will like. This is the very reason we offer our "Trophy Option" package.
Both Grubers will be back in '09, as will all of the hunters on Hunt Five. The whole she-bang re-booked, and that is what melts our butter.
The summary, then, looks like this: eight hunters collected six bucks and nineteen does. Plus some gem-dandy photographs. Check'em out below.
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Hunt 4 Nov. 17-21
When the Home Camp of the Adobe Lodge Empire was invaded by two car-loads of "good-old-boys" from South Carolina, you can bet some good times were in store for Hunt # 4. These guys were sho'nuff deer hunters (we'll prove that before we're done), and they brought along a couple of guitar-pickers, too. Our kind of folks.
Although the Home Camp's largest buck to date this season was taken on Hunt 4, and although another buck was taken which makes the top five for the year, there was another event that eclipsed both feats. What could be more important than harvesting big bucks? We'll get to this down below. First a little background on the South Carolina group of guys:
The genesis of their visit this year came from the 2006 season when Dale Shelley and Reyn Watson hunted with us. Reyn had found our propaganda on the web and decided to give us a try. Reyn and Dale had such a large time a couple of years ago, they wanted their hunting buddies back home to come experience our West Texas whitetail sport. In the fall of 2007, they nailed down this '08 date. So here they came, driving two vehicles all the way from the eastern side of their fair state, up near the NC line. Most all live in either Green Sea or Loris. The only lone "outsider" lives right across the line in Tabor City, NC.
Bro. Dale and Bro. Reyn did an outstanding job of coaching their troops on what to expect. Back home, mature bucks are few and far between. Their advice was to hold off shooting "just a buck". There are big'uns out there, they counseled. Be patient.
The first afternoon of the hunt, Jeremy Todd (J. Bird), knew he was already looking at one of them. Sitting at a blind near Spring Creek, J. Bird got a quick glimpse of the antlers of a monster. Although his hunt was just getting started, he knew that dude was the one for him. But he had to get a decent shot at the old boy. Despite having numerous other bucks in the area, J. Bird waited for the big one to re-appear. Which he did several times, but never for long - moving about while checking out does, slinking through the brush like a cat. Finally about dark, as the buck walked through a clearing about 120 yards away, J. Bird touched one off. When his guide Jerry Watts came, they found no blood where the buck had been when the shot was fired.
Back in camp that first night, Jeremy's story of his experience held his audience spell-bound. Every movement and sighting of the buck was accounted for, and Jeremy assured one and all that the buck was equal to anything in our photo gallery of "Bucks of the Year" collection on the wall of the skinning shed.
For those who have spent any time hanging out in a deer camp, such accounts of "the one that got away" are usually taken with a grain of salt, so to speak. But Jeremy's excitement and exhuberance gave his story a ring of truth. Everyone somehow knew that J. Bird had surely seen something special.
The next morning, Jeremy and Jerry Watts went back for a daylight look. The exhaustive search was fruitless. Still no blood; still no sign the buck was hit. Hunter and guide spread out to cover the area, and it was "Hound Dog" Watts who finally found the buck, but he nearly had to step on him to do it. The buck had expired in the bottom of a small pit, surrounded by tall grass, and was totally invisible from five feet away. Though hard to believe, Jeremy's shot had hit the buck right smack in his heart and yet the mortally wounded old boy had traveled 60-70 yards, leaving not one drop of blood along the way. Talk about tough. Mercy. But thank goodness he was found - it pays to look, and look, then look some more.
So Jeremy's buck, the first taken, set the bar mighty high for the rest of his amigos. And as has been true for the past several hunts, some of the troops were seeing incredible numbers of good bucks while others were seeing almost nothing. By the half-way point in the hunt, only three bucks were on the board, and there was some discouragement among those who were "snake-bit" insofar as seeing anything decent. One bit of evidence proved that these guys knew their deer hunting: every doe being brought into camp was a large, mature one. But don't forget - everyone was looking for something exceptional. Which is fine with us.
As mentioned earlier, collecting a top-trophy buck is an achievment. But something even more remarkable happens when a sportsman succeeds in overcoming some type of adversity. Consider our amigo Dale Shelly:
When he was here two years ago, Dale was fit as a fiddle. Since then, health problems have cost him the sight in his right eye, and uh-oh, Dale is right handed. So being a hard-core, rifle-shooting deer hunter, how could Dale ever again enjoy the sport he loved so well? Could he adapt to shooting left-handed? Most of us who are totally right-handed wonder if our left hand could finess a trigger-pull? Until his arrival in camp for the hunt, Dale had pondered, but not solved these questions. On the gun range that first day in camp, Dale came up with his own unique solution. He would hold the gun "right-handed", but with the weapon's butt to his left shoulder (for the benefit of his good left eye), with the critical trigger-squeeze still done with his right index finger. We offer a photo below of Dale's unusual approach to illustrate just how he was able to do it.
So did it work? We hope to shout it did. Dale's buck, and a darn good'un he was, stood 165 yards away when he was dropped by Dale's shot. Not only that, Dale took a doe almost as far with his "contortion" hold. Dale, Brother, we are all proud of you. There is something uplifting about seeing anyone rise to whatever challege they have been given. Dale did it in spades. There is no other way to say it: "He done good."
Finally, by the last night of the hunt, all the hunters had tagged out on bucks. Some had earlier passed on better bucks than were taken. But hey, this is the way FAIR CHASE HUNTING sometimes goes. Tony Wright on that final night brought an exceptional buck into camp. The handsome rascal had 13 points and his G'2's were about as long as they come around here. Tony, and others also, reported having good success with "grunting" bucks from a blind. Indeed, we have heard several similar stories recently. Be prepared: go buy yourself a good grunt tube. You need an excuse to go to the sporting goods store? This is it.
So here's the score of South Carolina vs. Texas Deer: eight hunters took eight bucks and 16 does. Six of the does weighed over 100 lbs, the heaviest of which were 117 and 118 pounds. Well done, guys. Very, very well done. And guess what? We'll see them all again in 2009. They booked all eight slots on Hunt 3 next year. Can't wait.
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Hunt 3 Nov. 12-16
"Hunt Three" perfectly describes itself. We had a party of THREE, plus THREE single hunters. And there were THREE guides on hand. So there you have it.
The party of three were all first-timers - Walt Wilken with a father/son pair, Lloyd and Dale Ginder - all from the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania, (Elizabethtown and Manheim, respectively). But since we try to be 100% accurate here, Lloyd also spends part of the year in Florida.
The three single hunters were all Adobe Lodge veterans. Lynn Patterson, a bow hunter from Odessa, TX, has been here numerous times. Tony Rocco, back for his second hunt with us, lives in Tewksbury, MA. And to maintain that accuracy we were talking about, Matt Shubert from Zionsville, PA was here last year, as well, but hunted the Hatfield Camp. So this was Matt's first visit to our Home Camp.
Now that we have properly introduced the group, how did they do? Pretty darn good, in spite of enduring more wind. Actually, the weather was pleasant to begin and end the hunt, but the wind got out of the north, blowing 20-30 mph for a day and a half in the middle.
Walt Wilken was the first to take a buck - on the first afternoon's hunt. Tony Rocco got one on the following morning. And since second bucks were being offered, Walt got another on the second night - this time a sure'nuff dandy. The rascal had twelve scorable points, but, if you go by the old hunting camp "hang-a-ring" rule, you could give him nineteen. The photos below attempt to show all these points, but there wasn't enough memory in the digital camera to capture all of them.
Dale and Lloyd Binder, despite the wind, took good bucks. Dale's buck, like Walt's, had several points below his eyeguards. Matt Shubert was the final hunter to tag a buck - a nice ten pointer.
Lynn Patterson, the bow hunter, never flung a shot. But, like Paul Harvey says, here's the "rest of the story": Lynn passed on fourteen different bucks, five of which were ten-pointers. Lynn knows his deer and judged none of them to be over three-and-a-half. He wasn't about to take one before his prime just for the sake of arrowing a buck. You simply have to admire this kind of attitude in a hunter. Of course, being a bow hunter, Lynn got an "up-close-and-personal" look at all of them.
On the final morning, Lynn had seen nothing and along about 8:30, with the temperature still below freezing, he blew his grunt call a few times. All of a sudden, one of those immature ten-pointers appeared not 15 yards away. That young fellow didn't know it at the time, but he was a "dead-deer-walking" if Lynn had made that choice. How do we know this? A couple days before, Lynn had stuck his arrow in a cottontail rabbit at 30 yards. How's that for bow-shooting? So Lynn went back west to Odessa without having taken a deer, but his coolers were full of deer meat left over from previous hunts.
Lloyd Ginder saw many, many gobblers on one of his hunts. And he even offered proof - we copied his photos on the camp computer and have posted them below. Lloyd said he counted at least forty toms in the flock. This report must have had an effect on son Dale - he took a dandy gobbler (with a 10" beard) on the final morning of the hunt.
One of the highlights of the hunt had nothing to do with deer or turkeys. First a little background info: Tony Rocco was being guided by Mike Thomson, a shade-tree guitar picker if there ever was one. During a morning's outting, a herd of cows drifted by Tony's blind, disrupting his concentration on the task at hand - hunting deer. In a good-natured way, Tony accused Mike of somehow allowing this tragedy to happen and threatened to forego the tradition of tipping his guide. So there was this banter back and forth between the two until one night at supper, Mike lamented to the other guides that he had the "No-Tip Blues". Jeff Branon immediately started scratching song lines on a napkin and before you knew it, Mike got his guitar and sang the new song for Tony. Bro. Rocco promised to reinstate the tip if only Mike would quit picking and singing. Watch your local music stores - surely this one will be available on an album soon. Probably only Mike's mother would want one though.
In addition to the new song, here are the results of Hunt 3: six hunters took six bucks. One took two, and one took zero. There were nine does taken plus a DNF doe (did not find). And one turkey gobbler. It was a good hunt. The evidence? Most all the hunters reported seeing bucks better than what was taken. Indeed, someone suggested we should "turn out the bigger bucks first". This issue is the eternal dilemma of hunting here: your challenge is to determine when you are looking at the largest buck you will see during your stay. It could be the first afternoon or it might be the final morning. You just never know.
Want more evidence of a good hunt? All the hunters were busy getting our list of open dates for next year and talking about returning in 2009. We hope it comes to pass.
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Hunt 2 Nov. 7-11
Just like the hunt before it, Hunt # 2 had a slow start but one heck of a finish. Do you suppose we are setting some kind of trend here? We'll see as the season unfolds. These hunts are ending like some of the football games we watch. In any case, there were numerous "firsts" on this hunt which we shall attempt to describe as we roll along with our narrative.
In attendance were four pairs of two, all from different states - PA, NY, CA and VA including two sets of father/son pairs who happened to all be Adobe Lodge veterans; the other four being first-timers. So we had a diverse but balanced group of eight.
Pennsylvanian Tom Biehl has hunted with us countless times, sometimes bringing along his son, Hunter, as he did this year. Didn't take ole Tom long to find the buck he wanted - he brought in a beautiful eleven pointer the first night in camp. Chalk that one up to experience. Son Hunter (gosh, that name just has a ring to it, eh?) waited until the final night of the hunt, and he, too, managed to collect a dandy. Both of the Biehls took their full quota of three does apiece and having driven here all the way from PA, they had an overload of deer meat to haul home. Tom likes to get the meat ground into ring sausage, and they ought to have a nice supply for their cold, snowy winter up that-a-way.
The hunt commenced at noon on Friday and that night, we had our first hard freeze of the season when the temperature got down to 23 degrees. Saturday was pleasant enough weather-wise, but discouraging in that Californian Carl Ballantyne drew blood on a buck that couldn't be found, despite an extensive search by Charlie Bowers, his wonder-dog, Harley, and David Gonzales, who is a master at finding things others will miss. Scenting conditions were less than ideal in the wind that afternoon. They looked seveal times more over the coming days without success. It was a grim aspect of the hunt.
Along about the end of the first third of the hunt, the weather took a turn for the worse, wind-wise, and the hunting did, too. Nothing much was being seen in the gale. It blew for two days, kicking us dust here and there, settling only at night. Finally, on the final afternoon, the wind laid a bit and the deer came out of their hidey-holes. Then that night, thunder and lightening boomed and we managed to get three tenths in the rain gauge - not the drought-breaker we were hoping for. But it will help the wheat a bit. When the wind stopped, the hunting got better. Especially that final afternoon and the following morning.
The other father/son pair in camp was Craig and Justin Boehler from Amsterdam, NY. Having been here in '07 and knowing more or less what to expect, both were hesitant to pull the trigger on a buck. But Justin had no trouble in taking down a big hog - an invader species rarely seen here (thank goodness). We instruct the hunters to shoot every pig they see - free of charge - as we try to postpone for as long as we can the increase in numbers of the porcines.
During one of their hunts, Craig spotted a buck but couldn't decide if he wanted to take it. He was on-again and off-again with his decision. (His butter was getting soft but didn't reach the critical melting point.) When guide Jim (Snake) Allen and Justin arrived at the blind to pick up Craig, doggoned if that buck wasn't still in the area and Justin, a respectful but determined son, encouraged Dad to shoot him. The buck meandered away with Craig still unwilling to pull the trigger. As stories go around a hunting camp, it was later claimed that Snake rattled the rascal back in. But once again, Craig declined. It wasn't until the final night of the hunt that Craig finally found the one he was looking for, but as you will see, Craig "done good." And this time, Craig "grunted" the buck in. A heart-stopper for sure.
Before the wind finally became a burden, Jimmy Morris from Montpelier, VA got a high-horned eight point. He was rattled-in by the Illinois game warden, Bill Scott. This is the first sure-nuff rattling success of the season. Looks like things are moving our way. It ought to get better on the following few hunts, too.
Jimmy's amigo, John Sars, was still looking. But as we shall see, you wouldn't describe Bro. John as having the "Be Prepared" traits of a Boy Scout. Here's what happened:
Your humble writer was cutting firewood on Sunday afternoon and couldn't hear his cell phone ring. It beeped announcing a message which said: "Mr. Duncan, this is Michelle Sars in Prince George, VA. My husband, John, is hunting with you and he has run out of bullets. Could you please call his guide? Tell him to take John some bullets". Not having Bill Scott's cell number, I had to call camp manager Kyle Ezell who knew how to reach Bill. When back in camp that night, Bill reported that John didn't just leave his bullets in the truck - he had taken all he had - three cartridges. And having used the entire inventory in taking a doe, John was bullet-less. So Bill had to drive four miles to the blind where John's companion, Jimmy was hunting. Understandably a bit leary of approaching a deer blind with an armed hunter, Bill crept up to the back and alerted Jimmy of John's dilemma. Graciously, Jimmy, who was watching several deer at the time, passed a handful of bullets out the window of the blind to Bill, who thereupon rushed the precious cargo to John at his blind. By this time, John had a buck at his blind but it was judged to not be a shooter. Here's a question to ponder: can a hunter with no bullets judge a buck to be a shooter?
Clearly this entire episode was an Adobe Lodge "first". A phone call from southeast of Mertzon, TX to Virginia; a phone call from VA back to a pasture near the Middle Concho River; a phone call from said river to the main hunting lodge; a phone call from the lodge to Bill Scott, also southeast of Mertzon. When pressed for details, John said from the time he called his wife, it was only about 45 minutes until Bill showed up with more bullets, courtsey of Jimmy. Hey Folks - neither the UPS or FedEx can compete with the speed and service of the Adobe Lodge team. But when/if the communists come, you don't want to find yourself in the same foxhole with John. Given the choice, pick Jimmy. At least he'll have some bullets.
And there were yet more firsts: Travis Rawe, from Riverbank, CA collected his first-ever buck, but he had to wait until the final hours of the hunt to do it. Taped (outside) at 19", his was the widest buck of the hunt. And remember Carl Ballantyne who lost his buck? Well, on that final morning of the hunt, Carl went back for one more look and guess what? He found his buck. To make things even better, this was also Carl's first-ever buck. So both Californians were finally successful but they played it right to the end.
Although it is still not clear how he did it, John Sars found enough bullets to take not one, but two bucks. Jimmy Morris took two, as well, although he admitted he left for home with only three bullets remaining to his name. You might try to remember John Sars. He liked our Home Camp so much, he booked to come back on Hunt # 7 in early December. Which is plenty of time for us to get our cell phone charged-up before he returns.
In summary then, here are the final stats: only Justin Boehler (who killed that big hog)failed to take a buck. Justin saw several bucks similar to what was taken by the other hunters, but Justin admitted he was after only the best we had. There were nine bucks taken by the other seven hunters. A total of nineteen does was taken by the group of eight with Tom and Hunter Biehl, John Sars, Travis Rawe and Carl Ballantyne taking a limit of three each. Plus that hog, thanks to Justin.
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Hunt 1 November 2-6
We were knee deep in Pennsylvania hunters here while the election was going on elsewhere in the USA, and now we know why PA was known as a "Battleground State". These guys came to hunt and did a darn good job of it. Collected several critters in addition to some dandy bucks, they did.
Actually, what with the weather being unusually warm and quite windy for the first time this season, the hunting proceeded kind of slow until the beginning of the final quarter of the game (to use a football analogy). But the finish was plenty exciting, we can assure you.
Before getting into the details, please meet the group of hunters. Jerry Tibbott and Jeff Artley were both here last season. Come to think of it, Jerry was here twice in '07, and will be here twice this season when he brings son, Austin, back right after Christmas. Jerry, from Northern Cambria, headed the group from the western part of the state and Jeff, from Fredericksburg, lead the Eastern PA guys. The "westerners" were Lemmon Dishong, Commodore; Chris Rhodes, Fairview; and George Tate, Clymer. From the east came Kenneth Klein, Shrewsbury; Mike Younes, Lancaster; and Eric Lingenfelter, Lititz. The amiable group used nicknames for several of the guys - like "button", "lung-er", and "banjo". There was a good story behind each moniker.
First to draw blood was Chris Rhodes who did us a big favor by taking out a nice raccoon. These unrepentant critters are delux corn thieves and mischief-makers and it was a delight to get a photo of Chris with the perpetrator. But it was Jeff Artley who took the first buck of the group - a fine one indeed as you will see in the collection of photos below.
As can so often be the case, some of the hunters during the first couple of days were seeing lots of bucks while others found hardly any - or worse, none at all. The strong wind had to be playing a part in this. And maybe the hot days were to blame. But why would bucks be moving in one area and not in another? A post-hunt analysis always raises more questions than answers.
Mike Younes found a butter-melting buck on the second day. Next to be successful was Kenneth Klein and then Lemmon Dishong. But by the final quarter of the hunt, we were just four-for-eight. And that weather wasn't helping, either. At least that's what we were blaming it on.
Chris Rhodes admits to having a dozen or so bucks hanging on his wall back home. So you might surmise that he was here to find not just any old buck but something special. After passing on numerous candidates along the way, Chris finally saw one he liked on that busy last afternoon of the hunt. Jerry Tibbott, who had passed-on a good one he judged to be an eleven-pointer earlier in the hunt, finally got his photo made that night with the fine 10 pointer he took down. And to end a busy night, Eric Lingenfelter and George Tate had to wait their turn in the photo studio with their good bucks. That one George collected had a most unusual set of antlers - the kind where the G-2's almost touch at the tip. How does such a buck get his antlers around a limb to rub off the velvet? That would be a challenging future project for the trail camera.
It was the final morning's hunt which firmly put this hunt over the top. Lemmon Dishong got a bobcat, albeit not a very big one, but hey - how many of us have ever taken a bobcat? Any size bobcat is a trophy and the good news here is that bobcats are still free - no trophy fee. And the rest of the good news was that George Tate collected a pair of javelinas before the final whistle.
It's no wonder why PA was called a battleground state. These guys came put some game on the ground and they did.
Guide Jeff Branon reported seeing signs of the rut coming on - but only in some areas here and there. Bucks hot on the trail of a doe during the middle of the day? That's a dead-give-away. By past year's standards, this event is coming much too early. But who knows what Mother Nature is up to? Judging by the hot weather encountered by the hunters, you have to wonder what those seemingly-rutting bucks were thinking about. Perhaps the deer are getting conditioned for the Global Warming that everyone is talking about? Our own personal view about the subject is that Mother Nature brings on the rut to govern when She wants Her fawns to be born next spring.
Enough, already. Get back to the report on the hunt. The final stats showed eight hunters took eight bucks, 18 does, two javelinas, one bobcat, and one coon. This was a bountiful harvest and one heck of a score for the PA team of hunters, even though they put most of the points on the board late in the game. Well done, we say. All's well that end's well, etc. etc.
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Hunt C Oct. 28 - Nov. 2
Hardly ever do we produce a perfect hunt, but Hunt C in 2008 came about as close as we can get it.
There was a party of two and a party of four; five from PA and one from NY. As it turned out, the PA guys all lived in or around Allentown. Of the six, two were Adobe Lodge veterans and four were newcomers.
So just what was it that made the hunt so good? Well let's see - (a) the weather was mild and pleasant, (b) the hunting was good, (c) a sixtyish-year-old hunter took his first-ever buck, (d) there were three near-140" bucks taken, (e) our tally board had zero blank spots left - every hunter took his allotment of one buck and three does, and (f)we weighed our all-time heaviest-ever buck at 210 lbs. If all this wasn't enough, Charlie Bowers, the cook, fed us some of the best meals he ever prepared (the four suppers were pork loin, brisket, ribeyes, and catfish).
But what made the hunt super-special was the attitude of the hunters. Right from the first moment we met them, it was easy to tell they came here to have a good time. And so they did - a self-fulfilling prophesy. We had one fine time, visiting with old friends and getting to know some new ones.
Remember we said "ALMOST perfect". Indeed there were a couple of bumps in the road, to wit: Bob Miller, from Havertown, PA hit a good buck late one afternoon and by the time his guide, Bill Scott, arrived to help trail the animal, Bill concluded that the task would best wait for the next morning. So it was, as you might imagine, an anxious night, especially for Bob and Bill. Unlike our previous hunt when a buck was lost and never found, this time we got lucky - they found him. The buck had traveled another hundred yards or so, leaving little or no blood. It took the search party an hour or more to finally find him. But uh oh, something had found him first. One of his hams had been eaten away. Javalinas, no doubt, judging by the tracks found around the carcass. Of course, mountain lions have been known to pull a heist like that, but no cat sign was found. Not enough to hold up in court, anyway.
Because Bob's bullet was farther back that you'd want (not exactly gut-shot, but close), if the searchers had attempted to follow the dim trail that night, they might have, indeed, pushed the buck and lost him for good. Wisely, guide Bill Scott elected to wait for morning. Bill, a retired game warden from Illinois, has seen it all in his long career and knew just how to handle this tricky situation. All's well now, with Bob Miller getting his photo made with that 22 1/4" wide ten pointer with 142+ inches of horns on his head. Mercy - it would be a tragedy to lose one like that. To be sure, the meat could not be saved, but the cape on the buck was in perfect shape. What a mount that big dude will make for Bob's den.
Although he's old enough to draw Social Security, Win Fields, Breinigsville, PA, had never taken a buck. Now he has. You won't believe the whopper he got for his first-ever - a 19", eleven pointer that weighed, get this - 210 lbs. But as it turns out, this was Win's second choice. Huh? What? Yep, the night before, Win found a buck he liked, and would have taken him except for the fact that his gun malfunctioned and that particular buck got away. A pin had fallen out of Win's lever action. Lucky for both deer and hunter, no doubt. That first buck wasn't near the buck that Win found later. Beginner's luck, Win??? Nahhh - it's the ice water in Win's veins that kept him cool. But he did admit his heart thumped a bit when he saw that bigger buck the next day. Oh yeah, so what about that pin in the lever action of Win's gun? Win found it in the floor of the hunting vehicle. Talk about lucky. Win ought to be buying lottery tickets - he was on a roll.
Jake Schmoyer, Chester, NY and Kyle Fields, Allentown, PA were the only two veteran in camp. Both collected nice eight-pointers. Wulf Heusinger also took an eight-pointer, but Wulf's buck had 140" on horns on his head. An eight-pointer with that many inches is one remarkable animal. Check out his photo below.
Before the hunt concluded, all six hunters were talking about a return visit to the Adobe Lodge someday. We certainly hope so. What a wonderful time we had with them all. Good food, good fellowship, good hunting, good weather. Folks - it just doesn't get any better than this. Nevermind the mal-functioning guns and temporarily lost bucks.
Our next hunt runs Nov. 2-6. If this old computer will quit giving us fits, we hope to have the photo, photo captions and text report on that hunt posted by Nov. 7. By then, the election will be over and all of us can turn our attention back to, as the Waylon Jennings song says, the "basics of life" - hunting.
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Hunt B Oct. 23-27
Our second hunt of the 2008 season found nine hunters in camp. Six were new-comers and three were Adobe Lodge veterans. With the official opening of the Texas season set to come on November 1, we are hunting under the MLD program offered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife. Hunters can legally hunt with a gun during this pre-season time. As a matter of interest, we will be hunting AFTER the Texas season on additional MLD hunts. (MLD = "Managed Lands - Deer")
Among the first-timers, we had a party of three from Corona,California - a father/son pair,Bill and Tyler Covington (fifth-grader) plus Bill's fellow-law-enforcement buddy, Fred Avalos. Another newcomer was Steve Richman from Miami. Neither Steve nor Fred had ever taken a whitetail buck. But now they have. Such events are always a highlight of any Adobe Lodge hunt. Steve also collected a javelina which was almost as black as an Angus calf.
Other first-timers were Steve Drake and his son, Preston (seventh-grader)who were late arrivals in camp due to a football game which commanded Preston's presence. The Drakes are from Houston. Interestingly enough, Steve is the brother-in-law of one of our new guides, Bill Scott. Bill, a retired game warden from Effingham, Illinois, has hunted with us numerous times as a client. Since Bill is so much fun to have in camp, and since he obviously knows deer hunting from every angle, we recruited his services for several hunts this season. So it was a unique family hunting party with Uncle Bill guiding Preston to his collecting a dandy buck, a fine javelina and a couple of good does. Steve, being more interested in Preston's hunting than his own, asked if Preston could take his buck, and of course we said yes. Whether it was their late arrival or their early departure, the net result was that young Preston wasn't able to find a second buck. But school comes first and always will. So there was a deficit of one buck attributed to the Drake duo.
Our most faithful and long-time client, John Newsome from Shumway, IL, called a few days ago wondering how our hunting was going. We answered: "Great. Come on down." So he did. Bringing Myron Woomer and Bob Huey with him. These Land of Lincoln hunters have all been here numerous times and know our drill about as well as we do. Myron collected a nice buck, but it was Bob Huey who took his best-ever Adobe Lodge buck - a 23" heavy-horned eight point. Wait till you see his photo below.
It would take many pages to describe the hunting accomplishments of John Newsome, but his generosity leads the list. Here is how this trait played out on Hunt B:
Tragically, on the first night of the hunt, young Tyler Covington (who has five deer to his credit), knocked a buck right smack on his back with his .243. Quivering feet sticking straight in the air and all that. Both dad Bill, and their guide Jeff Branon were in the blind to confirm the facts of the story. Any experienced hunter seeing a buck in that position would reasonably conclude that the lights were going out for the said buck. He stay down for at least a couple of minutes.
But doggoned if that rascal didn't regain his feet somehow, and off he stumbled into the night. Years of experience with such things told Jeff that the buck would best be found the next morning after having a chance to bleed some. "Don't push him" - that's a good rule to follow with a wounded deer. But despite an exhaustive search all the next day, we were set to put the dreaded DNF (did not find) by Tyler's name on the tally board. Where that buck went and where he was hit with Tyler's bullet, we'll just never know. By now, you have to count him lost for good.
So to show you just how generous John Newsome is, young Tyler was offered the chance to take John's buck. Tyler, who by this time had three does to his credit, found a nice 17" eight pointer he liked. This one didn't get away. You can see his photo below. Our thanks go to John Newsome for making this offer to Tyler Covington. Very, very generous, but it is so typical of John.
To sum things up, here's what the stats show: nine hunters collected seven bucks, 17 does, and two javelinas. The weather was super-nice. A bit chilly in the mornings with the temperatures in the high 30's to low 40's, but the afternoons got plumb warm. And no wind. That's great. Deer movement here in the final quarter of the moon was o.k. but inconsistent. Hunter's reports each half-day told of those who saw lots and those who saw few. It is impossible to predict when/where deer activity will happen. If we knew, we'd tell you.
Hunt C will be Oct. 28-Nov.1 and that report ought to be posted by Nov. 2.
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Hunt A - October 16-20
The kickoff hunt of the 2008 season found only one, lone hunter in our Home Camp. Oh sure, we wanted others, but it was not to be. So we had to play the hand we were dealt. Robin Smith from Cocoa, Florida got our undivided attention.
With only the one hunter on hand, camp manager Kyle Ezell elected to do the cooking. Having served in this capacity before assuming the over-all management of the Home Camp back in 2007, Kyle's cooking skills are legendary. There is simply no way to lose weight when Kyle is putting food on the table.
David Gonzales, master skinner and meat specialist, doubled as a guide for Robin. Which ain't no bad deal. When you get David out of the skinning shed, you quickly learn he excels as an outdoorsman. David's abilities to see and find deer are uncanny - he has an eye for such things.
Robin's work is pretty interesting, when you can get him to talk about it. He works for Boeing, the contractor charged with shooting rockets into space down there in Florida. But Robin's hobby is raising cattle in his spare time. He was as curious about the Texas cattle business as he was about hunting. Although cattle are not as prevalent on the Duncan Ranch as they were years ago, Robin got a grand tour of the rangeland where cattle used to be king. No longer - our focus is now on whitetail deer and spring turkeys.
Because this was Robin's first-ever hunt with us, he admitted to taking the first decent buck he saw. This is an understandable trait for Adobe Lodge first-timers. Most of our hunters will tell you they saw much larger bucks after pulling the trigger. The eternal challenge is to determine when you are looking at the largest buck you will see during the four days of the hunt. This is no easy task. Sure'nuff, on a walking, stalking doe hunt with David after collecting his buck, Robin saw one he judged to be a "Buck of the Year" candidate. Maybe someone will get him on the ground before the season comes to a close. Hope so, anyway.
Robin collected a couple of does in addition to his buck. He made a spectacular shot on one of them, too. It is always a treat to have a good marksman in camp.
The weather could not have been better. A blustery cool front preceded the start of the hunt but when Robin arrived, the mornings were in the 40's and daytime temperatures were around 80. Visibility was outstanding - hills forty miles distant were clearly visible. And there was no wind. Smoke from the campfire traveled straight up.
Our next hunt of this 2008 season runs October 23-27. Due to some last-minute bookings, we will have a full compliment of eight hunters in camp. Our next report ought to be posted around/about October 28.
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