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McManus Camp
2011 Hunt Reports and Photos
Please Note: Double-click on an image to enlarge it.
Also Please Note: Hunt reports are posted in reverse order with the most recent hunt at the top of the page. To follow our season in chronological order, scroll to the bottom and work your way to the top.
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| Beaver McManus |
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| McManus Camp
Since 1989, Beaver McManus has been hosting Adobe Lodge hunters at his ranch. Repeat hunters make up close to 90% of each year's list of clients. There is often a waiting list to secure a spot for a deer hunt.
The McManus Camp can host a total of only four hunters on each hunt, and there are a total of only five hunt dates during the whitetail season.
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2011 McManus Camp Summary
100% Success on Whitetail Bucks
Taken By
81% Repeat Hunters and Friends
19% Brand New Hunters
Read all about it in the reports below.
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Hunt 5 December 15 - 18
When Glenn Wise from Carlisle, PA took "Buck of the Year" honors with a great McManus Camp buck back in 2009 , there was talk of his retiring from the deer hunting game. But that didn't happen. He returned for a late season hunt last season at our Home Camp. Old soldiers never quit: he returned once again this season, this time to his old favorite haunt - the McManus Camp.
After trying other Texas venues long ago, Glenn has been a fixture at Beaver McManus' camp for many years now. In 2011, he brought along from his same area three brand new hunters for us to meet - a father/son pair Mike and Matt Ludt and their amigo, Todd Harry, all three of whom have plenty of experience in the hunting tradition.
Mike was the first to tag-out with a high-horned nine pointer the first morning. Then, things slowed down a bit that evening and the next morning. Friday night, it was pandemonium around Beaver's skinning shed. Three bucks were brought to fill the entire card with half their time still to go.
Matt Ludt's buck was quite similar to his dad's but with a couple fewer points. The buck Glenn Wise found was a good'un for sure - a ten pointer with heavy horns. But it was the buck taken by Todd Harry that was most unusual. The fighting dude had broken off no-telling-how-many inches of tines and - get this - still had some velvet hanging off to the side of his rack. From a distance, even through a good scope, you might even mistake the old, dried skin as a drop-tine.
Hardly ever do you still see velvet on a buck's antlers in mid-December, but broken antlers are quite common this time of year. Todd's buck was evidently quite a scrapper and would rather rub his ten-point antlers on another buck's horns in a fight than to waste valuable time just scratching a limb in some lonely valley. No doubt, he had "an attitude" and no doubt again, all his companions are glad Todd took him away.
The weather was normal the entire hunt - low 30's at daybreak - near 60 by midday. No does were taken by anyone. Neither varmints nor feral hogs were seen (and that's good news). So with the four hunters taking four bucks, the McManus Camp was once again, for the umpteenth time, 100% successful for the year. Each and every McManus Camp hunter in 2011 collected his buck. It just don't get no better than that.
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Hunt 4 December 8 - 11
There is no such thing as "forever". Once upon a time, a group of four hunters had a perpetual, "forever" booking on Hunt # 4 at the McManus Camp. The one party of two and the two parties of one had congealed into a group of faithful friends who enjoyed their annual get-together to deer hunt at the McManus Camp in mid-December.
But as we all come to learn sooner or later, "forever" can change in a heartbeat. Lesson: don't put off doing what you always wanted to do. After unfortunate tragedies and setbacks, only one of the original band of brothers was on hand for the 2011 season.
The remaining veteran was Justin Carissio from Wilmington, DE - a celebrity for sure since he continues to hold the distinction of taking the best-ever buck harvested by an Adobe Lodge hunter. Justin's wall-hanger, taken back in 2007 with his faithful .30-.30, was a 173 3/8" whopper. You can see this impressive trophy at the top of the "Best-Ever Bucks" page on this website. Justin has now hunted with Beaver nine times, having first visited during the memorable year of (for airplane travel, that is) 2001. Since then, he has missed only two seasons.
Justin's new fellow hunters were Bill Wurfel from Robbinsville, NJ and Ryan Hudson from Purvis, MS - both of whom were new to Texas hunting and to the McManus brand of hospitality. So there were three parties of one for the fourth hunt of the season.
All three hunters collected nice bucks on the first day with Bill and Ryan tagging out in the morning. Justin held out until that first afternoon. It is hard to keep your finger off the trigger when you are hunting with Beaver McManus - you just see so many nice bucks. It takes lots of will-power to pass-on bucks that would be shooters for sure back home. Ryan's buck was his first-ever ten-pointer. If he is like so many others in the sport, he'll now be focused on finding an eleven-pointer somewhere.
No does were taken by any of the three, although they all continued to hunt for the duration of their time in camp, just for the adventure of it. Midday on Saturday, Beaver took all three hunters with the three nice heads to town to visit the taxidermist.
A few inches of snow had fallen a day or two before the arrival of the hunters, but it was mostly gone by the time they all got to camp. Drizzle fell intermittently during much of their time in camp. This badly-needed moisture limited deer movement somewhat, but being all tagged out early in the hunt, that was no big deal to the hardy hunters.
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Hunt 3 December 1 - 4
It is difficult to imagine a whitetail season at the McManus Camp without John Hubschmidt in camp for one of the hunts. This was his thirteenth successive year to hunt with Beaver. John is recently retired from full-time dairy farming, but still A.I.'s a few heifers to occupy his time.
For the second year in a row, John was accompanied by Dave Hitchner. Both are from Bridgeton, NJ. This year, we got to meet Dave's son, Jamie, now living in Littlestown, PA. Both Hitchners are professional educators/teachers/administrators. All three guys are deer hunters deluxe and are clearly dedicated to the sport.
Jamie was the first of the group to get a buck, and good one he was. Good enough, in fact, that just one photo from one angle doesn't do him justice so you'll get to see several photos of Jamie's trophy below. Remarkably, Jamie had earlier passed up a possibly even-larger buck because he had broken-off a brow tine. (Hint, hint to bucks everywhere: to increase your life expectancy, get yourself in plenty of fights and break-off all the tines you can.) Jamie's buck, an eighteen-inch eleven pointer, taped out just a hair over 130 inches - one of the best of this drought-stricken year.
Dave's buck had either nine or ten points, depending on how severe you wanted to be with your count. Dave also saw, but got no shot at, a bobcat.
John Hubschmidt, with all those years of experience hunting at the McManus Camp, is a discriminating hunter, to say the least. John rarely makes his selection until toward the end of the hunt, being fully immune to hasty judgments when it comes to whitetail deer. In the waning minutes of the hunt on the final morning, while looking for a monster which had been seen earlier, John settled for an eight point which had three broken points.
So as is usually the case at the McManus camp, all hunters were successful in taking bucks. 100% is the norm when you hunt at Beaver's. What with the rut being now in full bloom, the bucks seemed to be moving around a lot, as you would expect. Having other things on their mind right now, they don't regularly appear at feeders as they probably will later on. Hard to pattern, you might say. None of the three hunters elected to take a doe.
Several groups of turkeys were seen. This is encouraging news since the range land hunted by the McManus Camp, well-away from the river bottom, is not normally frequented by many turkeys during the winter. Good numbers of turkeys traditionally begin to show up in March around the McManus Camp.
Ever since Beaver McManus opened his camp and joined up with the Adobe Lodge empire, he has used the same, old faithful truck - a double-cab Chevrolet. In backing up to his skinning shed to load up the hunters for the final morning's hunt, something happened somehow, and Old Faithful disappeared while Beaver was rounding up his hunters. The emergency brake failed and the ancient vehicle rolled down the hill, right toward Beaver's new house, still under construction. Thankfully, the truck barely missed hitting the house, but collided instead with a mesquite tree - which saved a nearby fence. The poor old truck is now one-eyed, so to speak, having lost a headlight in the fiasco.
Except for one afternoon during the hunt, the weather was dominated by drizzle and clouds. A bit of moisture, enough to maybe do some good, finally fell. The McManus outfit, just like countless other Texas ranches, was hoping a praying for more.
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Hunt 2 November 16 - 19
The second McManus Camp hunt of the season began and ended a half-day early to accommodate the travel schedule of two of the hunters.
Rich Mezzullo and Vitor Proenca, in arranging their flight schedule from New York, had asked if this change could be made. Both had hunted with Beaver McManus last season. Since the third hunter, Matt Shubert, was driving in, he agreed to arrive a bit early to make the deal work. It did. Rich Mezzullo lives in Highland Mills, NY; Vitor Proenca gets his mail in Astoria, NY.
Matt Shubert, is the only Adobe Lodge customer to have hunted at three of our camps. Last season, Matt hunted our Home Camp for the third year in a row. This year, he decided to switch to the McManus Camp, which is plenty o.k. with us, just so long as he stays a customer somewhere in our vast empire. Matt is from either Zionsville, PA or from somewhere in Florida, depending on when you track him down.
So all three hunters were Adobe Lodge veterans, but only Rich and Vitor were McManus Camp vets.
Being experienced in hunting our area, as you might expect, all three hunters knew to wait for a butter-melter to reveal himself. Rich and Matt were the first to pull the trigger on the second night of the hunt. Rich collected 15" nine-pointer. Matt took a ten pointer which lacked a quarter inch of matching Rich's buck.
Vitor waited until the last night in camp to get busy. He collected both his 16 1/2", nine point buck and a doe in the photo-finish.
The weather, except for the middle day when the wind blew a gale, was mostly decent for the entire time. Chilly in the mornings, not quite hot during the day. Beaver thinks the rut in his area up in the hills is just barely getting under way. Down at the Home Camp, where much of the hunting area is along several rivers, the annual ritual in the deer herd seems to be a bit further along. But in both areas, buck deer seem to dominate around the feeders. Hunters see many fewer does than bucks almost every outing.
With photos being more valuable that words by a thousand-to-one margin, the pictures below show some of the sights around the McManus Camp during the hunt. Just click on any photo to enlarge it and to read the caption.
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Hunt 1 November 3 - 6
The kickoff hunt at the McManus Camp for the 2011 season was a good one. All three hunters, two vets and one new-comer, collected nice bucks. The only bad deal was the absence of one of the regulars.
Back for his umpteenth time was Darl Hospelhorn from Waynesboro, PA. Always accompanied by his old amigo, Ed Miller, who used to be his next door neighbor, Darl had to make the trip alone this year. Ed called a few weeks ago and had to back out due to eye surgery problems. Best not to risk any thing at all when it comes to your eyes, so everyone agreed that Ed's trip would be put off till next season. We wish him a speedy recovery and we hope to see him (and that he will see us clearly) in 2012.
As a matter of interest, Ed has become a southerner, now living in Hahira, GA since his job took him there are few years ago.
As has become his habit at the McManus Camp, Darl Hospelhorn collected a mighty fine eleven pointer. Wait till you see his photo below.
The other McManus Camp veteran was Mike Anderson who has been a steady, faithful customer of the Adobe Lodge for the past several years. Mike lives in Richardson, TX. Late in the hunt and after studying many bucks, he finally found a dandy, heavy-horned buck to take home with him. Plus a doe.
The first-timer was Larry Nickollof, from Corpus Christi, TX. But his accent gave him away. Sounding nothing like a native of South Texas, we quickly learned that he is originally from Connecticut. Larry was the first to put a buck down, taking a nice eight pointer. But it was the doe he took that made for a good story. Seems that Larry's first shot at the old girl was maybe 300 yards out. According to Beaver's report, the doe kept coming closer after each round. When she finally expired after six shots, Beaver found precious little meat to wrap and freeze once he got her back to the skinning shed.
The weather was chilly on the first couple of mornings with a light frost. The strong southwest wind during the day made it seem colder than it really was. Not quite shirtsleeve conditions, but close.
For those of you who have hunted the McManus Camp in the past, you would hardly recognize the place. Beaver and wife, Leslyn (the incredible camp cook), are living in Beaver's barn while a new house is being built on the exact site of their old dwelling. That old home, built sometime just after the battle of the Alamo, no doubt, was torn down several months ago. Much of the old structure's rock and tin roof are being incorporated into the new building. We'll try to have some photos in subsequent reports.
Even with Leslyn cooking in that barn over there, no one complained about the groceries they had. And it's always a good hunt when everyone collects a nice buck. Two of the three took does, as well.
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