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Group hunts are the best fun!!!!

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    #16
    I remember that rabbit Lane. It was fun the year I went. You handed that self bow down yet. Or is it still together. Arvin

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      #17
      Looks like a great trip!

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        #18
        Looks like a great hunt!! Congrats guys!!

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          #19
          Looks like a great hunt. We did our NC/VA group hunt last week on a ranch in Live Oak County. There were plenty of Javi on the ranch but I didn't hunt for them. I did take a nice sow pig.

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            #20
            Looked like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing the pics and stories.

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              #21
              Coolness !!!

              Rick

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                #22
                I'll break mine up by day... because as Bisch likes to remind me... I don't do short posts

                Late in December, Jerry sent me a text asking if I was interested in filling a spot on his annual Javi hunt. I jumped on that opportunity in a big way! I was neck deep in the worst slump I have been in since well, since I started shooting a traditional bow over 3 years ago. I had misses, bad shots, wounded and unrecovered critters... some were just mishaps with unseen obstructions, a bad decision, and limb clearance issues. The opportunities were there, but I kept coming home with empty coolers... weekend after weekend. To say I was frustrated, would be an understatement.

                So when I got the invite, it was like a rope was being tossed my way to help pull me out. I'd been on three javi hunts before, so I had an idea of how to get it done coming in.

                Between the end of WT season and this hunt, a small group of us also decided to go hunt the Fowler ranch.... long story short, the slump continued and even my closest of hunting buddies could tell I was starting to getting grumpy/sullen about it. I was trying to best not to let it get the better of me... but it is hard. We all know how much time and effort and practice we put into these hunts that it can start grating on you when you can't seem to put it together, when you have proven before that you can.

                So to set the stage, I am usually a pretty positive person... and I am struggling... and trying to fight of the pessimism that keeps growing.

                Thursday

                the week sort of drags by, but Thursday comes along and I am anxious to get this hunt going. I have some other hunting related errands that I needed to tend to that afternoon on the way down, so my brain was kept pretty occupied. I made it down to Pearsall ahead of Bisch and get to meet Brian, Nathan, Lane, and Joe in the parking lot. It's not hard to pick out a few javi hunters in the parking lot of an HEB

                The next couple hours are spent shopping, getting corn, and chillin at a Mexican food joint waiting for our time to meet up with Mark. I couldn't tell if the fellas could tell if I was anxious or not. I had been on a javi hunt... and I was ready to be flinging corn down some roads/sanderos! I checked some game cam footage to keep my mind off of it.

                Fast forward and we are at the ranch with Mark, looking at a map. Mark was going to put us in some blinds in the morning, which is something I'm not used to doing on Javi hunts, but the reasoning still made sense... there is a better chance of seeing hogs and/or javis in the morning at a blind since we hadn't started corning the roads.

                We drive around, come back. The fellas head out, I'm tired, but I stalk some rabbits near camp... no arrows flung as they, as usual, don't like to see their own shadow from the flash light for long. In bead at 12:30 am.


                Friday Morning

                Fast forward to the morning, and I'm sitting I a popup watching the birds... honestly, my anxiety is growing. I have never needed to kill something with my widow more than I had in this moment. Watching the rabbits dart across the road filled my mind... After the 2nd throw of the feeder and it was evident that nothing was going to be really moving that morning, I text Mark and let him know I am going to go stalk some rabbits. Well, even the rabbits had laid down and after about 10 minutes of walking, I see Bisch coming down the road. We go check some roads and then head in for breakfast. My anxiety is growing, I'm trying to keep it down.

                Grab a bite to eat, a few critters were spotted, but seems things are starting off slow. My mind says "this is to be expected"... but doubt keeps creeping in. We set out again, to go look some more. I need to relax... but there isn't much that is going to do that other than a dead critter at my feet.

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                  #23
                  Group hunts are the best fun!!!!

                  And the novel has begun..... [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

                  Bisch


                  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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                    #24
                    Originally posted by Bisch View Post
                    And the novel has begun..... [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

                    Bisch


                    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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                      #25
                      Friday Afternoon

                      Bisch and I are driving out and we se a lone Javi on the main road. I opt to take the first stalk and put a stalk on it. To make a long story short, it was a very wide open area and difficult to get close. There was a 2nd javi that had moved into the brush opposite of me so I chose to let the main javi see me as I made my way over to the other side to get into position for when the other might re-emerge. Unfortunately, a smaller one did so down wind of my new position and it blew the stalk on that side. A truck passed by and the lone javi in the middle of the road took off. That spelled the end to the first stalk of the weekend for me... but I was starting to get a little more optimistic... that was until we then drove around for a few more hours with nothing being seen other than one group that we just had a shifty wind and Bisch got busted before getting within 100 yards of them. We headed back mid afternoon for lunch and a short power nap.

                      Late afternoon we head out and at first, there are no javis. I can tell Bisch is getting concerned and I'm sure my initial pessimism wasn't helping. But slowly, the critters started coming out. I can't remember the exact order, but I got a stalk on a hog and a javi and Bisch got 2 separate stalks on the same group of javis. Somewhere in there the rabbits came out and I put a got out and flung an arrow at a cottontail and just shot at its feet. About 60 seconds later however, I had one in the bed of the ranger. A little later, I put a jackrabbit back there with it. There is a funny story about hitting that jack on a followup shot with my small game heads that really put him in a daze, but didn't finish him off. there is a reason I use broadheads for jacks and wingnut heads for jacks. We'd seen all manners of critters, including a bobcat on two separate stalks. One crossed in front of me at 20 yards, and one in front of Bisch while he was watching me stalk. South Texas Scrub Brush was starting to wake up.

                      The sun started getting low, and things were picking up pace. We turned a corner to look down a stretch that was at least a mile long. There were several groups of Javis. Bisch set off on foot to get to the first group, and he recommended I drive around and cut off the other groups several hundred yards down. I left and made my way around to that intersection. I could see Bisch's group, but I only had deer accessable to me upwind. So I started stalking some rabbits nearby. I shot at one and missed. After getting all thorned up retrieving my arrow, I stepped back into the road to the sight of about a dozen javi about 200 yards upwind. I made my way over and started the stalk.

                      This section of road was pretty wide open as well. Based on the wind being out of the east-south-east, I had to stick to the north side of this east-west road. The north side had about 15 extra yards of brushless weed patch about mid calf high between the road and the brush line. Definitely not optimal. I closed within 80 yards, when I realized I was going to be too exposed and while they were feeding towards me, I was running out of daylight. I noticed that the yellow flowered weeds painted some paths that looked to go around the brush line ahead of me, so I walked back into it and followed it out to dead even with the group. I stalked up to a big clump of cactus - a man high - and ranged the nearest javi. He was at 24 yards. I debated how I was going to move out of this brush line and get closer. I had alerted a few of them already on my final approach and so I was concerned I had too many that were getting wary of what was going in my general area.

                      I like to keep my shots close. 15 yards is typically the max I like to go. I practice occasionally at 20-22 yards, but I don't take those kinds of shots on game. I haven't The furthest I have shot on a game animal was 18 yards and I regretted it. Primarily because it knew I was there.

                      But here I was undetected to this one particular javi sitting at 24 yards. I decided to draw to see how I felt. I hit anchor and watched it turn every so slightly quartering away. I settled in and was holding steady. No shake, no anxiety. I remembered thinking I know what this shot will look like if I let go. I could visually see what the arc would look like. I focused on the front leg, I relaxed and I let that arrow fly. I watched as my arrow flew through the air and hit that javi a few inches just forward of middle-middle. He instantly reacted and actually took a straight up run right at me, turning at about 3 yards from me to run into the thick stuff I had stalked behind to get to that spot. I heard some crashing and I was feeling pretty optimistic.

                      Now came the hard part. I had hit critters all year... I hadn't found a single one. Bad or non existent blood trails... all forward of the paunch... but most too high. I weaved around where I saw him run by... looking for blood. I didn't see any. I eventually walked to the spot of impact... no blood. This entire time, there wasn't much excitement... I had been here too many times before to count on anything being down. About 10 minutes had passed by and I decided to go zig zag through the thick brush to see if I could find sign of blood in there before I lost all light. The brush had some openings where essentially the ground was washed out. I found myself ducking under mesquite trees in calf high grass growing in these waist high rights. No blood. No blood. I turned on my head lamp as it was low light conditions in the brush line. As I kept walking, now about 60-70 yards from the initial spot, it happened. I could smell a javi. It could have been the group, but at this point, given the wind direction, I knew it was my javi and at that point, I knew it was down. Almost better than a spot of blood, I knew for a fact in my mind, there was a dead javi nearby. I turned, back tracked a little, and turned again, I flashed my light through some brush that was at nearly eye level because I was still in the rut. That is when I saw it. the unmistakable bristly clump that was my dead javi... with my arrow still sticking out of it.

                      I remember my celebration when I dropped my first WT with my widow. I was pretty darn happy. I had killed stuff before and after that... but nothing, I mean nothing compares to the "celebration" after I saw that javi. I scratched myself to hell as I didn't take my time dodging thorny branches and just grabbed him by the legs and dragged him up to the road. I texted my wife... I texted my best hunting bud... I texted Bisch.

                      I know some guys cry, there is nothing wrong with crying... but I'll tell you what... I didn't cry... what I did almost uncontrollably was jog to the ranger and somehow, the excitement was so great... I started skipping. I kid you not... I literally was skipping. I have a little girl who skips when she is excited to go somewhere... and here I was skipping to the ranger so I could load up my javi. Yep, I was THAT happy.

                      I went and picked up Bisch, who had dropped his own javi. HELL YEAH!!!! we doubled up that evening and I couldn't be more relieved and relaxed. The slump came to an end.

                      Got back to camp and LDPs ensued and I finally could just relax. There was work to be done that night at the skinning rack for sure for our group. Ate some dinner and headed out to stalk some pigs. Brian and I put a few stalks on, but at the end of the day, we didn't get to fling any arrows.

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                        #26
                        Really enjoyed the story - congrats on the slump-buster!

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                          #27
                          mmmm love bacon

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                            #28
                            Saturday

                            The morning came early. I was tired. But it wasn't as bad as the many mornings before where I was not only tired, but tired of all the frustration of the hunts before. I was tired, but no long weary.

                            I happily sat in a chair that morning overlooking a feeder. Nothing came by, and I eventually got up to go stalk for some rabbits, but it was a pretty stress free decision. At one point, I actually tried to take a nap in that chair... might have been successful if not for the ducks and their ruckus in the pond nearby.

                            Brian picked me up not long after I went walking for rabbits. we drove up the pipeline clearing and spotted a couple Javi. The wind was not ideal, but the pipeline was wide so I chanced it and put a stalk on it. We went back and forth on this dude for what seemed like a long time and eventually he scrammed into the brush and didn't look like he'd come back out like he had several times before.

                            We drove around and spotted a few javi... including one group that we saw Lane and Rick driving up towards... the group that Lane would drop one out of. (way to go Lane!) A few busted stalks due to bad shifty wind again, and we headed back for a late breakfast. We got a bite to eat and came back out to find the roads void of critters... I was starting to fall asleep from the exhaustion. We headed back for lunch and a nap. At this point, I was content and was willing to take a nap over extending the hunt. I set my alarm for 3pm, and settled in to my bunk. Somewhere around 2pm Brian swings open the door and tells me he is headed out and do I want to go? I was still pretty tired, but there is just that thing that nags a man inside that say "you can't kill em if you are asleep." So I jumped out of the bunk, changed, and jumped into the jeep. At first, we didn't see much other than a coyote eating corn on the road. Now that was an interesting sight for sure.

                            We eventually made it over to an area where we bumped into a couple Javis on a bend in the road. The wind wasn't ideal, so I decided to trudge through the brush 20-30 yards in... It was a maze like it normally is out there... trying to get connect small pockets of open spaces. I pushed through dense mesquite and side stepped large clumps of cactus. A few got stuck in my knee. I eventually emerged at a road and I felt like I got turned around, until I realized it was an intersecting road and I was about 60 yards away from where the javis were.... UPWIND! Score! I lucked out. So as I walked quickly to get up to where I needed to be, all of a sudden I spooked a javi and he ran of. I thought the stalk was a bust, but I knew I had seen 2, so I slowly continued down the road. As I approached the intersection, I could see several javis moving down the road towards the jeep. I couldn't get to the intersection before they had already moved past. The wind was still good, and I crept up until I saw one hanging out, looking in my direction, about 15 or so yards in front of me. I became a statue for the next 4-5 minutes. I wasn't sure what she was going to do when she decided to move... was she going to go back into the brush, turn and walk away... or maybe she might just cross out in front of me. I looked over there an there wasn't any corn or any good reason for her to go that way, but I waited none the less. What seemed like forever later, she starts moving towards me a few javis follow her as she walks towards me and then turns broadside to cross in front of me, in what was probably about 10 yards. I was already at half draw when she just kept walking out into the open. I was already at full draw and anchored when she had just 2 more steps to clear the thin limbs of a young mesquite tree that was between me and her. Once in the clear, I focused on her skinny front legs and let it fly when she paused. The arrow hit and I saw blood foaming at the impact as she bolted across the road and into the opposite brush line. from the 3 way intersection. I heard some crashing, but the group had followed her.

                            I decided to walk back to the jeep to let Brian know, but what I found was an empty jeep? I scanned and then saw him hunched down motioning that there were some javis in the brush and that I should come over there. I pointed to my quiver spot where an arrow should have been and pointed to my rib cage and whispered it was his turn.

                            His stalk didn't result in any shots, and we went back to look for my javi. as we were walking back, the group had returned to that intersection and Brian was on yet another stalk. That stalk didn't result in any shots and I went and looked for my javi. I noticed that the group had emerged another 70 yards down so I sent Brian off again as I went and looked. She hadn't gone far... only 40 yards total and I now had tagged out with only 2 total arrows flung! I started looking for my arrow and couldn't find it at all. Brian came back after getting busted and helped me look. as I was searching, I poked my head back in that direction and the javis had re-emerged yet again! So I sent Brian off as I continued searching for my arrow. A few minutes later, I check on Brian with the binos and he looked like he was in a good position. I saw him nearly drawn and as I looked away, I heard the thump of the bow. I looked up and he was nocking another arrow. Not knowing the result, I kept scratching my head and wondering what the heck happened to my arrow? she ran 40 yards... or did she circle around? I couldn't figure it out. Brian came back and he had a thumbs up! He had also dropped his 2nd javi. After some LDPs, we loaded them up and headed back to camp.

                            Saturday evening

                            I took my time and cleaned my javi and solved part of the arrow mystery... it had snapped off and my broadhead was lodged in the rib cage just above the heart. The arrow had gone through the shoulder and snapped. The most important part of the setup I had in my hand... and I wondered where the other half was, but didn't realy care any more.

                            It was time for folks to go out and sit in some blinds for hogs, etc. and I was so content at this point that I decided I would rather go for a long walk with my bow and look for rabbits. I grabbed my packpack, loaded it down with water and set off when the sun got low and everybody had already left camp. I walked down the property line and came across some rabbits that were tucked too deep into some pretty dense brush. They hadn't come out to the road edge just yet. I kept walking until I got to an area with a little more open area. One rabbit bolted, exposing the 4-5 that were in that area. I took my time and waited for them to run into an open lane. I shot one... it was down and I loaded up another rabbit arrow and knocked another one down within a minute of the first. I picked em up and hung em up on the fence and went back in. Knocked another one down that though it was hidden in some tall grass... silly rabbit! That made three.

                            It was getting darker and hard to see them, but I did chase a few more that just didn't give me a clean enough shot. I took one last shot at one and realized that it was going to be too dark to search for arrows that missed the mark, so I headed back. All in all, I hiked about 3.5 miles and came back with three rabbits.

                            Some guys went out for a night hunt, but I was done. I had a long drive home and I was going to try and get on the road by 8am. We all got to sit down for Dinner together as group and hang out for a while and around 11, I was finished packing and hit the pillow.

                            Sunday

                            Woke up at 6am and loaded the truck, broke down my javis for the cooler and hung out for a bit. Joe and Lane were waiting to go out on their final javi stalks for the trip and I told em to grab their rabbit arrows and we'd warm up stalking some nearby camp rabbits. Joe ended up leaving first to go sit in a blind with his dad, and so Lane and I spent another 15 minutes jumping up some rabbits. We finally found one that would cooperate down the road and he popped it on his first shot! With the warm-up complete, we walked back up and Rick took him out.

                            I had already said my goodbyes and I was the first to drive out at 8am... for the 6+ hour drive back to H-town and a deadline I needed to hit to pick up my daughter from a birthday party.



                            I know, I know, it was a long read... but it was an ending to a much longer story that I didn't really get to tell at all this year... or better yet, didn't want to tell.

                            I have no doubts now, that there won't be any more slumps to come. I know too many folks that have been through them throughout their trad journey... I didn't necessarily think I would be immune to them... but I never expected that a slump would be as frustrating as it turned out to be... and how good it feels to drop something after having been through one.

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                              #29
                              Congrats and thanks for the write up.

                              One of my favorite ranches in the state!

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                                #30
                                Group hunts are the best fun!!!!

                                Glad it worked out, as I totally understand where you were, and you got some critters and had a good time!!!

                                And the novel is complete!!!! [emoji38]

                                Bisch


                                Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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