Marty and I decided to drive to Encinal Thursday instead of Wednesday night due to weather. We stopped for gas and a drink in Cotulla Thursday morning. It was a wet 39 degrees. A couple hunters were headed home and they told us they had 3 inches of snow on the ground in the morning. We said that would have been cool to hunt in the snow. So goes our luck. As we headed south, the temp began falling fast. Within a few miles it had dropped to 33 and the snow was coming down. We were a little giddy. Going on this hunt in south Texas and it is snowing. Unbelievable!
We meet up with Kevin to take us into the ranch as it continues to snow. The roads are sloppy. I make it a mile down the ranch road before I bury my truck up to the frame in mud. It will stay there for the duration of the hunt. We unload our stuff into 4 wheelers to get to camp. Byron makes it to camp with dinner and he is worried about the weather. We remind him there is nothing we can do about that. We assure him we will go with whatever happens. We have a great dinner of tacos and enchiladas and call it a night. As I head to bed I check the window and snow is coming down again.
We wake to a white showcase. Again Byron is worried about deer movement. I say all we can do is go sit. We head out and find conditions awful. It is so wet we only have a couple places we can hunt. Byron and I get dropped off and Marty and Renay head to their spot. We have deer by us at daylight but I am looking at all the snow on cactus. As it becomes clearer for us to see the deer, we decide we need to wait for something else to show up. A few doe come in and feed right in front of us. Some time later, a spike begins chasing a doe. This gets other bucks around fired up. Before we know it, a big 8 runs the spike off and begins chasing the doe around. Byron wants
me to shoot this big 8. The deer are chasing around in the snow and darting in and out of the sendero. He wants me to to get ready for when they come out again. The doe runs out followed by a buck. I am told to shoot it. He goes straight down. We walk over to see it and I see this is not an 8. It turns out this is the deer he had shown me they had wanted me to shoot. It was an 11 pointer but wait. He had an extra kicker on the left base that made him a 12. He was in disbelief that this deer was a mile away from where he was suppose to be. I told him I prefer dumb luck at times and here we are a couple hours into the first hunt under horrible conditions and my target deer is down. Friday evening I'm on predator duty. Coyotes, bobcats, and hogs are on the hit list. I watch some incredible deer during the sit and a big
boar shows up. I let a round fly right before dark and the pig does a plow job off into the cactus. No retrieving him.
Marty has to wait until the next morning to pull the trigger. I can tell you he got a heck of a deer. A big bodied 10 point. The deer showed up just after the beginning of shooting time. So here we are done on Saturday morning. We head out Saturday evening to shoot predators. We are hunting together. I shoot a sow at 3:30. She was 1 of 2 pigs. By 4:30 a group of pigs come in. Marty has his AR in 6.5 grendle and we are planning on the great pig slaughter. We have 7 pigs bunched up at 40 yards. We will begin shooting on the count of 3. I have a misfire and Marty's jams after 1 shot. So much for that. So it is getting late and the 2nd pig that was with the sow I shot pops out. He gets to 60 yards and we do a double team on the count of 3. This pig goes straight down with 2 bullets hitting him. This is how we end our
incredible, awsome trip.
I can honestly say to Byron, and Renay, Thank you not only for the best hunt of out lives, but sharing your hospitality, camaraderie, and knowledge. Camp was great. The food was great. So good I think I gained a couple pounds. Things were stacked against us but we made due and each got the best deer of our lives. You guys went above and beyond anything we could have expected. You were worried about bad conditions and lack of movement with the weather but thanks to your year round work the deer were there for us. We saw many incredible whitetail. You have changed my thinking by the way you run your place by not shooting deer until at least 6.5 years old. I sure wish I had several thousand acres of low fence south Texas brush for myself. We still can't believe our trip. We will be talking about it for years.
Thank you so very much.
We meet up with Kevin to take us into the ranch as it continues to snow. The roads are sloppy. I make it a mile down the ranch road before I bury my truck up to the frame in mud. It will stay there for the duration of the hunt. We unload our stuff into 4 wheelers to get to camp. Byron makes it to camp with dinner and he is worried about the weather. We remind him there is nothing we can do about that. We assure him we will go with whatever happens. We have a great dinner of tacos and enchiladas and call it a night. As I head to bed I check the window and snow is coming down again.
We wake to a white showcase. Again Byron is worried about deer movement. I say all we can do is go sit. We head out and find conditions awful. It is so wet we only have a couple places we can hunt. Byron and I get dropped off and Marty and Renay head to their spot. We have deer by us at daylight but I am looking at all the snow on cactus. As it becomes clearer for us to see the deer, we decide we need to wait for something else to show up. A few doe come in and feed right in front of us. Some time later, a spike begins chasing a doe. This gets other bucks around fired up. Before we know it, a big 8 runs the spike off and begins chasing the doe around. Byron wants
me to shoot this big 8. The deer are chasing around in the snow and darting in and out of the sendero. He wants me to to get ready for when they come out again. The doe runs out followed by a buck. I am told to shoot it. He goes straight down. We walk over to see it and I see this is not an 8. It turns out this is the deer he had shown me they had wanted me to shoot. It was an 11 pointer but wait. He had an extra kicker on the left base that made him a 12. He was in disbelief that this deer was a mile away from where he was suppose to be. I told him I prefer dumb luck at times and here we are a couple hours into the first hunt under horrible conditions and my target deer is down. Friday evening I'm on predator duty. Coyotes, bobcats, and hogs are on the hit list. I watch some incredible deer during the sit and a big
boar shows up. I let a round fly right before dark and the pig does a plow job off into the cactus. No retrieving him.
Marty has to wait until the next morning to pull the trigger. I can tell you he got a heck of a deer. A big bodied 10 point. The deer showed up just after the beginning of shooting time. So here we are done on Saturday morning. We head out Saturday evening to shoot predators. We are hunting together. I shoot a sow at 3:30. She was 1 of 2 pigs. By 4:30 a group of pigs come in. Marty has his AR in 6.5 grendle and we are planning on the great pig slaughter. We have 7 pigs bunched up at 40 yards. We will begin shooting on the count of 3. I have a misfire and Marty's jams after 1 shot. So much for that. So it is getting late and the 2nd pig that was with the sow I shot pops out. He gets to 60 yards and we do a double team on the count of 3. This pig goes straight down with 2 bullets hitting him. This is how we end our
incredible, awsome trip.
I can honestly say to Byron, and Renay, Thank you not only for the best hunt of out lives, but sharing your hospitality, camaraderie, and knowledge. Camp was great. The food was great. So good I think I gained a couple pounds. Things were stacked against us but we made due and each got the best deer of our lives. You guys went above and beyond anything we could have expected. You were worried about bad conditions and lack of movement with the weather but thanks to your year round work the deer were there for us. We saw many incredible whitetail. You have changed my thinking by the way you run your place by not shooting deer until at least 6.5 years old. I sure wish I had several thousand acres of low fence south Texas brush for myself. We still can't believe our trip. We will be talking about it for years.
Thank you so very much.
........couple of great looking bucks.
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