The Fat G Ranch

[CentralTXHunter]

Very nice. You’ll need a full time flat fixer out there let me know.

I told the guys the other day that we need one of those mobile tire repair trucks parked at the ranch.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Hahaha! I work with Joe D at the PD. He was just telling me about the place he was hunting this year and the ranch name. Low and behold I open up TBH and see this thread. Small world! Really nice property, and sorry you have to hunt with Joe lol!

LOL! He’s good most of the time. I was really glad he didn’t make this trip though. His complaining would have been unbearable. Small world though for sure.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Made another trip to the ranch with my boss and his 14 year old son. Stopped at Cooper’s in Llano for dinner. Apparently there was a big hog hunt/contest going on. We get inside to order and surprise surprise, there’s Uncle Ted!





We were there near closing time, but got to hear him give a little speech on 1A and 2A rights and him bust out Cat Scratch Fever. I’ve got a video of that, but can’t upload.

Continued on to the ranch and got in late. Idiot pipeline hand is still working the gate.



Got to camp near midnight. Good news is the solar pump has been working. Bad news is the ball valve to the camp house is split. Believe I have the parts to replace that today, so we should be able to pressure test the camp house.



Going to do some electrical upgrades, maybe paint. Hopefully not fix a bunch of pipe. Follow along, we might drop some animals in the dirt as well.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Had parts to fix the valve. Got a slight leak still that I can correct later.



Got some breakfast cooked up and down the shoot.




Pressurized the cabin and like many homes over the winter storm, our tankless water heater is shot. Had to make an on the fly fix to pressurize the house. Good news is everything else works!



Installed a new fill and flush valve in the toilet. No more slow leak there.



Installed a new panel, breakers, and SO cord to the generator.





Got two exterior outlets with bubble covers installed.







New blinds inside the cabin.







Installed two LED motion sensor lights after a thread I saw on here. I’ll see how they do this evening.





In the stand now. Maybe something will slip up. Had a good day’s work done and a list of things to correct on the next trip. Hopefully we get an LDP this evening.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Made it back home. Hoped to have a great LDP, but apparently I can’t shoot. Here he is yesterday evening.



The little solar LED lights are going to work great. Here’s them when they are dimmed and when the motion sensor is tripped and they are at full brightness.






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[peterp63]

Made it back home. Hoped to have a great LDP, but apparently I can’t shoot. Here he is yesterday evening.



The little solar LED lights are going to work great. Here’s them when they are dimmed and when the motion sensor is tripped and they are at full brightness.






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Man, that’s a good axis you missed. Hope you get another shot at him.


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[Texanbychoice]

any new updates to this thread? have enjoyed reading everybit of it

[CentralTXHunter]

any new updates to this thread? have enjoyed reading everybit of it

Not yet. I’m heading there this weekend. Should get the plumbing shored up, maybe the painting done, and some hunting in.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Keegan, Truitt, and I headed to the ranch this past weekend. We got some projects shored up and a little hunting in.

Fixed the ball valve to our camp house that was a temp fix previously.





Went back over to the 110 and worked on the ranger. It was a huge pain. Got it disassembled so I could put it back together and then we discovered we couldn’t remove the upper A arm bolt without removing the front bumper AND the winch.



Got it buttoned back up and limped it to camp. It’s not ready to roll around the ranch, but it’s ready to load onto a trailer (we didn’t bring one) and haul back to be properly repaired.



Got our new tankless water heater installed. Also put in a shut off valve so we can drain the tankless and keep water out of it for the next big freeze.



We ran across a cow on the 110. Nobody around us has cattle. A couple hours later we found her again almost 2.5 miles from where we spotted her the first time. I’ve got no idea who she belongs to.





The F250 had a slow leak in a tire, so we let Truitt get some tire changing experience in and Keegan is getting the tire repaired to bring back the next time.



Truitt also set up a snare line. We didn’t snag anything, but had a couple of misses.



We installed some D-rings, paracord, and carabiner clips on our A-frame to keep animals from spinning when on the rack. Should work out well and was a super cheap fix.



Ranch is green. The snow we had plus a couple of timely rains have our native browse blooming. Was tough hunting this weekend as most of our animals kept to feeding in the canyons. Did see some baby aoudad and a few axis bucks and does. One smaller guy that was tipped out and starting to shed velvet and a couple others just staring to grow horns.









We did put a hurting on some pigs this weekend though. We knocked down a half dozen + during our sits this weekend. Here’s one of Keegan’s and one of mine.





Also got to see that incredible moon on Sunday night. My pics of that aren’t near as good as some of the ones shared on TBH.



We set up a new feeder spot, topped off a majority of the feeders, and changed the oil in the generator. Productive weekend. It’ll be a while before I head back. I think Joe is taking his parents out there the weekend after Easter. He’s also going to bring back the ranger to get repaired. I’ll hopefully have an update from him in a couple of weeks. Thanks for following along!


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[SaltwaterSlick]

Man, barring anymore disasters, you guys seem to be getting things done up very nicely!!
Hope you get good rains so the Fall is productive for you guys!! Sure looks green in the pics you posted!

[CentralTXHunter]

Man, barring anymore disasters, you guys seem to be getting things done up very nicely!!
Hope you get good rains so the Fall is productive for you guys!! Sure looks green in the pics you posted!

We’re certainly working on it! We still need to paint the cabin at some point. Getting the ranger back will be a huge win. We’ve got some spots we can’t access without it. I’m hoping we put down some trophy axis this summer. They’re out there. It’s just getting the timing right.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Well, I made a trip down this past weekend. Joe and his mom went down a few weeks ago to try to get her on an Aoudad. They weren’t successful, but they did haul the ranger back. It’s at the shop, but it wasn’t ready before I left.

Our cow from my post earlier is obviously still roaming around. I didn’t see her, but she’s been leaving her mark all over the place.



I also suspect she’s the a-hole that did this to my pex insulation.





We have two troughs and a constant running overflow of water right next to camp. No need to be attacking my pex for water. This insulation has been up for a year and hasn’t been messed with until we spotted this lost cow.

Otherwise, camp was in good shape. We’ve had some nice rains and the place is GREEN! I put out some alfalfa Friday night when I arrived. I go to hunt a stand we call Airstream Saturday morning, but I couldn’t remember when the feeder was set to go off. At 7:35 when I haven’t heard it, I get out of the stand to check it and it’s bone dry. Frustrated, I decide to move to a stand we call Third Rock. I pass by another setup on the way to that stand and there were two axis at the hay feeder. Sneak into 3rd rock and there’s 15-20 little football sized pigs there. I only had my 30.06 with me and with the ammo shortage, I’m pretty particular about what I send a round downrange at these days. I waited for big momma to come, but she never showed.

I had brought 12 sacks of corn down with me. I got out of the stand and make it back to the truck and started filling/checking feeders and cameras. Of the feeders I can access in my truck, 4 of them were completely bone dry, one was really low, and another was about 1/2 full. I rationed the corn I had, but knew it wouldn’t last long. Joe had left 12 sacks in the connex, but I decided to go to Del Rio and grab another 20 sacks. I get back and top off all 6 feeders (except one 1,000lber). I moved all the morning feed times back to 7AM as well.

After checking cameras, it appears we have a few axis bucks with horn damage from the freeze. Disappointing because they’d be some really nice bucks if their horns came in properly.







I hunted a roadside hand corn spot we call Truitt’s Spot for the evening hunt. I had axis in the woods for good bit, but they never showed. Then a couple of WT does made an appearance on the hand corn for a good while. They leave and a small sounder of pigs come in. I was prepared this time. I carted my 30.06 and my AR to this setup. I locked onto a blonde boar and ear holed him. I got off 4 additional shots as they scattered. Rolled two more for sure but they made it into the brush.



Had a pretty cool lightning show that night and we got another 1/4-1/2” of rain overnight. Also accidentally tested the “fall alert” on my Apple Watch. I got into the bed of my truck to grab a couple of beers. I stepped back and completely missed the tailgate apparently. Took a tumble that I’m glad nobody has on video, lol. No damage other than my pride, but my watch wanted to confirm I didn’t need medical attention. Pretty cool feature if you’ve got an Apple Watch. If you’re unresponsive, it calls 911 and your emergency contacts you’ve designated. If you’ve got one, I highly recommend enabling the feature.

I decided to hunt Matt’s stand Sunday morning as it was the only feeder that had corn consistently. Boy was I glad I did. Probably the most fun hunt I’ve had that I didn’t shoot. I got into the stand at about 6:40AM. There were already 7-8 axis around the hay feeder. One hard horned buck that either had really weak caudles or they were broke off, one of the damaged horn velvet bucks, and the rest does. At 6:45 a sounder of pigs come in under the feeder. When the feeder goes off at 7, they hop back 10 feet and then continue feeding. Another one of the damage horn velvet bucks comes into view doing his own thing browsing. Then the hard horned axis decides to make a show. He starts pawing and stomping and wearing out every cedar tree with some roars in between. This scares the pigs off as he beat the heck out of a cedar near the feeder. From a LONG way away another axis starts roaring back and this goes on for a good 30 minutes. It was a heck of show. All the axis finally eased on into the brush and I got out of the stand. I got camp buttoned back up and headed home.

I’ve got commitments every weekend from now into July. Joe is closing on a new house and will be moving and all the fun associated with that. Keegan has kids ball commitments. Not sure when we all will make it back out. I’m going to probably get one trip in July. Definitely will be taking my son, Cooper, for that one. I’ve got my 3rd baby due in August. The two weeks before she’s due and for a good while after, I’ll be at home loving on her. Hopefully I can make that July trip count with a Axis worthy of the wall.

Thanks for following along as always.


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[NotJose]

Love the updates!


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[Mtltx]

Very cool! Love this thread

[peterp63]

Great update. Thanks!