Congratulations !!!!
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FART XX The 2nd Generation of Wind…
Que es un “speed goat”.
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If you go back, dig a little under that rock shelter. It is in fact a site.Originally posted by Dale Moser View PostComment
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Congrats Snoop! Great Thread Dale! That goat looks huge too Ben! Thats a special placeComment
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Originally posted by Dale Moser View Post
Very well said. Thanks for taking us along again on another FART.
And Congrats to Snoop!
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Well I just saw this and read it. Awesome job Dale and congrats to your son! I cant wait to take my son on hunts with grown men. It's up to us to raise this next generation, better than the last. This is an amazing hunt every year!
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Five star thread.
Way to keep the tradition going.
Congrats to all.Comment
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Congrats Snoop!
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Just got home from a looooong trip. Great to finally get to sit down and go through this entire thread. Congrats to Snoop and Dad on a great Goat and got it done quick! I didnt know THE Sean was part of this production. Great young man to have in camp. Looking forward to more Snoop adventures as the years press on.Comment
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And another hunting adventure begins. Best of luck and happy hunting.Comment
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Originally posted by rtp View Post
Sean is top notch, no doubt! He’s handy with a knife too, I had to get out of his way…
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Originally posted by Ben View PostThe Seanimal popped one this morning.
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Goodness!!!Comment
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Just to put a bow on things...
The ranch got a BIG rain the day before we got there, and some more the day we got there. Those 2 on top of a bunch of rain about two weeks ago had the ranch very green, and very muddy, especially for August. Enough that we wouldn't be able to get to camp from the north like I'd hoped, due to a washed out creek 1 mile from camp. Coming in from the north means I can go 287 to I40 from home and shave nearly an hour off the whole drive. It was no big deal because we had to go by my lease on the way and get some things, so we went to Lubbock/Clovis on the way in and came into the ranch from the south. Ben's Tahoe did pretty good getting in to headquarters (camp), but it was a real white knuckle ride in my truck...Brady was much more amused with the mud than I was, "Dad, it's raining mud clods!" Either way we got the truck in with some very heavy throttle and wheel work.
Saturday morning instead of a 15 minute ride to where we wanted to hunt, we had to go ~15 miles south, then west, then ~25 miles North, then ~15 miles back east, just to start hunting nearly an hour and a half later. We saw a small buck as soon as we got on the ranch, and a nicer one with 19 does pretty soon thereafter. We made a 525 yard move on them behind Sean's Big Red Moo Cow decoy and got to within about 175 yds of the bedded buck. The does nearly ran over us checking out that cow before the buck stood up and Brady got the chance to put the 1st one in him, and he did although "a little back".
I'll stop here for a moment to say I was very hesitant to bring Brady out there this year at 10yoa. I really wanted to wait one more year and get him some experience with pigs off of shooting sticks. He's money from our deer blind, but those shots are all inside 120yds from a dead rest and he doesn't get the fever on hogs very much anymore. Circumstances with the ranch dictated that future years may not give nearly as good a chance at a good lope, and Ben(and Zac) thought we'd probably better give it a shot this year, and I didn't need a whole lot of convincing.
So the lope trots off a ways and we can see that he's hurting bad. He stops with his butt facing us as they will do, and just stands there a while. I decided to close distance while he was facing away so we did so to about 220, and Brady was able to put another in him....also "back"
. He went a ways and layed down, so we closed a little more and waited a little. I think he missed one here when the lope got up (there were a few misses but I don't remember exactly where, and a rifle jam or two
). We ended up chasing him a LONG ways further and got real close to a property line we did not want to cross so we got a little more carefull for a while, and the final blow was eventually delivered. It sure wasn't as smooth as we'd hoped, and it made a bit of a mess of the critter, but he'd made the shots that mattered, count. Ben gave us the room to walk up to Brady's lope and whoop and holler and do what dad's and kiddos do. It was priceless...
We made our way down to the washed out creek crossing that's only a mile or so from camp, and did some recon on foot, but decided it was not worth the chance, so we hung the critter from a windmill and did the honors with the knives. I'm terribly slow with caping and quartering, but Sean jumped in and "helped" so fast that I had to mostly get out of his way. I really appreciate his work at that time, and I REALLY appreciate just the dude Sean is/was on the whole hunt. He's a great guy to hunt with, have in camp, and let your son watch and learn from. He's also a new dad, and I have no doubt he will master that straight away as well. Anyway we made the long haul back around to camp, getting back there about 3:30 and got everything on ice. I was ecstatic, Brady was proud/tired/excited, and very glad to know his new heroes, Ben and Sean. It was a great day.
We hunted that afternoon after a nap, up on the Caprock Ranch 30 miles the other way from HQ. We saw a few "almost" lopes, killed a snake, and visited with the really neat South African family who lives up there now. It was a long day, and a late night back to camp.
The next day we hunted a little closer to camp in the morning, went to the big rock, and Ben made some long range lobs at some yotes. We did a little work on the bunkhouse around lunch, and were able to finally cross the creek to the north of camp that afternoon. We visited the old lope camp, killed a few yotes, killed another snake, and just had a fine time. A great campfire ensued with all that that entails, and really rounded out a phenomenal trip for Snoop and I.
It almost seems redundant at this point to thank Ben, the Stovalls, and the Autry family for yet ANOTHER gate pass, but I'd be lying if I said this one didn't hit a lot different. I've got a million great memories made out there over the years, on a ranch who's stories and beauty mean the world to me. But all you dad's know that there is nothing that compares to watching your kiddo get to experience and take in such a place, and to be successful to top it off. It was just amazing. I could never explain what the ranch, the people, and this particular opportunity meant to me. Again, thank you to all of the Stovall crew who have made it possible for so many years. It's truly something I could never repay.
Brady had "Meet Your Teacher" Monday night, which has always seemed wholly un-necessary to me. None the less we had promised mom we would be there if he killed a lope by close of business Sunday. We made an early exit from camp Monday morning, and were able to get my truck across the creek to the north to get the "easy" drive home. To say going from Lope Camp, to 5th grade Meet Your Teacher, in 9 hours was a little culture shock for us both.
Thank you all for following another one, and for all the congrats and kind words. Thank you Ben and Sean for all the hard work, and just being those dudes for this particular job. And congrats Sean on a true trophy antelope.
Can't wait for the next one...Comment
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Great stuff here all around, congrats and thanks for sharingComment
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Good stuff Dale, Ben and Sean. Snoop has some tales to tell at school this week!Comment
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