Happy Birthday Dad

Today my dad is one year younger. I guess we are together a lot more than most fathers and sons. At a very young age, he started cultivating my passion for hunting, fishing, camping and just enjoying the outdoors. I remember going deer hunting with him when I was small enough to stretch out and sleep on the floor of a 4'x4' box blind. He took me on my first camping trip when I was a few weeks old.

And to this day we still hunt together and play with our cows quite a bit. I make a lot of quick day trips back home to haul hay, build fence, hunt or help with anything I can. I also have been working for him for the past few years which has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about him and the business he loves.

Here are a few pictures of our times together. If you see him around, give him a slap on the back and wish him a happy birthday.


When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
                                                      -- Ernest Hemingway

Argentina 2010

Argentina 2010

Argentina 2010

Argentina 2011 - too many shots

Argentina 2011

Argentina 2011

Argentina 2011

Argentina 2011

Argentina 2011

Argentina 2010

South Texas Quail

South Texas Quail

South Texas Quail

South Texas Dove

South Texas Dove

Mexico Dove

Mexico Dove

Mexico Dove

Headed to Uvalde for Dove

Frac Job

Frac Job

 

Wekeep our memories in the same place we bury dogs and pals who are no longerwith us. We keep these treasures in the vaults that hold the sights of geesepitching into a set of field decoys and quail buzzing out of a brushy corner bya split-rail fence. And when the time comes when it’s easier to remember oldtimes than to gather up new ones, it is to this place that we go, you and I, towatch for the flight at sunset.

                                                                                     – Steve Smith

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Dad.

 

 

Happy Hunting,

 

Time in the Blind

November 3 & 10, 2012

Yoakum, Texas

The past couple of Saturdays I have had the chance to get in the blind. The acorn crop in Dewitt & Lavaca Counties has really effected the way deer are moving and feeding. Our feeders will usually have 10-15 deer at them every morning and afternoon, and this year we are seeing 1 or 2.

 

Once the acorns have soured, rotted, frozen, I think we will start seeing a lot more deer showing up to the corn. I hunted my bow blind the mornings of November 3rd and 10th. Both sittings I only saw 1 doe.

 

Game Face On

With the lack of success at the feeders, I decided to go scout the oak trees some. I found a few trails coming into a water source surrounded by oaks and set up for my Saturday evening hunt. I utitlized an old blind sitting by the tank. After running out the wasps, spiders and testing the rotten floor, I was ready to hunt... I just couldn't move around too much or I would fall through the floor.

 

I ended up seeing a couple of bucks and listened to the Ags BTHObama, WHOOP. It was a very enjoyable hunt. 

 

My view for the Aggie game.

 

On Sunday the 12th, Tara had a shopping trip planned, so Sawyer and I hung out all day. We did all the fun things like watching football and playing with Lori.

 

 

I hope to get back in the blind over Thanksgiving and hopefully the deer will be moving a little more. So, until next time...

 

 

Happy Hunting,

 



October Wrap-Up

October, 2012

Various places around South Texas.

 

Just realized I hadn't put together a new post in a while, so here is an October summary. October is bow season for Texas, and over the past few years, I have started to primarily bow hunt. The necessary attention to detail and intensity of being so close to wild animals gets in your blood. I practice a lot in my backyard. I am usually pretty consistent, but every now and then I let one fly a bit wild. I appreciate my neighbors not getting mad at me yet for the mysterious holes in their fence.

 

 

 

The first weekend of October I was in the bow blind in Yoakum. It was hot. Not much moved. That is one of the problems with hunting the bow season in South Texas. It's usually 85-95 degrees, and you have to wear full body camo. I don't think there is a scent killer on the market that can cover up that much sweat.

 

The second weekend of October, my wife and I had our baby girl, Sawyer, dedicated at church. She has been a blessing to us, and she is a blast to hang out with. I can't wait until she can go hunting and fishing with me.

 

 

 

The third weekend of bow season October I was not in the stand again. We made the trip to College Station to watch the Ags make a great effort against the kitty cats of LSU.

 

 

 

Last weekend of October... Back in the blind. My father-in-law, brother-in-law and I headed down to Laredo to hunt for a long weekend. It was a fun weekend with a good little cold front blowing in Friday morning. Killing deer was just not in the cards for us though. I did, however, shoot my first coyote with a bow. I stuck him at 33 yards but unfortunately did not get any pictures of the kill.

 

My good luck beard didn't pan out.

Father-in-law's big kill for the weekend.

 

 

That wraps up October. I did get the chance to be in the bow blind last weekend, but there was not much happening. Now that we are into hunting season, I will try and get a few more posts up. Until next time...

 

 

Happy Hunting,

 



 









3rd Annual 2B Dove Hunt

September 29, 2012

 

Richmond, Texas

 

This past weekend marked the third annual gathering for the 2B Dove Hunt. If you look back through my blog posts, you will notice this has grown from Aaron and I hunting a weekend together to seven of us this year. The idea is that the high school friends see each other at least once a year.

 

Now on to the hunt... We were all watching the weather forecast all week and the ever-growing chance of rain. Early in the week we were starting to get nervous with a 60% chance of rain being call for on Saturday. The nervousness faded to acceptance as Friday came and the forecast now called for 100% probability. Oh well, we were going to hunt rain or shine.

 

Friday:

 

Everyone slowly showed up to my house after long weeks at work. The menu called for guisada and beans.

 

 

After the meal, we all settled down for a calm evening with some intense games of dominoes. As predicted, the rain began to fall as we faded off to sleep.

 

Saturday:

 

We rolled out of bed just early enough to make it to the field by first shooting light. The rain was still falling, and that would be the theme throughout the day. But all the guys were troopers. I will let the pictures below tell the story. Notice the water level in the field rising.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around noon the rain slacked off so we ate lunch and listened to the Ags BTHO Arkansas!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our window of opportunity would not last long though. About 2:00 the heavy stuff set in.

 

 

 

 

 

But we would not be denied... It finally broke around 4:30, and we released all the fury that had built up by sitting in the truck for 2 and a half hours.

 

 

 

The fire ants were floating.

 

The boots were soaked, time to roll up the pants and switch shoes.

 







Our outfitter told us we were the only fools trying to hunt... That's okay, we had a great time. It was definitely an experience. If someone would have told me we were going to kill 60 doves while it rained 6 inches, I would have never believed it. But we did.

 

 

 

We cleaned the birds up and headed to the house for some barbeque. Everyone was asleep shortly after the meal, and the next morning we put the wraps on another successful weekend. This will be one of those weekends we can tell our grandchildren about.

 

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. It is very hard to not ruin your iPhone in constant rain. So until next time.

 

Happy Hunting,

 





Garmin & Tri-Tronics, took you long enough.

August 2, 2012

When I saw Garmin and Tri-Tronics get together last year, my first thought was, "They are going to make an awesome tracking e-collar." For those of you who don't know, Garmin is a leader in the field of GPS and location devices, and Tri-Tronics is, in my opinion, the best ecollar manufacturer around.

For years people have used the tracking devices with bulky antennas that look like the old TV antennas dad would make you crawl on the roof to move around until he could catch the Cowboys game on Sunday afternoon. They are a bit cumbersome and have a limited range.

A few years ago, Garmin came out with the Astro. It started as a harness antenna, then to a collar antenna that transmitted to a handheld GPS. You could literally tell when your dog was running, stopped, how much distance was traveled, and at what speed he covered the distance. This was amazing to me, but they all had a problem. Both with the older style tracking collars and the new Astro, your dog was going to have about 3 collars around his neck.

3 collars are a little bulky for small dogs.

With the heat in Texas, I like to run smaller, 40-50 pound dogs. Big labs and pointers, while they may be perfectly suited for the duck blind or the snow banks of South Dakota, tend to break down in the heat a lot quicker. When you have an everyday collar, ecollar, and tracking collar on a 40 pound dog, their neck starts to get a little busy.

Ladies and Gents, may I introduce the Garmin/Tri-Tronics Alpha.

I hope this unit lives up to the hype I'm giving it, and I hope somehow I can someday afford one. The unit comes with thousands of U.S. topo maps already downloaded on an easy to use (looks like to me) touch screen. The stimulation controls for the ecollar are the 3 buttons across the top. You can add up to 20 collars to the unit (what for, I don't know), and you can adjust the update frequency to allow for longer battery life. This is basically like the iPhone 5 for the upland bird hunter.

With this new technology, also comes the iPhone like price. About $800 for the collar and transmitter, and $300 for each additional collar. Looks like I'm going to need to put in a little overtime for this new toy... Or I'm open to field testing or sponsorship, Garmin? Tri-Tronics? Just throwing it out there.

I look forward to hearing some first-hand reviews on this product. According to their website, there is a 3-5 week wait for processing, so it sounds like a lot of other people are excited about this also. Now I'm off to see what I can sell on ebay to afford this thing. Hunting season will be here before you know it. Until next time...

Happy Hunting,