LSONews.com
Lone✯Star Outdoor News
February 24, 2012
Page 5
Hunter hopes muley will be new record By Bill Miller LONE STAR OUTDOOR NEWS Fog clung to the West Texas landscape, providing easy cover for the big mule deer to sneak to and from an alfalfa field. And it was this fog Dec. 11 on the McGuire Ranch in Gaines County that kept hunter Rick Meritt from believing that a unique trophy had just disappeared in the mist. Trail camera photos taken earlier and video footage from the morning hunt did not impress Rick — at first. But the animal would ultimately score high enough to unseat the current top typical mule deer in the Texas Big Game Awards, which has not changed in 15 years.
SEE MORE ■ TBGA scholarships: Page 26
PENDING: Rick Meritt’s Gaines County mule deer buck, taken last December, has a net score of 197 4/8 — enough to be a new record, if confirmed through the Texas Big Game Awards. Photo by Rick Meritt.
“You couldn’t see much,” Rick recalled of the soupy morning hunt. “He came out of the fog, then he stopped and thrashed a mes-
quite tree. Then he drifted back into the fog.” Rick is an East Texas businessman, but he’s well schooled in West Texas mule deer.
Park Cities Quail names Ted Turner as lifetime award winner Park Cities Quail has announced media mogul Ted Turner as its 2012 T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award recipient. The award will be given at PCQ’s annual dinner and auction March 8 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. Another highlight of this year’s auction will be a classic English pheasant hunt with rock legend Steve Winwood. The hunt will take place in Jan. 2013, at Winwood’s 1,000-acre Lower Dean Manor in the Cotswolds of Central England. Joe Crafton, PCQ chairman, said the group is proud to honor Turner with the Pickens award. “He has a global reputation as a conservationist and humanitarian,” Crafton said. “Ted is a man of action who uses his considerable resources and influence to make this world a better place. Lesser known is Ted’s passion for quail hunting.” Crafton said Turner owns several ranches and plantations, where he has restored habitat, funded research and “created opportunities for hundreds of youth and sportsmen to get outdoors and share his favorite pastimes.” Turner is chairman of the Turner Foundation, an independent foundation, which supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing sustainable energy and protecting and maintaining wildlife habitat. — Park Cities Quail
Texas couple recognized for helping wild turkeys Dale and Kitty Bounds of Lufkin were recently presented the C.B. McCleod Award during the National Wild Turkey Federation’s convention in Nashville. The award is given each year to a NWTF volunteer who has dedicated his or her life to wildlife conservation. This year, a husband-wife team was the recipient. Dale joined the NWTF in 1987. He was a videographer for the U.S. Forest Service and tasked with documenting the first effort to
In 2009, he downed a buck that netted 193 2/8 — the No. 2 all-time typical muley recognized by See MULEY RECORD, Page 26
reintroduce eastern wild turkeys in the Davy Crockett National Forest, located in East Texas. “It was my first exposure to the NWTF,” Dale said. “James Earl Kennamer (NWTF chief conservation officer) brought the turkeys from South Carolina via Delta Airlines. After that, I was hooked.” Dale chartered the NWTF’s Piney Woods Chapter, which has become a stalwart in Texas, according to Shawn Roberts, NWTF district field supervisor. “The Piney Woods Chapter has been a trend setter and bar raiser for the many local NWTF chapters in the state (and) in the country,” said Roberts. “They were the first chapter to raise $1 million for conservation. They were the first to recruit 100 NWTF sponsor members at a single fund-raising banquet.” Dale served as president of the Piney Woods Chapter for eight years. Kitty organized the first Women in the Outdoors event in Texas and coordinated it for four years. — NWTF
Quail Tech Alliance celebrates ‘Bird Dog Superbowl’ Feb. 18 turned out to be a wet day across much of the state, but that didn’t stop nearly 30 quail hunting enthusiasts from enjoying a fun day on the Esperanza Ranch East near Santo. The “Bird Dog Superbowl” featured a justfor-fun field trial and a fish fry. “It was a great day,” said Charles Hodges of Quail Tech Alliance, which sponsored the event. “We were plenty wet, but we still had a lot of fun.” The event was geared toward dog owners who haven’t been able to get out much this hunting season because of low quail numbers in Texas. “We asked people not to shoot quail this year,” Hodges said. “So we just wanted to give guys a chance to get out and work their dogs and educate people to what Quail Tech Alliance is doing. We had some good one-on-one time with the field biologists and got a lot of questions answered.” Dr. Brad Dabbert met with participants and answered questions about the status of quail and what the future may hold.
MUCH NEEDED EXERCISE: Quail hunters brought their bird dogs to Quail Tech Alliance’s “Bird Dog Superbowl” Feb. 18 near Santo. Because quail hunting was down this year, owners got to run their dogs in a just-for-fun field trial. Photo by LSON.
“It gave everyone a good chance to talk about a lot of ideas,” Hodges said. “This is definitely an annual thing, and I’ve already had people e-mailing me about next year’s event.” — Staff report
Time to think about outdoor summer camps Deadlines to apply for youth outdoor summer camps are fast approaching, and there are some new offerings in the mix. The first Texas Brigades Waterfowl Camp will take place this summer at BigWoods on the Trinity in Tennessee Colony, near Palestine. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist Jared Laing has been saving and freezing ducks of numerous species throughout the hunting season to be studied. “It’s at a good facility and we will have some wild ducks even though the camp is in July,” he said. “There will be wood ducks and whistling ducks around.” The Texas Brigades programs offer intensive
leadership skills training and wildlife development studies for quail (Bobwhite Brigade), quail and turkey (Feathered Forces), bass (Bass Brigades) and deer (Buckskin Brigade). The application deadline for all of the brigade camps is March 15. A different organization, the Outdoor Texas Camp, also stresses outdoor skills and it offers a waterfowl camp at the Haydel Duck Club near Lake Charles, La. Also offered are weeklong camps in hunting (including hunter education certification), fishing, deer hunting, saltwater fishing, river fishing, fly-fishing and archery. There is still time to apply, but many of the camps are filling up fast. For information on the brigades, call (210) 332-3560, or e-mail Helen Holdsworth at hholdsworth@texas-wildlife.org. The group’s Web site is www.texasbrigades.org. For information on Outdoor Texas Camps, call (830) 562-3354, (512) 217-1587 or e-mail OutdoorTexasCamp@yahoo.com. The Web site is www.outdoortexascamp.com. — Staff report