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Heroes
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Eric Gonsoulin, of Trophy Tails Fishing in Rockport, caught a redfish in the first week of November. Andrew McDonnell took this 30-inch aoudad at Twisters Ranch in Llano. Logan Lavender, 11, harvested an 8-point buck on opening youth weekend while hunting with his buddy, Sam, in Williamson County.
Shawn Grappler caught a 7.5-pound largemouth while floating the Brazos River in a kayak while being guided by DJ Power Guide Service. Mike Rubner shot this trophy Armenian red sheep with his pistol on the Indianhead Ranch. Casey Walker took this 9-year-old buck that scored 160 3/8 while hunting with her fiancé in La Salle County.
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HBSF takes scholarship recipients on quail, pheasant hunts
By Lili Keys
Lone Star outdoor newS
The Higgins Branchini Shooting Foundation (HBSF) hosted its 3rd Annual Quail Fundraiser at Greystone Castle Nov. 12-14.
The annual quail hunt is one of the flagship events of the foundation’s fundraising season and also introduces partners and donors to some of the recipients of the grants in the field.
“We think it’s important for our donors to meet the college shooters who benefit from their generous donations,” HBSF Board President Mike Higgins said.
Most of the college shooters who have had the opportunity to attend previous quail hunts had not hunted before.
“Just because they’ve shot clay targets does not mean they hunt,” Higgins said. “We make a point to bring in kids who have not hunted and turn them on to it.”
First year grant recipient, Christine Trimmer, who shoots for Texas A&M University, hunted a European driven pheasant shoot where they put down 133 pheasants between 10 hunters.
“She hadn’t done anything like that before and she had the biggest ‘this is awesome’ smile,” Higgins said.
Will Van Dusen, of Athens, started shooting trap, skeet and eventually sporting clays at an early age in 4H. His father was the coach and his older brother had taken up the sport and it became a family affair.
“We traded off going to horse shows for shotgun shooting,” he said.
By the time he was a freshman in high school, Van Dusen had made his first All American Team and continued to do so each year.
Van Dusen was on the shooting team while earning his undergraduate degree at Texas A&M, but now has traded school colors and is shooting for the University of Texas while pursuing his master’s in Architecture.
Growing up, Van Dusen had dabbled in hunting but never in the upland pursuit.
“I can count on my hands how many times I’ve gone dove hunting. I did a lot of deer hunting when I was young but at Greystone, we were able to do an upland hunt,” he said. “I had never taken any quail, chukar or pheasant before, nor had I hunted over pointers flushing or with a guide. It was all new to me and it was just a blast. To see the dogs work and to walk through the hunting areas was an awesome experience.”
Van Dusen downsized his shotgun for the hunt.
“I was shooting with a 20 gauge, which I don’t ever shoot,” he said. “It was a learning curve for sure. A few got away, but not many.”
Shooter and past grant recipient, Shea Self, was also in attendance. Self won two national championships for Texas A&M University and was the first woman ever to win an overall World Championship in Helice. She now serves on the board of HBSF.
The weekend was filled with sporting clays, walk up hunts, European driven Pheasant shoots as well as a silent auction, and generated more than $70,000 for the foundation.
HBSF provides support and grants to college students competing in collegiate, national, and international clay target shooting sports.
Photo by Abe Robledo
Cranes and ducks
Continued from page 4
blinds,” Richardson said. “The morning started off cloudy and dead calm, but a light to steady breeze picked up after about 8 a.m. Cranes came in small waves to check out our decoy spread of full body fakes from a little after sunrise through mid-morning.”
Because of the light winds, the first few flights of cranes were a little finicky in response to calls and the decoys.
“Once the breeze started to blow, we had cranes come in from all directions, and some were extremely low to the ground,” Richardson said. “Some folks in the group had never been on a crane hunt before, and it was great to make those first-time memories with them.”
An afternoon duck hunt over a long and narrow cattle pond in the Crystal City area followed their morning crane hunt.
“We bumped a bunch of ducks off of the pond when we arrived to chunk out some decoys and get set up,” Richardson said. “It didn’t take long for them to start trickling back in, though. We were covered up with blue-winged and green-winged teal, as well as a gadwall and wigeon, the rest of the evening.”
They capped off their adventure with a final morning duck hunt over a shallow slough outside of Crystal City, and it too was a barn-burner.
“The first 20 minutes of shooting time was insane,” Richardson said. “There were constant shot opportunities over the decoys and most of us had never seen that many ducks over a body of water that we were hunting at one time.”
Teal, pintail, gadwall, wigeon and shovelers were harvested during the last morning hunt.
“Moments like these are what we live for and stand for at the Beretta Gallery,” Richardson said. “The bond between all of us on the hunt was strengthened, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Additional hunts have been scheduled with customers this season, and the Gallery plans to continue to host these types of events in order to build lasting relationships and friendships with their clients.
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