Hunting Pioneers

from 2023 Jan_Feb TTHA Issue

Up on A Stump

GARY ROBERSON

By Jake Legg

Editor's note: This is the thirtieth in a series of pioneers to be recognized for their contributions, past and present, to Texas hunting.

Gary Thomas Roberson of Menard is a pioneer of our hunting heritage. A lifelong Texan rooted in the Edwards Plateau, Gary and his family have long been friends of Texas Trophy Hunters and have contributed much to the Texas hunting community. The entire family graduated from Texas State University, when it was Southwest Texas State University, and Texas A&M University.

Gary was born in Castroville, Texas, in 1953. He grew up in a ranching family and finished school in Devine. Gary graduated from Southwest Texas State University in 1975, and after college, went to work for the Federal Land Bank Association (FLBA). He married Deb Wootan, an Aggie, in 1975, and they lived in Gatesville for a while. Gary worked for FLBA and Deb taught school and coached. Later, an opening came in Stephenville and they moved there for two years.

The FLBA office in Madisonville had an opening, and Gary moved there. “It was the closest I ever got to East Texas,” Gary recalled. “The folks around Madisonville said you had to cross the Trinity River to be in East Texas.”

Gary and Deb stayed in Madisonville for several years, and Gary left FLBA and moved to Menard in 1987 where he became president of Menard National Bank. By then, Gary and Deb had three sons who worked and hunted with Daddy every chance they got.

Gary and his close friend Murry Burnham hunted varmints and other game during the 1980s. Murry had mentioned selling Burnham Brothers Varmint Calls, a business he and his brother Winston had formed in Marble Falls in 1952. Gary bought the business in 1991 and left the bank in 1992 to put all his time and energy into the new Burnham Brothers company. A new and versatile caller, the Compucaller, was highly successful, and 30 years later, the company is going strong.

Varmint hunting seminars are popular, and Gary began giv-

photos oberson r

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G Gary is a dyed-in-the-wool hunter. He killed his first whitetail at the age of 7, using a Winchester .30-30.

ing seminars at Hunters Extravaganzas in 1993, and continued to work with different companies like Savage, Winchester, and Nikon to develop rifles, ammo and scopes for varmint hunting. He continues with TTHA and gives seminars at each Extravaganza in Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.

Gary worked with Mossy Oak to develop a series of varmint calling videos in early 2000, and the first video, “Eyes Front,”

Varmint hunting seminars are popular, and Gary began giving seminars at Hunters Extravaganzas in 1993, and continued to work with different companies like Savage, Winchester, and Nikon to develop rifles, ammo and scopes for varmint hunting.

was Mossy Oak’s No. 1 selling video that year. They made a total of five videos on varmint hunting, and calling and hunting varmints took off like a rocket. Calling devices were improved, and a video on daytime bobcat calling, “Catastrophic,” was a hit with varmint hunters. That DVD outsold all of the other videos, giving hunters a new appreciation for calling bobcats during the day.

The TV show, “Carnivore,” has aired on Pursuit Channel for 12 years, sponsored by Ruger, Trijicon and Hornady. The popular varmint hunting show features Gary and friends hunting coyotes, bobcats, and other varmints.

Varmint callers keep getting better, and today Gary is working on the first-ever ultrasonic caller, which he’s developing for Burnham Brothers. The ultrasonic caller produces true frequencies that occur naturally, and shows to be the best varmint caller of all time. Gary is using a prototype, and hopes to add the caller to his product line in the near future. “The ultrasonic caller will be the greatest innovation in varmint callers in the last 75 years,” Gary said.

Gary is a dyed-in-the-wool hunter. He killed his first whitetail in the Hill Country at 7 years old, using a Winchester .30-30. It was a trophy spike with 6-inch antlers, and the first of many whitetails to Gary’s credit. Between varmint hunting every weekend with a .22 rifle, and hunting deer and turkey during the fall and winter, young Gary was a busy hunter. Turkey hunting for Gary was slow in the early days before a spring turkey season was established in 1969. The drought of the 1950s wiped out turkeys on their ranch in Medina County, so Gary’s grandfather brought in Rio Grande turkeys and tried to re-establish turkeys on the ranch. However, the neighbors found the turkey roosts and killed most of the turkeys.

Gary got into spring turkey hunting after he moved back to Menard in 1987. He hooked up with a turkey hunter from Mississippi and soon was taking all manner of hunters after spring turkey. In layman’s terms, Gary is “a spring turkey hunter of the first order.” Both he and the three sons are known as spring turkey hunters, and Deb likes to hear a gobbler sound off in the morning mist.

Today, Gary keeps busy with Burnham Brothers varmint calls; spends a lot of time testing his new equipment on coyotes and bobcats; hunts spring turkey and fall whitetails; gives seminars on varmint calling; and is generally busy in the wildlife world. For these reasons, Texas Trophy Hunters is proud to call Gary a pioneer of our hunting heritage.