2025 Mar/Apr_TTHA Issue

EDITOR'S LETTER

Spring Renews Opportunity to Enjoy Nature

March and April bring on a marvelous reset of nature, as the drabness of winter fades into the regrowth of spring. It seems everything and everybody welcomes the songs of birds, the new leaves on the many trees and shrubs of Texas, and the emergence of new creatures such as young squirrels, mockingbirds, turkey poults, cardinals, and the diminutive wrens. Spring is a good time of year in Texas.

The millions of female Mexican freetail bats inhibiting the caves and overpasses of the Hill Country have come back from Mexico to rear their young in several big caves, as well as the walls of bridges in Austin and San Antonio. The male bats hang out (no pun intended) in bachelor groups far away from mother bats and their single “pup.”

When evening shadows fall, the millions of bats take to the skies, devouring all the mosquitos and other winged pests that make up their diet. Sad to say, many young bats that fall to the waters of Lady Bird Lake in Austin end up as fish food for bass and catfish, but that’s the call of nature. However, millions of young bats make it to flying time, and visitors look in awe at the clouds of bats swarming from their summer haunts into the Texas skies.

Texas spring is not only for Mexican freetails, it’s the season for Rio Grand turkeys to fill the air with their challenging calls that lure spring turkey hunters to match their wits with old mating toms. Over 100,000 turkey hunters will enter the wilds of the Edwards Plateau and the Panhandle with their turkey calls and shotguns as they chase one of Americas favorite game birds.

Spring is also the time of migration of the many songbirds that Texans enjoy. One of the biggest migrations involves the meadowlark—none one week, but thousands the next week. Other noticeable migrants are mockingbirds, cardinals, wrens, blackbirds, scissor-tailed flycatchers, and bluebirds, to name a few.

Some areas of Texas have migrating populations of sandhill cranes, barred owls, and piliated woodpeckers. These species come south to Texas in October and stay until the weather warms in March, and they all go back north for the summer with the many species of migrating waterfowl and songbirds.

As a hunter for many decades, I always had wishful thoughts about spring turkey season. Some 40 years of chasing gobblers (1970-2010) gave me many memorable hunts for one of the most wily birds in North America. It’s no wonder Benjamin Franklin wanted to name the wild turkey as our national bird, but was voted down in favor of the bald eagle.

Spring has sprung, so take time to enjoy the flowers. It might be a good time to look for shed antlers or take the cane pole and can of worms to the fishing hole. There are a lot of things to do in the spring, so get out there and enjoy the wild areas of the great state of Texas.

Horace Gore

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Founder Jerry Johnston

Publisher Texas Trophy Hunters Association

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Anyone recognize this device? If so, send us your best guess to editor@ttha.com. We’ll reveal the answer in our next issue.

TTHA Hard At Work and Play

Journal Editor Horace Gore sat ready with his trusty pen to autograph copies of his latest book, “Stringtown to The Kokernot,” at our inaugural Outdoors Extravaganza, which kicked off in Dallas in early January. Horace also

shared a special moment with Jerry Johnston and Christina Pittman at a special banquet after day two of the Extravaganza. Christina honored Jerry and his TTHA legacy, which is now in its fifth decade.

In 1975, Jerry Johnston had finally gotten all his ducks in a row. He was ready to announce his new venture—Texas Trophy Hunters Association. The idea of starting an association to celebrate Texas’ No.1 game animal—the Texas whitetail—was coming to fruition with the first meeting at the El Tropicano Hotel to kick-off what Jerry hoped would be a success.

Jerry had arranged for the publication of the association’s new magazine called Texas Hunters Hotline, which would come out as a mostly black and white 32-page quarterly publication in the July, August, September (fall) issue. To be sure, the small magazine needed a shot in the arm, but interest grew as deer hunters became TTHA members and offered their hunting stories to the magazine. Jerry and family members did the rest.

Jerry was a deer hunter, and most of his friends were, too. In the early ’70s, he had been selling leases for the American Sportsman’s Club (ASC) for quite a while and had been so successful that he was awarded a new rifle for his top sales list. In his many travels with ASC, Jerry had talked to Ray Scott several times about Ray’s success in founding B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society) in 1967. Jerry thought if Ray could form a society of bass fisherman, he might do the same with white-tailed deer hunters.

While Jerry worked for ASC, he thought about ways to start an association celebrating the white-tailed deer and Texas deer hunting. Then, in the summer of 1975, Jerry’s dream became a reality when he founded TTHA as the first association of its kind in the Southwest.

The quarterly magazine was a necessity for the success of the organization. As the membership increased, so did the interest in deer hunters telling the story of their hunts in the magazine. Jerry had some close friends who were happy to contribute to the magazine, and it became the “flagship” of the association for about six years.

also included in Texas Hunters Hotline.

Above: Buddy Mills created this special “logo buck” cover photo. Opposite page: The debut cover photo of the first Texas Hunters Hotline magazine.

Jerry edited the magazine content, which included deer hunts, regulations from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and other pertinent information for deer hunters. As the membership grew, hunting articles on turkey, doves, and varmints were

In 1982 Jerry pursued a 501(c)(3) non-profit status for TTHA and changed the name of the magazine to The Journal of the American Trophy Hunter. The magazine had grown in page count with advertising and additional story material, and had taken on more color and photos that increased the magazine’s appeal. It soon had features and ads totaling 125 pages and was growing fast. During the early ’80s, Jerry realized TTHA had bloomed into a new “first” for the Southwest—something that had never been done before.

TTHA continued to grow as the association’s publicity made the rounds of the wildlife world, and Jerry added more staff and printed more magazines. The Hunters Extravaganzas, originally called conferences, were a huge success. Jerry saw where the money was and tried to establish Hunters Extravaganzas in several locations in Texas and other states, but the problems of

spreading out prevailed, and Jerry settled on three locations for his trade shows: Houston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio.

After a few years of attempting to get TTHA recognized as a non-profit association, Jerry considered the proposal a lost cause, and put all his attention to memberships and contributions to the hunting community. One of his new ideas for

advancement in 1987 was to change the magazine’s title to The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters, which is what you see today in the mailbox and on magazine racks around the country.

Some critics say today’s Journal is the premier hunting and outdoor magazine in the Southwest. The content and color stand out in the cover of each Journal, which often shows the photographic artistry of businessman-rancher Marty Berry of Corpus Christi. A select group of outdoor writers—who we consider the best in Texas—contribute various articles and photographs from their vantage points across the state.

People who read The Journal—hunters, campers, bankers, landowners, day-laborers, and more—say it’s never thrown away. After a few weeks at home, most copies end up in hunting camps, doctor’s offices, local libraries, pickup dashboards, and outhouses. To wit, The Journal is never trashed. You often see a large collection of old Journals in a bookshelf or stashed away in a den or trophy room, but I know of only one TTHA member who has every copy of Texas Hunters Hotline, The Journal of the American Trophy Hunter, and The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters, since day one.

Owen West of San Antonio is Platinum Life Member (PLM) No. 3, and has worked the floor of Hunters Extravaganzas from the day they started. Owen has a copy of every magazine that has been published by TTHA since the first Texas Hunters Hotline in the fall of 1975. Many of the magazines through the years have been passed around or donated to various causes, but Owen has them all.

Since we’re talking about Texas Trophy Hunters PLMs, the top 10 include some remarkable Texas hunters. Mark Herfort of Rosenberg is No. 1 and Laura Berry of Corpus Christi is No. 2. Another friend of TTHA is No. 6, Brian Welker of Sugarland. Milton Schultz, Jr. of Glen Rose is No. 7 and Al Brothers of Berclair is No. 9.

The thousands of PLM members fill five pages of each issue of The Journal, and more get added every year. Our TTHA members—old and young—have been reading and contributing to Texas Hunters Hotline and the Trophy Hunters Journals for 50 years, with many hunting seasons to come.

In this golden anniversary year of TTHA, we congratulate all our members across Texas and America. Let’s keep them running, swimming and flying by being good sports and contributing to wildlife conservation through hunting and fishing in Texas, the USA, and around the world.

Marty Berry took this awe-inspiring photo. He’s provided many such cover photos through the years.

FENCE POSTS

NEWS ABOUT HUNTING, GUN RIGHTS, AND LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

Texas Trophy Hunters Launches TTH Foundation

Christina Pittman, president and CEO of Texas Trophy Hunters Association, announced the launching of the Texas Trophy Hunters Foundation at the Outdoor Extravaganza hosted by TTHA/SCI, held in Dallas on Jan. 10-12 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The initial and spacious trade show brought hunters and outdoor enthusiasts together with international and statewide outfitters in an atmosphere of hunting, camping, and fishing that is the biggest and best of its kind in Texas.

Vendors and outfitters from worldwide consortiums were present to promote their hunts and provisions for extended safaris and jaunts to all parts of the globe. Hunting and fishing destinations were well represented by Africa, Alaska, Argentina, Asia, Australia, Brazil, British Columbia, New Zealand, Spain, and Texas—to name a few.

The Outdoor Extravaganza opened on Friday, then held an elaborate banquet on Saturday night where W. Laird Hamberlin, CEO of Safari Club International and SCI Foundation, introduced Pittman, who announced the TTH Foundation and its founding sponsors, Brian and Denise Welker of Sugar Land. Pittman also brought Jerry Johnston, founder of Texas Trophy Hunters Association, to the microphone, where Johnston praised the affiliation of SCI and TTHA and reminisced on TTHA’s 50th anniversary.

“Denise and I are longtime TTHA Platinum Life Members and have always loved this unique association,” said Brian Welker, president of SCI Foundation. “We are very proud to be a part of the TTH Foundation inaugural year, introducing the contribution from SCI Foundation as well as our personal contribution. As time goes by, we hope many more TTHA members will feel so inclined to contribute to this new Foundation.”

Brian added, “I first met Jerry and Horace (Gore) after winning a membership drive for TTHA in 1977. I was honored with a free-range trophy whitetail hunt on the San Ramon Ranch in South Texas. Even though I was just 22 years old, they treated me as an equal, and with great respect. Two finer men you could never meet.”

Pittman noted the Foundation will waste no time in getting into action. “We will invest in groundbreaking wildlife research to ensure the sustainability of Texas wildlife,” she said. “One of the most inspiring parts of our mission is our educational scholarships and college chapters in universities like Texas A&M, UT-Austin, Texas Tech, Texas State, and many others. With the launch of the Texas Trophy Hunters Foundation, we are taking our commitment to the next level. Our mission is simple yet powerful: to help and inspire through wildlife research and educational scholarships,” she added.

Denise Welker, newly elected president of Weatherby Foundation International, said, “I’m very excited to see what the future holds for the TTH Foundation. Deer hunting in Texas is where I discovered

my hunter’s heart, as Brian was teaching me and our sons to become hunters.”

The banquet concluded with a live auction that brought over $75,000 for the Foundation. “As we celebrate 50 incredible years, I am filled with pride to announce the launch of the Texas Trophy Hunters Foundation,” Pittman said. “This milestone marks a new chapter in our commitment to the future of Texas wildlife and the next generation of conservationists.” —Horace Gore

Alan Cain Named TPWD Wildlife Division Director

Alan Cain has been selected as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Division director. Cain began his more than 24-year career with TPWD in 2000 and has progressively held roles of greater complexity and responsibility, including wildlife biologist and district leader in South Texas, white-tailed deer program leader and most recently the big game program director.

“Alan has a proven track record as a leader who can strengthen relationships and build trust with private landowners and stakeholders, enabling our agency to manage public resources in a predominantly private lands state. This will be accomplished on a strong foundation of applied science and with the collaboration of public, non-profit, and private partners,” TPWD Executive Director David Yoskowitz said. “Alan will be a valuable addition to the agency’s senior leadership team and lead a talented team of wildlife professionals inside TPWD to help fulfill our agency’s mission.”

During Cain’s tenure with TPWD’s Wildlife Division, he has successfully

HUNTING NEWS

led or been a critical team member in designing and implementing impactful programmatic and regulatory changes, including enhancements of the Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP), development of the Land Management Assistance application to administer the MLDP, mandatory harvest reporting and digital tagging applications, expansion of antlerless deer hunting opportunities, and working on Chronic Wasting Disease policy, management, and regulations.

“TPWD is a leader in conversations on evaluating and implementing solutions for pressing issues including wildlife disease management, habitat loss and fragmentation, game and non-game wildlife stewardship, and hunting access and opportunity for rural and urban Texans,” TPWD Chief Operating Officer Craig Bonds said. “Cain’s professional experiences, institutional knowledge, and relationships have positioned him to take on the role of Wildlife Division director.”

Cain is a certified wildlife biologist through the Wildlife Society and has been a member of the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society since 1991, serving as its president in 2011. He is a current member and past chairman of the Advisory Board for Wildlife Management Academic Program at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, previously served on the Texas Big Game Awards Scoring Committee and Measurer, Boone & Crockett official measurer, TPWD Mentor Program, and is a graduate of TPWD’s former Natural Leaders Program.

Cain earned his bachelor’s degree in wildlife management from Texas Tech University and a master’s degree in range and wildlife management from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He held a research associate position at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville before beginning his career with TPWD. —courtesy TPWD

Boone and Crockett Announces New Big Game Records Category for Javelina

The Boone and Crockett Club announced in December that it will create a new category in its big game records for javelina (collared peccary, Pecari tajacu), the first new category created since 2001. The proposal to include a new big game category for javelina was brought forward to B&C’s Big Game Records committee by a working group made up of wildlife managers from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico as well as other hunting conservation groups. Last week, the Committee voted unanimously on the proposal during the Club’s annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. That vote is the first step in the process, which will now require creating specific measuring protocols and establishment of minimum scores.

“The decision to add javelina as a trophy species was years in the making and reflects not only the growing appreciation for the species among hunters and wildlife managers, but can bring conservation benefits to javelina and the places it lives,” says Mike Opitz, chair of the Club’s Big Game Records Committee.

The Boone and Crockett Club has been measuring North American big game since 1895 with the original vision for the records program to create a record of what was thought to be the vanishing big game in the country. The big game record book, Records of North American Big Game, was first published in 1932 and serves as a vital record of biological, harvest, and location data on hunter-taken and found trophies based on the principle that the existence of mature, male specimens is an indicator of overall population and habitat health. While often misunderstood, this vision of a “trophy” is not to celebrate the suc-

cess of a hunter but rather the success of conservation efforts and selective hunting that leads to the presence of larger, older animals on the landscape.

In the proposal’s introduction, the agencies wrote: “Collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), also known locally as javelina, are an important big game animal in the southwestern United States and Mexico. They are managed alongside other big game species, including requirements that hunters follow all regulations in pursuit of the animal across all jurisdictions. This is the first step in taking an animal under the “fair chase” ethic; a concept that originated with the Boone and Crockett Club. This ethic demands an elevated level of respect for the unique and diverse species of big game on the landscape. We propose the creation of a new javelina category in the Records of North American Big Game, building upon the growing interest in javelina hunting and recognizing this unique North American big game species. There is a feeling of pride from hunters who have taken a “Boone and Crockett” animal. This results in increased desire for conservation of that species and the landscapes in which they live. In this way, the Boone and Crockett Club is a leader in conservation by holding hunters to a high standard of fair chase and recognizing the largest and most magnificent individuals of native North American big game species.”

The general criteria for adding a category to the records program is: there are extensive geographic areas where the proposed category occurs, the animals occur in good number, suitable boundaries can be drawn, the game department(s) managing the proposed category are in favor of setting up the category, the scientific evidence supports this category. The last time a new category was created was adding nontypical categories for both Columbian and Sitka black-tailed deer 23 year ago, though the last time a new species was added was in 1998 when California’s tule elk were added.

“As we work on establishing minimum scores, we’ll work with the states and Mexico to come up with a minimum

Alan Cain

that strikes the balance between a mature specimen worthy of recognition and a good representation of a mature javelina across its range,” said Kyle Lehr, Boone and Crockett Club’s Director of Big Game Records. “We need to determine if a mature javelina in, say Texas, is quantifiably different than one in Arizona.”

—courtesy Boone and Crockett Club

As Bear Attacks Rise in Japan, Aging Hunters Only Defense

SUNAGAWA, Japan — A gunshot rang out on a recent morning in a meadow in northern Japan. The brown bear slumped in the cage, watched by a handful of city officials and hunters. The bear had been roaming around a nearby house and eating its way through adjacent cornfields, so officials and hunters in Sunagawa city had set a trap with a deer carcass to lure the voracious creature.

“For me, it’s always a bit deflating when a bear gets caught,” Haruo Ikegami, 75, who heads the local hunters’ association, told Reuters news agency hours beforehand.

Japan is grappling with a growing bear problem. A dwindling band of aging hunters is on the front line. A record 219 people were victims of bear attacks, six of them fatal, in the 12 months through March 2024, while more than 9,000 black and brown bears were trapped and culled over that period, according to Japan’s environment ministry.

Both species’ habitats have been expanding; the ministry estimates that the number of brown bears in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, more than doubled to about 11,700 in the three decades through 2020. Restrictions on hunting practices and greater emphasis on conservation contributed to a surge in bear sightings over recent decades, according to Japan’s Forest Research and Management Organization. With Japan’s rural areas experiencing rapid demographic decline, bears are venturing closer to towns and villages and into abandoned farmland, an environment ministry expert panel said in February. But bear expertise among local governments is spotty, and Japan’s reliance on

HUNTING NEWS

recreational hunters to protect settlements looks unsustainable as its population ages, according to Reuters interviews with almost two dozen people, including experts, hunters, officials and residents.

Many called for changes to the way Japan manages human-bear conflict to address safety concerns while ensuring a future for the bears. In Hokkaido cities and towns like Sunagawa, Naie, Iwamizawa and Takikawa, which Reuters visited in October, some residents wonder what will happen when hunters can no longer do the job. Sunagawa’s city government told Reuters that efforts to capture the bear were complicated by its proximity to homes and deliberations about what to do once the animal was trapped.

Although some hunters stalk bears as a hobby, Ikegami reckons not many are thrilled about culling trapped bears for local governments. “I don’t want people to think of hunting as something fashionable. What we do is difficult. It’s a big burden to take a life,” Ikegami said.

The burden is both mental and monetary. The hunter that shot the bear in Sunagawa would get about 8,000 yen (about $50), perhaps enough to cover fuel and expenses but little else, Ikegami said. Hunters also risk clashing with authorities. Ikegami’s guns were seized by Hokkaido authorities in 2019 after they deemed his attempt to shoot a bear near a house was ill-judged. He is battling in court to have the weapons returned. The Hokkaido safety officials involved in the matter declined to address Reuters questions about the case.

In response to increased bear attacks, Japanese government officials this year proposed relaxing rules around gun use to make it easier for hunters to shoot bears in urban areas. Local governments of Sunagawa, Takikawa, and Iwamizawa told Reuters that regional and national authorities could go further to address the problem. This could include promoting the recruitment of hunters and improving their conditions, among other ideas.

Japan’s environment ministry said it subsidizes efforts to train local officials and conduct bear drills in towns, but added that regional differences in

human-bear conflicts called for tailormade approaches. The Hokkaido government’s wildlife bureau said it ran various initiatives to incentivize and recruit hunters, including promotional events and training people in how to handle brown bears. Katsuo Harada, an 84-yearold hunter, said that ultimately, Japan should create a system where hunters are paid enough to support a family. “Unless they’re paid properly, we can’t nurture the next generation of hunters,” he said. —courtesy Reuters

Bear Shot in Tree Falls on Man, Killing Him

LUNENBURG, Va. — A Virginia man died after a bear in a tree shot by one of his hunting partners fell on him, state wildlife officials said. The incident occurred Dec. 9 in Lunenburg County, which is between Richmond and Danville, Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources said in a statement. A hunting group was following the bear when it ran up the tree, the department said. As the group retreated from the tree, a hunter shot the bear. The animal fell onto another hunter who was standing about 10 feet from the bottom of the tree.

The department identified the man as Lester C. Harvey, 58, of Phenix, Virginia. An obituary for Harvey, a married father of five with eight grandchildren, said he was a self-employed contractor and avid outdoorsman. —courtesy Associated Press

Man Arrested for Shooting at Hogs in Laredo Truck Stop

Laredo police arrested a man Dec. 6 for shooting at hogs with a shotgun in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center truck stop. The Laredo Police Department said the emergency call center received a report about a man shooting from a silver pickup truck in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center at 1011 Beltway Pkwy. Officers located and detained the suspect. Albert Torres, 31, admitted to shooting at the hogs and claimed he was authorized to do so by the Flying J manager. Police arrested and charged Torres with discharging a firearm, unlawful carrying of a weapon, and possession of a controlled substance. —courtesy Laredo Morning Times

By Dr. James C. Kroll

DR. DEER’S PRESCRIPTION

Food Plots for Deer In East Texas

There is an old saying among cowmen that if you take a cow from East Texas to South Texas, it will gain weight; but if you take a cow from South Texas to East Texas, it will starve to death. This saying originated from the partial truth that the forages of eastern Texas are less “strong” (nutritious) than the ones in South Texas. Although the per-acre forage yield is much higher, as well as potential tree and shrub growth, in East Texas they are not as nutritious.

So, what is the problem with eastern Texas? The higher rainfall supports more growth, but it also leaches out critical nutrients. Yet, when asked, “Where is the best place to grow deer?” I still say East Texas. The potential for producing more deer on less acreage is far greater. Why? It’s easier and less expensive to improve soil nutrition than it is to provide more water.

I began my deer research back in 1973, after reading a book by a German scientist named Dr. Ukermann, on roe deer

Left: Landowner/hunter Dr. Bob Lehmann harvested this fantastic 2051⁄8-inch monster from his East Texas property in the 2024 season. The buck was 5 years old and was born and grew up on the property. Dr. Bob and his manager, James Miller, plant well-distributed warm- and coolseason plots. The buck was harvested while feeding on a plot of forage oats.

management. He had developed some models to predict the productive capacity of land for roe deer, the species “Bambi” was written about.

As a forestry professor, I was very familiar with the concept of “site index” for land regarding expected tree growth; and had wondered if such a thing could be produced for deer? In a nutshell, site index is the expected height of a tree, planted today in a specific location, in a set number of years; usually 50.

Site index is most influenced by the amount of available moisture in the soil. A site index of 70 means the average tree planted today on one soil type would reach 70 feet in height in 50 years, and another soil type with a calculated site index of 90 would have trees grow 90 feet tall in the same time period. So, it seemed to me the ability of a specific piece of land to produce trees could also predict forage yield, which in turn affects the number of deer the land will support—in effect a deer site index. Along the way, this quest took me a very long way, ending up in the longest continuously running research project in deer food plots to date.

When properly planted and managed, food plots can significantly improve the nutrition of deer in areas with at least 30 inches of annual rainfall. Much of the eastern half of Texas, east to the Atlantic Ocean, and due north into Canada falls into this category (see map). Our research has demonstrated a mere 3-5% (3-5 acres per 100 acres) of your land can significantly increase nutrition and productive capacity, effectively increasing deer site index.

So, why are not most landowners who manage deer planting more food plots? There are many reasons, but the most common is lack of education on food plot planting, coupled with confusion and misinformation created mostly through social media. I decided to write this column to help clear up some of the confusion.

Where to plant

I recommend you plant 3-5% of your property to food plots, but where do you plant? Obviously, you want to find the best

When properly planted and managed, food plots can significantly improve the nutrition of deer in areas with at least 30 inches of annual rainfall (in green), including eastern Texas.

places to grow forages, and that eliminates high, dry places or low, excessively wet places. There are three general soil textures: sand, silt and clay. Pure sand is very droughty. Clays have the smallest particle size, making them cling to water and nutrients. Silts have intermediate particle size, providing better water and nutrient availability. The perfect soil has equal portions of sand, silt and clay, and are called “loams.”

If you visit https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov, you can develop a custom soils map for your property. You can then look up the characteristics of each soil type to find the perfect places on your property for planting food plots. Try to distribute food plots evenly over your property. A good location for a food is near the center of your property, where you can designate a sanctuary for your deer. Include plantings of conifers such as pines and cedar in large clumps adjacent to a food plot for cover.

One of the most wasted resources in the U.S. are rights-ofway (ROW). You cannot grow trees within a ROW, but you can plant food plots. A 30 feet wide ROW that runs just 30 feet across your property contains almost a quarter acre.

What to plant

Deciding what to plant in your food plots is probably the most difficult, yet important decision you make. There is no

such thing as a magic bean. There are certain plant varieties that can be easily cultivated on your soils that deer will use— that will supplement the native nutrition when deer need it.

There are two stress periods for most geographic areas: late summer-early fall, and late winter-early spring. Few plants will be actively growing during each of these periods, so that means you will have to consider two different types of plants: warm season and cool season. Warm season plants include peas, soybeans, summer clovers and pseudo-clovers, alfalfa and herbaceous plants such as barley, and winter peas in the South. In choosing each of these, you must study the soil type needs of each plant using your soils map.

When to plant

The first thing you must do is to collect soil samples from each plot at least three months ahead of planting. Visit your nearest agriculture extension service office for advice on how to collect soil samples or go on-line, where there are dozens of resources that teach you how to do it. Your soils analysis report will provide information as to how much fertilizer and/or lime each plot will need prior to planting.

It seems logical that cool season plants need to be planted during or just before the cool season (fall-winter), and warm season plants should be planted in spring or early summer. It is critical you follow directions for when to plant each variety. Not planting on time or too early can be quite costly.

Here’s an example. A few years ago, I gave talks at the Hunters Extravaganzas on planting successful food plots. I warned people not to plant cereal grains before the last week of September and the first week of October. Rainfall is unpredictable

during these times, and so are pests. A couple of folks argued they always succeeded by planting the opening weekend of dove season. Later, they sent photographs showing lush oat growth in their plots. Shortly after, I got a panic call from one of them, asking what could be done about army worms. These pests are devastating and had completely destroyed their plots. I kindly gave them the recommendation to replant.

How to plant

I could write an entire book on this final topic because it probably is the most confusing aspect of food-plot planting. You could spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on farming equipment for planting and maintain food plots. However, let me keep it very simple. All you really need is a modest-sized tractor tailored to your size property and a few implements, including harrow or disk, about 5-6 feet wide, a seed/fertilizer spreader, and a rotary mower or “bushhog.” You can have a very successful food plot program, using just these three implements and your tractor.

You can go low-till, and buy a $20,000 drill, plus a few more thousand in specialized implements, but you really do not need them. There are tractor and implement packages offered at dealers each year for new equipment. Start small and add implements as you need and can afford them.

I hope you have learned planting food plots can be easy and effective in supporting your deer management program on your land. All it takes is planning, matching your food plot varieties to your soils and climate, planting on time, and using and the right equipment. It’s all about details. Trying to take shortcuts will lead to nothing but failure.

To choose which plants will flourish on your land, use a soils map to study the soil-type needs of each plant.

Cool-season plots of forage oats planted on one of the least used resources in North America—the right-of-way.

TTHA Hunting Vault

Texas’ 50-Year Magnum Craze

By The Old Hunter

Between the World Wars, about six major deer rifles were used in Texas: .30-06, .300 Savage, .250 Savage. .257 Roberts, and .30-30. In 1925, Winchester introduced the .270 in the Model 54, and in 1936, did so with the “rifleman’s rifle”—the Winchester Model 70—a traditional Texas deer rifle. After World War II, the soldiers came home, and a variety of guns began pouring out of the major firearms factories.

From the 1950s to the ’60s, Remington made pump rifles in most popular deer calibers of the time, and Winchester even veered off and made a hammerless lever gun and semiautomatic (Model 88 and 100) that were basic failures. Remington’s pump guns faded, and the popular 721 and 722 models were replaced by the popular Model 700 in 1962. Browning brought out some fine bolt and semiauto rifles for the discriminating hunter. Winchester introduced the Model 70 Featherweight rifles in the ’50s in two

new calibers, the .308 and .243, which swept the deer hunting world. Savage made their Model 110 in all popular calibers, and were one of the first to offer a left-hand bolt rifle. The ever-popular “wildcat” .25-06 was made legit by Remington in 1969.

Belted Magnum cartridges originated in Europe, where technicians thought a strong belt on the rear of a Magnum case was necessary for head spacing correctly in the barrel chamber. Up to the mid ’50s, about the only belted Magnums sold in the U.S. were rifles in .300 Holland & Holland and the excellent Weatherby Magnums—all with Magnum-length actions.

Then, Winchester shortened the .300 H&H case to fit a standard-length bolt action and developed calibers such as .264, .300, .338, and .458—all belted Magnums. Remington retaliated in 1962 with a double-plus, its popular 7mm Magnum in a brand-new Model 700 Remington

rifle. With a wide variety to choose from, hunters started a Magnum craze that lasted 50 years.

The Win. .264 and the Rem. 7mm Magnums were very competitive, but the race was soon settled because of bullet weights, 100 and 140 in the .264 as opposed to 140, 150, 160, and 175 in the 7mm Mag. The end result, the 7mm Mag. in a variety of rifles left the .264 Mag. standing at the gate.

The .338 Mag. was popular as “the elk rifle” for a while, and the big .458 mangled everything, including hunters, from Alaska to Africa. However, through the years, only Winchester’s .300 Mag. has stood the test of time. In fact, if Texas hunters had only one rifle for everything from whitetails to nilgai, they would do well with a .300 Win. Mag. fitted with a good recoil pad, and a variety of ammo to fit the hunt.

When the new 7mm Mag. cartridge emerged in 1962, a magic spell fell over

The .300 Win. Mag.

rifle PHoTos By jAson sHiPMAn

South Texas deer hunters who were already shooting bigger calibers at South Texas bucks. As a result of good advertising, many hunters shelved their venerable .30-06, .270, and .25-06 rifles, and bought the new Remington 7mm Magnum. Old dependable whitetail rifles like the .300 Savage and .257 Roberts were cast aside like a worn-out shoe.

Within a few years, practically every notable deer hunter south of San Antonio toted a scoped 7mm Magnum and a box of 150-grain ammo. There were stories about hunters shooting a buck so far away that the meat spoiled before they could get to it.

With everything on the plus side, the 7mm Mag. had one flaw—recoil. Some hunters of lesser stature and others who had a tendency to flinch could not effectively shoot the Magnum. Only the most zealous hunters could handle the 7mm Magnum’s 20 pounds of recoil, as opposed to 16 or 17 pounds for the .270, .308, and .30-06, or 12 to 13 pounds for the popular .25-06, 7mm-08, and .243.

The new Remington rifles had stock dimensions and trigger pulls that made shooting without flinching almost impossible. However, some hunters who could

afford custom-built rifles with after-market triggers and better fitting butt stocks reported good results from the 7 Mag.— even from lady hunters and youngsters.

The problem of “kick” eventually cooled the Magnum popularity, as recoil-sensitive hunters went back to less powerful cartridges that were just as effective and more pleasant to shoot. Some hunters solved the problem of recoil by putting a muzzle brake on their 7 Mag., but the muzzle blast from this combination was revolting to both the shooter and bystanders.

An interesting aspect of the powerful 7mm Rem. Mag. was crippling loss of South Texas whitetails. Some hunters simply could not shoot the 7 Mag. without flinching, or they “stretched the barrel” on long shots, both resulting in crippled deer.

Hunters who crippled high quality or high-priced bucks often looked for a dog handler to find the crippled buck. Enter Roy Hindes III of Charlotte, a rancher who kept good deer-trailing dogs and would find a crippled buck for a price.

For many years the term “call Little Roy” was heard at South Texas deer camps, meaning to call Little Roy Hindes

and “Jethro” to find the buck. The same could be said of Gary Machen and “Bull,” although Machen used Bull mostly for finding bucks for the family and close friends. In answer to my question several years ago, Roy Hindes III said the most common rifle for his wounded bucks was the 7mm Mag.

So, where are the Magnums today? Well, the 50-year craze has subsided somewhat, but many South Texas deer hunters still shoot a variety of Magnums: .264 Win. Mag., 7mm Rem. Mag., .300 Win. Mag., and a variety of Weatherby Magnums. However, most of the Magnums used today were obtained several years ago, and the sale of Magnum calibers other than the .300 Win. Mag. has slipped through the cracks.

I must confess that I have often bragged on my Winchester .264 Mag. and custom .300 Weatherby and .257 Weatherby Mag. rifles after a terrific shot. The rifles did very well on elk, nilgai, whitetail and mule deer, and the .257 Weatherby was a “peach” on whitetails and pronghorns. I might have taken all of these animals with my favorite .270 in a pinch, but the Magnums served me well.

Many recoil-sensitive deer hunters

The .264 Win. Mag.

have left the Magnums and gone back to their .30-06 or .270, or a mild mannered 7mm-08 or a .243. With the advent of comfortable blinds, trail cameras, and corn feeders, hunters have found that all Texas whitetails fall fast from closer shots, milder “kick,” and more accurate bullet placement.

Today, there is a different kind of “Magnum.” Hornady, Nosler, and others have developed new cartridges with no belted case that are designed to fit short actions and the popular AR-15 platforms and magazines. However, other than being short and fat, the new “beltless” calibers have the same physical attributes

The .300 Winchester Magnum has a belted case (arrow) like many of the older Magnum cartridges. The author notes that the .300 Win. Mag. has remained a popular chambering in Texas big-game rifles.

and recoil of the old Magnums, and a new twist on how these new cartridges can defy gravity.

Hunters who may be swayed by outlandish propaganda should think back at all of the elk, deer, pronghorns, exotics, and even hogs they have shot at 1,000 yards—none! Then, compare slick ads to all the game animals that you have taken at 100 to 200 yards with your reliable old .30-06, .270, 7mm-08, or .243. You might be obliged to go to the closet or safe and pet the old rifles that have served you so well, and so long.

We all know Magnums can do well on the bigger game animals, even a mule deer or pronghorn across the canyon. However, there are a dozen less rugged calibers that are pleasant to shoot and will put a Texas whitetail, exotic, or hog on the skinning rack in style.

Mitch with his trophy buck, which had been nicknamed, “Night Shift Buck.”

Mitch Nelson cut his teeth hunting whitetails on the family hunting lease at Sonora. “Our family leased and hunted the same ranch for over 30 years,” he said. “I hunted there with my father, grandfather, and my uncles and cousins. All of my first hunts were at the lease, including my first buck when I was seven years old.” A small, basketracked eight-point buck Mitch shot while sitting on his dad’s lap in his grandfather’s blind would be the first of many.

Later in life, Mitch graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agriculture economics before landing a solid job in the offshore oil and gas exploration industry. After finishing school, he would begin dating the love of his life, Ashley Griffin. They were married and had a family of three children—Mark, Kate, and Ellen— and now reside in Tomball. Over the years, life became busier with faith, family, and careers taking precedence. However, hunting and more specifically teaching their children to hunt, still remained a priority.

As it turned out, Mitch wasn’t the only hunter in his young family. Ashley is an accomplished huntress in her own right, and has some great bucks and a huge bull elk on the wall to her credit. Ashley was raised in much the same manner as Mitch and grew up learning to hunt on her family’s ranch in Dimmit County near Big Wells.

Los Sueños Ranch is located in the heart of great whitetail country. The low-fenced ranch is a special place, not just by measure of the game, but in terms of the people that steward the property. Ashley’s parents, Alan and Barbara Griffin, are gracious hosts and have shared the ranch and its resources with countless guests throughout the years. Their dedicated ranch manager, Carlos Rivera and his wife Mary, work hard to keep things running smoothly.

The ranch operates as a working cattle and hunting property. Emphasis, however, has always been on the wildlife management program. The ranch consistently produces its share of trophy deer, including an official Boone & Crockett qualifying

buck in 2012 that measured a whopping 200 6⁄8 net non-typical. Several other great deer have been taken, but the memories made have been equally important. The family strives to share the ranch with others, especially first-time hunters, and regularly entertains guests from their church group in addition to extended family and friends.

As you would imagine, Mitch and Ashley spend quite a bit of time at the ranch. Throughout the years Mitch has had many opportunities to take trophies, but has refrained from doing so, instead insisting that others have the opportunity. Mitch is a very considerate and selfless person, always putting others ahead of himself. It is perhaps what makes the story of his hunt last season even sweeter.

For several years, the family watched as a promising buck with great potential grew into an amazing typical 6x6 trophy. “He was a beautiful buck,” Alan said. “The entire family wanted Mitch to hunt that deer, and I had to virtually force him to do

Mitch with his daughter, Kate.

so. No one was more deserving of the opportunity. It took some convincing, but finally Mitch reluctantly agreed.”

The buck had been spotted on cameras, and frequented about three different stands. The problem was the buck only moved and fed at night. Getting a shot at the deer would prove even more difficult than getting Mitch to agree to the task. Several weekends were spent hunting with the kids and alternating between the three stands with no luck. The buck continued to show up on the cameras at night but there were no daylight sightings.

“We had the old buck figured out, and knew he probably bedded in a creek drainage located in his core area,” Mitch said. “We decided to change our tactics and take the hunt to the deer.” They decided to forgo the traditional box blind hunting stands and opted to set up two tripods adjacent to the dry creek bed. “The kids really enjoyed helping set up the tripods and were thrilled with the whole experience of something new,” Mitch said.

The following weekend a cold front blew in and conditions were perfect to hunt the new dual tripod stand location. “It was an afternoon hunt and Alan went with me,” Mitch said. “He sat in the second tripod over my left shoulder.” Everything seemed perfect as the wind blew in their faces and several deer began to feed in front of them. Things did not go as planned when a doe approached downwind. “She winded us and ran everything off. We had about 45 minutes of daylight left and decided to sit it out,” Mitch said.

Just minutes before dark, a buck emerged from the brush along the creek. “It was not the buck we were after,” Mitch said. “But it was a buck that we had seen with him.” Instinctively, Mitch got his rifle up and readied for a shot. The next buck that stepped out was the big buck they were after and had hunted for several days. “We watched as he fed facing away from us for a few minutes. He finally turned broadside and gave me the opportunity I had been waiting for,” Mitch said.

The brush was thick along the creek, and they were hunting in tight quarters. The distance was a short 80 yards as Mitch squeezed the trigger on his Sako .300 Winchester Magnum. The gun was a wedding gift from Ashley, engraved with his favorite scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:31. At the shot, the big buck dropped in his tracks, and was a fitting end to a wonderful hunt and story.

“We watched and waited a few minutes before getting down to go take a look at him,” Mitch said. “As we walked up to him, the first thing that caught my attention was his mass and dark chocolate antlers. I thanked Alan for the opportunity, and we got the rest of the family on the phone to let them know we

had finally taken the “Night Shift Buck.” I couldn’t have been happier!”

Everyone was elated for Mitch’s success. They took a few photos in the field before loading the buck up and heading back to the ranch headquarters. With the excitement of the hunt, Saturday night steaks would run a little later than usual. Mitch’s buck was his best to date, and would later be measured at 1716⁄8 , proving that good things come to those who wait.

Mitch took down the buck with an 80-yard shot.

George Strait with his Thanksgiving Day buck.

Editor’s note: Jerry Johnston relates this tale about a huge South Texas buck, and the hunter who shot the buck, country superstar George Strait, which appeared in The Journal’s 1988 November-December issue. Enjoy!

As the 1987-88 deer season came to a close, country and western singer George Strait had taken an 18-point monster South Texas whitetail buck that would win the most points division of Leonel Garza’s Muy Grande deer contest. The shy country boy from Pearsall, Texas, would later take the buck to Cotulla to enter in the Los Cazadores Trophy Whitetail Contest, only to find that hunters must enter the competition prior to bringing in their entries.

George’s deer would have scored extremely high, as the Los Cazadores contest chooses the winner by gross Boone and Crockett score.

George is not unlike any other hunter just because he’s a noted country singer. He’s just as proud to take a big ol’ buck as your or I would be. In fact, if he’s anything, he’s publicity shy.

His disappointment and anguish that he hadn’t entered Los Cazadores “prior to,” would linger in his mind for a month or so, but I’m sure George got over it. We’ve all suffered similar deer hunting symptoms of remission of one sort or another ourselves. Haven’t we?

George won the third annual Los Cazadores deer contest and had to take a polygraph test, per contest rules at the time for the winners.

It would be less than a year later when George would awake Thanksgiving morning on his ranch in South Texas. Weather wise, it was an average cool, but not real cold morning. A full buttercup moon was at its peak the night before. Not what any trophy hunter would call ideal timing to catch an ol’ buck off guard in South Texas.

Like any dyed-in-the-wool South Texas hunter, George knew that around noon or late morning would be his best shot to hunt. So as it was, he wasn’t up before light as usual. After breakfast and a little coffee, he would visit with his ranch foreman and talk of ranch work and how the deer were moving. It wouldn’t be until nine o’clock that morning when he would head out to the pasture to hunt a little before noon. It was still cool that morning, and like any hunter, he thought there might be hope of seeing something. After the normal “see you laters” and “good lucks,” he drove off through the heavy South Texas brush.

His path would take him past a root-plowed area that sometimes drew deer to tender young sprouts of weeds. As he approached the area, he slowed down to creep, so as not to disturb any deer that might be still feeding from the night before.

What went through George’s mind and what he saw, only he could tell. Over 300 yards away stood a tremendous high-antler buck, feeding among several does. The ignition key was slowly turned off, the truck door came open ever so slowly, and with a careful rest across the hood, a single shot rang out.

The huge buck buckled as the hissing shot made a solid whop! The buck went down, but was still crawling. George chambered another round and let loose again. Another solid hit was heard, but the buck still kept crawling. Finally with a third shot, the big buck was motionless.

I’m sure ol’ George’s heart was thumping as he carefully measured off 380 walking steps to the downed trophy. He raised the head of the monarch and counted 14 points. The tines were tall and rugged. I’m sure it looked “Book” to him!

Being biologically and management minded, he checked the deer’s teeth for wear. He judged the deer to be at least 7½ years old. After gutting the buck, he returned to show off the buck to his son and ranch foreman. It was evident to all, the buck would surely make “Book”!

I’m sure as George drove into Cotulla, memories of the disappointment from the year before must have gone through

his mind. This year would be different. He had entered the Los Cazadores contest early.

Later in Cotulla, official scorer and Los Cazadores Whitetail Tournament board member Darwin Avant would score the Strait buck at 191 gross Boone and Crockett points, with a net score of 1832⁄8

I’m sure many of you reading this story have only one thought of entering this competition, or you might not have known that you must register prior to entering, much the same as George thought in 1987. If you can afford it, do it now! You might just be the one that brings in a buck that could rival George’s great buck!

Remember, this contest is based on gross Boone and Crockett points. When a man takes a “Book” deer in South Texas on Thanksgiving Day, there’s no telling what may come out of the brush this season, plus, we have a longer season for South Texas hunters. On the other hand, George; if you’re reading this, you may just be getting warmed up.

Contestants with bucks to be entered in the Los Cazadores contest should stop by the “chuck box” grocery store in downtown Cotulla on South I-35.

George made sure he registered prior to entering the Los Cazadores contest. He didn’t want a repeat of his previous year’s mistake.

This scimitar-horned oryx is just one of many exotics that

Mason Mountain WMA

Four miles north of Mason located in the Llano Uplift and Central Mineral Ecoregion lies one of the state’s most unique wildlife management areas (WMA), Mason Mountain. The high fenced 5,301 acres contains diverse terrain from limestone hills to granite soils and deep sands. Blackjack oak, post oak, live oak, and Texas oak dominate the landscape with scattered mesquite, a bit of cedar, and assorted brush and grass species.

WMAs are for research and Mason Mountain is no exception. Research and wildlife are their chief priorities. Native and exotic wildlife call it home. Land management practices such as controlled burning take place along with various demonstrations year-round for professionals, K-12 students, and university study groups.

Hunting is just one tool used for studies and controlling numbers. Whitetail deer populations here are much lower than most Hill Country properties as they strive for one

deer per 12-15 acres. Dove hunting, requiring a hunting license and Annual Public Hunting Permit, takes place in certain areas during dove season.

Gemsbok and scimitar-horned oryx also call Mason Mountain WMA home. TPWD offers hunt packages for both. In 2024 these hunts garnered 34,764 applicants. Nearly 3,000 hunters applied for Mason Mountain WMA whitetail hunts selected by drawing.

Worried that Mason Mountain’s history might not be preserved, Mark Mitchell of the TPWD Wildlife Division researched and interviewed various people to put together written documentation. Mitchell also serves as the current manager of Mason Mountain, where he’s been since 1999. He has a vast knowledge of the area, topography, and wildlife.

Originally the property was known as the Thaxton Ranch, settled in the late 1800s as a working livestock ranch. The family lived in Mason, and few structures were created on the ranch. There are several stories regarding the family and land, but sadly, none could be verified.

In the early 1960s to the 1980s, the property, consisting of approximately 8,500 acres, belonged

call Mason Mountain WMA home.

to Ferd Slocum. He ranched and hunted but later leased the grazing and the property was over-grazed. The ranch was sold to a buyer group in 1982, and 2,500 acres across Blackjack Road was sold.

The remaining acreage was sold to C. G. Johnson in 1984. Johnson had previously donated what is now Elephant Mountain WMA near Alpine to Texas Parks and Wildlife. A passion for conservation and wildlife with specific interest in desert bighorn sheep led to his generous gift to Texas. He did not want Elephant Mountain to be a park but held for wildlife research, management, and hunting as it is today.

Johnson divided his Mason Mountain ranch into eight high-fenced pastures, and stocked 16 exotic species including zebra, elk, ibex, nilgai, sable, impala, oryx, waterbuck, blackbuck antelope, and axis deer. Earthen dams were constructed to improve water sources, add irrigation to certain fields, and keep shallow lakes filled.

Johnson wanted a place for he and his friends to hunt, but he would not offer the ranch to commercial hunting. He preferred to raise and sell some animals to other ranches. He added working pens, improved structures on the ranch, and had a nice lodge with a view built. In the mid-1990s, Johnson wanted a ranch closer to his Houston home and began the donation to TPWD.

Journal Editor Horace Gore, a retired TPWD whitetail biologist, was a close friend to Johnson. Gore spent many days spring turkey hunting and guiding turkey hunters. One of his pleasures with “C.G.” was competing with their .22 rifles, shooting at various targets from the lodge porch.

“I have fond memories of Mason Mountain. Mr. Johnson was a fine man, and we shared some great sunrises and sunsets hunting spring turkeys on this exceptional place,” Gore said with a smile. “Mason Mountain had Rio Grande turkeys thicker than fleas on a javelina.”

The gift suggestion was met with resistance from TPWD Commissioners because state resources were thin at the time. After much discussion, officials determined the property was too valuable to pass, partly due to its centralized location. It took two years and much effort on Johnson’s part to complete the transaction.

The exotics on the WMA presented a problem for TPWD.

Over the years, various programs were implemented, including guided hunts to generate income but also remove animals for management purposes. Today, whitetail deer, gemsbok oryx and scimitar-horned oryx are the main species. A handful of axis, one greater kudu cow, one blackbuck antelope, and a couple aoudads share parts of the ranch.

“Most folks don’t realize there can be problems with exotics,” Mitchell said. “Some species don’t get along with other animals or people, while certain ones like gemsbok and scimitar, can interbreed so we keep them separated.”

“As a research facility we decided to reintroduce collared peccary (javelina), blacktail prairie dogs, and Texas horned lizards to the area. All were once native to central Texas.” Mitchell said. Success has been limited but he says they currently have about six javelina herds of approximately ten animals each.

“Our prairie dogs number about 60, but they are hard to count,” Mitchell said. “This is our most successful stocking so far and we’re excited that two burrowing owls are using the prairie dog town as well.”

“The Texas horned lizard is fragile and very difficult to count as they’re spread out over a mile. Texas Christian University is doing the lizard research and all the work. We provide the area and facilities as needed for them. It’s an interesting project.”

The WMA is not open to the general public. Mitchell stated he cannot imagine what it would look like with thousands of visitors per year like Texas’ state parks and nature areas. However, in November 2022, an additional 200 acres near the entrance gate were purchased.

This property increased public dove hunting opportunity and is open for public self-guided tours to observe Hill Country wildlife management practices. Some demonstrations are also held there. Please call Mason Mountain WMA for more information regarding access to this area.

As with other WMAs across Texas, Mason Mountain is vital to our heritage and preservation of wildlife along with the pristine, native landscape.

We’re thankful to folks like the late C. G. Johnson for his foresight and generosity.

Just one of the many outstanding views from Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area in the central Texas area of Mason County, Texas.

Blacktail prairie dogs have been re-introduced to the WMA where they were once native to the landscape.

The author’s dad, Jim Griepp, filled with excitement after taking his first deer at 92 years young.

I’ve invited Dad several times over the past few years to come hunt, but he wasn’t particularly interested. Hosting two weekly church services in his barn and maintaining multiple rental properties on his 4½-acre farmstead, he’s the busiest nonagenarian you’ll ever meet. If the weather wasn’t idyllic, or if he felt he couldn’t afford to get away for a few days, he wouldn’t commit to the long drive.

I asked him if he had hunted as a young man and the only time he could recall was once around 1954. He was the driver and managed to chase a nice buck to the waiting hunters. That was as close as he’d come to his own hunting success. Sometime in the late ’70s, a pastor friend of his took him hunting in East Texas. He sat uncomfortably all day in a treestand and decided if that was hunting, it wasn’t for him. Around the same time in suburban Houston, Dad found a doe trapped and suffering in a field fence. The sheriff was called, and he agreed to let Dad take her. I guess you could argue he’d “taken” a deer before, but that hardly counts.

Growing up on a farm in South Dakota during the dust bowl years, he was well acquainted with raising and slaughtering livestock, but killing for sport is anathema to his gentler sensibilities. This season, my invitation took a different approach. Instead of asking if he wanted to come “hunt,” I offered him an opportunity to come “harvest” some venison instead. And just for good measure I suggested, “If that’s something on your bucket list, I’d like to get that done for you.” He accepted tentatively at first, but the kernel once planted began to take root. Over the next several weeks whenever we spoke on the phone, he made it clear he was planning on it. He kept me updated on his preparations, like when he made the trip to Academy to get his hunting license, or when he arranged for his generous lady friend to drive him up. I could tell he was truly looking forward to it.

In order to make the experience as comfortable as possible, I picked up a little .308 Ruger and quickly worked up a light recoiling load, then fitted an extra soft butt pad.

On my 41-acre ranchette in southern Coleman County, I have a semi-finished barndominium. A couple years ago I installed a window upstairs in the sleeping loft then set up a corn feeder and trail

camera just inside the tree line about 100 yards away. Don’t judge me for my lazy man’s deer blind, but to my way of thinking it’s not for hunting so much as just filling the freezer with doe meat. Besides, who wouldn’t want to roll out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and be on-stand without so much as changing out of your pajamas?

Friday night we sat at that window, watched a couple deer casually feed, and rehearsed how the morning’s hunt would go. I got Dad settled behind the gun and carefully lined up the tripod rest in the direction of the feeder. I showed him a video on the virtues of the high shoulder shot, and we discussed at length where to aim. All we needed was a good night’s sleep and for the deer to follow the script.

Dad’s friend, Sharron, joined us, and we settled in well before dawn. A muzzle brake inside the open window could be deafening so we donned ear plugs, which for 92-year-old ears made any further communication between us dicey at best. Legal shooting light had barely arrived when Sharron announced,

Mark, the author’s friend, searching for Jim’s downed buck using the tractor’s bucket as a makeshift spotting perch.

“Here they come.” A doe/fawn pair were indeed headed toward the feeder, albeit not from the anticipated direction.

Three of us crowded around one window meant the deer were out of my sight until they advanced a bit further into the field. Dad quickly readjusted the tripod so he could point in their direction. I tried to tell him to wait for them to come all the way to the feeder.

Either he couldn’t hear me, or was too caught up in the moment because in the next instant, he had already pulled the trigger. If you’ve ever been hunting with an impatient kid, you’ll understand. I looked up just in time to see the doe jump 6 feet in the air then quickly disappear into the nearby brush.

Dad, not familiar with the bolt action, urgently tried to get me to load another round in the gun so he could shoot it. Who was this killer sitting with me? I hesitated, but being an obedient son, obliged. However, by the time we managed to chamber another round, everything had headed for cover.

Dad was positively giddy. Having seen her reaction to the shot, I thought it was very likely the doe was hit hard and wouldn’t require tracking. So, we headed down to put our hands on her.

But when we did, we found nothing. No hair, no blood, nor the torn-up ground to indicate where she had launched herself. I was still confident she hadn’t gone far, and for the first half hour or so, I trudged between the prickly pear and mesquite thorns but found nothing.

I called for reinforcements. My buddy Mark, who was hunting on the other end of the property, returned to help us search. We decided our best chance was to put Mark high up in the bucket of the tractor so he could glass down into the scrub for any sign. He’d glass, then we’d move the tractor a bit, then he’d climb in again to glass some more. Finally, while walking ahead of the tractor, he spotted some blood right in the middle of the path, about 150 yards from where she’d been shot. It was

very sparce and not particularly encouraging, but with diligent searching, we eventually found her nearly 300 yards from where she started her final sprint.

Praise God; what a relief. We loaded her in the tractor bucket and met Dad back at the house where I promptly “bloodied” his cheeks, then got the all-important trophy picture. I think the smile on his face says it all.

We dropped the deer off for processing and found she weighed in at 92 pounds. That’s exactly one pound for each of his 92 years. When we got back to town, he saw my wife and said, “You can call me Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

I’m not sure I’ve turned him into a hunter, but once he gets all the breakfast sausage and jalapeño cheese summer sausage back from the processor, he may decide “harvesting” venison IS for him. Will we go again next year? I don’t know, but I hope so. He says it fulfilled a bucket list item, so maybe we need to up the ante next year and add a buck to his bucket list.

Jim with his friend Sharron waiting patiently in the deer blind.

Sarah Parker with her super-brow buck she took in 2023.

Texas has thousands of everyday deer hunters who take thousands of everyday bucks each deer season. They take more eight-point bucks than 10-point, more typical antlers than non-typical, and most typical bucks have antlers with show normal antler development.

Although Texas hunters take a lot of high-quality bucks, the average whitetail will probably score less than 125 gross and have brow tines less than 4 inches. For the 200,000 typical bucks taken in the 27-county area called the Hill Country, you could probably count all of the brow tines over 4 inches on your fingers and toes.

A majority of the state’s bucks come from the Edwards Plateau and East Texas where 2½- and 3½-year-old bucks are more common than not. With all this said, Texas hunters take some 400,000 whitetail bucks from a variety of habitats each season, with an assortment of antlers that would fill a large photo album. Occasionally, a hunter will take a buck with odd antlers that no one has seen before. Enter Sarah Parker of Fort Worth with her “super-brow” buck.

Sarah hunts the bottom land habitats of the Clear Fork of the Brazos in Shackelford County. In 2023, she hunted for a buck with rare brow tines like many of us have never seen—straight up 12-inch brows that match the long G-3 and G-4 on each beam. A peek at the photos in this story will show what we mean by “rare.”

Antler characteristics vary, but the typical whitetail buck has two brow tines, G-1, much shorter than the other tines, and develop close to the antler burr. The next longer point is the G-2 that appears close to the curve of the main beam, and additional points—G-3, G-4, etc.—spaced regularly toward the tip of the beam.

Typical points are more often matched from side to side, than not. Sarah’s ninepoint was nothing like any whitetail buck that has ever been brought to the Hunters Extravaganza in 50 years of deer competition. The long brow tines are unlike any antlers many of us—who have seen thousands of typical bucks—have ever seen. I got Sarah’s story on this rare whitetail she killed on a 3,000-acre ranch that she and

her husband manage for a friend.

Sarah grew up in Fort Worth and married Juston Parker, also of Fort Worth, who had spent a lot of time in Shackelford County as a young man, working for his uncle near Moran. Juston is involved with oil and fracking, and also guides hunters on properties in and around Shackelford County.

Some years ago, Juston and Sarah made a deal with the owner of a 3,000-acre ranch along the Clear Fork to manage the wildlife and watch over the place in exchange for hunting

Sarah’s buck is unique because it has 12-inch brow tines.

privileges. This arrangement has worked well through the years, and the Parkers—Juston, Sarah, and their daughter Hannah—have enjoyed deer, turkey, hog, and varmint hunting. The ranch runs cattle, and has not been hunted commercially. Sarah spends as much time as she can on the ranch, feeding the wildlife and carefully watching some of the deer as they grew older—one buck in particular that showed extreme brow tines when he was two years old.

Sarah is a hunter, par excellence, and has taken all manner of game animals with her .300 PRC Custom Magnum. She also shoots a 7mm STW Magnum, and both rifles have muzzle brakes to counter recoil. Anyone who is familiar with either of these “hot” calibers can see Sarah doesn’t fool around when it comes to firepower. She uses the custom 7mm and .30 caliber Magnums on ranch whitetails and hogs, as well as larger animals such as elk, nilgai and oryx on local high-fenced ranches.

Hannah is also an avid hunter. She spends her time between the ranch and college at Denton. Hannah also has a favorite 7mm STW with a muzzle brake that she uses to whack a lot of native and exotic game.

When deer season opened in 2023, Sarah had her eye on the unusual buck with foot-long brow tines and planned to sack him with her .300 PRC if she got a good shot. The buck was thought to be 5½ years old, and Sarah wanted to get the unusual deer before he wandered onto a neighboring ranch and got killed by one of the many hunters. She had watched the buck for three years, and knew a lot of his daily habits.

“In early October, we had seen the buck in velvet, and he was just outstanding. I told Juston that I wanted to take him when the season opened,” Sarah said. “I got carried away with looking for the buck, and on one occasion I scared him so bad that he practically disappeared! I lost him in the wild, and didn’t see him for a month.”

“The season opened, and I took the .300 PRC to my favorite blind, while Juston went to a blind that offered a long shot in some open country. I was having fun with a young deer that had come to some corn that I had thrown. He wasn’t afraid of me, and we were eying each other, when my phone rang and Juston said, ‘Your boy is here!’”

“I’m coming,” Sarah told Juston and started her exit from the blind so as not to disturb her little friend. With rifle and gear in hand, Sarah journeyed back to her truck and headed toward Juston’s blind. She parked a good distance away, and took notice that the wind was in her favor as she walked toward the blind, looking for the buck.

“I had a good idea where the buck might be because he had come by the stand before season and spent a lot of time in some tall prickly pear. I slipped up to where I thought he might be, and there he was in the pear—his antlers so tall I could see him clearly. Without hesitation, I got him in the Night Force scope and pulled the trigger on the .300 PRC. The buck dropped in his tracks, in the middle of the prickly pear patch! We had a

won first place in the Adult Female-Open Range Division at the San Antonio Hunters Extravaganza.

hard time getting him out of the prickly stickers, but it was worth it.”

Sarah is no stranger to the Hunters Extravaganza Annual Deer Competition. She found her TTHA membership card and took the buck to Fort Worth to enter the Adult Female-Open Range Division. To her surprise, she got to the show too late to enter the buck by 4 p.m. on Saturday evening. However, the San Antonio show was scheduled for the following weekend, so Sarah took the deer to San Antonio and won first place in the Adult Female-Open Range Division.

Our hats are off to Sarah, a seasoned hunter who can hold her own on any hunt. We hope to hear from Sarah and Hannah in the future as they sniff the trails of Shackelford County, looking for signs that will get them a big whitetail, a rank old boar, or even a long beard for the Thanksgiving or Christmas table.

Sarah

Bruce Brady, left, guided clients and friends such as Kevin Howard, right, for many longbeard turkeys.

Double

or Nothing

By Gary Roberson

Bruce Brady from Brookhaven, Mississippi, was my mentor and turkey hunting partner for many years. When we weren’t calling for clients, we were calling for friends and family. On many occasions, I witnessed hunters doubling on multiple birds.

Bruce taught me the rules of ethical turkey hunting that a true sportsman should observe. Here are a few of the rules I live by when hunting turkeys in the spring.

Rule #1: Only kill a turkey that has been called within shotgun or bow range. If you can’t trick him, he beats you. Try to improve your game and go after him another day.

Rule #2: When calling multiple birds, pick out the dominant bird (strutting gobbler). When it’s clear to kill him and only him, take the shot. Never wait until several birds line up so that you can kill multiples with one shot.

Rule #3: Doubling up is best described when multiple birds respond to calling and the first hunter takes one bird, and his/her partner takes the second. Doubling is an ethical practice in the hunting woods.

Rule #4: Never spook turkeys around the roosting area. For this reason, I don’t hunt turkeys until about an hour after sunrise and stop hunting them about 30 minutes before sundown.

Rule #5: Never shoot a hen or a jake; longbeards only.

Rule #6: This is my personal view and not one that’s accepted by all true turkey hunters. Never use a decoy. I try to set up, so the gobbler has to come looking for me rather than depend on a decoy to close the deal. Again, if I can’t call him into shotgun range, he beats me, and I tip my cap to him. It’s all about sportsmanship.

In the years hunting with Bruce, I had witnessed several of our hunters double on gobblers. I have seen Bruce and his wife double, Bruce double with

his kids and a couple of his grandkids. But with all of the birds Bruce and I called, we had never doubled.

In spring 1998, Bruce and I were hunting with his grandson, Matthew Mooney, on the Gainer Ranch, north of Menard. About mid-morning, we called two longbeards. While it took nearly an hour to convince them we were the “real deal,” we finally saw them strutting through the agarita and mesquite, nearing shotgun range. I sat behind Bruce and Matthew and made one last series of soft yelps to bring the big strutter within 35 yards of Matthew.

At the report of his 20-gauge, the second bird alerted and raised his head without taking flight or running. Bruce made him pay for his mistake. This was the first time Bruce had ever doubled with his grandson.

We hunted again that afternoon and finally raised a bird on the eastern side of the ranch. As luck would have it, turkeys were moving in our direction as they made their way to the roost along Celery Creek about half a mile to the west. There was one big live oak tree surrounded by scattered agarita and wild persimmon bushes. I told Bruce this tree would be where we would need to set up because it was large enough to conceal him and Matthew. I would take cover off to the right side of the tree, under a dense persimmon.

Since the birds seem to be moving in our direction, we called sparingly. When we did call, I could hear two or perhaps three birds answering. After half an hour, I could see numerous turkeys moving through the scattered cover, headed directly to the lone live oak. There were six hens closely followed by two longbeards, and approximately 30 steps behind the two gobblers was a third longbeard.

I could see that Bruce was on his gun, tracking the strutter. Something was wrong, because he was letting them get way too close as a couple of the hens had already passed to his right. But I realized

what he was trying to accomplish. He was waiting to take the shot in hopes the gobbler in the rear of the flock would get into shotgun range so he and I could double.

At 11 steps, Bruce almost decapitated the lead tom. I was ready to take a shot at the gobbler on the wing as the flock had taken flight to the west and I expected him to follow suit. To my surprise, the tom broke running to the east. I leveled on the back of his head and took the shot at about 45 steps. This is when things got really interesting.

Instead of rolling up in a ball of dust and feathers, the old boy took flight, but not the kind of flight you would expect. Being somewhat idled with a BB to the brain, he took off like one of Elon Musk’s rocket ships not headed away, but straight up. I have seen doves get a pellet to the brain do this same maneuver on several occasions. I cranked off the other two rounds from my shotgun, but if I made contact, the bird didn’t show it. I leaned the empty shotgun against the persimmon and gave chase to a gobbler

still attempting to gain altitude.

Twenty-six years ago, I was still able to break into a run and the race was on!

At an elevation of approximately 70 feet, the rocket lost propulsion, cupped his wings and began his descent, flying in a tight circle. I came up with a great idea. I would try to catch the tom out of the air, a feat I had never seen or even heard of.

Running and trying to avoid rocks, bushes and prickly pear while keeping an eye on the earth-bound bird was more than I could handle. Approximately five steps short of where the bird would make landfall, this hunter hung his toe on a rock, which brought him to the ground. I rolled a couple of times and about the time I made it to my knees, the tom hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Disappointed I didn’t make the catch, I jumped onto the back of the gobbler to salvage what I could of the event. To my surprise, there were no broken wings or legs, and the fight began. I had to keep his feet pinned to the ground because he was trying his best to hit me with his spurs. I finally wallowed around and got

Gary’s guidelines say never to wait until several birds line up so that you can kill multiples with one shot.

astride of the tom as if riding him, which freed up my hands to grab his neck. He was pretty good at pecking me until I got both hands on his head and neck.

By this time, Matthew had made it ringside and laughed and whooped himself into hysterics. I wasn’t enjoying the event too much until I finally broke the old bird’s neck. I had the situation in hand by the time Bruce arrived. laughing so hard he was crying.

While catching a turkey out of the air would have been one of the craziest things one could ever imagine in the turkey woods, I may have been lucky that I didn’t get it done. Securing the legs of a 20-pound turkey as it crashes into one’s head would be a most difficult task. I think I came out better sitting on top of that rascally gobbler, than him sitting on me.

I never realized it would be so much trouble to double with Bruce.

The author’s son, Hunter, took this trophy buck during youth season.

This past summer, a few of my old high school friends and I were entrusted to hunt some property in Foard County. This is beautiful country. You can feel the history at your feet. It has rolling canyons, steep ravines, and water flowing through creeks.

It’s a place where you can anticipate finding an arrowhead or artifact at your feet. The land has offered protection to humans and provided the sustenance to be successful for those willing to work very hard. The rancher is an amazing person, whose family has farmed and ranched this land for generations. With the invitation to hunt this land, we knew we had to make sound management decisions and choices that would have us get invited back next year. With the help of the rancher and trail cameras, we set out to find out what this property had, and what our expectations should be for the upcoming hunting season.

My son Hunter and I went during preseason to learn more about the property and the landowner. I stressed to my son the importance of being a good steward to the land and the animals. It’s a responsibility that’s very important to everyone going to enjoy the outdoors.

We met with the landowner, rode around in his pickup truck, and talked about what he had been seeing, trying to gain as much knowledge as we could.

After all, this guy lives, eats, and breathes everything about this place. Another great opportunity for my son and me to sit and listen to someone who has been through just about everything that land has to throw at you.

Once we finished our tour of the property, and one heck of a chicken fried steak at the local diner, Hunter and I set out to trim branches, clear roads, and do whatever else we could do to help out around the property. It finally felt like we were starting a new adventure together. Trimming branches was what he and I wanted to do that day, which is a far better activity than any video or device at home could offer. That time together meant more to me than he knows. We checked all the cameras, and we saw the ranch’s potential right away. Several nice deer were coming around already.

The rancher had been watching a particular old buck for a while, and really became familiar with his daily habits. As with any low fence property, there is hunting pressure in the area and other hunters looking for this buck and other big bucks. We would get up every morning and check the cameras, just hoping for a sign of the big buck.

This buck was still in his bachelor group stage. He stayed out all night and would sleep all day. We would catch glimpses of him in the mornings, but he wouldn’t stick around long and would vanish back into the brush.

The bowhunters on the property set up new pop-up blinds and really tried hard to get “El Jefe” before he went to fighting and potentially breaking his antlers. This buck just did not give them an opportunity. My friend Tommy had one opportunity to see him, but the buck did not offer a shot opportunity. It certainly was not from the lack of trying.

With youth season being Hunter’s first opportunity to hunt this buck, he and I set off to see if we could find the buck. We drove to the property Friday afternoon and checked on blinds and feeders. We killed a lot of wasps and hornets that day. Darn things had completely infiltrated the blinds. Once that battle was finished, we decided to sit in the blind and see what came out into the very barren and dry wheat field that evening.

It had been unseasonably warm and dry this year. The blind was steamy, and the wasps wanted back in for some relief from the sun. As the evening wore on, we had the privilege of getting to see several immature bucks come into the field along with several does and their babies. We watched them, constantly scanning for any sign of El Jefe. Again, we hadn’t seen this buck on camera at all in the evenings, only in the early mornings. But as they say, you can’t get one sitting at camp.

Just before dark, we saw a very dark, bigbodied deer enter the field to join the other two bucks out there feeding. We both knew it had to be the buck we were after. He was so dark, he looked like a lump of charcoal walking into the field. I grabbed my range finder and got a reading of 310 yards. I didn’t feel comfortable having Hunter shoot that far. At that point, Hunter and I decided to exit the pop-up blind and try to close the distance.

We stalked our way slowly and stayed behind some brush, stopping every so often to see where the bucks were and if they had noticed us yet. After a very tense stalk, Hunter and I had closed the distance to about 150 yards. Hunter got ready on his shooting sticks, and I got settled in with my binoculars. We watched the group of three bucks feed slowly away from us.

I asked Hunter to take off his safety and told him once El Jefe presented a broadside shot, he could take that shot. Hunter settled his breathing down, calmed his nerves, and let a shot ring out. El Jefe had dropped straight down to the ground. He wasn’t moving a muscle. Hunter and I sat in silence for a few minutes, smiling at each other.

We finally decided it was time to go put our hands on El Jefe, a deer of a lifetime. Neither of us had ever seen a deer this big in

the wild. As we approached this big buck laying in the field, he began to “grow” even more. His body and antlers were bigger than any of us had imagined.

Dragging him out of that barren plowed wheat field was brutal. This old, out-of-shape dad was whupped. Even with Hunter’s help, I struggled to drag this heavy buck back to the road. Once I caught my breath and had the opportunity to really sit down and admire him, boy, was he a beaut! We were in awe. The mass, the beam length, the body size—it was all a lot to take in.

I sure hope I didn’t ruin my kiddo. He’s got a lot of hunting ahead of him. But he will have to be very blessed to see a deer of this caliber again. We are certainly thankful to our landowner, our friends and family that put in the time and teamwork to get this big buck on the ground. To me, hunting is more fun with your family and friends. That’s why I do it.

Hunter took the buck with a shot at around 150 yards. His dad said he struggled, even with Hunter’s help, moving the buck out of the wheat field.

Coastal Turkey Trout &

By Will Leschper

This spring turkey season again should be good in hot spots such as the Hill Country, the Rolling Plains, and especially in South Texas.

Fall is the best season for hunting dove and deer in Texas for obvious reasons. However, spring isn’t far behind in terms of both hunting and fishing options, providing “cast and blast” opportunities for a pair of species that always have been high on the list of all outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen: spring turkeys and speckled trout.

Without a doubt, the Lone Star state offers the best Rio Grande turkey hunting in the nation. We’ve got the largest population of Rio Grande subspecies of turkey in the U.S. according to biologists, and the trout fishing up and down the entire coast is second to none.

The Texas turkey outlook almost always rests on adequate moisture levels that provide both food and good conditions for these ground-nesting birds. In dry years, it’s tough on both hens and

gobblers, which can be said for other species such as quail that face the same challenges.

Heading through the fall and winter, the prognostication shaped up to be on par with average years, and good carryover should be seen across the turkey bastions that include the Rolling Plains, the Hill Country, and South Texas.

Turkey hunting should be a relatively easy pastime for seasoned hunters, although the overall success rate remains much lower than for whitetails. Just as with mature bucks during the rut, boss toms are eerily predictable with their amorous intentions, bristling in each strutting or drumming pose.

While the breeding part of their life cycle remains a constant, that doesn’t mean they always repeat past behavior. In fact, it’s a good bet most veteran hunt-

ers would agree turkeys rarely do the same thing twice. I’ve personally seen turkeys exhibit tendencies reserved for one segment of the spring season that are the exact opposite of what a hunter should expect.

The latter part of the season usually is my favorite time to hunt gobblers, but it also is tougher than during the first weeks when imprudent younger toms will come running with even a hint of a hen imitation. One downside to hunting later in the spring season is that it’s possible the birds may have cut their breeding activity short.

The first portion of the turkey season typically has hunters approaching an outing slightly different if classic patterns are in play. The midseason typically features a gradual down-shift for talkative turkeys and gobbling and loud behavior

Speckled trout remain the No. 1 game fish of choice for saltwater anglers and can be caught in numerous ways.

There are few hunting pursuits in Texas that can measure up to spring turkey hunting, especially when you have multiple successes in filling a tag.

that had been present just days before. Biologically, the birds have established their dominance or lack thereof, and the challenging nature of turkeys in the early season has given way to less aggressive tendencies, especially as the pecking order has been set.

Gobblers typically try to lure hens all day and also roost near them at night. The toughest aspect about this part of the season is that toms will respond to calls a good majority of the time, and are often alone while the hens are on their nests. Lonely gobblers readily come to the call. The middle part of the season often calls for a change in tactics such as hunting later in the morning and into the afternoon, and the greatest item a turkey hunter can tote along is a heavy dose of patience. You might hunt all day to hear just one gobble, but it might just be worth it.

I’ve observed some utterly peculiar turkey behavior during the middle part of the spring season, mostly from toms that went into stealth mode. On a gobbler hunt some years back, my father and I set up in an oak motte adjacent to a field with a couple of hen decoys out in front. After calling on and off for a half-hour,

we finally gave each other the “let’s move somewhere else” signal — a sheepish shrug of the shoulders. That was all that the muted tom that had crept near our setup needed to see before rapidly fleeing, but not before finally sounding off with a warbling gobble, which sounded strangely like a laugh.

Much like turkey and big game hunting, large speckled trout can be a tough pursuit, but that’s often what makes finding a “gator” trout worth every ounce of effort. The overall speck outlook remains strong, largely due to what many biologists have dubbed a “bounce back” from Winter Storm Uri in early 2021. Bag and length limits were tightened and shortened in the year after the freeze and even though there was a significant fish kill, things are looking bright for both quantity and quality in Texas trout waters.

Further alterations to speck frameworks should only continue to ensure that the pressured waterways of the coast will continue to produce plenty of fish. As a result of public meetings conducted up and down the coast in late 2023 and early 2024, and with heavy support for more stringent bag and size limits, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission

approved major changes to the speckled trout regulations.

One notable change included approval of a tag system for harvesting oversized spotted seatrout. This new tag, which went into effect with new licenses beginning this past September, allows anglers to harvest one oversized spotted seatrout greater than 28 inches with the purchase of a saltwater fishing license or endorsement. The new rule also implements a $3 “bonus spotted seatrout tag” and a $3 “exempt angler tag” for individuals who, by law, are exempted from license requirements, allowing the retention of one additional oversized spotted seatrout per license year.

The current speckled trout bag and length limits along the Texas coast are as follows:

• Three fish daily bag limit per angler; the possession limit is double the daily bag

• A minimum size of 15 inches and a maximum size limit of 20 inches per fish

• One oversized trout greater than 28 inches allowed as part of daily bag limit, in accordance with the tagging requirements above.

In terms of tactics, speckled trout, like

The current bag limit is three specks per day in a 15- to 20-inch slot limit. One fish over 28 inches may be kept with a proper tag.

other much-desired species such as redfish and flounder, can be caught using a variety of means and methods. While a boat allows anglers almost unlimited access, don’t overlook the numerous locales that offer drive-up access for wade fishing and kayak launching.

Investing a little bit of time in looking at maps such as through Google will show you almost unlimited spots for this much more frugal way of pursuing trout. The numerous piers, passes and jetty systems that dot every town up and down the coast also are great places to catch trout on a budget, and if you find your keeper fish quickly, you can certainly try for other species such as black drum that feature a larger bag limit.

There’s more than one way to find enough fillets for a fish fry.

Aoudad hunts aren’t for the meek. They live in rugged habitats and have a keen sense of smell, hearing, and alertness to danger.

West Texas Aoudads— Muzzleloader Style

by Eric Stanosheck

Afascinating piece of Texas wildlife history is the aoudad ( Ammotragus lervia), native to North Africa. The aoudad was originally, and erroneously, called Barbary sheep, but DNA studies have shown the mammal is in no way a sheep, but more characteristic of the goat family. Aoudad in Arabic means “sand goat.” However, DNA places the animal in a species of its own—simply aoudad.

First introduced for hunting to high-fenced Texas ranches in the 1940s, the population has skyrocketed across Texas and into New Mexico, and south to Mexico. The Texas Game and Fish Department stocked aoudads in Palo Duro Canyon in 1958, and the exact free ranging population isn’t known. There are estimates in excess of 20,000 animals, but there could be twice that many in the western wilds of Texas. Aoudad hunts

are not for the meek and will quickly humble you and provide you with a rich respect for these unique dry-land, mountainous game animals.

Aoudads are a strange and stunning animal with their curved horns, light tan manes, and chaps—all standout features on a large ram. Aoudads have flourished in Texas and parts of our desert southwest as a sought-after big game animal. The horns of the male sweep outward, backward, and then back inward. They are massive at the bases and trophy specimens exceed 30 inches in length.

Aoudads live in dry climates and can retain water from sparse vegetation and survive long periods of time without it. This adaptation gives aoudad the ability to live in rugged habitats too harsh for many other animals. These factors, combined with the aoudad’s sense of smell, hearing and alertness to danger, make aoudad hunting a great challenge, especially with a muzzleloader.

My first exposure to aoudad hunting happened when I tagged along with a buddy who was hunting aoudads in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. What I learned on that trip was most hunting is a long-range game, and if you can avoid the multiple sets of eyes in a typical herd, you might have a chance at a ram. There were days when we didn’t see an aoudad and other days when we saw hundreds spread across the canyons. I also learned big mature rams can take a lot of lead, and will even jump off cliffs into rough tough terrain that satisfies the appetite of the average hunter.

Many years went by before I decided to pursue my own aoudad, with hopes of a big ram. I had a trip booked in the Devil’s River area with a hunting friend, when another free-range opportunity emerged on a large ranch west of Ozona. Being generally impatient and having a long weekend available, I tagged along with two hunting friends who had booked the hunt. I also figured this

would give me two chances to get in muzzleloader range of a good ram.

Once we arrived at the ranch near Ozona, the ranchers gave us a map and ideas of where they usually see the aoudad herds. We made plans to split up and hunt different areas the next morning. I endured the normal heckling I get when people learn a muzzleloader is my weapon of choice.

I have a lot of fun educating people on the true efficiency of a muzzleloader in the right hands. I had prepared three quick loads of 150-grain American pioneer powder and a 250-grain Thompson Center Shockwave saboted bullet. These are extremely accurate in my T/C Omega, and based on what I had seen on my previous trip, they would provide me with the knockdown power needed to slow down a big mature ram.

Because I was last to join the hunting party, I volunteered to go to whatever spot the other guys didn’t choose. They’re both long-range shooters and I figured they would have a much better chance of hunting the wide-open canyon country. We had three days to make it all happen and I wasn’t in a hurry to tag out quickly.

My spot happened to be a short walk from the main ranch house on the canyon rim. As the other guys left for distant parts of the ranch, I had a nice 35-minute walk in the dark through rattlesnake and scorpion country. I covered the distance quicker than I expected so I found a nice spot to sit down, awaiting sunrise.

The rough canyons and breaks slowly illuminated as the sun broke the horizon and instantaneously I glassed what I thought was brown hair in the rocks 177 yards away. I didn’t catch any movement, and it was still too dark to make any positive identification.

Sometimes, however, plain old-fashioned luck is the best thing you can have. The sky got brighter and the reality of

what I thought I saw seemed to materialize into 22 aoudads spread out between 150 and 177 yards across a small canyon before me. I realized quickly that almost all rams look the same from the side view due to horn drop and shape. I glassed ram after ram, hoping to find one that was better than the rest.

The herd had no clue I was there, and with the wind howling in my face I knew I had time on my side. I kept glassing the rams one by one as I picked through the herd with my 15X binoculars. I finally got a big ram to turn and look my way, and instantly I knew he would look good on my wall. His hair coat was more reddish than the rest of his herd and his horns swept out and back to touch his sides.

Several minutes passed before he turned broadside to give me a 177-yard shot. He took the first bullet and only jumped up to a different rock while most of the other aoudads stayed bedded. I quickly dropped new load into my muzzle and seated the bullet. After pushing on a new primer, I found the ram broadside again and held lower as I could see blood high on his shoulder. A clean heart shot sealed the deal, and the ram dropped and expired.

I was elated and had no idea the quality of ram I had just taken. After getting the best pictures I could, I started the tedious task of butchering and skinning while enjoying an amazing sunrise and all the sounds and sights that come with it. Later that day when we all regrouped for lunch we compared stories as we all tagged out within 30 minutes of the sun rising. While the other rams were very respectable 30-inch rams, my ram was truly in a class of his own with 35-inch horns and 13.75-inch bases.

If you’re up to the test, pack up a bit of luck with a few extra quick loads and take your muzzleloader on an aoudad hunt. Black power smoke is a challenge, and you may get hooked forever.

Texas Tribute Edition rifle

Henry Repeating Arms offers over 200 rifles, shotguns, and revolvers, including an extensive line of engraved tribute edition rifles that pay homage to America’s finest. Only one state makes the cut for this distinguished collection, though, and that’s Texas. With looks inspired by the discovery of black gold (or Texas Tea), this lever-action rifle chambered in .22

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Trophy Edits

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WE ARE TTHA MUST-HAVES

Sleeping bags

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AR Gun Locker

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Custom Stadium Seat

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Visit millenniumsportsline.com to inquire about personalized seats with a custom logo.

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The Cube

The Cube is a 25-pound block containing the same long-range attractant mix found in Big & J’s popular granular products but in a solid form that stands up to weather and is ideal for long-term use outdoors. It’s made as a consumption block and not a hard-pressed protein/mineral block, thus allowing the deer to bite and break off pieces, giving off a powerful scent that travels long distances. This draws deer from nearby areas and keeps them coming back. It’s an excellent tool for hunters who want to attract deer to a specific location or keep feeding sites going for extended periods. Visit bigandj.com.

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THAW Heated Wrap

The THAW Heated Wrap with zipper closure is rechargeable and machine washable. It can be worn as a shawl or unzipped and spread out as a blanket, allowing the warmth to be shared. With a lining made of luxuriously soft velvet, it’s stylish and warm on its own, with a weather-resistant polyester outer shell to insulate and protect the wearer from the wind. It features three heating modes, from a high mode providing 4 hours of heat to a low mode lasting up to 8 hours. It has a 10,000 mAh power bank and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable for recharging mobile devices. Visit thaw.acgbrands.com.

WE ARE TTHA MUST-HAVES

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SF4 Field Quiver

Constructed from ultra-durable materials, the new SF4 Field Quiver is lightweight thanks to its streamlined design, giving you faster, quieter movement when stalking game. The adjustable belt provides a secure, comfortable fit in any hunting situation, ensuring your arrows remain readily accessible and protected. From dense brush to open fields, it delivers versatility. Upgrade your bowhunting gear and discover precision, comfort, and convenience at legendarchery.com.

Compact crossbow

TenPoint Crossbows’ TRX 26 is designed with a micro-footprint and low profile at 26.5” short and 5.75” narrow. It shoots 460 FPS and features Twin-Riser Technology (TRT), a custom TriggerTech trigger, a ZERO-Trac Barrel, and a RangeMaster100 scope. It’s packaged with CenterPunch HPX premium carbon arrows. The nock features a Nock Retention Groove that allows the user to both hear an audible click and feel the positive engagement of the nock to the string – indicating the arrow is properly locked and loaded in the crossbow. The arrows weigh 445 grains and feature 15.5% FOC. Visit tenpointcrossbows.com to learn more.

Rattling Up Whitetail Bucks

We were sitting on a ridge overlooking a very thick creek bottom on a ranch near Vernon, Texas. It was early November, and the whitetail bucks were starting to show a lot of aggression toward each other and were definitely looking for some female friends. All of the bucks that we saw while traveling to the ranch were on their feet and very active. Our plan was to take a set of rattling antlers and start simulating a buck fight to see if we could attract a big buck for my son. The first crack of the antlers echoed through the canyon below and if there was a big deer in the area we knew he had to hear it.

Rattling antlers is a technique that mimics the noise of two bucks fighting. During the

The author with his son, Michael Dean Marbach, with the buck they rattled up.

rut each fall, bucks experience a surge of testosterone that increases aggressiveness, and a need to show others who the boss just might be. It’s crazy to me how a lot of hunters don’t believe that rattling even works, and there have been people who think it is fictitious. I am not even close to figuring out who decided rattling horns hunting technique actually worked.

I do have an idea that the first hunters to try rattling must have watched two bucks fighting and noticed that other bucks were attracted to the noise. I remember when I was in junior high and a couple of boys would get into a scuffle, and all the ruckus would start, we would see kids coming running to see what was going on. The same can be said for any animals that engage in battle and the curious nature of the other animals that are in close proximity.

I first learned to rattle in whitetail bucks when I was about nine years old. My grandfather rattled in hundreds of bucks in South Texas in the 1950s through the ’80s. One buck in particular he killed in 1955 in Zapata County came within feet of him as he was rattling. The buck came in behind him and as he told the story he made it clear that the buck was just as surprised as he was as they came face to face.

Here are some tips I have learned through the years that may help you be successful in rattling up whitetail bucks. You can either get a rattle bag, synthetic antlers, or use the real thing by cutting up a set of non-weathered antlers. All these different items work and will get the noise that you are looking for. After you have the antlers, are you are ready to go rattle?

Rattling from an elevated position makes it easier to

spot approaching bucks. When you have the chance to do that, you will see a lot more bucks that you rattle in. However, there are times where you are on flat ground and it just won’t work to get an elevated position. I always try and pick an area where I think the bucks might come from and work the wind the best that I can.

I don’t always worry about the wind when I am rattling because it does not seem like it impacts a buck looking for a fight, as a lot of times they circle down wind. When you can, I also urge you to rattle in two person teams with a person rattling and the other there to video or do the shooting. When rattling, I like to make lots of noise and make it sound like a big-boy fight. I like to rattle for a minute or two before taking a break and waiting.

Giving it a break also allows you to be still and look. A whitetail deer has great eyesight, so taking breaks might just help you see more bucks because you won’t be moving as much. I also like to rattle a spot for about 10 to 15 minutes before moving positions.

I have had a lot of fun taking a five-gallon bucket, with rattling antlers inside it, gun on my shoulder and binoculars around my neck. I set out on a morning hike and hit six to eight different spots, most times just rattling for fun without any intention of killing a deer, but also to see what I could call into my simulated fight.

You might ask why I would take five-gallon bucket, It’s because it has two applications. One is for carrying my antlers and the other is to sit on while I am rattling. As I have become older, it’s hard on my knees to kneel for long periods. Trust me when I say the five-gallon bucket is way better.

The view of the surrounding property where father and son hunted.

As my son, Michael Dean, and I sat on the ridge near Vernon, Texas, a whitetail buck came to our rattling session and was approaching from downwind. We watched him come to us from about 250 yards and it was very clear that he was a super mature buck and one that we could take. The buck stayed steady and was approaching quickly. As he weaved in and out of the scrub brush, Michael Dean was settling the crosshairs on him and waiting for the right moment to squeeze the trigger.

At 22 yards the buck finally gave us the opportunity and down he went with a great shot to the shoulder. I am not sure we could have been more excited as the North Texas buck was laying in the red dirt and my son and I were high fiving and celebrating what God had provided for us. What an amazing hunt and opportunity to be together. I love spending time with young hunters and sharing all the wonders of our Texas ranches.

I encourage you to get out and go rattle and you don’t have to kill a buck to have fun. I have literally gone out on walks just to see how many and what kind of quality bucks I could bring into my rattling. Taking a video camera or a

Michael Marbach is the CEO of the Christian Outdoor Alliance: www.mycoa.org; 210-827-9802. COA’s mission is to guide youth and outdoorsmen to a relationship with Jesus Christ through experience in God’s great outdoors.

IT’S TURKEY TIME!

regular camera can be a lot of fun to capture those moments. God bless and good luck with your next adventure.

Michael Dean making sure his scope is set properly.

Joe Coleman’s desert bighorn (top) and his stone ram (bottom). These sheep completed Coleman’s Grand Slam.

Joe Coleman of Richmond is a well-known attorney in Houston who hunted Dall and stone sheep in Alaska/British Columbia, and bighorn sheep in the United States for many years. Joe completed his highly coveted Grand Slam of sheep with a desert bighorn from Baja California Sur, Mexico, in 1976. In Joe’s words, “Sheep hunting is not for the meek and faint hearted. Rugged terrain, inclement weather, long days/ short nights, limited food and water, and sometimes a very difficult shot makes sheep hunting a tough venture.”

The Boone and Crockett Club’s Grand Slam of sheep includes the Dall, stone, Rocky Mountain, and desert sheep. This story covers the hunts of this TTHA Member, and the many perils and extremes involved in getting the four subspecies of wild sheep—especially the desert sheep—that completed Joe’s Grand Slam over a six-year period.

Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) inhabit the mountainous terrain of Alaska and northwest British Columbia. Stone sheep (Ovis dalli stonei) live in southern Yukon and northern British Columbia. The Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) lives in the mountains regions from Canada to California, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) lives in the dry, arid regions of the Southwest—Arizona, Nevada, Utah, southern California, Colorado, southwest New Mexico, West Texas—and northwest Mexico.

Joe has hunted sheep 17 times in seven different regions of North America, and has taken seven rams—while passing on seven or eight other rams during his many hunts. His tally for North American sheep is two Dall, two stone, two Rocky Mountain bighorns, and one desert bighorn. This story is about two of the four sheep that made Joe’s Boone and Crockett Grand Slam. (See Jan/Feb Journal to read about Joe’s Dall sheep and Rocky Mountain bighorn hunts.)

Coleman’s guide Francisco “Chico” Aguilar holds the desert bighorn sheep.

The stone ram

Joe’s stone sheep hunt started in August 1976, when he flew to Alaska and on to Wrangell, a small community near the British Columbia border, where he took a light plane to Moose Horn Lake to meet his Tahltan Indian guide. Joe hunted with Bobby Ball Outfitters for a good stone ram, the third in his quest for a Grand Slam of sheep. Joe’s guide had horses, which made the British Columbia sheep hunt much easier.

The guide and Joe rode horseback up a creek to the high country, where they found a place to set up a spike camp. They camped near a glacier that night, and planned a hunt for the next day. The guide had glassed a good stone ram the day before, and they would hunt for that ram. They tied the horses and went on foot for the rest of the hunt.

Up early, Joe and his guide had soon walked up and over the mountain. The grayish-colored stone sheep were easy to spot in August, and they were soon looking at a very good sheep. Joe wanted the wide-horned ram after he had looked at the sheep through his binoculars.

On this hunt, Joe toted a new Weatherby Mark 5 in .270 Magnum. After two earlier hunts with the Browning BAR .243, Joe had discovered two things—the BAR was too heavy for sheep hunting, and the 100-grain bullet was a little light for 250-pound sheep.

Joe and the guide got close enough to the big ram that Joe decided to take a shot with the Weatherby Magnum. He got set, took a deep breath, and squeezed the trigger. They heard the bullet hit, and Joe watched as the ram stumbled a few yards and fell dead. Joe sighed with relief, knowing the sheep could have fallen down the steep mountain and broken one of his long, curled horns. When they got to the ram, Joe measured the horn length at 40 inches.

They dressed the ram and took the head and cape, with some choice cuts of meat back to the base camp on Moose Horn Lake. Joe had taken the third sheep in his quest for the prestigious Grand Slam.

The British Columbia sheep hunt was not over. Joe and his guide rested a day, and along with the wrangler, they took a horseback ride to look at the beautiful countryside. Joe had his Weatherby rifle, and on the ride they saw a very good Rocky Mountain goat. Joe’s guide glassed the goat and said it was one of the best he had ever seen, so Joe decided to take what looked like a good B&C record book trophy.

Joe got the white goat in his scope, but his rifle wouldn’t fire. The wrangler took the Weatherby and noticed the bolt was loose from all the rough travel. He screwed the back of the bolt tight, and Joe made a good shot on the goat. He later found that his Rocky Mountain goat (at that time) was No. 38 in the B&C record book.

After some long flights, Joe finally got back to Richmond with a good stone ram, a trophy Rocky Mountain goat, and a good story of chasing a wild sheep across the glaciers of British Columbia. Little did he know a stroke of luck would give him a chance to get the final ram for his Grand Slam of sheep—the elusive desert bighorn.

The desert bighorn

Joe had been home only a few days from a successful hunt for a stone ram, when he got a phone call from Mexico. Joe had tried to get a desert bighorn permit from Arizona and Mexico, without any success. The head of Mexico Fauna Silvestre called to tell Joe a man who worked for Game Coin in San Antonio had a sheep permit that he couldn’t use. Joe called the man and arranged to get the valid permit for a hunt in Baja California Sur, the lower Mexican state on the Baja peninsula. Joe got the permit and sent $4,700 to the Mexican government for the hunt. Joe had no choice of location. The permit was for a desert ram to be taken in an area around La Reforma caldera some 26 miles north of the small town of Santa Rosalia on Baja’s east coast. Joe would meet his guides and assistants in Santa Rosalia and plan the hunt.

On Oct. 11, 1976, Joe caught a flight from Houston to Phoenix and on to Hermosillo in Sonora, Mexico. He then took an hour flight to Santa Rosalia and registered in a nice motel. Joe made the town by taxi, informing all local hotels and the police station to make sure his

The rest of Coleman’s desert sheep hunting party.

The cave where Coleman’s desert sheep was located.

guides could find him at motel El Morro.

On Oct. 12, Joe’s two guides, Jose Cota Zuniga and Francisco “Chico” Aguilar, found him, and they traveled north to the main camp. That night, Joe cleaned his rifle—the Weatherby .270 Mag. he had used on the Stone sheep and mountain goat in British Columbia.

On Oct. 13, the hunting party—Joe, Jose, “Chico”, four assistants, and biologist Jorge Luis Alvarado Vasquez—rode the mules and led the three pack burros to the base of La Reforma caldera, an old volcanic mountain on the eastern coastline. While taking a break, Joe and the guides walked across wide sulfur deposits in the old lava beds, but saw no sheep. They continued on to a water hole to the east and camped for the night.

On Oct. 14, the party traveled farther up the mountain with all the water they could carry, and planning on staying high as many nights as possible. When it got light enough to see, they glassed a large ram going over a high ridge. Joe had concerns about seven people in the hunting party being too many.

The group finally got to the top the volcanic mountain. It was 1 p.m., as Joe and the guides glassed the mountain top for the ram they had seen, but saw nothing. Pancho, one of the assistants, reported the ram was feeding around the mountain. Joe and the two guides rushed to get to where they thought the ram would be, but found no sheep. Joe was exhausted, and sat down to drink and eat.

Joe sat watching a pass in the rocks with Jose, “Chico,” and Eustacio. Ramon and “Pancho” had gone back for packs and water. Chico motioned that he was climbing down to look for sheep tracks. About 10 feet down was a cave, and Chico casually peered in to see the sleeping ram a few feet away. The ram jumped up and Chico came back up the rocky ledge, yelling at Joe, “Grande borrego! Grande borrego!”

Joe ran to the ledge with his rifle, looking eye to eye at the big desert ram a few feet below. The ram bounded off toward the pass as Joe raised his rifle for a quick shot. The ram was no more than 30 yards away when the rifle roared, and the bullet struck the ram. Joe bolted another shell into the chamber—ready for another shot. Chico put his hand on Joe’s shoulder and said, “Que no mas. El está muerto.” (No more. He’s dead.)

The old ram’s horns were magnificent, but his ribs were showing, and he had no teeth. The biologist guessed him at 14 years old. The assistants returned with two canteens of water, and just before dark they saw another ram, but not as good as the one Joe had killed. The guides caped the ram and removed the skull and horns.

As darkness came, they gathered enough wood for a fire and Joe and the two guides slept in the cave. The assistants spent the night in another cave across the pass, their fires gleaming in the darkness.

Joe had hunted two hard days on La Reforma Mountain, and killed the best desert bighorn that would be taken from Baja California Sur that year. Chico’s luck at finding the ram asleep in the cave was the turning point in the hunt, and Joe had decided there weren’t many sheep on the mountain.

On Oct. 15, the group started down the mountain with little food except for some tough, leftover sheep ribs. Their trip down the mountainside was tough and dangerous, and with no water. At the end of a canyon, they found a small pool with bird droppings in and around the water. However, thirst won the day, and everyone was quick to take a drink.

The assistants met them with the mules and burros, and Joe’s hunting party made the long trip to the main camp, arriving about 6 p.m. Joe had had enough of hunting camps and sleeping in caves, so he took the truck back to the motel El Morro in Santa Rosalia to get a shower, a good meal, and a soft bed.

On Oct. 16, Joe caught a flight from Santa Rosalia to Hermosillo. He carried his Weatherby rifle and the desert ram’s horns as he boarded a flight to Phoenix. The airport crowd in Phoenix was stunned to see Joe walking around carrying sheep horns, so he bought a bag for his prized possession. Joe made flight connections back to Houston with his large sheep horns, where Kathryn picked him up at 7 p.m.

The deed was done—the trek was over. Joe had completed his Grand Slam of sheep. With excellent guides, Joe had been successful. He sent the necessary paperwork to the Boone and Crockett Club in Missoula, Montana, as a happy hunter who had spent many cold nights and a small fortune to get the prestigious Grand Slam of North American Wild Sheep. Joe’s Grand Slam was No. 194 in the Grand Slam Record Book.

The cave became a makeshift campsite.

AND A TURKEY IN A PEACH TREE

The woes of a wildlife biologist

By Horace Gore

In August 1973, Texas had a new spring turkey season. The season had been approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, but hunters had not been active for the first five years because they did not know how to hunt turkeys in the spring. Working for TPWD, I knew we needed a “show-andtell” to demonstrate the use of a turkey call, camouflage, and shotguns, so we decided to make a TPWD movie of a spring turkey hunt, where I would camo up and call in a gobbler to the shotgun. Problem: We needed a wild turkey gobbler.

Kenneth Morgan, a wildlife technician from Dripping Springs, knew of some wild turkey that were eating peaches in an orchard at Stonewall. He got permission to go to the orchard to catch a wild gobbler from one of the peach trees where they roosted. TPWD Executive Director Clayton Garrison approved catching a wild turkey.

A flock of Rio Grande turkey ate half-rotten peaches and roosted in the peach trees. Kenneth and I met at the store in Stonewall in late evening and laid out a plan for catching a roosting turkey that night. We would go to a roost tree after dark and Kenneth would shine a bright flashlight into the old tom’s eyes, while I would shinny up the tree and grab the gobbler by the legs.

The weather was hot, and I had on a short-sleeved polyester shirt and Wranglers, with lace-up Browning boots for climbing. The sun went down about 9 p.m., so Kenneth and I got to the orchard about 10 p.m. We soon found a big tom alone—just what we were looking for.

We had brought a poultry crate that could easily hold a tur-

key, and I wore a pair of light leather gloves to protect my hands from the gobbler’s spurs. We moved quietly toward the gobbler as Kenneth put his spotlight directly on the gobbler’s head to blind him, allowing me to quietly climb the 8-foot height and grab his legs. I knew I would have to get both legs in my right hand and vacate the tree while holding the flopping 20-pound bird.

I was steady against the tree trunk as I grabbed the old bird by one leg. The turkey tried to fly as I got the other leg in my right hand, while holding both legs above his inch-long spurs, his wings slapping me in the face while I was getting ready to depart the tree.

All went well until I felt a warm splash hit just below my chin, and run down my chest through the polyester shirt—the gobbler had released a wet string of peach shitsky (re: Russian) all over me, and it was running down to my belt buckle.

I hit the ground, holding the turkey legs tight in my gloved hand as Kenneth got a good hold on his neck and one wing. We had caught a wild gobbler, but I had peach shitsky from my chin to my Wranglers.

Suffice to say, we took the gobbler and made the hunting movie. The 28-minute “Spring Turkey Hunting” turned out well, and we used it to promote spring turkey hunting. Today, Texas has about 100,000 spring turkey hunters.

I salvaged the peach-soaked Wranglers, my belt, and Mexican silver buckle, but the polyester shirt went in the trash. Needless to say, I smelled rather “peachy” for a while.

A strutting gobbler on a creek in the Texas Panhandle.

Turkey hunting has a long tradition in Texas. Whether it’s a bonus gobbler on a deer hunt in the fall, or witnessing the strut-show in the spring, Texans love to hunt turkeys. My family has a long tradition of bagging a gobbler a day or two before Thanksgiving Day on our Panhandle ranch.

We soak the wild turkey meat in a bowl with milk and fresh ranch eggs, then roll it in a mix of flour, salt, pepper, paprika and crumbled corn flakes. It’s fried golden brown in bite-sized nuggets and served alongside a store-bought turkey for the November feast. Guess which one guests prefer? The wild bird is always more flavorful.

In recent years, however, the turkey population on our ranch has been declining. Our fall tradition was put on hold. The decline is not limited to just our ranch. Numbers have been down across the region for several years.

So why the decline in numbers? According to TPWD biologist Jason Hardin:

“The wild turkey population in Texas declined from a peak in 2016 due primarily to multiple droughts we have been through since 2016. Fortunately, populations are trending up currently. TPWD estimates a population of 586,976 wild turkeys in Texas. The estimate is based on our 2023-24 season Small Game Harvest Survey numbers paired with harvest rates obtained from a 2016-2021 banding/mark-recapture study.

The author with the Panhandle gobbler described in the article from April 2015. The gobbler was located in the afternoon in a strip of cover in otherwise open terrain.

With mandatory harvest reporting going into effect this hunting season, we should be able to obtain an even more accurate population estimate moving forward.”

Hardin shared more insight on why turkey populations change.

“We experienced multiple significant droughts across most of Texas from 2018-2022. In 2022, we were seeing 100+ degree days as early as May. These droughts and high temps are not conducive to recruiting new wild turkeys into the population.

“In 2022, TPWD’s summer turkey survey showed on 0.68 poults per hen (PPH). We consider anything under 2 PPH to represent a declining population. Fortunately, these last two years have been ideal for reproduction and recruitment. In fact, TPWD’s summer turkey surveys from 2023 and 2024 found 2.71 and 2.66 PPH respectively.

“Wild turkey numbers in Texas are on the rise. Reproduction and recruitment are essential to sustaining and growing a wild turkey population. Nesting effort is highly dependent on weather, range conditions, and the condition of individual hens.

“Recruitment in turn is driven by the number of hens going into the nesting season, their nesting and renesting rate, nest success and poult survival. If you want to sustain a wild turkey population, protect hens. Harvesting hens will reduce recruitment at the ranch scale. Hen harvest is minimum at the eco

region and statewide scale, which is the scale at which TPWD manages. Harvest can be a potential issue at the local or ranch scale.

“Across the semiarid regions of Texas, where the Rio Grande wild turkey thrives, annual population trends are heavily influenced by winter and spring rain events and temperatures. A wet, mild winter, like we experienced over the last two years, typically results in early greens that allow hens to get into breeding condition early. This often results in earlier nesting efforts and more renesting efforts. Hens that nest early have higher nest success relative to those that nest later.

“For land managers, you cannot influence the weather, but you can protect nesting cover and set the stage for brooding cover. Managers should avoid mowing during the nesting season (April 1 to July). Wild turkeys readily nest in grass fields, including hay meadows. Recent research found that up to 12% of nests in early successional habitat types (grass and weedy fields) are lost annually to mowing/haying. Simply avoiding mowing during the nesting season will increase nest success.”

Panhandle management and hunting

Turkey hunting in the Panhandle is unique compared to the rest of Texas. Turkey flocks are often found in small pockets of habitat. Miles of open prairie, crop fields and rangeland may be void of birds. But where that open country meets a winding creek with towering cottonwoods, elms or hackberries, trees suitable for roosting, you will likely find turkeys.

Finding roost trees and water is the key to locating Panhandle flocks. Scout before the season in such places. Look for tracks, spent feathers and droppings under tall trees.

If you want to manage for turkeys in the Panhandle, protect those sensitive riparian zones. On our ranch, we do not allow cattle to graze near the creek. This leaves more cover for nesting. Newborn poults need insects, found along the water’s edge. Protect mature cottonwood trees that serve as roosting sites. Be conservative in your harvest of gobblers, leaving multiple gobblers and jakes for the next year.

I recall a spring hunt in 2015 just north of the Canadian River in the northeastern Panhandle. Rolling, broken canyon country stretched to the horizon, but a few ribbons of brush in a few small ravines with tall trees disrupted the open landscape. It looked more like antelope country than turkey terrain.

My buddy, Kurt Stallings, assured me there were turkeys in the small pockets of cover. While deer hunting the same area the previous fall, Kurt saw turkeys at windmills in open cattle pastures and watched them roost in pockets of cover where he hunted whitetails. Pitchfork-shaped tracks around a windmill pond confirmed turkeys were still in the area.

Calling from a high mesa near one of these ribbons of brush one April afternoon, a gobbler answered below. I charged off the rocky mesa, past the windmill and down to the cover 300 yards below. When I neared the thick cedars along the steep ravine, I let out a few soft yelps to confirm the gobbler’s location. My call was immediately answered by a booming gobble less than 50 yards away.

I barely had time to pull on my head net and backup against a gnarly cedar tree. Moments later, I saw the tips of a big, coppercolored tail fan coming down the shadowy ravine. The strutting

tom looked as big as a washing machine. I steadied the bright green fiber optic pin of my camouflaged shotgun on the approaching gobbler’s neck. At 25 yards my single-shot 20-gauge dropped the mature gobbler, sending him flopping like a fish out of water. A dozen more turkeys scattered out of the ravine. Gobblers in isolated spots like that one face very little hunting pressure and often charge a call like a guard dog protecting his yard.

The gear for spring hunting can be as simple or as high-tech as you choose. I prefer keeping gear simple, man against bird with basic tools. I either use a bow and arrow, hunting mostly from strategically placed pop-up blinds, or a lightweight shotgun for walking and calling. The masses use a semi-auto 12-guage, sometimes with a scope, but I prefer a simple single shot or over-under 20-guage or .410 with a fiber optic bead sight. Loaded with quality ammo, these lighter guns are deadly. I’ve had good success recently with the new TSS loads. Most of the time I shoot spring gobblers at less than 25 yards, but I have reached out to 40-50 yards a few times. With a tight choke tube, smart practice and the right ammo, such shots are quite doable these days. Other gear includes binoculars, full camo, gloves and head net of course, two diaphragm calls in my pocket, a box call, and a small daypack. In my pack I carry water, snacks, headlamp, knives, Ziploc bags, pen, hunting license, cell phone, extra ammo and a camera. If I’m hunting from a blind, I often use multiple decoys. For walking and calling, I travel light using only one hen decoy. Check the TPWD website at tpwd.texas.gov for season dates and bag limits in the specific county you hunt. Counties with the highest density of turkeys have a bag limit of four gobblers per year.

Turkey numbers are slowly increasing on my favorite Panhandle creek. With rain and smart management, the numbers will rebound. I’m betting an old tradition of someone in the family carrying a big gobbler over their shoulder in late November, and tasty fried nuggets on Thanksgiving Day, will be back on the menu soon.

A big gobbler in the Texas Panhandle.

Newest Crossbows for 2025

BY JOHN GOODSPEED

The ancient design of the crossbow keeps getting more refinements thanks to the demands of hunters and never-ending development of technology. Refinements continue with trigger crispness and light pulls, quietness, cocking and de-cocking, devices to reduce cocking effort and safety, reduced vibration and recoil and compact size to accommodate hunters in tight spots.

The smallest footprint of the crossbows in this roundup measures six inches axle to axle. The lightest is 5.8 pounds. The fastest flings bolts at 450 feet per second, or fps as used in this article.

Tactical-style bows are more common, too, with many featuring adjustable stocks and AR-15-style grips that are interchangeable with their firearm cousins. They are becoming more customizable as well, with numerous adjustments and ambidextrous controls.

Prices run the gamut, ranging from $349 — but still rated at 420 fps — to $2,849.99. Most of the crossbows come in at well less than $1,000. The following are some of the latest on the market. The prices are manufacturers’ suggested retail prices so discounts may be found.

Scopes keep marching forward, too, with many sporting illumination and adjustments for various target ranges and speeds of the arrows. Some even come with levels like those found on high-end, long-range rifles to improve accuracy.

Axe Crossbows

www.feradyne.com/axe-crossbows

Lightweight, compact, ambidextrous and adjustable, this model launches crossbolts at speeds up to 400 fps and delivers high-end performance without a high-end price tag. Its backbone is a multi-position buttstock, stepthrough foot stirrup and an adjustable foregrip like the ones on upper-tier tactical firearms. It features an ambidextrous safety and patented anti-dry fire mechanism. The extruded aluminum rail is designed for accuracy and pairs with 200-pound compression-molded limbs. The quiver mount holds tight against the stock for a streamlined fit and better aiming. A multi-reticle 2-7x36 Axe optic is matched to the crossbow’s ballistic profile and is affixed to a cantilever mount above the rail. Dual string suppressors and limb dampeners help improve accuracy and eliminate noise. The package includes a removable Quiet Crank cocking device, rope-cocking device, a threebolt side quiver, three PileDriver crossbolts with practice points and rail lubricant. It measures 14¼ inches cocked and 17¾ inches uncocked. Draw weight is 200 pounds. The power stroke is 14¼ inches. It weighs 7.2 pounds without accessories and 8.4 pounds with accessories.

Barnett Crossbows

www.barnettcrossbows.com

This model uses self-timing infinity cams to improve consistency and accuracy while propelling 380-grain arrows up to 425 fps. Pivoting limb pockets boost durability. The Halo System promises balanced string travel. The crisp TriggerTech trigger builds in accuracy while providing anti-dry fire technology. With a length of 32½ inches, it measures 7¼ inches axle to axle cocked. Features include a step-through riser, advanced limbs and a SoftLok Bristle Retainer System. Integrated string and vibration dampeners and a fold-down vertical grip minimize sound. Draw weight is 215 pounds. The power stroke is 14 inches. It weighs 6.9 pounds. The package includes a

new quick-detach side-mount quiver bracket, three-arrow quiver and three HyperFlite 20-inch, .204 small-diameter arrows with field points. The Hyper Raptor BCX is offered in one of three packages — the Barnett 2-7x36 Speed Dial, Precision Reticle scope shown here, the BUK OPS Cycloptic-X crossbow scope with Primetime Color Vision that uses digital technology to enhance the image ($999.99) and the BUK OPS X-Factor LRF crossbow scope with an angle compensating laser range finder ($999.99)

This ready-to-hunt model delivers plenty of premium performance features at an affordable price. With a relatively low draw weight of 185 pounds, it can shoot bolts at speeds up to 420 fps. It includes an anti-dry fire mechanism. It measures 13½ inches axle to axle cocked and 16.85 inches uncocked. Power stroke is 14¼ inches. It weighs seven pounds. The 4x32 scope mounts on a picatinny rail. The recommended bolt length is 22 inches. The package includes three Bear X TrueX Max arrows, a four-arrow quiver, sling, manual cocking sled and arrow

Hyper Raptor BCX with scope, $699.99

AXE400, $699.99

CenterPoint Archery

www.centerpointarchery.com

This is CenterPoint’s flagship bow with such features never utilized before by the company as an integrated silent cocking system with an auto retracting cocking sled and a 1.5-5x32 illuminated scope. The scope is adjustable for multiple fps and aiming points up to 100 yards. Other adjustable features include the bullpup stock, foregrip, string stops, cheek comb and buttstock. Compression fiberglass quad limbs provide the power. With 164 foot-pounds of kinetic energy and launching arrows at 430 fps, the Sinister 430 provides a blend of speed, power and maneuverability. It measures nine inches axle to axle cocked and 13 inches uncocked. It is 30 inches long and weighs 8.6 pounds. An aluminum riser, CNC cam system, anti-dry fire technology and a roller retention spring provide repeatable accuracy. The package includes three 20-inch .003 arrows, parallel three-arrow quiver and rail lube.

Excalibur Crossbow

www.excaliburcrossbow.com

The new integrated Charger X crank platform offers reduced cocking effort, easy decocking and a streamlined design for better balance and ease of use. Draw effort is 16 pounds while the integrated crank reduces the draw to as little as 12 pounds. The distinctive recurve limbs provide the power, with a clean-breaking trigger, to fling arrows up to 400 fps. It is 33 inches long and weighs seven pounds without accessories and nine pounds with accessories. The package includes a 2-5x30 Overwatch illuminated multi-plex reticle scope, 30mm scope rings, R.E.D.S. suppressors, Sound Deadening System, Rebolt Quiver, four Proflight 16½-inch arrows and four 100-grain field points. The scope is adjustable for arrow velocities ranging from 300 fps to 475 fps and comes with flip-up lens caps. It comes dressed in Mossy Oak Country DNA.

Mission Crossbows

www.missioncrossbows.com

With nothing new in the works for 2025, Mission is relying on an old stalwart — and it’s pretty hot without any fancy upgraded frills. The manufacturer says it can shoot one-inch groups at 100 yards at speeds up to 410 fps. It’s compact, too — 9.1 inches axle to axle when cocked and 30½ inches long. The power stroke is 14.6 inches. It weighs 7.6 pounds. Its Benchmark Fire Control includes a three-pound match-grade trigger, the Easy-Load bolt retention arm and the ability to de-cock with the push of a button. It shares the SUB-1’s stock inspired by modern sporting rifles that includes an adjustable comb with an ambidextrous cheek piece and length of pull from 14½ inches to 15¾ inches. The AR15-style pistol grip is interchangeable with aftermarket AR-style grips. The 80-percent-let-off cam system uses two concentric string tracks to reduce horizontal nock travel. The CNCmachined flight tract cuts vertical nock travel to improve accuracy. It comes in a choice of Black (shown here) and Realtree Edge camo.

Ravin Crossbows

www.ravincrossbows.com

This model was inspired by the compact R26 and R29 and features the new silent cocking system to deaden sound when drawing or decocking. Adding to its longrange capability is its illuminated 1-8x24 Adjustable Turret Scope that dials in the distance of the target. It also includes the Ravin Scope Level for precise alignment. The crossbow will rocket a 400-grain arrow up to 450 fps thanks to the Helicoil Technology, which coils cables away from the top and bottom of the cams in helical grooves to keep the cams balanced so they can rotate 340 degrees. It also creates a compact bow that measures six inches axle to axle when cocked. It is 29 inches long. It has a 12½-inch power stroke. The Helicoil Cams were introduced on other bows, which — like this model — feature a Trac Trigger that slides down the rail for consistent attachment to the string and the Frictionless Flight Rail, that features two nylon rollers instead of the arrow gliding down the barrel. It weighs 6¾ pounds. The package includes an anti-dry fire safety, built-in sling

Sinister 430, $799.99

Sub-1 XR, $2,199

R29X Sniper XK7, $2,849.99

mounts, removable draw handle, quiver and three Ravin .001 Premium Arrows and Field Points.

It is available in XK7 Camo (shown above) or Stealth Black

TenPoint Crossbow Technologies

www.tenpointcrossbows.com

This new model with a twin-riser is compact at 6½ inches axle to axle cocked and 28 inches long without the stirrup and shoots up to 410 fps. It features a TriggerTech Trigger, a ZERO-Trac Barrel and a RangeMaster 100 scope. The twin riser is said to be 18 percent lighter and twice as stiff as traditional risers. The trigger is rated at three pounds with a crisp break. The barrel is a rail-less

design that cuts arrow friction and weight of the bow. The 2-7 scope offers aim points up to 100 yards, speeds from 380 fps to 505 fps and comes in matching Vektra camo. The TX 28 also is available in Moss Green ($1,999.99). The ACUslide MAXX crank handle is picatinny mounted to provide multiple options while the ACUslide MAXX features the Auto-Brake Gear System that controls cocking and de-cocking. It weighs 7.2 pounds. The package includes three TenPoint CenterPunch HPX Premium Carbon Crossbow Arrows, a string-stop system, bubble level, quiver and bow hook. TenPoint also is introducing the TRX 26 ($2,999.99), which measures 5¾ inches axle to axle cocked and shoots up to 460 fps, and the Turbo X ($1,299), which delivers speeds up to 415 fps.

continued on next page

TX 28 Vektra Camo, $2,099.99

Photo courtesy of TenPoint Crossbows

Wicked Ridge Crossbows

www.wickedridgecrossbows.com

De-cocking technology is being introduced on the bestselling Invader crossbow, which shoots up to 390 fps and features an illuminated scope. Wicked Ridge says the D-1 Trigger, a two-stage with zero creep and a 3½-pound pull, is its smoothest ever and includes anti-dry fire technology. A push of a button moves the trigger to “de-cock” mode for safely de-cocking with the built-in ACUdraw De-Cock crank cocking device or manually de-cock the crossbow with the ACUdraw 50 SLED rope cocking device ($699.99). The ACUdraw De-Cock includes the Auto-Brake Gear System that eliminates the loss of control during the de-cocking process and reduces effort to five pounds. The 190-pound bow is powered by VX-5 reverse cams that elongate the power stroke and increase rotation. The aluminum riser is fitted with 11inch TPX Limbs, BCY Mercury

2 string and cables and aluminum limb pockets. It comes with a 70-yard, 4x32 Pro-View 400 Lighted Scope in red or green. The bow measures 9½ inches wide axle to axle cocked and 32 inches long without the stirrup. It weighs 5.8 pounds. The package includes three Match 400 Carbon Alpha-Nock Arrows and a quiver.

Xpedition Crossbows

www.xpeditionarchery.com

This ready-to-hunt crossbow features speeds up to 400 fps and 128 pounds of kinetic energy. It measures 14 inches axle to axle cocked and 18 inches uncocked. It is 34 inches long and weighs 7.4 pounds. Pull weight is 210 pounds. The package includes a 4x32 dual illuminated scope, three Xit-20 carbon bolts with clip-on nocks and 100-grain field points, a three-bolt quiver, rope cocking device and assembly tools. It comes in OD Green. Invader M1 ACUdraw

Ruthunter 400X, $399.99

Mark with a big eight-point taken with his Winchester .270.

Ihave been blessed with my own little piece of God’s country in South Texas and have taken many “trophyto-me” bucks over the years, with some of the stories becoming articles featured in this fine magazine. They have shown the ups and downs of hunting, or the extreme lows to elation, but none have quite illustrated the greatest low-to-high in all of my over 60 years of hunting as this story. The low started when I first laid eyes on a fine young 2-year-old 10-pointer. I watched him over the years grow up as a regular at the feeder on the west end of my small ranch.

I documented him with pictures and videos to help me remember his traits year to year, and although he remained with 10 points each year, he failed to grow much with each passing season, until the fall of 2023. I have had some sort of game camera at that feeder location since the early years after purchasing the ranch in 2006, and have had a cellular camera there since that feature came out. It has helped me immensely to plan hunts and time off while maintaining full time jobs over the years.

This past beginning of archery season, I happened to be out of town for opening weekend, but managed to keep tabs on the camera. Lo and behold, this now 5½-year-old buck showed up as if on cue, shortly after the feeder went off. I had patterned this buck as a “three-day deer.” That is, a deer that only shows up around every three days. Upon seeing him on the camera, I immediately said to myself, “I gotta get down there!”

I looked at the calendar to see what day would be the third one since he showed. I got all my gear ready. On that morning I woke up early, showered in no-scent soap, dressed in ScentLok, sprayed my bow, binoculars, and camera bag with noscent spray, and went up in my ladder stand by 6:15 a.m. With 45 minutes to wait in the dark, and hoping not to be winded and snorted at, 7 a.m. couldn’t come fast enough.

The feeder went off right on time and deer started showing up. I enjoyed the entertainment of being close enough to hear the deer crunching corn and making all the noises deer make. He strolled in from my right side soon after, and started eating. He was a perfect 10 pointer that would score what I believe to be at least 150, and was still in full velvet.

I reached to turn on the video camera, attached my release to my bow string, raised my bow and shot in what seemed to be one fluid motion. The shot found its mark perfectly behind the shoulder at about 15 yards. The buck jumped and kicked, then ran straight away from me to about 80 yards and stopped. I was

Mark’s first arrowed buck survived the broadhead and was lost, but a big eight-point fell to his rifle.

convinced he would fall dead right there, but that moment was when the nightmare began.

The lowest point

He stood there for what seemed like an eternity, then lay himself down, unfortunately with his head up. I sat there in awe and disbelief as the minutes turned to hours. I did not want to get down because he was in the open and would have seen me immediately. I ended up sitting there for almost 5 hours waiting for my fixed blackout broadhead to work, but for whatever reason, it never did.

I waited until his head turned away from me. I took the opportunity to play back the shot on my camera. It appeared to be a perfect shot, right behind the shoulder. And being about 15 feet up in the air, the arrow passed through him and laid on the ground right behind where he stood when I shot.

Then the rain came. It poured for about 30 minutes, soaking me to the bone and making following any kind of a blood trail impossible. The buck’s head would sway here and there and each time I thought he would fall over. But then to my surprise, he gained his footing and walked another 50 yards or so, to bed back down in the shade when the sun came out after the rain.

I made the decision to get down because I could keep the brush between me and him to get back to my truck and decide what to do. I sat in my truck another three hours, and it rained again even harder. I had lunch and pondered my next move as

the rain stopped, and decided to go see if he was still under the same tree—a full eight hours after the shot.

As I got closer to his last location, I saw he was still there, but was unable to dispatch him because he got up and ran to the neighbor’s ranch. I was absolutely sick. What would have been my biggest archery buck to date was now gone.

I thought about what to do next. I called the game warden, who knew how to get in touch with my neighbor. He said he would call to ask permission for me to look for the buck on this place.

I decided to go home to San Antonio to wait for permission. When I heard back from the game warden the next day saying it was OK, I went down there as quick as I could to begin looking. As I got there, it had been raining again all morning, so everything was sloshy. I knew my only chance was to walk up on him, lying dead on the ground.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda

I looked for hours and hours each day for three days without so much as a sign. I was confident I had traversed the nooks and crannies of his place, even looking for buzzards, and called the game warden to say I had no luck. I sent him the video of the shot and when he looked at it, he agreed the shot looked good, but said sometimes the broadhead only makes a hole and doesn’t slice, which I had a hard time believing because I was using

a brand new broadhead that had never been shot, and I have killed many bucks and hogs with that same type.

Should I have called the game warden sooner and ask that he dispatch the deer because I had no rifle with me? Should I have made the three-hour trip to home and back to get one? Should I have left him overnight when I had already left him for over eight hours, even though I watched him manage to get up and move closer to my neighbor’s fence and lose his location?

I couldn’t have called Roy Hindes for his dogs because I didn’t get permission to cross the fence until a full 36 hours after the shot. And what good would that have done with all the soaking rains? As all these “should have” scenarios played over and over through my head, I finally came to the realization the buck was probably still alive, or had run even farther into another ranch to succumb to his injury. My chances of ever finding or seeing that buck again were just about zero.

A Christmas surprise

But that all changed on Christmas. I was checking my cell camera that afternoon and saw a heavy, dark-antlered, longtined eight-pointer coming to the feeder. After seeing him, I hoped my luck would change. I would get another crack at taking a good buck this season after all.

I went down to the ranch the next day and rifle hunted hard for three days, spending many hours in the blind, mornings and evenings, with lots of buck movement. But I saw no sign of the big eight. The evening hunt on the third day went about the same as the last three, with young bucks sparring and chasing does that did not want to have anything to do with them. Then it happened.

I noticed three bucks crossing my neighbor’s fence heading my way, with the big eight taking up the rear. I watched them run in and out of the mix of brush and clearings all the way across my place from my south fence, and winding up on my north fence road where I had been feeding corn. As soon as they settled, I got my camera and gun ready. The big eight stood quartering to me, but I figured my Super Grade .270 would not have a problem with that angle, so I took the shot as soon as I got comfortable and steady.

The buck hunched and ran off and stood behind a mesquite. I decided to take another shot that also found its mark, but the buck bolted. I didn’t see him come through any openings, so I got down out of my blind to go look at him. When I got close to him to my surprise, he got up but quickly ran out of gas and fell over after a short sprint. If there is anything I have known and experienced over the years is that the adrenaline mature bucks can muster is phenomenal.

As I approached and saw him lying there, I felt the weight of this trying season finally lifted off me. He was a gorgeous mature buck, with heavy dark antlers. Two of his tines were over 10 inches while the other two were over 11 inches! And as I enjoy the tasty venison he provided, I also look forward to proudly displaying him on the wall next to the other big bucks I have taken there over the years.

Mark’s luck changed and he got a big eight-point as a Christmas surprise.

Many people think of the Southwest Deserts as a wasteland, but during and after the winter rainy season, it is a lush landscape until summer dries it all out.

Since the beginning of time, human cultures have equated springtime with the notion of renewal and a new life. It’s an inescapable connection easily adopted into oral history stories and cultural beliefs. Springtime in the deer world generally represents a flush of nutrition and a time for them to recover their body condition for growth and reproduction. However, for much of the Southwest, this entire relationship is different. The desert is a harsh and forbidding place for many months of the year, but generally wintertime is not a time of death and dormancy we see in northern deer habitat. The desert spring arrives more subtly in many parts of the Southwest.

Spring in the desert

Habitat and vegetation are very diverse in the Southwest with low-elevation grasslands and desert scrub, punctuated by Sky Island mountains that thrust up out of the desert floor. Most of what we think of as the “Southwest” are three deserts that cover much of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico: the Mojave, Chihuahuan, and Sonoran.

The Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts are considered temper-

ate deserts, not dominated by cactus, but the Sonoran Desert is easily identified by the iconic saguaro cactus that form forests of spiny tree replicas. Southwest soils are generally low in organic material and high in calcium carbonate, which makes them less productive than wetter deer habitat to the north and east. There are some natural springs, seeps, and ponds, but surface water is scarce, and streams are often not flowing yearround. This means that water falling from the sky is incredibly important to everything – plant and animal – that lives there. The amount and timing of rainfall throughout the year absolutely drives this whole system like gasoline keeps an engine running. This means that it not only shapes where deer live in the desert, but also their ecology.

Spring is the best time in the Southwest. Because of the importance of rain in driving this whole ecological system, spring rains – or winter rains that carry over into spring – create a flush of vegetation that drives important things like antler growth and fawn production. In South Texas, annual rainfall peaks in spring (May-June) and September. Spring rains are important for antler production because the bucks get a pulse of good nutrition right at the beginning of the antler growing season. This also gives females good nutrition just as their fawns really start to grow fast. The Brush Country is an example of an area where spring rains are perfectly timed to do the most good. The flush of spring flowers not only gives us beautiful landscapes, they also show us the amazing diversity of forbs (broadleafed weeds) that contain a lot of nutrients and vitamins for deer. In other parts of the Southwest, the importance of spring rains is not as obvious. In fact, in the desert regions, spring arrives more subtly and serves more like a transition between a wet winter and very dry summer. In West Texas and southern New Mexico intense summer monsoon storms produce about 70% of the annual rainfall. As you continue west into Arizona and the rest of New Mexico, rain falls about equally in summer and winter until you reach western Arizona where most rainfall is during the winter.

Spring hits differently in Southwest

This mixture of rainfall patterns creates different conditions throughout the Southwest and deer have adapted to them. Even without the harsh winter we see in the north, we still see a revival of plants with warmer temperatures in spring no matter what the

The desert wildflower show in the spring illustrates the diversity of deer food available in the form of forbs

annual pattern is. In some areas like the Sonoran Desert, the winter rains are what’s important because there is not much spring rain, and that winter nutrition needs to carry the deer over through the hot dry summer.

In Rocky Mountain states, deer are coming off low-elevation winter range where they have been eating low-quality shrubs and moving back up to high-elevation summer range. Their migration back up to the mountains occurs as the snow melts and the habitat starts to green up. Researchers call this “surfing the green wave” because deer and elk are gradually following the wave of green-up to higher elevations where they will spend the summer getting fat before coming back down to winter range. The nutrition they gather all summer has to supply the fuel to not only get to winter range in the fall, but to survive on lower nutrition browse all winter.

In many areas of the Southwest, the summers are hot and dry with most deer food being crispy and crunchy. Dry deer forage is harder to digest, has fewer nutrients, and is not very tasty. The winters, however, are wet and mild, allowing for good growth of green food. Research in Arizona and New Mexico show that the nutrition from the winter wet period is what drives herd productivity. Deer populations increase during periods of wet winters and decline during a serious of dry winters. The importance of spring in this case is that you want winter rains to continue into the spring as long as possible to carry more nutrition later before things get dry for a few months until the later summer (July-September) monsoons. Average monthly rainfall in April is less than

a quarter of an inch in southern Arizona, so the amount of forbs carried into April is related to fawn production.

Mating to a different drummer

The different nutrition cycle in many areas of the Southwest resulted in deer adapting their reproductive cycle to match the period when the most nutrition and hiding cover will be available to the fawns. Deer generally drop their fawns soon after a flush in green vegetation. In Montana, with a classic spring green-up after winter, females have their fawns in late May or June. Mule deer in the Sonoran Desert, on the other hand, have their fawns in early August because that is about four weeks after the summer monsoon rains start so they have fawning cover and nutrition for lactation. If a northern deer had a fawn in August it would not have a chance to mature enough to survive the harsh snowy winter. These different times of fawning are dramatically different and have adapted themselves over millennia of trial and error. Any females genetically programmed to breed at the wrong time are not going to pass on those genes to have fawns then. Because the gestation period is consistent in deer (about 207 days), the timing of the breeding is what is actually adjusted to drop fawns at the right time.

The Southwestern spring

Spring is certainly a time of renewed growth everywhere and we will always see that as an analogy to our own human existence. But springtime in the Southwest means different things to different deer. Because of the diversity of landscapes and ecological conditions, southwestern deer have had to adapt away from the stereotypical spring green-up model. Adapt is what desert animals do best. They have had to figure out how to make a living and thrive in harsh and variable conditions and they have done that well.

In South Texas, the flush of spring plants fuels antler growth. But in other parts of the Southwest, nutrition stored from winter rain is what builds antlers.

Timing the fawning period with abundant nutrition and cover is important and deer have adapted to do just that.

TPWD Capt. Jennifer Weaver’s official FBI National Academy photo.

What’s a Texas game warden doing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation? She’s in training to improve her law enforcement skills, expand her knowledge to better serve the Lone Star state’s many resources and citizens she’s sworn to protect, and more.

TPWD Capt. Jennifer Weaver graduated from the 291st session of the FBI National Academy on Sept. 12, 2024. The graduation took place in Quantico, Virginia, on the FBI’s 547acre training facility, known as the West Point for Law Enforcement. It’s a prestigious program with fewer than one percent of officers nationally having the participation opportunity. Weaver is the first female game warden in FBI academy history.

Known internationally for academic excellence, it’s a tough program involving fitness training, leadership, and advanced communication. An agency’s professionals must have proven records of law enforcement experience to apply. Officers have an average of 21 years with their respective agency and usually return there to serve in executive-level positions.

The 291st session involved law enforcement members from 26 countries, seven military along with seven federal civilian organizations. This assembly had 254 law enforcement officers including men and women from 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Since its implementation in 1935, a total of 55,440 graduates have completed the FBI National Academy. Quantico is the same facility where new special agents and intelligence analysts receive training.

Weaver’s career path began at the University of Texas Permian Basin, where she attended on a softball scholarship. She lettered in varsity rowing for UT Austin on Lady Bird Lake. She loves the outdoors, water, and boats. A recruiter helped graduates find jobs and becoming a game warden had long held Weaver’s interest. She worked as a substitute teacher until being accepted into the 51st Game Warden Academy at age 22.

“My first assignment was Gregg County. It was a one warden county,”

said Weaver, a warden for 19 years. After three years she transferred to Harris County. “I learned so much. After nine years I transferred to Galveston County, thrilled to be on the coast.”

Weaver was involved with the shrimp and oyster industry, often concentrating on the commercial aspects. She was promoted to Region 4 lieutenant on Texas’ upper coast (Beaumont to Freeport) before a promotion to captain of Harris and Waller counties. Currently, Weaver serves as captain of the Marine Theft Investigation Unit.

Around 2012, TPWD leadership began concentrating on wardens’ efficiency and safety for themselves as well as the public. There was a need for consistent training and equipment across the state. The trend in law enforcement having specialized groups spawned squads from field wardens’ needs.

Capt. Weaver with her beloved canines: “Walter,” a Teddy Roosevelt terrier, and black Labrador, “Whiskey,” who help her unwind after a long day of game warden duties.

Teams were designed to support TPWD’s core mission, improve safety through training and equipment, increase efficiency and response, and create game warden opportunities.

One result under Special Operations was the creation of the Marine Theft Investigation Unit. This group concentrates on vessel theft and recovering stolen marine property along with titling issues and tax fraud cases with vessels. To date, they have recovered hundreds of stolen boats worth millions of dollars. Always interested and involved with water and boats, Weaver made a lateral transfer to this team in 2022.

“Texas has the third highest boat theft behind Florida and California,” she said. “In 2023, 354 boats were stolen, primarily smaller boats, jet skis, and boats under 30 feet because they’re easier to move and sell.”

“TPWD regulates all boats in the state. We’re here to help the field game wardens. We also put on several training operations per year.”

In her spare time, Weaver relaxes by reading, traveling, and being a big Astros fan. Swimming, fishing, and bird hunting fill her time whenever possible. A Labrador retriever named “Whiskey” and Teddy Roosevelt terrier, “Walter,” also keep her grounded and busy.

As for her interest in attending the FBI National Academy, “One of my mentors had participated and raved about it,” she said. “My chief said TPWD hadn’t sent anyone in a while and the opportunity only happens once every four to five years.”

After learning more about the program, Weaver said she was intrigued and motivated to try for it. The knowledge and experience gained would only improve her law enforcement and personal goals. “I applied and was accepted. It’s a one-time thing; if (you’re) accepted it may be the only opportunity you ever get.”

Weaver found it a humbling experience. She’s not one to put herself in the public spotlight, so that was a tough task in itself. Participants all received the same uniform, stripped of credentials so everyone is equal. The program is 11 weeks of training Monday through Friday.

“It was extremely challenging, lots of little things. First was having a roommate; four women in a suite with one bathroom,” she said with a laugh. “The physical aspect was tough with mandatory daily workouts and demanding weekly challenges. I had no trouble sleeping at night.”

She also found it fun and interesting to learn cultural differences, as one suitemate works as a detective specializing in human and child trafficking in Switzerland. During her

off-time, Weaver visited various area sites to learn more about our nation’s history. “It was so interesting and expanded my knowledge of many things.”

Weaver said the experience was truly life changing, as she delved headfirst into it with total commitment. “This is what FBI cadets go through,” she said. “Physical fitness workouts the entire time, weightlifting, weekly challenges. The participants helping each other and striving for common goals.”

Achieving top tiers, Weaver earned several awards during her time at the FBI Academy. She swam 34 miles, rowed 34 miles, played 29 pickle ball games, and completed a 6.2-mile obstacle course at the end called the “Yellow Brick Road.” Weaver said, “I lost weight and got back in good shape, but it was work!”

The program is also about team building, being able to network with law enforcement executives anywhere, while focusing on the next generation of leaders. For the first time, there was a women’s law enforcement class to learn how to handle various aspects of being a female in law enforcement.

“Many attendees aspire to be a chief or department head. With TPWD, I want to help and possibly influence more game wardens if the opportunity arises,” Weaver said.

Capt. Weaver receives a Yellow Brick Award from physical fitness trainer Kevin Chimento for successfully completing a 6.2-mile obstacle course at the FBI National Academy.

WILD HOG CUISINE

By Horace Gore

When I was a kid in Arkansas and East Texas, most rural, and some urban families had a small hog pen, where they kept one to three hogs to fatten and kill for meat. Hog killing time took place the first cold spell of fall, usually early November. The weather had nothing to do with killing the hog, but it had a lot to do with flies. Cold weather causes flies to find warmer climes and hide out from the weather. Folks could kill the hog, scald and scrape it, and cut it up for fresh meat, curing and canning—all outside—and not worry about flies. I always loved hog killing time.

Today, Texans have become fond of hog hunting, and many hunters are anxious to get a good, fat hog for the table. As an old hog hunter, I can suggest a few tips for getting the best eating hog. One thing is always certain—a hog is fatter from fall to spring than any other time of the year. So, let me suggest that you kill an eating hog sometime between October and March. In most of Texas, this is when hogs are in the best body condition.

Wild hogs will eat almost anything—from cow manure to oak acorns and pecans—and almost anything between, including week-old fawns and any other wild meat they can find. They also eat a lot of weeds and some grasses in summer. Hogs relish acorns and pecans, so they’re as fat as they will ever be from fall to spring. This is the best time to hunt hogs for all kinds of pork cuisine.

Depending on how much meat you may want and knowing that you will probably concentrate on the hams (hindquarters), shoulders, and backstrap, any sow from 40 to 150 pounds will fill the bill. Young boars weighing up to 100 pounds are usually as good as the sows because they are not yet tainted with breeding cycles.

It goes without saying that an eating hog should be shot somewhere besides the parts that you want to eat. A head or neck shot is best, but if you shoot the hog directly behind the shoulder about midway up from brisket to back, you will not destroy the best eating parts.

Hogs are basically dirty animals, as noted by their lifestyle. So, expect your hog to be covered with mud, or at least have considerable dirt in the hair. It’s easier to skin a hog before you open the belly and remove the guts, liver, etc. Unlike deer, which can be skinned by pulling the skin from the body, a hog must be skinned by cutting between the skin and the body every inch of the way. It’s cut and pull— cut and pull all the way to the neck.

Hang the hog by the hind legs and start the skinning at the hind legs and go down the

hog until you can cut off the head. Then open the belly, starting with cutting through the pelvis, taking care not to cut the bladder, and opening the belly down through the front legs. Cut through the diaphragm on each side and remove everything inside the hog. When this is finished, take a garden hose or pail of fresh water, and starting at the top between the hind legs, wash the inside of the hog and let it drain for a while before you do any butchering.

If you have cold storage, hang the whole hog in the cooler for three to four days before you cut it up. Otherwise, start removing the shoulders, and backstraps. Then, if you want to save the trimmings for ground meat or sausage, cut everything off the carcass that will give you meat scraps.

After all the trimmings are removed, take the hog down and lay it on a table or clean flat surface. With a saw, cut through the pelvis, and remove the two hindquarters. By now, you may be able to discard what is left of the carcass. If cost is no problem, you may want to skin the hog and take it to a local meat processor and have them cut and wrap it as you choose. Suggest you keep the shoulders and backstraps whole, but you may want to have the hams cut for roasts or sliced for other cooking, and the scrap meat ground for whatever use you may have.

The shoulders, hindquarters and backstraps should be wrapped individually with butcher paper and taped. The trimmings should also be wrapped and taped. Put it all in the freezer and try to use everything within six to eight months. If you have access to a vacuum sealing machine, sealing the meat individually in plastic bags is the very best for freezer storage. There are several ways to cook hog meat, and individual tastes will determine how you want to serve your pork. With the shoulders, let me suggest one of my favorite recipes called pig-’n’coke. Wash each shoulder, and salt and pepper to taste. Place meat side up in a large roasting pan. Cover up to about ½ to 2⁄3 of the meat with Classic Coke. Cover with lid or tightly with foil, and place in the middle of a preheated oven to 325 degrees. Cook unattended for one hour and 45 minutes, then turn off the oven, leaving the roaster to cool inside. Remove all pig-’n’-coke from the bone and place in a plastic container with lid in the fridge. Freeze all meat not immediately needed. It’s good for sandwiches, and when chopped, it’s good with cream gravy over biscuits or toast. Hog hindquarters make good, tenderized pork steaks and roasts, and the backstraps are a breakfast delicacy sliced crosswise about ½ inch, tenderized and fried, with biscuits and cream gravy and a cup of coffee.

Brandon with his 2024 Texas gobbler. Success came on an afternoon hunt on April 7th. Shot distance was 10 yards. The big Rio Grande gobbler had a 9 1 ⁄ 2 -inch beard.

Spring Turkey Prep

Prepare now for success on spring gobblers

Like most things in bowhunting, success on spring turkeys comes down to preparation. Scouting for birds, setting blinds and practicing with a turkey-specific bow are proven habits that fill tags. Follow this three-step routine when chasing “Mr. Tom.” I start the drill in early March.

Find the birds

On new ground, step one is to talk to whomever is familiar with the property. The rancher or hired hand can save you lots of time by telling you where they see turkeys. Next, walk the ground and look for pitchfork-shaped tracks, droppings and feathers. Bring binoculars and glass openings.

Listen for turkeys gobbling. If there’s a wooded creek, start your search there. If you find accumulated piles of droppings under tall trees, you’ve likely found a popular roost site. Turkeys can have different territories in the fall versus the spring, so just because you see birds on a piece of land in the

fall doesn’t guarantee they will be there in April. Scout before opening day to make sure.

Trail cameras are a smart scouting tool. Set these near hightraffic areas where you find tracks and droppings, like feeders or travel routes. In spring 2024, I placed several trail cameras along a wooded creek. Each camera was pointed at a sandy two-track road that paralleled the river.

The road was littered with tracks. The pictures from those cameras helped me estimate how many turkeys were on that one mile stretch of creek and how many were mature gobblers. My guess was 12 hens, nine jakes, and three longbeards. Numbers were modest, mostly due to drought.

With that information, I decided it would be a one gobbler hunt for me, leaving the jakes and other gobblers to rebuild the flock for next season. Pictures showed 80% of the activity was on the south end of the creek. Take note of the time of day you get pictures. Some locations will be better morning ambush spots and others better for afternoons.

Set the blinds

Once you’ve located the birds, the next step is to set the blinds. Set blinds at least 200 yards from the roost so you won’t educate the turkeys when you slip into the blind in the darkness before fly down. While I’ve bagged gobblers from blinds that were set the same day, I prefer to put blinds up

long before I hunt. Last spring, I had two blinds up by midMarch. That gave the birds two weeks to walk past the blinds before opening day.

Set the blind with the shooting window pointed either north or south. If it faces east or west you will deal with bright sunlight entering the shooting window with the rising or setting sun. A leery gobbler will surely spot the sunlight off

Trail camera image from the author’s spring 2024 hunting efforts.

your bow when you try to draw. Close all the windows except the primary shooting hole. Stake down all the corners and cut grass or brush that might deflect an arrow. I add a blanket to the floor of each blind, a fold-up chair and a black shirt to block part of the open shooting window. Finally, clear a path by re-

shot. A short stabilizer that won’t bump the front of the blind and a quality drop-away rest like the QAD MX2 round out my setup. My 2024 spring rig included a Prime RVX 4 bow in Morel Scar camo set at 57 pounds with 80 percent let-off. Custom Gas strings and all the accessories already mentioned produced a deadly setup.

For 30-plus years I’ve struggled with the best shot angle and broadhead for turkeys. In my experience, it’s difficult to identify the best aiming point on the body to hit the vitals. Too many times the bird is wounded and lost. Therefore, I switched to head/neck shots.

Scouting efforts should start long before opening day. Look for tracks, droppings and spent feathers like this barred wing feather.

moving sticks and leaves so you can quietly access the blind. I typically set decoys close, 5-10 yards in front of the blind. Dress like a ninja. Wear black or dark camo in the blind, including a dark glove on your bow hand and dark face mask. I’ve had good luck using Primos Double Bull blinds for many years.

Practice with the right rig

Of course, the same bow you use for deer hunting will work fine for turkeys, but I like a few specific traits in my spring rig. It’s important to not only draw the bow smoothly with no excess movement, but also be able to hold it at full draw waiting on the right shot angle. Think modest draw weight and high let-off. My spring rig is usually set between 55-60 pounds with 80-85% letoff. I prefer a bow in the 30- to 34-inch axle-to-axle range so it’s easy to maneuver inside the blind. I usually slide out of my chair and shoot from my knees. From my knees, there’s no chance of the top cam hitting the roof of the blind. A black or dark camo bow is best.

Keep the rig simple. My perfect spring rig includes a single-pin sight and a ¼-inch peep. I keep shots under 20 yards, so I use an HHA Optimizer Lite sight with a .019 pin set for 20 yards. I practice often with it from 10-25 yards so I know exactly where to hold the pin for a precise

First, select your arrow’s shaft size on the stiff end of the charts for your draw weight. Next, fletch arrow shafts with 4-inch feathers. Tip the shaft with a heavy insert and head-lopper style broadhead. I like Easton FMJ and Victory VAP TKO shafts with heavy stainless-steel inserts. I’ve tried several options, but I keep coming back to the 100-grain, 3-blade Magnus Bullhead broadhead. The larger 125-grain Bullhead is another option, but in my testing it does not fly as accurately as the smaller 100-grain model. With a precise aim, the smaller Bullhead is deadly. Make sure your arrow carries enough weight. My turkey arrows weigh 458-460 grains and feature almost 200 grains on the front including the insert and point. That high front-of-center (FOC) packs a punch on impact. A couple arrows tipped with fixed-blade broadheads ride in my quiver in case an unlucky feral hog wanders by my blind.

After several years of drought and low poult recruitment on my favorite creek, I’m optimistic for the 2025 spring season. Four inches of rain in early April 2024 followed by more timely rains in May and June mean there was plenty of nesting cover and lots of bugs for poults to eat. Whether it’s a bumper year or an average one, the plan will be the same. Scout early, set the blinds, practice with a turkey-specific bow rig and be patient. It’s a formula that works every year.

Brandon’s groundblind setup for his spring 2024 Texas hunt on a Panhandle creek.

Fun With Bass and Ranch Brigades

By Kaylee Scott

This past July I was blessed to attend the 12th Battalion of Ranch Brigade, thanks to the support of the Runnels County Soil and Water Conservation office. After dedicating a lot of hard work and time, I was fortunate enough to return to the 18th Battalion of Bass Brigades to be an Assistant School leader. Through Texas Brigades, I have had the opportunity to win scholarships, meet many new people, attend wildlife conventions, and educate the public about wildlife, conservation, ranching, and much more.

The first camp I attended this summer was the Bass Brigade as an assistant leader. As an assistant leader, I was responsible for showing our adult leader how camp was run, where everything was at, and what was expected from us in all projects. While attending Bass Brigade, you’re split into groups called “schools” that typically consist of five to eight cadets, one assistant school leader, a cadet who attended camp the previous year, and an adult school leader. My school’s name was the Smart Basses, and it was a school of all boys. At first, everything was a little rough with the boys figuring each other out, but towards the end of the week, they really started to connect and excel in activities. My favorite part of Bass Brigade was stream day. Stream day is my favorite activity because you get to be in the water and do so many activities in the shortest amount of time possible. When we first got to the stream, we got lucky enough to do seine netting first. Seine netting is when you have a long net you stretch out across a stream, and you tap poles on the bottom of the stream for roughly 50

yards then you flip your net up and see what you catch. After that, we learned about water turbidity and flow. Then we learned about macroinvertebrates. I find learning about macroinvertebrates very interesting because until you really pay attention, you don’t fully appreciate all the life in the water with you. Finally, we went to go backpack electro-fishing. Although the batteries died on the backpack shocker, we still were able to try it on and learn all its parts, as well as learn about all its necessary safety features.

On the last day of all camps, we have a ceremony, and our parents get to come and watch us receive certificates, march, and hopefully win some awards. On the last day I was given a nice fishing pole and a $500 scholarship for being an assistant leader. I had so much fun at the Bass Brigade camp over the past two years and I hope to return a final time this year as a special agent.

The second camp I attended this year was the Ranch Brigade. It was a blast and my favorite camp I have ever attended. There were quite a few differences between the Ranch and Bass Brigade.

The first major difference is at Ranch, we are split into herds and our team names were assigned to us. It is called a herd instead of a school because a herd is what you call a group of cattle. I was assigned to the Hereford Herd, and we had a great group. Throughout camp, we learned about how beef is handled from the pasture to the table; proper cattle

Kaylee made the most of her time attending Bass Brigade and Ranch Brigade camps.

handling practices; how to properly give cattle injections; how to castrate cattle, how to brand them; the different types of brands and breeds of cattle; how to cook steaks; feed and nutrition for cattle; cattle anatomy; and so much more.

Everything was so fun, and I learned so much. One of my favorite things was doing a necropsy on a heifer on the first day. We started at the top and went through the digestive tract, the heart, the reproductive tract, and the excretory process. Later in the week we also did a deep dive into the rumen and all the parts of it.

My second favorite thing we did was getting to work cattle. It was an amazing experience, and we were able to do everything. We branded, vaccinated, castrated the bulls, and applied pour-on. Although I’m no stranger to working cattle, having a low-stress environment to learn to castrate and brand cattle was awesome. I also en-

joyed Ranch Brigade because it allowed me to make connections with many people in the equine, cattle, and ranching industries. I was so grateful for this opportunity to attend the 12th Battalion of Ranch Brigade, and I hope to go back next year as an assistant herd leader.

Texas Brigades is a conservation-based leadership organization which organizes wildlife and natural resource-based leadership camps for participants ranging in age from 13-17. Its mission is to educate and empower youths with leadership skills and knowledge in wildlife, fisheries, and land stewardship to become conservation ambassadors for a sustained natural resource legacy. Texas Brigades hosts nine summer camps throughout June and July. The application period for camp runs Nov. 1 through March 15 of each year. Visit texasbrigades.org or call 210-556-1391 for more information.

Kaylee receiving a $500 scholarship check.

Cadets collecting fish samples from a stream.

Hard work is key to success, no matter the task.

Spring Turkeys And Old Shotguns

by Horace Gore

For about 38 years, I carried a Winchester pump 12-gauge shotgun while hunting spring turkeys. It wasn’t just any shotgun—it was a Model 1897 visible hammer pump gun that came off the Winchester assembly line in 1908. The old gun had a full choke barrel that I had bent to perfection. Yes, I said “bent!”

I became a rabid spring turkey hunter 50 years ago, and bagged my first Rio Grande gobbler in the spring of 1975, the year Jerry Johnston founded Texas Trophy Hunters Association. Somewhere in storage, I have a cigar box full of long turkey beards, the trophies of many hunts.

Texas had the first spring turkey season in 1969 in one county—Kerr. The experimental season went well, and after three or four years, all counties with turkeys had a spring season. I worked in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Region 2 office in Waco, and had hunted Rio Grande turkeys near Brownwood without any luck. After leaving Waco in 1971 and going to Oklahoma as Game Chief, I was invited back to Austin with TPWD in 1972, and anxious to get my first spring turkey.

I had several skeet, quail and dove guns, but none were good for turkey. While on a trip to Waco in 1973, I bought an old Winchester shotgun from Leo Bradshaw (Cogdells) to use on spring turkey. I was familiar with the 1897 pump gun, and a 30-inch full choke barrel had a tight shot pattern—something that’s needed when you’re shooting at a turkey’s head.

I patterned the shot column from the full choke barrel, and was surprised that it shot low at 30 yards. This wasn’t acceptable for a turkey gun, so I considered bending the

Texas had its first spring turkey season in 1969, which took place in only one county: Kerr County.

barrel upward. I had read where gunsmiths had bent plain barrels to shoot where you aim, and I decided to bend the barrel. But how? Maybe using two small trees close together.

I found two close mesquite trees and decided to put the barrel between them and give it upward pressure, knowing that a tiny bend in the barrel would mean several inches at 30 yards. I would put pressure on the barrel and shoot a round at the target. After three attempts at pressure between the trees, the old gun shot exactly where I aimed. With the corrected barrel shooting straight, the old shotgun and I accounted for the demise of at least 40 spring gobblers.

My first spring turkey wasn’t killed in Texas. I shot an Eastern turkey in Louisiana in 1974. I knew a few biologists in Louisiana, and had invited them to Texas for a dove hunt. They reciprocated by inviting me and Al Springs to Fort Polk for a spring turkey hunt. Al carried his grandfather’s old double barreled 12-gauge, and I took the Winchester ’97 pump gun.

Al teamed up with a game warden, and I hunted by myself. I didn’t know much about spring turkey, but I had been practicing with some mouth calls given to me by a turkey hunter in Oklahoma. I felt comfortable about calling a gobbler, especially after a biologist friend loaned me his homemade portable “Louisiana” turkey blind.

Al ended up taking two big Eastern gobblers. I called up a jake gobbler from the Louisiana blind and peppered his

head with No. 4 shot from the old Winchester ’97. Those Fort Polk Eastern turkeys were the only ones Al Springs and I ever killed. The others were Rio Grande.

The Texas spring season was in its seventh year when I killed my first tom turkey on the Cutbirth Ranch, south of Brownwood. I had hunted through the years with no luck, but getting better with every hunt. Then in 1975, I called up a young jake gobbler that slipped in without gobbling. That young tom, bagged the year Jerry started Texas Trophy Hunters, was the first of many Rio Grande gobblers that I called up during future spring seasons.

The old Winchester pump gun failed me only once in four decades, or should I say, I failed the gun. The year was 1977, and spring turkey season was open. I planned to drive up to

Brownwood from Austin to hunt on the Cutbirth Ranch, where I had taken two gobblers in ’75 and ’76.

I sat at my workbench on Saturday evening, trashing an old worn-out boning knife. I didn’t want to throw it in the garbage can with a long dangerous blade, so I decided to put the blade in my bench vice and break it off. What a foolish mistake. The blade broke, and when it did, it cut a big gash in my right thumb and hand. The deep cut required a trip to the hospital and plaster cast on my hand and lower arm to protect the repaired tendons.

The next Tuesday morning I was in Brown County hunting turkey, with a plaster cast, shotgun, camo, and all. I had been calling since daylight, and I finally heard a gobbler. He was only a few hundred yards away, and coming fast. I was covered with camouflage from head to toe, including the white cast, sitting against a big post oak with the Winchester turkey gun over my right knee, with my free finger on the trigger.

The timber area was rather open, and when the turkey got about 50 yards from me, he stopped, stood straight up, and looked me over. He strutted closer, but before I could shoot, he stepped behind two oak trees that made a narrow V from a single trunk. The gobbler stood 20 yards from me behind the oaks, as I looked for his head between the trees.

I think the old bird had seen the cast on my hand and arm. I was ready to shoot the big bird in the head, but he was hidden from view. Finally, he moved a little and I could see his red head between the oaks. I decided to take a shot.

I cocked the hammer on the 12-gauge and put the bead sight on the gobbler’s head. Just as I pulled the trigger, the turkey moved, and I shot nothing but bark off both oaks. The gobbler wheeled, and I expected him to fly for a wing shot. I had pumped another shell into the chamber, trying to hold the shotgun with my left hand under the barrel while my right hand in the cast tried to hold the shotgun by the rear grip.

The turkey didn’t fly. He just ran away as I tried to aim and shoot with the plaster cast on my right hand. Needless to say, I didn’t fire another shot, and for once, an old gobbler got away without a scratch.

Each year during the month of August, deer hunters of all ages from Texas, Mexico, and out-of-state, bring their bucks to the Hunters Extravaganza Annual Deer Competition in Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio. Young hunters proudly enter their trophy—sometimes their first buck—hoping to win a prize. TTHA is proud to recognize some of these young hunters and their trophy bucks.

Jonathan Amador, Jr.

By Horace Gore

The deer season of 2023 had opened, and Jonathan (Johnny) Amador, Jr. was settled in the deer blind with Grandpa Frank Montoya on the Hodge Keller Ranch in Northeast Val Verde County. Frank is a seasoned deer hunter who has leased the 500-acre spread for deer and aoudad for years. This hunt was different from all the others because Johnny was holding his Grandpa’s Thompson Center Encore .300 Win. Mag. single shot with a 150-grain Hornady SST in the barrel. The normal kick of the big rifle was tempered with a muzzle brake, and the variable scope was set on low-power for deer.

Johnny was after his first whitetail buck and Grandpa Frank had made sure that his 10-year-old grandson was ready. In between Johnny’s fourth grade classes at Katie Reed Elementary, they

had practiced with the rifle, and Johnny and his younger brother, Asher, had

sat in the blind with Frank for several seasons. Asher had decided to stay home

Johnny Amador, Jr.’s first buck was this fine eight-pointer taken in the canyons of the Hodge Keller Ranch.

on this early morning hunt, and Johnny was looking for his first buck. As usual, Frank and Johnny said a prayer for safety during the hunt.

Frank had come over from the home he shares with Grandma Dixie in Helotes in northwest Bexar County. He spends a lot of time on the ranch, usually escorted in his chores by one or more of their 15 grandchildren, five of which are the Amador kids: Leana, 15; Kira, 13; Johnny, 11; Asher, 9; and Anaiya, 5.

Ashley, Johnny’s mother, and her father, Frank, are busy running the family business—Northwest Automotive Warehouse, while Jonathan Sr. works for the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Antonio.

The high deer blind was about 100 yards from a corn feeder, and Frank had the use of a couple of trail cameras. The lease had a good deer population and some good bucks, but Johnny was after a respectable buck, not anything gigantic. Several does and young bucks were quick to come to the feeder when it went off just after daylight. The hunters sat tight, hoping for something respectable for Johnny’s first.

Johnny was comfortable with the scoped rifle that he had shot many times. All he wanted was a good shot at a buck—and that was coming, pronto. The does became nervous and moved away from the feeder as a buck emerged

from the brush. Frank recognized the buck as an eight-point that was a regular to the feeder. Johnny looked at Grandpa for the OK, and Frank gave him the nod for the 100-yard shot.

Johnny got the buck in the scope and cocked the hammer. He took a deep breath and slowly squeezed the trigger of the .300 Win. Mag., as the roar echoed through the canyons of the Hodge Keller Ranch. The 150-grain SST bullet at over 3,000 fps caught the buck behind the shoulder for a deadly lung-shot. Johnny Amador had taken his first buck with eight points that was soon headed to the Hunters Extravaganza Annual Deer Competition in San Antonio.

Johnny’s buck scored 1144⁄8 and got him a pat on the back from Grandpa

Frank, and third place in the Open Range Male Youth category at the San Antonio show. The venison was relished by the Amador family, and the story of Johnny’s buck hunt spread all over the fourth grade class at Katie Reed Elementary.

YOU WILL NEED:

• 1½ lbs. wild hog backstrap cut into thumb-sized cubes (about 30 pieces)

• ½ cup Worcestershire sauce

• 1¾ cup water

• ¼ tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. black pepper

• 1 pound thin-sliced bacon

• Toothpicks

Do you have a favorite Wild Game recipe that you would like to share with our readers? If so, please type or print recipe and send to:

Texas Trophy Hunters Association, ATTN: Editor 654 Richland Hills, Suite 160 San Antonio, TX 78245

DIRECTIONS WILD PIG TIDBITS

This recipe works best with hogs that weigh 40 to 80 pounds.

Cut bacon into thirds and stretch. Wrap each piece of pork with 1⁄3-strip of bacon and hold with toothpick. Place the bacon-wrapped pork in a 12-inch iron skillet. Arrange pieces to fill the skillet.

Pour the Worcestershire sauce evenly over pork pieces. Add water and a pinch of salt. Generously sprinkle black pepper over skillet contents. Cook over high heat until liquid is reduced by 4⁄5 and grease sizzles under meat. Reduce heat and tend skillet carefully to determine when all liquid is cooked away. Turn heat to low and cover skillet with lid or foil.

Continue on low for 5 more minutes, making sure that meat is seared, but does not stick.

Take meat from skillet with toothpicks and place in a paper towel lined bowl. Serves 4-6 as finger food, with proper drinks.

Note: This recipe can be used for venison tidbits. When cooking for a crowd, wipe skillet and repeat recipe, or you can do two skillets at a time using exact recipe for each skillet. Fingerlicking good!

Hunt’s End

AVERY KACSMARYK: whitetail spike taken 12/18/23 in Grimes County.

GEAR: Browning 6.5 Creedmoor, Leupold scope. OUTFITTER: Griffith Ranch.

BRAYDEN HUNT: aoudad taken 1/6/24 in Fisher County.

GEAR: Savage rifle, .308 Hornady ammo, Vortex Viper. OUTFITTER: EZ Duz It Ranch (Dad).

ROY COLLIER: whitetail seven-point taken 12/26/23 in Henderson County.

GEAR: Olympic Arms .223 AR-15, .223 Hornady 55-grain Vmax ammo.

OUTFITTER: family ranch (Dad).

LUKE SPAHN: whitetail eight-point (first buck) with 17-inch inside spread, taken 11/25/23 in Mexico.

GEAR: Remington .270, Hornady Low Velocity ammo, Leupold 4-14X scope.

OUTFITTER: Papa.

COLTON LILIE: whitetail 11-point with 19¼-inch inside spread, scoring 128 5/8 B&C, taken 12/29/23 in Burleson County.

GEAR: Remington 700 BDL .30-06, Winchester Power Point 150-grain ammo, 3-9X40 Nikon scope. OUTFITTER: self.

JOHN HANNA: whitetail eight-point with 16-inch inside spread taken 11/4/23 in Kerr County.

GEAR: Savage Axis bolt action, .243 ammo. OUTFITTER: in-laws ranch.

JODY WATSON: aoudad (29+ inches) taken 9/16/23 in Llano County. GEAR: rifle. OUTFITTER: Darrell Steffek.

PAUL RADENHEIMER: aoudad (31 inches) taken 9/7/23 in Llano County. GEAR: rifle.

OUTFITTER: Darrell Steffek.

NOTE: Only members of Texas Trophy Hunters Association or immediate family may submit photos. Out of fairness to all members, only one photo of each family member will be accepted each year. Do not paperclip or staple photos because this can damage them. Prints must be no larger than 4x6 inches and printed on photo-quality paper. No photos will be returned. Photos may also be e-mailed to HuntsEnd@ttha.com. If sent by e-mail, please make sure to include all information from the form below and limit your photo size to less than 5MB. Send a separate e-mail for each entry.

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“MEMBERS ONLY” Benefit!

Don’t forget to use your free classified ad! It’s once per year and you must have an active membership in good standing. Send to:

TTHA Classified

654 Richland Hills, Ste. 160, San

Antonio, TX 78245

You may fax your ad to (210) 523-8871, Attn: Debbie Keene or e-mail to Deborah@ttha.com. Send your ad in by March 14 to run in the next issue!

FREE CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING!

Available to current members of Texas Trophy Hunters Association only! Limit 25 words per ad. Each member may run 1 FREE ad in one issue per year. 25 word ads after FREE issue are $40 each. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO EDIT OR REFUSE ANY AD.

LIMITED EDITION Book. SCI Past President Craig L Kauffman takes the reader on hunting adventures around the world. Signed copies $57. Call 717-9178173.

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AFRICAN SAFARI $2,995 3 animals in 1 week. Lodging, meals, open bar, guide, airport transfers and trophy fees included!! Call 956-867-4964 for details. www.matorisafaris.com.

TEXANS ARCHERY CLUB wants to expand our state’s archery range infrastructure. Looking for local partners/ land to expand our network. www. TexasArchery.info 501c3.

RUSTY HINGE Ranch offers whitetail, hogs, squirrels, rabbits, coon, fox, duck hunting, fishing. Blinds, treestands, feeders & water year-round. 70 mi. north of Houston. $100/day or $800/year. 713823-7139.

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