Hunting 2015

Ok. Every year I miss the deadline to put in for tags. Especially now that they moved the elk deadline up a month.

To my taste buds, there is nothing better than zipping the loin out of a still warm antelope and building a fire on the prairie to roast it with a green willow.

So I will be putting in for at least antelope this year. I get to apply for land owner preference so I am pretty much guaranteed a tag.

We had a hell of a late hatch of pheasant this year so we should have a good pheasant year too. The dear got hammered hard by either blue tongue or hemorrhagic fever so not much good for deer hunting.

But I have said before, our whole place is open to hunting if'n a Treehouser wants to hunt.
 
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Do you have a lot of pronghorn? I've been wanting to hunt one for years and haven't committed.
 
Nice Jim. I may just take you up on that. With my life as of late, you may be old and gray, but I'll give it a shot.

My Bro has been doing very well with cats this yr in CO. I don't quite get it, but apparently they have a population problem.

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Our deer and pronghorn populations are down somewhat but there are still plenty of animals about.

Our ranch has fewer antelope than it did, but the numbers get better every year.

We were not allowed to harvest does this year of either species due to low numbers from disease. But with deer all it takes is a mild winter!

By a large margin, most of our hunters are bird hunters. Some coming year after year from out of state.
 
Nice Cat, beautiful hide. I shot a big tom with my muzzleloader last month, used to love trapping 'em but they don't look like that down here.
 
Not a very good pic but here's Noah's first game animal, an 80 lb sow. He's the son of a friend and had never been hunting before. It took about four trips and several very close encounters but he finally got it done. I had called a big boar to within 15 yards the day before but he had such a bad case of hog fever he couldn't shoot. After shooting this one he was shaking so bad I thought he might fall over. He's never had a rush like that and I promise you, he's hooked. image1-4.jpeg
 
Thanks Jay. He's a fine young man, it was an honor to be with him when he took his first animal. He's seen and heard a lot of firsts in the last couple of weeks and it's great to be able share in that. When I was Noah's age, I had an uncle that took time with me like that and I've never forgotten it.
 
My first year hunting and I'm hooked on waterfowl hunting. Been doing a lot of it lately, going out tomorrow and then taking 2 days off next week to hunt on the eastern shore of Maryland with my father in law and some of his hunting buddies. Anyway here are some pictures from this year.


 
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Whoa whoa whoa.....

Last I knew you shot a pheasant or two. Now you're a war machine! Nice job.
 
Thanks Chris! I'm having a blast, if I knew it was this much fun I would have started years ago! I'm hoping with the cold weather we will be able to get some ducks in Maryland next weekend.
 
'Ats a big hog, Ray! How many lbs?
 
Cory I didn't weigh him but I believe he was 250 anyway. Didn't think he was that big when I shot him, maybe 150, but when I walked up to him, I was like, oh boy, the work is about to begin. The woods where I was hunting are the nastiest, thickest, wettest, thorniest mess you can imagine. In other words, hog heaven. It's public land and anybody could hunt it but no one around here is dumb enough except me. They drive around the edges but I've never seen another soul in the woods there. Shot a buck in the same place last week.
 
That is seriously cool.

How far did he go after the shot? How'd ya get him, from a blind? Stillhunting?

How many lbs of meat will that yield?
 
Nice hogs Ray and geese MCCauley!!

Some more mountain quail harvested in the sierras



 
Great pics Scott. Those quail are beautiful, not to mention the shotgun and the countryside. Cory, I shot the hog in the ear with a .270 and there was no tracking needed. I was hunting out of a climbing tree stand about 50' high to be able can see down into the jungle and even then there are only a few spots where you can see the ground. After boning everything last night there was probably 50 lbs of pure meat. A big boar's hide, head and guts make up a large percentage of his weight, not to mention the bones. One of the good things about head shooting them is that there is no bloodshot or wasted meat.
 
Nice shot!

50' high?? Ive never heard of a stand being that high?!?

Can you relate a little about the boar's cape or neck area that I hear is ultra tough and thick, sometimes able to deflect arrows, etc.
 
In head high clear cuts or any low, thick cover, the higher you can get, the better. It allows you to see down into small openings instead of trying to look through nearly impenetrable stuff. I had a stand overlooking an overgrown clearcut in Alabama that was 70' up in a giant longleaf pine. We called it the satellite stand. Only ever had two other people hunt it, both lineman. Another benefit to hunting high is you can hunt any wind direction because your scent stream is way above the critters. You're absolutely right about a big boar's shield. It's an extremely thick, tough section of hide that protects him in fights with other hogs. I shot a huge boar in the shield with my bow a few years ago at point blank range and got about an inch of penetration. He just grunted and trotted off.
 
I use mostly climbing stands on public land Cory. On the lease it's mainly climbing sticks and lock on stands but I've been climbing SRT more and more lately to access a lock on or just hang out on a limb. I'm really surprised more hunters haven't taken to it. That could be a huge untapped resource for guys like Paul Cox and rope, saddle and ascender manufacturers. There's a million times more hunters than tree guys.
 
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Yes but most men won't suspend themselves on ropes in trees. Hence the fact that our trade is limited to a select few.
 
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