Blake gets his Tom at Photo Blind

Some of our recent Aoudads!

Bryan with his 26.5" Aoudad from the Dog House.  He said a larger stepped out after he shot this one!  Doesn't that always happen!

Adrian's friend took this 26" Aoudad at Cave Blind.

Here are two Aoudad that John Waller and his friend took at the same time at Death Star,  26" and 28"!

Kevin gets his Aoudad!

Kevin took this nice Aoudad Thursday night at #10.  He had a big herd of Aoudad come in, but they were spooky.  He saw this big one lurking in the brush, but he would never come in.  He started walking away and got a good shot in through an opening in a cedar tree and dropped him!

He weighted 241 lbs, measured 27.5 "long with 11.5" bases.

Congrats Kevin!


When he was walking.....

Successful Aoudad Charity Hunt!

Darryl and I took the Joe Jelinski Aoudad hunting this past weekend at the Hackberry.  Joe was the winning bidder at an auction for the Austin Woods and Water Club, which is dedicated to promote wildlife conservation and training a generation of new hunters.   Accompanying Joe was his friend Richard and Cliff Woerner, one of the members of AWWC.

It only took us two hunts, Thursday night and then Friday morning to get Joe's Aoudad.   He was one of four that came into the Cave Blind.  He was old, mature, and had a case of mange (Rhode's said they could airbrush it to match the hair color).   A perfect animal to take.

Richard was hunting for Axis does and hogs, but was unsuccessful.  He did see some good Axis bucks and lots turkeys, though.

Joe made a perfect shot from 130 yards with his 30-06.  Complete pass through and the Aoudad jumped and ran 30 yards.   He was quite a beast to get loaded, 210 pounds on the scale.

Congrats to Joe!  

Fred's 375 yard Axis Doe!

Fred - was it meters or yards?

White Tail deer from this fall season....

Here are some deer from this fall.   Adrian got a great management 10 pt as did Darryl's nephew.  The third deer is Darryl's management and the last one belongs to Kelly.  Things were slow this year.  We had some great deer on game cams through October and then they holed up across the state.

Catching up on Aoudads!

Here are some Aoudad from earlier in 2013.  The first is Gates' ram, who is now on the lease, when he was hunting with Buster.  The last three photos are Ben's Aoudad.

Nice job guys!

Nice Aoudad from last week of September

One of Fred's long time friends (can't remember if it was Shaggy or Scooby) got this nice 27.5" Aoudad at #10.

New Rifle Range and Other Important Stuff

Below is the layout for the new rifle range.  I put a pallet out as a target backer this week, but we need something better.  Bill is bringing a shooting bench out.

It is located off of the main road about 150 yards past the dump on the left side.  Here is a picture of the turn-out.  I've marked a cedar tree with some reflective tape.  Follow this road up about 150 yards to the range.

Here are the 150 yard pins:

100 Yard pins:

50 Yard pins - no pic


Target:

Here is the new scale for the cleaning station.  It must be turned ON to use.  When done, it must be turned OFF or the battery will die.  Repeat, the scale MUST BE TURNED OFF when done.  Capacity is 660 pounds.

Finally, below are the right and wrong ways to close the cooler.  The wheel must be in the slot for the door to close fully and cool the cooler correctly.

WRONG

CORRECT

Doug's first animal

My friend Doug was down this week and took his first animal - a 123 lb red boar at the South Road feeder. Way to go Doug!  He didn't want to be in the picture with the hog because he didn't want his PETA girlfriends to see the pic.  That's okay, I'll tag him in the photo on Facebook :)

Freddy Get's an Aoudad!

Fred took this nice 26" Aoudad at #10.  Way to go Fred!

Good shot location also.... the shoulder.  Behind the shoulder on an Aoudad is a gut shot.  They are also tough as nails - you want to break the shoulder on the first shot.  I don't recommend hunting these with a bow.

Don's friend takes a nice Aoudad!

Here's a nice Aoudad taken at #10,  It's 27"+.  Reportedly, there is a larger one in the herd.

Don takes the season's first white tail buck!

Don took this white tail buck at Spider Blind.  This is a good representative buck for the area.    There are also some pics of him at the feeder.   In addition, Don took a photo of an Axis buck at the South Road feeder.  This would be a good first Axis buck for someone.  I saw a similar Axis buck Monday morning on the ridge above the Spring (Swimming Hole).

Don has been a very busy boy....

Here is an Axis that Don took earlier this week. The boar is from 2 weeks ago. The Axis was spot and stalk. And don't worry, Don is taking his second Axis from Fred's or Roberto's quota.

Don Gets His Axis!

Don took this nice Axis down South. Congrats Big Daddy!

Sika and Hog!

We had a good time at the ranch this weekend. Darryl, Mario and his two sons (Noah and Roman), Alek, Ella, and I were down. Ella got a hog Friday evening with a 243 Win and Darryl took a really nice Dybowski Sika Saturday morning with his 25 WSM that we had seen on a game cam.

Rachel's Hog From This Weekend!

Rachel took this with a headshot from a 22 LR with 60 grain subsonic loads with open sights.

Hackberry Elk!

We were up June 30th - July 3rd.  I had my friend Kevin Norman on a ginormous Axis buck and Boar down South, but we could never get on them.  We tried for 3 days in a row.  The thunderstorm thwarted the Axis hunt and Kevin's inability to shoot (two different times) foiled the hog hunt.  We named the hog "Big Kevin".  Both animals were hunted "spot and stalk" and are still alive and well.

I put Alek out Sunday night at #1.  We had a big thunderstorm that evening while we were hunting.  I heard two shots, about 10 minutes apart.  I thought, hmmm, Alek must have shot two pigs. Well, he comes to pick me up and I asked him what he shot.  "Elk" is his reply.  What type of Elk?  "Bull Elk".  So we headed to #1.

The Elk was a 5x6 mature bull, with a small scoreable point that technically made him a 6x6.  Alek was sitting in the rifle blind at #1 and the Elk was grazing from left to right about 60 yards in front of him.  He shot the Elk in the shoulder with my 8x57 Mauser and it went down, but got back up and ran.  He couldn't see it anymore, but it heard it fall down.  He waited about 10 minutes and then went looking for it.  It wasn't moving, but was laying upright.  He wisely tossed a small rock at it's hindquarters and shouted at it.  It tried to stand up so he shot it again in the lungs.

Needless to say, it took us a few hours to field dress it, load it, and get it into the cooler.  We estimated the hoof weight at 800+ pounds.  It took 4 us, after he was field dressed, to get in the back of a pick-up and that was barely.

We gave the hindquarters to JR and two the remaining parts of the Elk we took to Rhodes.  We plan to do a European mount.  We are having the backstraps and loins steaked, and the remaining made into hamburger and chili meat.

Gary @ Rhodes estimated him at 4+ years old and said he had grown-out all the way with maybe a 1/4"-1/2" to go max.

Alek was very proud of the trophy since it was the firsts animal he had taken while hunting alone.  He said it wasn't even more exciting than the 4+ hour Kudu stalk we did last Summer in RSA.

Congrats Alek!!!

Ella's first hog!  125 lb sow.  She took the shot at 80 yards with a 64 grain 223 Remington from her Ruger bolt action with a 16.5" barrel.  Perfect shot placement behind the right shoulder, exited the center of the left shoulder - double lunged - ran 60 yards and fell over!!!

The Judge's buddy gets his Aoudad at the beginning of March!