The Hunting Lease

[duckbutter]

Jun 29, 2010 8:44:31 GMT -5 fischer said:

Sully looks EXACTLY like his dad. I mean its weird how much he looks like him.

The apple don't fall far from the tree in that patch does it?

[sully]

The only difference so far is, he was slick bald on top at 21. I'm headed there, though.

[fischer]

I haven't ever seen him without a hat, that might make a difference.

[sully]

Haven't updated the group here in a while about the lease happenings. It's been a long summer, and we've got 5 feeders and cameras running. No real stories to tell yet, I don't think. I'm not exactly sure where we are on the Shiner Bock Hunter of the Year totals, but Fischer is close to the bottom.

Well, headed out there tonight with RP and Lytle for 6 days or so and to stop some birds in their jetstreams. I'll post a full report when I get back.

[P. Marf]

Ask Lytle if he has ever worn his hat perfectly straight atop his head.

[fischer]

I think I AM in Last

[cowtownmike]

Waiting on the Sully/RP/Lytle hunting trip recap.

[sully]

Rod, Lytle and I met out there Tues night of last week. We started drinking beers and smoking a brisket when we got there at about 10 PM. After several cold ones, we went out spotlighting and Rod shot a rabbit. He popped it from pretty good range, and knocked it down. So, we drove up to it and it was still kicking on the ground. His heart jumped to his throat and he almost shed a tear, but we took him out of his misery. We didn't see much else, and ran out of beers in the truck so we headed back to the house.

We were up til 3 or 4 tending the fire, so the next morning didn't quite go as planned. We headed out to the tank by the house to hunt around 7:30 or 8. Didn't see but about 10 dove. I shot one. None were shot by the others. Got 3 scissor tails too.

We drove around both sides of the lease to show them the place, then we went and set up my blind. Then, we added more wood to the fire and took a nap. Once we got up, we took the brisket off and ate some lunch, then went out to hunt the afternoon hunt. We went over to a tank on the other side of the place and had a little better luck. By this time, Finch got there and joined us. We spent more time around the tailgate in the shade close to the ice chest, but we did manage to get 8 dove. I got 4, Finch got 3 and Lytle got one. Rod zeroed again. We got 2 white wings, which I have never shot before. They were flying a lot better, but not great. We missed several and didn't get a shot at most of them. Got back ate brisket and drank. Lytle brought some jalepenos stuffed with cream cheese and breakfast sausage that were unbelieveably good. No spotlighting this night.

Next day, no one got up. The jalepenos from the night before were fantastic at the time, but we were all struggling for the next couple of days after eating about 20 each. I headed out around 7AM to the tank on the back side of the place by the barn. Only saw 4 dove within range for a shot, and got one. Moved to the fenceline and shot at 3-4 but no hits. Headed back. Everyone was getting up now, so we started drinking early. My game camera was dead, so we ran to town for more beers, ice and batteries. C batteries cost 6 bucks a pop for two, so I won't be going there again. F that old lady Hobertz at the grocery. Eddie at the liquor store is a good dude. Beverage Bank is a must stop every trip. Can't remember if we did much else that day. Lot of good talk about life, hunting, music, etc. We went out to the barn tank that afternoon, and after a slow start, decided to pack it up and head to the tank from the last afternoon. We did a little better. I think I got 5, Finch got 3-4 and Lytle got 2-3. We ended up with enough to eat that night, so we wrapped dove breast in bacon, MORE jalepenos and cream cheese. Ate good. Drank good. Lytle had some sliced potatoes that he soaked in butter and italian dressing, but they had turned black on us in the couple days before. Cooked them anyway, but Rod and Lytle were the only ones that ate a few out of the huge roaster pan. Dumped the remains. Looked nasty. No spotlighting due to drunkeness and tiredness.

Got up the next morning (Friday), and a front had moved in. It had to be in the 50's when we got up with wind and rain. Decided to skip the morning hunt and head back to bed. The fridge light was out. Keep this in mind for later. When we got up, we went and worked a bit on my blind feeder and camera. Got back, packed up and headed out. Rod and Lytle loved the place and said it way exceeded their expectations. Glad Finch made it out.

I got home and ate good, got some good rest, then re-packed to head back out with Fischer on Saturday morning. We had a truck load! I added a pic of Reed in the back seat of the truck, in the only space we had for him. We got to the lease around 3:30 and went to set up his blind. Mike (another guy we don't really know) was there and asked if anyone had been there that week, and I said yes. He said they got there to find the fridge was unplugged and meat in the freezer was thawing out. Lucky it was only for one night. No big deal. Once we got the blind up, we went to hunt. Hunting here was much better this time around. We set up in some shade on the west side of the tank. Dove came in real good and we had several flurries, but we flared a bunch of them to the other side. We should have spread out a bit, and it'd be much better. I got 4. Fischer got 2. Joe (Mike's dad) got a couple, Mike got 4 or so. I think the others zeroed, but we saw a lot more, and it got fast a furious a couple of times. Mike's buddy and girlfriend met us back at the house with 8 or so dove to add to the pile and we ate great. Bacon wrapped jalepenos and dove breast, and Joe provided some roasted corn. We actually had a pretty good time that night. Joe is a good dude. Watched some football and hit the sack. Again, no spotlighting.

The next morning, Fischer and I headed over to that fenceline behind the barn and zeroed for the first time. We had a couple chances and there are a ton of dove in that plowed field, but we couldn't get em to come our way. Shot a scissor tail and that was it. We packed it up early and headed over to work a bit on one of the feeders. Little did we know, this would potentially kill us for time. After that, we rushed over to Fischer's blind, since he had to be back to work at 2. We got the roof on his blind and headed down to the feeder pen. Pulled the card from the camera and changed out the batteries, added some corn, then installed the varmint cage.

We had about 20 minutes before we needed to leave, and should have left then, but headed to the Back 40 anyway to see my blind and check on the camera. It was working good again and had 150 pics in 3 days. I ran through the pics and had some new big deer on it. Didn't have a way to download them so left them on the card. That 9 pointer is looking bigger now, and I added a couple of him. Fischer has a nice 8 on his. We put some corn in the feeder and rewired the gate panel since it keeps getting busted off by cattle. We realize we should have left 15 mins ago, so we hightail it out of there.

Get back to the house and pack up quickly and get the hell out of there like a bat out of hell. Mike and them were leaving too. We pulled out of the gate at about 11:40, and should have left at 11.

We made up some time, and Fischer made it to work, barely. Overall, it was a great couple of trips. I wish the dove hunting was better, but it will get better with a good front or two to push them down. Reed did really good compared to last year. He's getting to be a damn good bird dog. He is worn out. Been sleeping since we got home Sunday. I have about the same 5-6 deer hitting the feeder 3 times a day, like clockwork. It's gonna be a good deer season. I'll post some pics later.

[sully]

My blind set up and painted.


Deer coming in.






Reed on the way back.


After a hunt

[P. Marf]

Damn.

[cowtownmike]

That is what I call a report. Good job, Sully.

[fischer]

finch, you getting deja vu?

[The River Assassin]

Haha, yeah. I started reading and then was like...wait a minute.

By the way, that buck on the right side of the fourth pic looks freaking massive. I can only see 6-8 points but his tines are crazy long.

[fischer]

He's an 8.

been coming to the cut every day at least twice.

I have other pics, just didn't feel like posting all of them the other day.

[duckbutter]

Thats a nice buck.

I'm looking forward to seeing the mount Coach.

Sully, good write up.