First Hunting Trip in Fifteen years

[flip flappy]

As a young boy I started out hunting with my grandad and squirrel was our quarry. Soon started dove hunting which then led to a long love of waterfowl hunting. I had a couple of buddies to hunt with and we hunted beaver ponds, flooded timber in creek bottoms and also hunted coastal NC around various sounds and impoundments. My attention later turned to deer hunting and soon became addicted to the adrenaline rush that came with bowhunting. I began to only hunt deer with a bow but never killed anything huge but did shoot several pretty decent bucks. Our bowhunting group would take an annual trip to Pike County IL and somehow I got acquainted with the brother-in-law of one of our members. Keith introduced me to birddogs and quail hunting. This would prove to be less productive and more expensive than any of the other hunting I had done. We had a great time together as he taught me about training pointers. We had to use pen raised birds here in NC to train our dogs on. An older gentleman that my friend knew had hunted quail in Texas for years. Keith and I made our first trip to Texas together in 2004 to hunt wild quail and were hooked! Keith was 42 and I was 37. Over the next few years we ended up on a few leases in West Texas but the quail population began to decline. The last time I went to Texas was in 2009 and we never pulled the trigger in 5 days. I decided enough was enough and got out of the birddog business. Keith stuck to training birddogs as a hobby but quit going to Texas for several years. I also had a young daughter along with a wife who was not too keen on us making 3 trips at 8-9 days a piece each year. Fast forward to a few months ago. I ran into Keith and his wife after church one Sunday at local BBQ restaurant. He mentioned that he knew my daughter is out of the house as a freshman in college and that I had a place in his truck on the next trip he would take to Texas. I'll have to say this brought back excitement to my now non hunting life. We have planned to head out to Texas on November 10th with his string of English pointers. Word is that there has been a better than usual hatch this year and we are hoping to find a decent amount of bobs and blues. I dug out the shotguns I plan to take and cleaned them the other night. I'm planning on taking a Browning Gold Upland Special in 12, a Citori Upland in 12 and for nostalgia a Belgium Sweet 16. I hope to be able to make another post in a few weeks with some pictures of some dogs pointing, some beautiful scenery and some quail. Prayers would be appreciated for safe travels.

 

[S&W ucla]

Good friends, Good Dogs, some Birds equal a GREAT time! Safe travels and looking forward to pictures and report

 

[Onomea]

Flip flappy, prayers sent for safe travels. I enjoyed your post. I hope your buddy and you have a good time and a successful hunt.

 

[pawngal]

Safe travels and good luck! There's nothing quite like seeing a good bird dog work a field for quail (or pheasant). Any of those fine Brownings should get the job done.

 

[mike4sigs]

I enjoyed reading your post. I hope you a good, safe and productive hunt.

The only bird hunting i have done is put and take behind dogs and i enjoyed the dogs working also.

 

[ladder13]

Have a good time out there in nature.

 

[Papa32129]

Sounds like a Great time.
Safe Travels! Look forward to your next post!

Papa

 

[Nevada Ed]

Just remember to shot fast, in front of the bird and don't think
about the others, until the 1st bird drops.......
then try for a 2nd bird.
Too much thinking and not enough lead is the #1 mistake, that upland hunters make.

Have a safe trip and may your pellets find feathers.

 

[mm93]

I hunted for over 50 years beginning when I had just graduated high school. I stopped when my brother and my nephew both moved one state over and I didn't want to pay for out of state license and tags.
Last year I decided to go hunting with them, but without license, tag, or rifle. I simply strapped my 1911 .45 on my hip and spent hunting season walking along. I enjoyed it as much if not better than when I was pursuing game in years past. No pressure to try to fill a tag, and no work after getting game down! I did it again last month and totally enjoyed it again. I'll keep going as long as my legs keep working and I'm healthy!

 

[Rudi]

Good luck! Enjoy the time. It has 24 years for me.

 

[CALREB]

Haven't really "hunted" for some years. I was raised hunting and fishing on the farm, first deer at 6 or 7. Hunted like crazy in Iowa between pheasants and deer. Then LA for 35 years, outside of some trout and deep-sea fishing that was it. Retired to TX. I go sit in the woods on my place and watch the critters, but outside the occasional Coyote, pig or armadillo that wanders into my view- no real hunting.

Deer are everywhere. Rarely a nice buck, but the yard is so full of them that I quit mowing the lower 50 yards of it, hoping they would stay down there. NOW, I just mow a 6-foot path around the fence line in that area. It has worked, now we are not walking in as much deer poop around the house. Six to ten does and fawns bedded down in that area about every night. In dry times, like always, they drink from the horse waterers.

So, I actually thought - you know this year I am going to shoot a nice doe. Just to see if the venison is anything like the deer in Iowa. Man, those corn and bean fed deer were better than beef. I had guys give me venison in Ca. and you could hardly eat it. Tasted like sage and pollution.
Put up a target at the fence, 92 yards from the porch and checked the scopes on a couple rifles. Then last Thursday morning the wife says hey look at those two bucks. Sure enough I glimpse a couple bucks in the lower yard. Chasing the does over the field. Its rutting season and the usual time we see any bucks. Then Friday morning I am having a second cup about 7:40 and I see the same bucks, now in the yard, and one is at least 10 points. They hang around a bit, don't even run when we go outside. DEER SEASON starts SATURDAY-----UH--OH---NO--NO-I GOT IT!

"BUCK FEVER"

Couldn't sleep well. What time is sunrise ? What route to go out and stay hidden from their view, for THE shot. Finally get up an hour before sunrise. One light on in the kitchen to make some coffee. Check the rifle, start scanning with binoculars as it gets lighter outside, check the rifle, take off scope covers. Bathroom--check rifle, just kidding. Anyway, an hour or so later wife gets up. Hey where's your deer. !!**_*. Not only no bucks, not even any does anywhere. Not on my property, not on either neighbors places none zip... How do they know???

Well the good thing is at least my dad isn't turning over wondering how his son turned into a "SLOB HUNTER" that thinks he deserves a 10 pointer off his porch, warm, drinking coffee. A meat deer is one thing BUT a big set of horns should involve a little more effort. Hey at least I had an orange cap on...

Now, I can relax, sleep later, wait till its colder out and just shoot a nice doe meat deer, like I was going to.. Rotten +**+!!

 

[lihpster]

Deer season around here is the basically the first week and a half of October. My brother would start getting "deery" about the middle of August. He'd start gathering gear and haunting the sporting goods stores looking for anything he thought he might need. By mid-September he had packed his truck at least 3 times.
He made it clear to his employers that he would be gone the last week of Sept. and the first 2 weeks of Oct. every year. One guy told him if he went, he wouldn't have a job when he came back. When he got back, he was told to get to work.
By the time the season rolled around he was twitchy. I don't think he slept a minute the night before opening day. I'd get up at 2 to pee and he'd be sitting on his cot, studying the map, even though we were hunting the same square mile we always hunted.
When he was getting chemo he would commute between the hospital and deer camp. That season he drug my father's deer out even though he had a pic line in. My mom gave him hell for it, but he said, "I didn't use that arm." It turned out to be the last season he would see. He passed the next August. We went hunting that year but our heart wasn't in it. Definitely a record for time spent in camp. Wherever he is now, i bet the last couple of months have been a litlle twitchy.