The road goes on-Moderator Meltdown

[Terry Green]

Must have been some REALLY long days......

I could have swarn it was Al Gore's internet?  :D

[Littlefeather]

Hey Troy, good to see ya!

JC, Whats Curt laughing about? You pushing those thorn's or pulling them?

Terry, Who's Al Gore? CK

[Walkingstick]

Man those hair cuts look like a boot camp...LOL........Mac~

[IB]

Did you guys stop for LUNCH or  DINNER    

Or was this all about driving around SHOOTING things and taking PHOTOS        

I need to send off for more Krispy Kreams and coffee.........vance

[Jumper]

Keep it coming fellas! More pictures too!

[Bob Walker]

After another great lunch, some time relaxing and learning how to butcher a javelina it was time to head back out for the evening hunt. Again it was Kevin, Joe and I teamed up and we headed back for our familiar hunting grounds. It was still fairly early in the evening so we decided to ride around the area to see if there was any game moving.  As we drove the senderos listening to a Chris LeDoux CD, Kevin graced Joe and me by singing along with Chris. Man, does he have a voice! After making a couple of sightings and unsuccessful stalks, we ended up back at the crossroads where we had parked previously around 6:30 pm.  Each of us assembled our gear and headed to our individual areas. As I walked down towards my earlier ambush site, I noticed that there were a lot of fresh tracks in the road. Just as I rounded the corner into a long stretch of sendero, I looked ahead and saw a nice, lone javie moving slowly toward me.
 

[Bob Walker]

Unfortunately, the wind was at my back blowing straight toward the javie. I remembered something that Curtis and Charlie had told us during the Texas Sweat hunt earlier this year, and in fact, it was a technique that we had used to enable Norbert Schultz (Beachbowhunter) to arrow his first javie during the Sweat. They said that if you see javies in the road when you’re in your vehicle, if you will slowly drive past them they will scatter off of the road but will return shortly. With this in mind, I turned around and headed back to the truck. I quickly got in the truck and headed toward the javelina. Sure enough he was still there and moved off of the sendero as I past. I continued to the end of the sendero, turned around and found a spot off of the main road to park. As I got out of the truck and gathered my equipment, I gazed down the sendero and there he was, right back in the same spot, only now the wind was in my face. With bow in hand and arrow knocked I made my way to the very same side trail that I had used earlier in the day. This time, however, I was making my way from the opposite end of the road. As I closed the distance between me and the javie, I started looking for a good ambush site. I had earlier decided to use my 58” Morrison Take-Down recurve for the evening hunt since it had never been used on an animal. Thank goodness I did. I found a spot within 15 yards of the javie where I was able to find good cover and a great shooting lane as the javie had to move past me before it came into sight. It was very close quarters and I am not sure I could have got the shot off without spooking the animal with a longer bow. At least, though, I was able to remain on my feet this time instead of having to kneel I could hear that the javie was very close although I had not seen him since settling into my ambush “hole”.  The louder the sounds got, signaling that he was indeed close, the harder my heart pumped and the more my hands trembled. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm my nerves and all of a sudden, there he was. No more than 6 yards from me, in clear view and walking on past. As I drew the bow he never acknowledged my presence, not until the Razorcap struck him just behind the ribcage. He spun a couple of times but never left the road. He lay down and began popping his teeth. I straightened up and took a few more deep breaths. Just as I did, he jumped up and quickly crossed the sendero and entered the brush. I never did loose sight of him though. He went in the brush only 10 yards or so and laid back down never to move again until I dragged him out.  The second leg of my “Daily Double” down and it was only 7:15 pm.
     
     

[JC]

Yep, ol Bob got to it....he's a heck of a hunter and obviously able to keep his cool when shooting at the game. Enjoyed our time together Bob! And your Hank Sr. and LeDoux wouldn't have made it back home if I could have found em handy....my kinda tunes bro  :D

[Al33]

Bob, great pic showing the tuskies!!     Congrat's!

[Rob DiStefano]

PROLOGUE

Geez, this hunt has been the most fun and excitement this ol' boy has had in far too long a spell.  What a great pleasure it was to see a face, shake a hand, and verbally/visually communicate instead of making cyber keyboard strokes to a cold, glowing monitor.  There is no way I could have ever thrown in with a better buncha like-minded fellers than these folks that I shared roof, food and hunt with for nearly 3 days.  Kindred spirits and true brothers of the bow.    

I'd never been desert hunting before, never hunted outside the New England area.  I learned a heckuva lot, and certainly in more than a few ways I'll be way better prepared for the next SoTx hunts.  You betcha I'm going back!    

The ranch accommodations were great and included A/C and satellite fed cable TV ... and the food, oh those great TexMex dishes ... yum, yum!   And for a coupla nights we were privileged to have Kevin Smith tune up his geetar and belt out summa the dandiest songs you’ll ever hear – take it from me, that boy drips talent!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moderator Melt Memoirs - Friday 5/26

Curt (Guru) and I caught a non-stop flight outta Newark, landed in San Antonio around noon and hooked up with Terry and JC.  We drove 2.5 hours southwest to Laredo and the 13000 acre ranch, stopping only to stock up on water and have lunch.  The entire hunting party met up at the ranch house, got room and gear situated.  

The ranch is huge and wild, with sandy/gravely senderos spidering over incredibly dense and thorny terrain.  At least 99% of all plant species bear some form of prickly thorns that measure from inches to millimeters.  Typically, at least one side of each sendero is fenced with barbed wire and can be a bit bush sparse at some of the edges, where you can carefully hide and maneuver a stalk whilst attempting to avoid the thorns and getting spotted by critters.  There are also some fairly open sandy areas, with some sparse and small vegetation for cover.  

What I've just described pretty much sets the scene and the tenure for hunting in this hostile and dense geography - locating game and then a combination of stalking and still hunting.  

After camo'ing up we grabbed our gear and did some preliminary scouting of the senderos, seeing where the game was holed up, and unlike the last Texas Sweat, where game was literally in front and behind you, we saw nothing.  But it was early, and in all likelihood the evening should find the critters on the move for food and water.  

Terry, JC, Kevin Smith and I drove out past the 'hub' (where lotsa roads met, like the center of a spider's web), eventually dropping off JC and Kevin to scout about while Terry and I moved to another 'tank' (pond) area, parked and checked for signs and hopefully movement - again, we saw nothing.  We walked back to the car, watered up and walked out on another adjoining sendero.  

As we slowly sauntered along, eyes scanning left to right for game, terry spotted a bunny a few yards off to his left and gave me the 'here ya go bud, yer shot' sign.  I was some yards to Terry's right and I slowly pulled out an Ace 175 Express tipped Hex Pine and nocked it on the Pacific Yew TD longbow's Dacron string, slowly came to 52#'s of full draw, held and aimed for the bunny's brain, and let fly.  

Whack!  

The broadhead did some very serious damage to the neck area, with lotsa blood gushing out and the arrow still stuck through, but did that bunny keel over and give up the ghost?  Nope, these Tejas critters are *tough* and he kept skittering about, dragging the arrow.  After missing a second shot, I finally was able to grab the stuck arrow and quickly put an end to Mr. Rabbit's ordeal.  We propped the rabbit up high on a thorn bush and continued the hunt and scouting.  

After an hour or so, as the evening light was about to give way to stars, we got back into the car and began the drive back.  Following a different sendero, we jumped three javelinas meandering about the road and they scooted to the brush as we drove closer.  We picked up JC and Kevin and they also reported seeing javies and game - too dark now for action, but a much better portent of good things to come!

[IB]

Thanks Rob.......This thing is getting GOODER and GOODER with each entry        

Keep everything commin MOD's........Thanks

[Jerryg]

Enjoyed having you all down.  Not a better group of folks.  Hope to see you all soon.

Jerryg

[Littlefeather]

Just in case someone may not know JerryG, he's the guy who allows us the opportunity to make these hunts reality. If you have a big group looking for outstanding hunting opportunities, call Jerry. Better not lolly-gag. Jerry is booking a year in advance and only allows limited hunting to insure quality above all else. Thanks as always Jerry! CK

[Charlie Lamb]

I'll add a hardy second to CK's comments. Jerry is tops!

Check out Jerry's banner "Pedernals Bowhunts".  

[Guru]

I'll third!!!!!  What a place...and he's got others!!!

  ...Well Charlie and I ended the morning hunt with a pile of cottontails,a 5ft rattler,and a ton of fond memories.

 Then my first disappointment of the trip would come.....Chad was leaving!! I hardly got a chance to talk to my cyber bud,but he certainly did the right thing heading home. Thanks god it all worked out bud....Till next time!!!

 My afternoon would be spent with the one and only Terry Green!!!!!!!!!!

[cjones]

I'm getting here late, but what a trip. While i had to cut my trip a little short, it sure was nice to finally shake hands with some of my friends i hadn't yet met in person.

After getting settled in and talking to everyone, CK and I headed out for the first hunt. We were driving along talking when i told Curtis i wish i had shot a few practice shots before leaving camp. He said no problem and slid the truck to a stop. We jumped out and within seconds i had arrowed my first south texas cottontail! I soon learned that while heart shot rabbits fall in their tracks, my 2nd bunny liked my hex blunt and carbon express so well he took it home with him!

I settled in watching my sendero and didn't see anything until almost dark, when a whitetail who had just started growing his antlers stepped out about 50 yards away.

I met CK at the truck just in time for hime to rub in that there had been 40 Javies standing in the sendero right in front of the truck including a couple that looked like they were just born.

Later that night Keving Smith sang for us after dinner. That boy can flat out sing! Thanks again for the cd Kevin.  

Bob and I managed to get in bed at 4:30am, just a little before everyone else got up. I sure am glad i got to spend the night out with Bob because I had to head out at noon the next day.

My time there was way to short and i hope i get to share a camp with these guys again somewhere! They were all a pleasure to share camp with.  

[Guru]

Chad, the pleasure was all ours bud!

Getting ready for the afternoon hunt....

The super talented Kevin Smith,That boy can flat out  SANG!!!!

 

Kevin, Terry, Curtis, and Joe's black socked feet...

 


  Terry and I headed out with the intention of checking out some senderos,then as sundown was getting closer we'd head of to "Jumpers pond",we'd found a lot of hog sign there.

 It was real HOT, so we just cruised for a while,"prepping" some key areas.We had just got done doing one sendero where Charlie and I had seen some javi's and a hog the day before, and were heading back out when we ran into Charlie and Dick(rabbitman).We chatted a bit,nobody had seen a thing.We bid each other good luck and we were off.Tery and I hadn't left Charlie and Dick 20 seconds ago when we rounded a turn .....JAVI'S !!

 They were off the road in a perfect spot to stalk,with broken cover,and the wind blowing hard right at us!   Terry had already shot his state limit of 2 javi's at The Sweat, so these were all mine.

 The plan was for me to get out ans start my stalk,while Terry backed the truck up and parked it out of sight.Then he would come down and watch the stalk unfold.......

 About half way to them,I heard something off to my left,I look and see,at about 10 yds,a small bunch of highly alerted javi's. Dang,I was so keyed in on the others that I made the mistake of not paying more attention to what else might be around!!!!  I played cat and mouse with then for a bit,but they were on to me and finally had enough and melted into what I would soon find out was one of the nastiest places on the face of this earth.........

[Huntrdfk]

"prepping some key areas"...... seems like you didn't have to do an awful lot of that to find game.....what a great ride this had been so far, thanks for taking us guys.


David

[Charlie Lamb]

The morning slowly heated up with little else moving, so Curt and I made our way back to camp and a late breakfast/lunch. This was the hottest day so far and it became obvious what a blessing the cloud cover had been.

I'd thought all along that I'd spend a little "siesta time" during the midday lull, but that was not to be. I just couldn' make myself lay down. Like a kid at Christmas, I was afraid I'd miss something.
Curt and I ended up doing a little practice shooting at a block target that was sitting out beside the camp house. With his usual relaxed style Curt was slapping his new to him Carbonwoods into the center of the block with effortless ease.
I seemed to be struggling to keep them on the block anywhere. For a while I thought it was just me, but the longer I thought about it the more that fealt that the bow was a little sensitive to flaws in my form and the hot wind that was kicking up pretty good.
I later twisted up the bowstring a little and it immediately made a difference. A few shots by myself showed an improvement.

I have to admit that I was a little slow getting out that afternoon. The heat had a grip on me and apparently on the rest of the guys and it was difficult to even think about stirring around in the swelter.

Dick "Rabbitman" Easter and I teamed up that afternoon. Dick's a veteran of many years in law enforcement and kept me entertained with stories of his adventures in that field, while I tried to force a meeting with some of the four legged targets that had to be running around the ranch somewhere. Dick was on the ball, while I was dropping the ball... badly.

We managed to harrass a few jackrabbits and the odd cottontail, but that's about it. We'd cruised back to my "never fail" sendero from Texas Sweat to no avail and ran into Curt and Terry Green coming from the other direction. They'd also seen no game. I guess it was the dang heat.

Dick and I decided to hang out for a while along the edge of the sendero. Sometimes lack of game is a blessing in that you get to spend quality time with your hunting partner, learning about and bonding with each other. We took advantage of that time.

On the way into this particular sendero and just a couple hundred yards from the camp house was a stretch that I'd come to call "the Wall". I'd ambushed a nice hog there during Texas Sweat in March and although the hog was mortally hit he'd made his last dash into an impenatrable thicket the likes of which I'd never seen on this continent. Curtis is game for about any tracking job and he'd helped me try to recover the hog that night. Diving into the cover head first like he is prone to do, he soon found that the only way to navigate through the thicket was on his belly. Since I'm about as tall laying on my belly as Curtis is when he's on hands and knees, it was out of the question for me to go in there... I'd tried and came up short just a few yards into the tangle.
Even Jerry Gonzales' tracking dog was put off by it, when he gamely offered to recover my hog and that little dog is game for anything!

Curtis had reported that in the interiour of that mess was hog heaven. Thick and dark, it smelled of pig and hosted a thriving population of ticks and fleas. Moot testimony to the hogs love of that place.

We'd reluctantly backed out of that place without finding my hog, but the coyotes lost no time in locating it, as we soon after heard them tearing it up in there in the same basic location that I'd last heard the death throws of my hog.

I'd spread a little corn along the sendero there just for kicks and grins to see what it might show me in my comings and goings. I figured there'd be hogs out in the sendero at some point, even though I had no intention of trying to shoot anything there. I'd learned my lesson.

Maybe if a guy could have gotten between "the wall" and feeding animals they would have been forced to exit away from it when shot, but the predominate wind precluded that tactic.
Nope! It was an observe and learn spot only in my book.

Little did Dick and I know that shortly after leaving us, Terry and Curt had rounded the corner of that very sendero to find Javies feeding lustilly on the corn offering. What happened next was inevitable.

Using the same approach I had on my hog, Terry quickly had the vehicle in reverse and backed out of sight. Curt slid from the Blazer, crossing the fence and into the nice lane which paralleled the sendero, the brushy fence row providing ample cover and a stiff wind making it a cake walk of a stalk.

Curt moved to within striking distance and set up for the shot on the javies which were busilly munching their way toward him. He'd let them close the distance as he waited in ambush.
As the javie of choice fed just past him he sent a razor sharp Snuffer 160 into it's shoulder. The little musk hog was as good as dead at that point, but raced headlong into the brush beyond.
Curt and Terry and just discovered "the wall".

When Dick and I came along shortly after, it was apparent to me what had happened and I knew just what lay ahead for the two friends. I offered moral support and encouragement, but knew in my heart that unless that Javie was laying dead in the very fringe of the cover that they'd have their hands full and might learn the same hard lesson I had just a couple of months before.

[Terry Green]

Great!!...this just in and I got a full cup of coffe.

Don't forget guys.......send my your pics on a disc if you get a chance.

And did anyone happen to get a pic of Chad the 1st evening?