Tradgang/Mule Creek 1st Annual Hunt

[Wudstix]

Now that I have more time on my hands, I'll have to join you fellas next time.   

   

[Cyclic-Rivers]

This is great! Keep it up!

[Terry Green]

As soon as I got back to camp I took off my boots and drug Steve's wash tub of chilli out of the fridge.


It was actually better the 2nd day!...had 2 more bowls....thx Steve!!!

We all told of our morning adventures and pondered evening plans...then we Testest the Tuff heads a bit. And shot a while.

Rick was going back behind camp again, and Steve was going God knows where on the back 40.....

Joe and I decided to set up on a couple of areas near our stalking grounds.  Everyone had confidence in where they were going.....

Since we were going to hunt till 9 were ate a sandwich ti keep the growls away....

[smokin joe]

I went to a stand called "the cattle pens" -- there were some cattle pens nearby. It was a pretty great stand. It consisted of a pit blind on a rise, facing west, above a pond. The pit blond was all brushed in with mesquite branches. There was a folding chair in the blind. There were clear hog trails coming down to the pond on the west and south sides of the rise that completely surrounded the pond. There was a pretty good hog toy down by the pond. The hog toy was a plastic barrel full of holes that was chained to a steel post. It was clear that the hogs would push the barrel around the post and it would roll around letting a few kernels of corn out of the holes as it would roll. There was a lot of sign around the pond. I sat down in the pit blind at about 4 PM.

[smokin joe]

[smokin joe]

You can see the rise on the other side of the pond that is level with the surrounding land.

Just after sundown, with the western sky still glowing, I saw a movement reflected in the water of the pond. Something was walking along the edge of the rise. I looked up on the rise and I couldn't see anything. It was that time between sundown and full darkness and I could not see anything moving against the dark brush behind the rise -- but I could see an animal moving in the reflection of the sky in the pond. Things were getting interesting.

Then the reflection disappeared...

[smokin joe]

One thing I knew for sure, the animal was no taller than the difference between the top of the ridge and the dark horizon line beyond. I estimated that to be 3 or 4 feet high at the edge of the rise. Well, that did not narrow things down one bit. Lots of animals would fit in a dark area 3 to 4 feet high.

There were reports of mountain lion sightings near by. The hackles on the back of my neck were standing up...

[Terry Green]

That's it...I getting a new keyboard on this phone and initiating spell check....Geezzz!!! 

[smokin joe]

I continued scanning the pond to see if I could pick up the reflection again....and there it was, a reflection in the water of something at the edge of the water. Small mountain lion? Big bobcat? Just a moving dark blob reflected in the water...then it turned its head, and it was unmistakably a big coyote.

I strained my eyes to see it. I slowly raised my hand to block the remnants of the glow of the sky above the horizon. The coyote froze and stared into the water and then scampered back up onto the rise. He stood there for a couple of minutes looking down at the pond, and then he slowly walked away.

I wondered how he saw me. I had moved very slowly and the pit blind was brushed in pretty well with cover in front and behind. I turned and looked at the sky behind me and found my answer. There was a glow of artificial light on the horizon behind me. He must have seen the reflection of me in the pond, and to his eye I was a solid, moving mass against a bunch of tangled brush.

If I was to hunt this stand again, I would have to bring something to cover the sticks that brushed in the blind behind my back to eliminate my silhouette.

[DJJBullet]

Looks and sounds like a lots of fun

[pdk25]

I am about ready to hop on a plane and tie your butts to a chair in front of a computer until you finish this story, lol.

[Terry Green]

Sorry Patrick....Work, tradgang, valentines, dog with broken leg...yada yada yada..

[pdk25]

Dude, sorry to hear about the dog.  I was just messing around.  Hope the pooch heals up quick.

[Terry Green]

I know your kidding Patrick....no worries.

[Terry Green]

I went to an area near Joe.  We were both near our morning stalking grounds.

I was south of a pond, that didnt have much water at all. It also had one if those hog toys Joe mentioned, but this toy was 15 yards north of the pond.  I was set up 30 yards south of the pond along a fence line.  I chose this local due to the wind.

There was a well used trail running under the fence 12 yards north of me...it all looked really for the evening...

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 

[Terry Green]

Joe was dropped off 1st so I got settled in about 4:30. There was a nice breeze coming in from the North West, ....everything was perfect and beautiful.

Then at about 5:15 Jacob turn the doves loose. Wave after wave after wave for about 15 minutes they were all migrating in the same direction for the evening feed.  If I only would have had a 100 flu flus we would been picking daisies at lunch the next day.

About 6 o'clock I put on the jacket Joe had loaned me to layer up for the 15 degree drop in temperature that often happens after sundown in Texas during the winter months.

The Texas countryside came to life about then, with still more doves straggling in, other birds about, rabbits and rats....yes, pack rats.  1st time I'd ever experienced one....more on those devils later.  All the sound were great...except for the ones coming from the windmill.  What a mess!!!  In the background of all these serene pleasantries was a bizarre combination unrelated noises,...from squeaks from a tin roof, the slamming of a screen door, a dryer rotating with two jackets with both zippers AND snaps, and metallic tree frogs. Yep, that the only way I can describe it......

[Terry Green]

All was quiet, sans the windmill, untill about 7:30 when something pinged the wire on the fence I was set up on.  It goy my attention allright, but I heard nothing after that. Must have been a bird or someting.

Then about ten till 9 it it really started.  There wss no doubt what I was hearing, even though I'd never heard it before.  The toy was being thrashed and then the snorting began....

 I had already surveyed this route 3 times prior to setting up, so I proceeded to go to an opening on the pond with my green lens hog light on and see if I could see the hog at the toy.  The hog light wasn't  bright enough to see a hog at 35 yds,  So I backed off the pond slowly with the light still pointed in their direction.

 Once I backed out of the opening and on to the path along the side of the pond I heard hooves coming out of the South toward the south side of the pond.  This wasnt  good. I feared this hog would soon wind me as it came around the pond in my direction and blow the whole deal.

 The pig got within about 10' of me and it stopped and started blowing at me and stomping. But after a few seconds he trotted off and the thrashing was still going on. They knew nothing of it.   So I continued on along side the pond with the green light still pointing in their direction as I eased forward. I had about 20 yd to cover before I got to the opening on the North side of the pond and I would be somewhere around 20 yd from them.

 Even though this  non fenix light was starkly bright on the brush between me and the hogs  from my perspective as I continued they paid no attention, or were unaware completely.  I never slowed down.  I rounded the the corner of the opening never taking the light off if their direction.  It was like I was a ghost as I entered the opening as stepped closer.  How was I getting away this?!?!?   

There were 2 good sized hogs just standing there in plain sight and me also.

[Terry Green]

One was  quartering to me that was about a buck 50 , and the other one was broadside at a buck 75.  Both round as a barrel.  These two were healthy!

I tried to move closed but my foot hit a water pipe to the pond.  At this point I didn't want to push it, I was at 20 yards already.

As the arrow left the bow it looked good but I lost sight of it about half way there. But it sure SOUNDED good!!!

Like a pass through of a giant soggy pumpkin.....

The buck 50 was carrying the mail, the Great Pumpkin wasn't. No sqeal or grunt, just a slow 180 and a hunched couple of steps....and then seemed confused.

I didnt know whether to stay completely queit and still, or reload and try and get another arrow in him...I chose to freeze.

He went the way of his buddy toward 11 oclock a few steps and was laboring in breathing and huffing a bit....then a few steps more and another pause.  Then his buddy in the distance snorted and he just walked off....huffing every breath it seemed....till he was out of ear shot.

At this point I eased up to point of impact and surveyed the area.  It took me a minute to look around at the toy, then I moved around the opposite side of his exit path as not to disturb any blood if any.  There was my arrow right where it was suppose to be....10 yards beyond the toy and lying on top of the ground.

Not a lot of blood on the arrow, but a definate pass through with fat grease on the shaft and sticky, slick, and smelly fletching.

Then I returned to the point where I thought he stopped a few feet from impact...and there was blood....

Following the trail for about 20 yards to where they went under a gap in the fence. He was bleeding out both sides, which was a good sign along with blood that close to where I shot him.

I decided to wait for the calvary as time was up for pick up....But the coyotes were already singing...not a good sign....

[pdk25]

Coyotes in TX are no joke.  Shot this nice boar in TX last year.  Thought I heard it go down and moan a.s fre around 75 yards by a cedar tree, but since it was cool and I didn't have good blood, I decided to come back at first light rather than risking pushing it.  I went right to the cedar tree as and this is what I found.

If I had know a cow died on that section of the ranch earlier in the week, and that the coyotes had been feeding on it, I probably wouldn't have waited.   I hope your story has a happy ending.