Solana 2010

[Terry Green]

Waiting on Dudley to get home....He's got a pic or two to share for sure!

[gregg dudley]

Yep, Terry, got a few.

Congratulations again on the fine bucks to Michael and Gary!  

Now that I have finished with the 7th age hunt I will see what I can do about adding a few posts here.

[gregg dudley]

OK, I will skip the detailed background since almost everyone knows what Solana is all about.  I drove out and had a good time doing it.  I know it is weird, but I was really looking forward to the time alone ahead of the hunt.  I put 882 miles on the truck getting from Edison, Ga to Austin, Texas in the first day and then I had time to relax and explore the city a bit before everyone else showed up.  I bunked with Terry at the hotel and at the ranch.  

Like he says, after 4 or 5 years of reading someone's posts on tradgang you feel like you know them.  It was great to meet all of the fine tradgangers in camp.  There was not anyone that I would not like to hunt with again.

Michael, Terry, Chris, Mike and I shared the same guide, David.  David was what I expected and more.  He is hilarious and knowledgeable which as far as I am concerned is top shelf.

The first night on stand I saw 8 deer, 15-20 hogs, and 15 turkeys.  A few hogs and deer came in, but the wind was wrong and the game was spooky.  Chris Surtees shot a hog though and Terry, David and I had a fun blood trail to follow:

 

[gregg dudley]

Day 2 was agood one.  

The morning hunt for me was pretty fun.  I had a great stand to sit, but the only game that I saw was in the neighboring pasture and food plot.  I ended up seeing 7 antlerless deer and 2 rack bucks.  One of the bucks was a shore nuff monster.  Two of the does did try to come in, but they came up the same trail that I did and turned themselves inside out when they caught my scent stream.

 

[amar911]

I'm glad you finally checked in Gregg. I'm sure you and your son had a great hunt in west Texas after Solana. It was a real pleasure spending time with you before, during and after the hunt.

Allan

[gregg dudley]

Camp was always fun.  The facilities are nice and company was great.

 

 

 

[gregg dudley]

My stand the second afternoon was great.  I have never seen a ladder stand that started out on a limb 12 feet off of the ground, but then again I have been limited to what I have read in owner's manuals.  Who knew climbing one ladder stand to get to another could be so much fun?

 

A view of the feeder from ground level:

 

[maineac]

Glad you made it back safe from the extended trip.  Hope you and your son had a great time.  Looking forward the rest of your stories and pics.

[gregg dudley]

I had a lot of action on the second evening.  Three does came in and I shot one of them.  The deer exploded at the shot and I saw the arrow sticking out of the deer as it ran away.  It was hanging by the fletching and was the right spot up and down, but I did not get a good feel for where it was front to back.  

I also saw a large spotted hog and 4 or 5 30 pounders.  I got a great quartering shot on the large hog.  

David picked me up first and we decided to pick everyone else up and come back to look for my game.

As you read before, Michael had killed a nice buck.

 

[gregg dudley]

After collecting Michael's great buck we tracked my doe and hog.  We quickly found the arrow from my doe and it was covered with blood.  The blood trail, however, was spotty.  We looked for a little while and quit the trail for the night after jumping a deer in the vicinity.  We followed the blood trail on the hog for a short way before losing it in near a thicker area.  We decided to give both trails the evening.  It was cold so I wasn't worried about the meat, but if you have ever left a trail for the night imagine what it is like to leave two.

The next morning we hunted the same stands as the previous evening and then took up my blood trails.  Michael, Chris, Terry and Mike are diligent trackers and dedicated to the recovery of game animals.  I appreciate their efforts on my behalf.  We did not recover the doe.  In retrospect, I think it was hit in the liver and we should have backed out right away, but the shot looked good and I kept expecting the blood trail to improve after the arrow came out.  We probably jumped the deer the night before and it did not bleed after it left its bed.  I think I should have just waited until morning to track it after the blood trail looked spotty.  If we had I am pretty sure it never would have left the first bed and we would have recovered it.

Nothing goes to waste in West Texas though.  This is NOT my deer, but it is a picture of coyote feeding action on the Solana ranch.

 

The hog, however, was found right away.  It had run into a brush pile and died.  We had walked all around it the night before.

 

 

[gregg dudley]

My mom used to have an Ford Excursion and she wouldn't let us eat McDonald's in it.  David let us spit dip and track mud and cow manure in his.  He also drove it over bumps, rocks, and streams that would have cost an "E" ticket in Disney's early years.  
 

[gregg dudley]

The third evening I only saw one doe.  I don't know what everyone else saw, but the Sunny Hill Killer shot a doe that was waiting for pick up when we pulled up.

 

[gregg dudley]

Mike and Allan,  Thanks!

The thread about my hunt with Reed is midway down page one now.

[gregg dudley]

Day 4 AM

DUDE!  Whast a morning!   I saw 17 deer from the stand.  Fifteen of them came in to the feeder.  Three were bucks.  One was a five point, one was an 8 point (shooter in Gregg Dudley's book) and the third was a wide 8 pointer that would have made anyone happy.  The big buck had something funky going on with his right main beam and I instantly thought of Guru's cool buck from last year.

The big boy saved the 8 pointer's life.  I was going to shoot the nice 8 when the big one showed.  I decided to wait and then lost all opportunities when the deer left without offering a shot.  It was a great morning.

Here is a shot of the reinforcement strategy applied to my stand:

 

I don't think that the stand really needed the rock.  I think David put ti there to screw with hunters.

[gregg dudley]

That evening I saw nearly 40 hogs from stand.  I took a shot that should have killed something, but the arrow was not seated properly on the string and it launched off the shelf like alawn dart.  The result was nearly a dry fire and I was happy to see the bow was still in good shape.  The hogs ran off wiser, but unharmed by the experience.

The next morning, I sat the stand where I had seen the big buck.  I saw the five pointer and four does, but neither of the nicer bucks showed up.  It was a great morning.  

 

[gregg dudley]

Like Guru and DW had told me before.  Solana is a special place.  If this was an "off" year, I can't wait to see a "good" one.

Thanks to all my campmates for sharing your hunt with me and thanks to Terry for putting it all together through Tradgang.

 

[amar911]

Since I forgot my camera, I didn't get to take any pictures at Solana. Fortunately, many of the other guys took them and have posted theirs for everyone to see what it was like on the hunt. To try to make up for my lack of photos, I got some shots of some of the gear I used on the hunt that worked very well for me. I traveled by commercial airliner to Austin, so I had to pack all my stuff in bags that would fit on the plane and in the rental car, unlike some of the guys who drove and had plenty of room to haul around anything they wanted. Gregg Dudley brought his club cab truck and still was about to run out of room. He blamed it on his hunting/camping trip with his son in west Texas immediately after the Solana hunt. When Gregg pulled up at the La Quinta hotel in Austin after the Solana hunt with his truck filled with all his gear and the provisions from his recent visit to the store, we all wondered where his son was going to find room to sit in the truck on the trip west. We sort of expected that drive to look like the opening scene from the Beverly Hillbillies with Gregg's son sitting on top of all the gear and supplies with Gregg driving down the road.

Fortunately for Terry Green, Boyd Stayley and me, Terry shipped most of his hunting gear by UPS in a big cooler and a long PVC bow tube. I had a day pack and a carry-on bag that I took with me in the cabin of the plane and a large duffel that I put in checked baggage.

Here is what I used for my shooting equipment. Hanging from the light is my Safari Tuff fletching cover and my Mike's Archery Leather arm guard. On the top of the wall is one of my AD Hammerhead arrows from Badger Arrows and my 56" Shrew Classic Hunter foam/carbon takedown bow. beside the wall is my 3Rivers Archery takedown "recurve" bow case with the rest of the AD arrows I took with me to Solana Ranch. Hanging from one of the arrows in the case is my Eagle Flight Archery Navaho I Chief bow quiver. On the lid of the bow case is my Bateman cordovan tab.

 

Here is a closer picture of some of the items. You can see the beautiful, highly figured bubinga veneers on the Shrew and the fine craftsmanship of the arrow, the armguard and the tab. It is a little harder to see how nice the bucksuede fletching cover is, particularly after it has been lying smashed up in my bag since I got home from Austin, but many of the guys on the hunt wanted to know how to get one.

 

The next picture shows the handle of the bow better. The materials in the grip are macasser ebony, curly maple and black phenolic. You can also see where the leather is cut to allow takedown using the Bow Bolt. The pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the bow!

 

More below.

Allan

[amar911]

Here are a few more pictures of the bow from other angles. The last 4 of this set of pictures were taken by Gregg Coffey before he sent me the bow. You can see he is a pretty fair shot. Also, notice the kudu horn tips that are actually almost translucent in real life. This bow has good natural camouflage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allan

[amar911]

Here is what made packing the bow, arrows and "totem" from the EFA bow quiver so cool. The 3 Rivers takedown "recurve" bow case was perfect for transporting my bow and arrows setup by commercial aircraft and will also be great for other travel too. My biggest problem with the case is that I shoot 31" arrows and the case is just a little too short for them, so I not only have to unscrew the points, I also have to pull the nocks to get the arrows to fit. It's not a really big deal, but I am now tempted to remove the front inserts on my arrows, cut a half inch off the front of the shaft, and then glue the inserts back in. That way I would still have arrows that are plenty long enough for my 29.5" draw length and could leave the nocks in place in the case. With the nocks and points out, the arrows fit perfectly at their present length. I can unscrew the "totem" from my bow quiver and put it in the case with the arrows and then don't have any problem packing the quiver hood and gripper sections in my regular bag. But the best part is that I can break the 56" Shrew Classic Hunter in two at the Bow Bolt connection, put the two halves in a fleece takedown bow sock, and then put the bow in one of the sleeves in the case that keeps it separated from the arrows and the "totem" rod. I can put 18 arrows in with the bow with no problem and then have a secure, handy, short package that fits perfectly into my duffle. What makes all this possible are the slim, short, relatively straight pieces of the Classic Hunter bow. A longer two piece bow would not fit at all, and a recurve (even something as slim as a two piece Shrew Lil Favorite) would not leave room for as many arrows. For those of you with shorter arrows, this arrangement would be a piece of cake to make fit. For those with longer arrows, you are going to have to make your own slightly longer case to get the arrows to fit. These pictures don't show the bow in the case with the arrows, because the bow is obviously sitting on the wall.    

 

 

I spent a lot of time researching my equipment and what I would take for the Solana Ranch hunt because I wanted to make sure I could actually get everything I needed down there on the plane, plus I didn't want to show up and have everyone think I was totally haphazard in my planning. Like I have said before, I should have planned better and got all my equipment far enough ahead of time to try it all out and make sure it worked before I left. I got lucky. Maybe this will help someone else in planning for a future hunt, especially one as great as the Solana Ranch hunt with two dozen super TradGangers around.

Allan

[Terry Green]

Originally posted by gregg dudley:

 

I don't think that the stand really needed the rock.  I think David put ti there to screw with hunters.

You learn FAST GrassHopper.