This was the first annual Big Boy Ranch Trip. The Big Boy trip got started this past June. Clem and Reynolds usually make the trip down to the ranch with me to fill feeders, work and of course hunt. Clem and I always bring our oldest boys to the ranch and man do they love the outdoors. I know in a few years Teaxsryan Jr. will be out there too. We decided one trip out of the year would be Big Boys only. What better time to schedule a Big Boy trip than the bow opener, or the weekend after. 
The big boy crew converged on the ranch this past week. The Thursday night crew consisted of Reynolds (Texasryan9), his brother Gardner, Clem and myself. Our anticipation was high for great times, good eats and grand carnage.
The target list consisted of axis, aoudad, hogs, feral goats, varmints, hogs, predators, whitetail and hogs. After settling in, approx. 10:30pm, (way past my bedtime), I made mention of collecting the cards from the trail cams in the morning. My mention of “morning” was met with a collective response, “What, did you come here to sleep?”. Good thing because the carnage came early. After a lock, load and hit the road, our first stop found us face to face with not one, but two low down dirty thieving ‘coons. We greeted the masked marauders with 5 rounds of .40 cal dispatching only one. Stop 2 brought us 3 whitetail, one of which was a 2.5 year old spike, who has made the hit list. After a slight detour to camera 3, which was missing, I scratched stop 4. 2:30am found me getting to pic 251 with only one of my amigos still awake. 5:30 got there quicker than we realized because we did not roll out of bed until 6:00. We quickly threw down some breakfast and a few shots of sweet tea and were off. The ranch is really set up for rifle hunting, but we have scouted out a few good ambush bow spots. Texasryan was going to film me bow hunting a little spot we have dubbed Hog Alley, except I forgot to charge the camera. But he climbed up in the tripod with rifle in hand, guarded the feeder and spotted for me anyway. Within 15 minutes he alerted me to a nice 8 point that was working up from the creek. After anxiously waiting for the 8 to make his way up to some corn I had spread out. After a brief survey, we agreed he was only 3.5 and would get to live. The young buck did not stick around too long as more horned creatures were coming up from the creek bottom into Hog Alley…..
Lunch break is over: I’ll write more this evening, add pics and hopefully we’ll hear from other members of the expedition. Stay tuned for misses, blow ups, grub, blood, tracking and a few pics.
The big boy crew converged on the ranch this past week. The Thursday night crew consisted of Reynolds (Texasryan9), his brother Gardner, Clem and myself. Our anticipation was high for great times, good eats and grand carnage.
The target list consisted of axis, aoudad, hogs, feral goats, varmints, hogs, predators, whitetail and hogs. After settling in, approx. 10:30pm, (way past my bedtime), I made mention of collecting the cards from the trail cams in the morning. My mention of “morning” was met with a collective response, “What, did you come here to sleep?”. Good thing because the carnage came early. After a lock, load and hit the road, our first stop found us face to face with not one, but two low down dirty thieving ‘coons. We greeted the masked marauders with 5 rounds of .40 cal dispatching only one. Stop 2 brought us 3 whitetail, one of which was a 2.5 year old spike, who has made the hit list. After a slight detour to camera 3, which was missing, I scratched stop 4. 2:30am found me getting to pic 251 with only one of my amigos still awake. 5:30 got there quicker than we realized because we did not roll out of bed until 6:00. We quickly threw down some breakfast and a few shots of sweet tea and were off. The ranch is really set up for rifle hunting, but we have scouted out a few good ambush bow spots. Texasryan was going to film me bow hunting a little spot we have dubbed Hog Alley, except I forgot to charge the camera. But he climbed up in the tripod with rifle in hand, guarded the feeder and spotted for me anyway. Within 15 minutes he alerted me to a nice 8 point that was working up from the creek. After anxiously waiting for the 8 to make his way up to some corn I had spread out. After a brief survey, we agreed he was only 3.5 and would get to live. The young buck did not stick around too long as more horned creatures were coming up from the creek bottom into Hog Alley…..Lunch break is over: I’ll write more this evening, add pics and hopefully we’ll hear from other members of the expedition. Stay tuned for misses, blow ups, grub, blood, tracking and a few pics.
. The actual distance is still undetermined, but it was not 25 yards 
. After my shot they start running again, I let out my best "MEEEAH" and to my surprise they all stop. Reynolds squeezes off another shot, this time the 270 found its mark. We let things calm down for a few minutes then met to talk about what just happened. He was sure he hit the first one, but we found zero blood. He also retrieved my arrow which had blown up in to 3 pieces. We walk over to the spot of the third shot and found a few drops, but none for about 40 yards. We picked up the trail and tracked the animal another 30 yards.
and ranch chores, Friday afternoon found us getting out late again. First – let me shed some light on the background story. A couple of years ago Reynolds and G were gearing up for a hunting trip to a place Reynolds use to hunt over in Coleman County. G had never been on a serious deer hunt before so he was really looking forward to it. Reynolds was excited about getting to spend some time in the field with his brother. After a disagreement and a really unfortunate turn of events with another lease member, the trip did not happen. Reynolds was a bit disappointed so I told him he should bring his brother to the ranch and blow something up out there. We never really talked about it after that, until recently. I guess I finally remembered and told him again he should bring G this time. So fast forward to October 9, 2009 6:32 pm… The Reynolds brothers were finally able to put a hunt together. We decided to set Gardner (G) up in the hill blind while Reynolds and I tried to tag-team some whitetail with our bows. We hear a shot, from the Hill Blind, then another. Reynolds gets a call - aoudad down, but still moving, holding his head up. “Shoot him again!” Reynolds says. At almost 200 yards, 2 of the 3 shots end up in the vitals, the other may have been a bit back. As darkness nears, G climbs down with two rounds left in his pocket, as a large 10-point whitetail makes his way to the feeder. But the aoudad got up and stumbled off – in trying not to spook the whitetail buck, G can’t get another shot off. He waits for Reynolds and I to show up. Even though the aoudad laid in one spot for over 20 minutes we can’t find much blood anywhere, 10 minutes of searching brings a little blood and a bone fragment. Darkness sets in and another 20-30 minutes searching with flashlights yields nothing. G is confident about his shot placement so we decide to resume search tomorrow.
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