The Fat G Ranch

[CentralTXHunter]

I have enjoyed reading along.

I may have missed it, but how did you come up with the name, Fat G Ranch?

It’s actually in the very first post.

We were riding around the property and the guys said it needed a name. The high fence property next door was called “The Lazy S”. I blurted out “We should call it The Fat G”, and it stuck. I was being funny, but it’s stuck and we’ve run with it. Mike was not a small guy and his last name was Gunter. Hence “The Fat G”.


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[JhuntsAlot]

Continues to be a great thread.

I think that ranger needs to be put down. Haha.



J

[CentralTXHunter]

Continues to be a great thread.

I think that ranger needs to be put down. Haha.



J

I couldn’t agree more. Thankfully JK is handy, so I won’t be the ONLY mechanic on the ranch anymore.

However, Keegan keeps waffling on selling it. For now, we’ll just stock the connex full of Ranger parts and hope we can repair in the field. It’s not an if, it’s a when something will go wrong with that dang thing.

What’s wild is I just did a front end overhaul on that dang thing before we took it back down there. All new bushings and bearings on the front end. Greased everything. Replaced a torn drive shaft boot. Blue loctite on all the upper and lower control arm bolts (nuts have spun off on us 3 times and caused catastrophic failures). Replaced one of the ball joints, but the other 3 were in good shape. Torqued all nuts to spec, etc.

Most failures seem to be during hard turns, so we’ve all agreed that if it takes you a 9pt turn to get turned around, just do it. I still believe that whoever did the lift on the machine, did it wrong/used the wrong parts. I think the geometry is off. The country is rough, but the amount of failures under relatively light conditions is ridiculous.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Another weekend at the ranch is in the books.

Joe made his one (maybe only) trip to the ranch. He, Keegan, Truitt, and Stephen went down on Thursday. It was wet, cold, and windy. Cooper had a Taekwondo completion Saturday. We rolled out at midnight Saturday night and made it to the ranch to hunt Sunday morning.

We saw a ton of doe and young bucks with a little chasing going on. No mature deer sighted though, live or on camera. Saw some axis does, young bucks, and good bucks just now in velvet. We saw a ton of pigs. I think we killed 7 or 8 this weekend.





Keegan and Stephen trying to stay warm in the ford.



Truitt brought his dog too and took her to the blind a few times.



We found this propane heater in the old camp at the bottom of the canyon last year. It works like a champ and will roast you out of your sleeping bag.




A gold in poomsae (forms) and bronze in Olympic sparring.



Rolling out at midnight.



In the stand.



Whacked this good sized boar Monday morning.




Zonked on the way home.



Keegan and Truitt stayed to hunt Monday evening and Tuesday morning. More pigs were harmed and Truitt shot another nice Aoudad.





We’re hoping that our mature deer start to move soon, but activity is definitely up. Need to keep the pressure up on the pigs too. Hopefully we can turn them nocturnal at least and back them off of feeders. We also trapped a few raccoons this weekend too. They wrecked a solar panel and we went to war. I won’t be back for a couple of weeks, but several of the guys will be there Thanksgiving weekend. As always, thanks for following along and goodluck in the rest of your season!


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[rut-ro]

Still a great thread. Love the updates

[CentralTXHunter]

Another weekend in the books at the Fat G and it was a doozy.

Keegan and JK rolled out around 9AM Friday hauling an old blind we’ve had sitting for 3+ years to put out. I had some work to accomplish early, but I checked Cooper out of school at 10:30 and we hit the road too.



Cooper zoned in for the long ride.



That’s his elf pet he named “Spikey”. Literally took that dude everywhere.

Somewhere between Mason and Junction, Keegan and JK lost the blind off the back of the trailer. Fortunately no cars were harmed, but the blind got beat to heck. Couple of dudes stopped and helped them load it back on the trailer. If they’re on TBH, huge thanks for that.





We all made it to the ranch in time for the evening hunt. It was uneventful for me. The stand JK hunted, he discovered the control box for the feeder hanging by the solar panel. No animals were harmed. We pulled some camera cards. Had a cull 7 showing up at a spot, so Cooper and I planned to hunt it Saturday morning.

Saturday morning comes and it’s overcast and misty, rainy. Gross morning. Especially to be hunting in an open air stand. We hadn’t seen anything and finally around 8 the 7 comes in. I asked Cooper if he wanted to shoot. He got super nervous and declined the shot, so I pulled the trigger on him. He’s nothing special, but he’ll eat good. JK killed a couple of pigs and Keegan slept in.





After getting the 7 on ice, we went out and fixed the control box that was dangling and refilled that feeder with corn.

Then we went to repairing the damaged blind. We keep a lot of stuff there. One of the boards for the base was completely destroyed. It was a 2x6. We didn’t have one, but had a 2x8 I ripped to fit. Replaced a 2x4 on the roof support. New hinges for the door. Added a bunch a screws and it’s probably stronger than it was before it crashed down the highway.





Evening hunt was fairly uneventful. It had warmed up substantially and the moon had been bright. I only saw a nubbin buck and he chased off the two does that came in before I ever could get a shot on one. Keegan hunted the hideout to discover that Joe had set the feed times for 7am and 4:30am. JK hunted the 110 and didn’t see much.

Big bright moon Saturday night.



Cooper was worn out and asleep by 8PM. We stayed up and told lies, played dominoes, and a little poker.

Next morning we whack a good sized boar at 8am and finally get a doe at 8:45. Got down to find a coin in the cuff which explained why the doe we shot was so skittish.



JK says the feeder he’s hunting keeps throwing corn every 10 minutes for like a second. Some kind of short I assume, but I had all the tools with me and we were just getting the doe out of the field. Keegan and JK decide they are going to go set up the stand at the hideout while we head back and I put this doe on ice.

Well, the foot of the base for the blind drug and before they realized it, they broke the water coming I to the cabin.



Actually not a terrible fix, but I was one part short of having everything we needed to fix it. After some cussing, they go put up the stand. I get the doe on ice. JK had to get back home so he and Keegan rolled out.

Cooper and I replaced the timer and some wiring to fix the feeder issue and then went and ran some big bolts through the base of the stand they’d just set up. Got camp buttoned up and hit the road.

Keegan is coming back this weekend with his whole family I think. I’m hoping his daughter gets a giant. She’s never killed more than a spike. I won’t be back until after Christmas. We had some good deer show up on camera, so stay tuned. We might whack a good one.


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[goldtip5575]

Tell Keegan that Wesson said he needs to cut loose with some money and put in all new Stand and Fill Feeders so you guys don't have to keep jacking with fixing yall's feeders every trip. LOL.

Or tell him to have his FIL (BJ) hook you guys up with all new feeders. He's got plenty of $$$$$

I've enjoyed reading this thread and all you guys have done with the place. That is definitely extremely rough country, and is hard on equipment.

Best of luck the rest of the season.

[CentralTXHunter]

Tell Keegan that Wesson said he needs to cut loose with some money and put in all new Stand and Fill Feeders so you guys don't have to keep jacking with fixing yall's feeders every trip. LOL.

Or tell him to have his FIL (BJ) hook you guys up with all new feeders. He's got plenty of $$$$$

I've enjoyed reading this thread and all you guys have done with the place. That is definitely extremely rough country, and is hard on equipment.

Best of luck the rest of the season.

LOL!

BJ has deep pockets, but short arms. We’ve considered stand and fills, but worry about the Aoudad destroying them. We could fence them, but I’d rather just fix what we’ve got than have to bring equipment to drive posts into rock.


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[goldtip5575]

LOL!

BJ has deep pockets, but short arms. We’ve considered stand and fills, but worry about the Aoudad destroying them. We could fence them, but I’d rather just fix what we’ve got than have to bring equipment to drive posts into rock.


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BJ definitely has short arms. LOL. Yea building fences in that country is not easy work, and can also get pricey with all the panels and t-posts. Problem is fences wouldn't keep the Doo-dads out. Very cool thread, and fun country to hunt with never knowing what will show up. I killed some of my best deer with a bow between Bracketville and Del Rio, and that country can get in your blood. The distance, rugged terrain, and strain on vehicles finally wore on me too much.

[CentralTXHunter]

Well it’s a wrap on the whitetail season at the Fat G and we closed it out in style. Wouldn’t be a Fat G thread without stuff breaking though.

Joe and JK swung down for a quick trip and arrived in time for the evening hunt on Wednesday. They shot 5 pigs, recovered 4, but only made it to camp with 3 of them.



Cooper and I dropped the girls off at daycare on Thursday morning and hit the road. We took a detour through San Antonio to pick up my dad and headed to the ranch. We got in about 2 and found their missing hog in the middle of the road.



We got to camp and I fixed the water Keegan broke the last trip in a few minutes. I had Joe turn on the valve at the storage tank to test pressure and we had a bigger problem. The freeze last week split the valve in half. Luckily I have those in camp and replaced it. Started pressure testing the cabin. With no water the flapper dried out and the rubber seal on the fill valve did too. We’ll have to replace that later. The handle for the hot water in the bathroom sink launched to the ceiling. Closed the shutoff valve for that. Then the insert for the shower shot off. When I popped it back it, I broke the pvc. Comedy of errors. Fixed the pvc and got the shower going again.

Thursday evening hunts were fairly uneventful.



Joe grilled some ribeyes that night and we watched the cowboys game. Friday morning Cooper and I settled into across the canyon. I grabbed the cam card before we got in and was scrolling through waiting on sunrise. I got a shock when I saw a stray exotic that had shown up the last week. I texted it to Joe and said, “should have hunted here Wednesday” as it was on camera at 4:33PM. Cooper and I didn’t see anything that morning. We get out around 9:45, dropped a little alfalfa there in hopes it may slow down our bonus exotic. We leave out heading back to camp and I spot it on the road! A well placed shot and we got a bonus exotic! Called the boys to help me load it and then the work began.





Joe and JK rolled out and it was just three generations hunting together the rest of the weekend.

After we got the oryx taken care of and I got a shower, we went and put alfalfa out at a few spots and checked cams. Cooper did a little driving on the ranger.



Cooper and I capped a piggie Thursday evening.



Saturday morning I was the only one that hunted. Dad and Cooper slept in. I had a doe bedded right next to the stand that freaked me out when I just saw eyes walking up. Saw a nice young 9 and a young axis buck. As I was about to call it quits for the morning, a pair of does came in. Popped the bigger one and got to work.



After a little work and some food, we loaded up and began filling all the feeders. We topped off all 8 feeders and fixed a couple of feed times. Had a scary moment happen too. Topped off the feeder at the airstream, got it winched to the top, and as soon as a let go of the handle, there was a pop. Feeder came crashing down.





Nobody was hurt because we make it a point to never be underneath one, but a good reminder that you can’t be too safe.

Evening hunt was busy. We had 13 deer. All young bucks and does. 3 spikes, a 4 point, and a 7. The point was bullying the spikes all around and checking out a couple of the does every time he got the spikes ran off.

We ate dinner that night and watched the Ohio State/Georgia game. Dad slept in again and Cooper and I went back to the same spot for the morning hunt.

Sunrise that morning was gorgeous.


I had said we would only hunt until 9 as we were rolling home. Another eventful hunt. The 7 and a couple spikes made a reappearance, a coupe of new younger bucks, and a bunch of does. One which was hot and getting chased everywhere. About 8:55, we were about to back up when a mature deer appears out of nowhere. Body size he was more than twice that of any other deer out there. They all cowered to him and he took after the hot doe. I asked Cooper if he wanted to shoot him and buck fever/panic set in. Coupled that with him running all over the area and he couldn’t seal the deal. He asked me to shoot and the deer finally gave me an opportunity. Not a giant horns wise, but a big, mature deer for our area.



More work began. I use a combination of knives when I clean animals, but this one was made by a friend of mine and I use it every time for at least part of the work.



We got camp buttoned up and winterized. Dad had opportunities every sit, but he was there for the experience, not for a kill. Truly blessed to be able to hunt with him still. It’s not lost on me that two of the other guys I hunt with no longer have their dads with them. Until next time. Thanks for following along! We’ll be after axis in the spring!




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[MagicBlade]

Looks like an awesome place. Hope all your work will pay off with a long term lease!

I had a similar situation years ago and after all the work we lost the lease the 2nd year when the owner decided to sell the property.

Best of luck to you!

[Longhorn95]

I’ve enjoyed the travails and triumphs of each trip. Thanks for continuing to let us tag along.

[SaltwaterSlick]

One of my favorite threads to follow!! You guys are truly blessed to just go hunt and when you find a deer you like, you whack it!! It just don’t get any better’n that!! Thanks for taking us along this year! Let’s do it again next year‼️‼️

Happy New Year guys!

[Mtltx]

Thanks for the update. As always, it’s an eventful thread! Congrats on another successful year.

[Garrett Harlan]

Loved reading through the thread.