We Have a Ranch Again - New Ranch - Follow Along

[cehorn]

I haven’t updated since opening weekend. Fall is definitely coming in as the trees are starting to change color. The weekend before Thanksgiving my sister was able to shoot her first buck at 50 years old (her not the deer LOL). He was a solid 13 point that scored 132”.

And then this past weekend my stepson shot a doe Friday night which somehow I don’t have a picture of. I think they are all on my wife’s phone.

Anyway, then Saturday morning I drug my youngest son out of bed (he likes to sleep) to the stand to go after a big bodied older deer that I had been seeing. The deer came out early and by 7:15 I had confirmed it was the deer we were looking for. By 7:16 the deer was down. The times are based on when the feeder goes off as I decided it was him with no time before the feeder went off. As soon as my son got the gun out the window the feeder went off and the buck ran about 20 yards closer. When he stopped my son shot. If you remember from my other son’s deer on opening weekend, he takes a long time to shoot. Luckily for my heart my youngest son doesn’t share that trait as he shoots when the chance is there.

We are pretty much done with bucks for the year unless the “big one” walks out. I’m done “guiding” except getting a friend of our’s daughter a doe so I guess I’m after the big one. Our neighbors have killed 2 monsters over 155” so they are out there… I would like to shoot 5 or 6 does off the ranch before the season is over as well so hopefully we can cumulatively get that done.

[cehorn]

Fall colors

My sisters deer.

My son's deer


Sunday sunrise

[cehorn]

A couple of notes I forgot.

I mentioned above that my son's deer was big bodied. What I mean is he was fat. He weighed over 175 lbs on the hoof which is pretty big for us, especially after the rut or as the rut is winding down.

And the food plots are doing well. I don't have any pics of just the food plots but the pic of my sisters deer is in one of the food plots. You can see the oats and other "stuff" we planted. Hopefully this means healthy deer moving into winter and towards next season.

[cehorn]

Haven't updated in a bit but last weekend we closed up deer season. We ended up not shooting anything this past weekend which was a little disappointing. Since my last post, my niece shot a buck (pic below) and we shot a few does. Overall it was a good season but ended on a little of a sour note since we didn't shoot as many does as I had hoped. For the year we finished shooting 6 bucks and 3 does but I was hoping for at least 6 does and 5 bucks. But that's why they call it hunting I guess. I do have a couple of cool stories I wanted to get posted.

I mentioned in post 241 about getting a friend of mine's daughter Lucy a doe. Going into the season I had 2 main goals, get my oldest a good buck (see post 238 for getting that done) and get Lucy her first deer. Lucy's dad built our cabinets and counter tops for the cabin and I got him his first deer last year as he was working on those, see post 160. The weekend he got his first deer his wife and kids were up and his youngest daughter Lucy became really interested as we were cleaning the deer etc. She even sat in the cold the next morning last year and she said she wanted to shoot her first deer this year. So my goal was born and we talked about it throughout the year. My buddy didn't have a gun for her so I let them use one of my son's 6.5 creedmore since we don't use it that often. They got it dialed in before the season and were ready. My plan was to sign up for TYHP hunt on youth weekend since they make the hunt so special. We got drawn (my youngest son and her) and started the process as she hadn't done her hunters ed yet. She decided she didn't want to hunt the youth hunt for whatever reason but my son and I were already committed to the youth hunt so youth weekend was out for us. However, another good friend of ours has a place and invited them out for youth weekend since her dad had already taken off work. She ended up shooting a buck and got her first deer. I was as happy as I was about my kids getting their first deer even though I wasn't there. Then she said she wanted to shoot a doe also and she wanted to do it at our ranch. New mission!! They came out in the middle of December but we were unable to get it done. They came back out 2 weeks ago and we were able to get it done Saturday morning before the cold came in. This is what it is all about. Pics below.

Back in mid December I somehow ended up with all the deer rifles I currently use up at the ranch and a weekend where I wouldn't be at the ranch. If I'm not at the ranch that means I'm hunting at another place I have in Smithville but as I mentioned I was "rifleless." So that week I decided I would go into the gun safe and get my uncles old 30-30 out and use it to shoot a deer. He passed away 15 years ago and I inherited the gun from him. It had sat in the safe since I got it but I decided I would shoot a deer this year with it as a tribute (and out of necessity, lol). So I took it out on Friday evening of that week and sighted it in. It took me almost 3 boxes to sight it in as it has an offset mount and as I painfully figured out the scope is rotated 90 degrees (up dial is left and left dial is up). Anyway, I was ready to hunt in Smithville with that gun. I was unable to shoot anything in Smithville so the first weekend of doe & spike I took it out on Friday evening to try and get a doe with it. I connected right before dark and had shot a deer with my uncles gun. While it was just a doe, it is special doe and special story for me. Pic below.

I think that is it for now, but I'm already thinking about the offseason. Right now the plan is still to do food plots even though last year was so discouraging with the cows, etc. I also plan to add a 3rd protein feeder on the other side of the ranch. We still have 1 rifle stand to build and put out and 1 tank bow blind to build and put out. If I get all of that done I'll be happy as we continue to improve the ranch and hunting.

[cehorn]

My niece's buck (her biggest to date)


Lucy's deer hunt



My doe with my uncle's gun. She ran about 40 yards but I found her pretty easy. I didn't need to use Tracker but it was good practice for him.

[cehorn]

Now that the season is over it is on the the offseason. No big plans or changes as we are in pretty good shape but we will do a few minor things that will improve what we are already doing. Here is the list as of right now:

• Put out a 3rd protein feeder - this will happen this weekend
• Finish building our last rifle stand for now- My son is doing the work so it will likely happen over spring break or some time in the spring
• Finish out and put out our last tank bow blind - This will likely happen in the spring as well.
• Replant the perennial plots I did last year (about 4 acres) - I know they take a while to establish but I think we were too deep and want to get some seed on the surface - Hopefully this will happen in the next couple of weeks
• Plant Spring plots - I'm not planning on planting dove plots this year but we will still do about 10 acres of deer plots and about 5 acres of perennials - I usually shoot for after April 1 to get this done
• Hopefully build a small deck outside our bedroom door at the cabin to give us more space for washers, chairs, cooking, etc.
• Put up 1 more tree stand if I can find a good location
• General Maintenance - keeping roads and fence lines clear, filling feeders, etc.
• Maybe sell a few weekends of pig and/or turkey hunts to help pay the feed bill or upgrade stands if I can get my dad on board
• Get set up on Harvest Option of MLDP

I'm sure there will be more but if I can get the majority of this accomplished I'll be happy.

[Huntingfool]

beautiful place - I had 600 acres I bought some years back and enjoyed it for sure - lots of work but fun work -

[cehorn]

beautiful place - I had 600 acres I bought some years back and enjoyed it for sure - lots of work but fun work -

Yep, the work never ends but most of the time I get just as much enjoyment out of doing the work/growing deer than I do hunting. Every time I leave the ranch with full feeders, full water stations, food plots planted or growing there is a sense of accomplishment and pride that you have done something to help the wildlife. And most of the work I do with my dad, wife and kids and other family so even if you can't tell by the cussing, etc. while the work is going on it brings us closer.

[cehorn]

Well, we are officially in the work part of the year. Last week was spring break and I tried to balance actual work, ranch work and the rain after going up on Wednesday night. The goal for this past weekend was to get all of my perennial and dove plots planted.

Thursday I was disking as the sun came up and plowed for a couple of hours. Then I came in and worked for a few hours and took care of a couple of meetings. Then I disked for a couple of hours and came back in and worked for a few hours of meetings. Then I went out and disked until a little after dark and then worked until about 11:30 Thursday night. What a day. While this was going on my wife and youngest son started planting the food plots. I finished everything I needed to get disked before the rains came Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday morning I had to work until about noon. Then after finishing up with work my wife and I planted in between rain storms. We got everything planted by dark and before dinner except 1 small dove plot. After dinner I took my oldest son out and planted the final plot at night since it was supposed to rain again Friday night/Saturday morning. Overall we got almost 2" of rain prior to Friday night so it was a muddy mess but we got all the seed out on wet soil. I'm not sure how much rain we got Friday night through yesterday but I know it was some. Fingers crossed it takes and we can get something growing.

As far as the planting goes, I reseeded a bunch of perennials I planted last year and then did almost 6 more acres of perennials. I have been planting Texas Perennial Wildlife Mix from Turner Seeds. The total seed planted this year between reseeding and new plots was 9.5 acres. I didn't reseed everything from last year but at this point I have planted over 10.5 acres of perennials throughout the ranch. Our ranch has been a cow or goat ranch for over 100 years. My goal is to transform some of the vegetation geared towards livestock to be geared towards wildlife, especially deer. I'm trying to provide more natural forage for them. My plan is to do about 5 acres every year for the next couple of years and hopefully what I plant spreads as well.

Last year the dove plots were great until the cows destroyed them in June. I wasn't going to plant anything but then I decided to just plant native sunflowers this year instead of a dove mix. It is a little late for planting sunflowers but we will see what comes up. My hope is that the cows won't destroy the natives as hopefully they will be big enough to not interest the cows by the time the cows are hungry enough to be looking for food. We still have quite a bit of our fall plots doing well and our neighbor who shares the same cow herd still has a large field of oats to keep the cows happy for a bit. We will see how it goes. I'm already planning on planting the natives for next year in October to get them in the ground when they are supposed to be in the ground.

So, overall last weekend we planted over 11 acres of food plots. This weekend I will go back up and plow a couple of areas to prep for Spring deer plots. My hope is the weekend of April 13 we will plant over 10 acres of deer plots. That weekend I should have more help and hopefully less rain while we are working to make everything go quicker.

Looking at my list above, I did get a 3rd protein feeder put out about a month ago. The deer aren't really eating it right now but I think that is because the ranch is so green and there is food everywhere. Once it dries out they will start eating it more. I got all of my perennials and dove plots planted so I'm about halfway done with spring planting. And finally, I have 3 hunters booked for turkey and pigs the weekend of April 6. Fingers crossed the animals cooperate and everybody goes home with something in their cooler. We (well mainly my wife) have been getting the cabin ready for that hunt on weekends as well. Cleaning, washing sheets on beds, etc. is tough to fit in with the other work but we will be ready.

Unfortunately given the weather and time constraints I didn't get any pictures. I try to get a couple taken next weekend and post them up.

[DUKFVR]

Thanks for the update!
Looks like you got it whipped!

[cehorn]

Thanks for the update!
Looks like you got it whipped!

We did. I'm very lucky as I don't see a lot of wives helping the way mine does. It would have been a ton better if I had another 24 hours without rain but you always have to take rain when you can get it.

[cehorn]

We were back at it last weekend. My wife finished getting the cabin ready for our hunters. I'm hopeful on the hunting but I can guarantee they will have comfy beds with fresh sheets, good food and fun regardless of the hunting. We are seeing birds driving around and on cameras so I'm optimistic they are there and can get on them.

My dad was there last weekend so I had him clear a couple of areas we put new stands at last year. The clearing will help visibility at the stands and more importantly double the acreage of deer plots we can plant at those locations. We got all of that done on Friday evening and Saturday including normal work of checking and filling feeders. I had one feeder we hadn't been filling as I wanted to move it farther away from the rifle stand. We got that feeder moved and running as will. On Sunday morning I woke up ready to go so I went and disked to deer plot locations that didn't have fall plots. It was still early so I decided to go ahead and plant them which led to us having 1 acre of our 10.5 acres of deer plots planted now. On Tuesday we got another 1/2" of rain on the plots so hopefully we have something growing when I go up next. Next weekend we won't work as the hunters will be there but we plan to get the rest of the food plots done on April 13.

I detailed above what I planted for perennials and doves. For deer I will plant ~5 acres of Turner Seeds Spring deer mix and ~6 acres of a local bag totaling ~10.5 ac of deer plots. The Turner mix is heavy with peas and clovers. The local mix is geared towards all wildlife but it is mainly soybeans and cowpeas (66% total) with some milo and sunflowers mixed in for dove an turkey.

We will see how it goes but so far so good.

[miket]

Looking forward to seeing it!

[cehorn]

Time for the next update. Since the last update our turkey hunters hunted and I finished up the food plots.

The weekend of April 5 we had 3 guys come out and turkey hunt with us: Mike (miket), Matt (one of Johnny Dangerr's employees) and Charles (one of Johnny Dangerr's friends). This was our first time to host a hunt and I was pretty nervous as I wanted to ensure everyone had a good time. I knew I could control the food and lodging so I wasn't worried about that. I can guarantee they ate well. The hunting was my main concern. I'm not a huge turkey hunter and this was a semi guided hunt but again I wanted everyone to have a good time. Leading up to the hunt I monitored trail cameras and did a little scouting. I had a general location of where birds were roosting and I had 3 stands/feeders with birds coming in fairly regular. To make things more difficult, it was extremely windy all weekend (20-30 mph, etc.). Mike showed up early on Friday to get a little extra time in given the wind, etc. I took him to the farthest reach of the ranch to not disturb him if the other hunters showed up in time to hunt on Friday. He saw a few birds and got a shot at one Friday evening but didn't connect. We will blame that on the cows and wind. Matt showed up a little later in the afternoon on Friday and I took him to the closest location (farthest away from Mike). He saw a couple of Jakes and hens but no toms. Charles actually had some car troubles so he didn't get to camp until 11:30 Friday night. Wake came early on Saturday and I got all 3 hunters out in the woods with Mike and Matt in the same location they were in on Friday and Charles at the 3rd stand I had been seeing birds. That morning all saw jakes, hens and toms but only Mike got a shot. He wasn't able to connect, again with the wind. A little after that I got a text from Mike asking me to bring him his shotgun. Mike stayed out all day and was able to connect with a nice tom Saturday evening. The other 2 hunters stayed out until about 1:00 and then came in for a little rest and food. I took them back out again around 4 but all they saw was more jakes and hens. Sunday morning we switched things up a bit and I swapped Mike and Matt as Mike had seen a few other gobblers. As luck would have it Matt only saw a hen and Mike only saw a couple of Jakes. Charles went back to the same spot and he was able to get some tom action. He shot a tom but I think was more in the wings and leg area as it limped off and we were unable to recover it. Overall I think the hunters had a good time as all saw birds and 2 were able to get shots. I wish all could have gone home with birds but I feel like I did everything in my power help minus turning off the wind. I definitely have a new respect for hunting guides as it was a lot more work and a lot more hours than I anticipated. BUT, it was fun and I would love to do it again next year.

The weekend of April 12 my wife, dad and I were back at the ranch to get some work done. I had another buddy come up to do a little turkey hunting and help with the work. He was able to talk with a tom but unable to get him to cross the fence and come in. As far as the work goes, it was food plot weekend. Overall we disked 10 more acres and got it planted. For our process, we disk (sometimes multiple passes if it hadn't been disked before) and then use a hand spreader off the back of the UTV while dragging an old harrow behind the utv. The harrow does a pretty good job of breaking up the clods and smoothing everything out. We got it all finished up about 7:00 Saturday evening and we were wiped out. Of course we didn't get started until about 1:00 because....

So Saturday morning the plan was to wake up around 6:00 and head out to hunt. I was going to drop my buddy off and then sit with my wife and try to get her first spring bird (she has shot turkeys in the fall but never in the spring). Then we would come in, eat and get started late morning on the plots. I let the dogs out around 6:00 and at 6:15 my buddy called me over and said we had a problem. Tracker found a porcupine and he lost the fight. His face, chest and front legs were covered. I'm pretty sure he pounced on it judging from the quills but thankfully I don't think he tried to bite it more than once as he didn't have too many on his face and none around his nose and eyes. So, we picked quills for about 30 minutes and then crated him up while we went to hunt. After hunting we ate and picked quills for another hour or so and then we were able to start working on food plots. It was definitely an experience I hope to never have happen again. I am thankful he waited a week as that would have been a huge stresser if we were dealing with porcupine, dogs and turkey hunters all at the same time. Tracker is fine now but we did take him to the vet on Monday to get a few quills out we couldn't get as they were in his elbow and he wouldn't walk on that leg. It worked out well as we were wanting to get him fixed so we doubled up on the anesthesia and removed quills and balls at the same time, lol. Hopefully he associates porcupines with losing his manhood from now on and leaves them alone.

As always, pics to follow in the next posts.

[cehorn]

Pics from turkey hunt. From left to right in first pic: Mike, Matt, Charles. And then a pic of Mike's bird.