This past weekend I hunted with Quatro B Ranch. I was really excited to book this hunt after all the great reviews here on Texas Bowhunter. I booked the trip extremely late (Weds email to Doug with Thursday confirmation) and was accommodated very quickly to be able to make the weekend work.
We showed up right around 4pm, with another hunter sitting outside the gates. We pulled up and entered the code Doug gave us and in we went. We waited for the gate to close and saw 3 Zebras grazing to the right. We pull up to the first bunk house and Carlos is speaking to one of the other hunters then comes over to greet us. He told us which bunk house was ours and who we were bunking with. We put our stuff in a bunk house not shown on the website and once inside we could tell why, nothing special with nothing more than 2 sets of bunk beds, a stove looking thing, microwave, sink and bathroom. The Lodge was really nice as just like the website showed, and I didn’t get a chance to see the other bunk house.
After getting settled we headed to the lodge and introduced ourselves to everyone. Two guys from the Houston area on a Texas Safari package, a guy from Austin on an Exotic hunt. The other hunter, who followed us in, didn’t seem to have a preference or package. We shot the breeze then went to sight in. After shooting for a bit, we got ready for out afternoon sit. The guys that were going for exotics went out earlier by 30-45 minutes. I would guess that we went out around 6. I was put in a 7ft stand, which was not at all what I was looking forward to, as being a bigger guy (300lbs+) ground blinds our more my speed. But I figured what the heck. The only issue I ended up having with any of the blinds is that they were not made for a bigger guy as I was not able to shoot from both the right and left. My buddy was put in ground blinds. First night for me animals… no pigs, saw a decent size one cross the road 250yrds out, 3-4 fallow with a small buck, 3 whitetail bucks, all under 4 points and 2 small whitetail does. The does were always on my right, which I could not draw to due to how I was sitting. Sat until right at dark maybe a few minutes past. No pigs.
Animals taken on evening sit by anyone: 1 Blackbuck, 16 inches, 1 Aoudad shot not recovered. 1 shot on a pig missed.
Back to the lodge to get cleaned up and eat dinner.
Up early, 5:45 get ready and hope to head out about 6:30. But there was rain, so we waited it out and got out probably about 7. Same stand as the first night. I heard some stuff but nothing ever came into sight. Second sit with no pigs for my buddy.
Animals seen: 0
Animals taken on morning sit by anyone: No kills
Headed back out about 5:30pm. Carlos did go out and move the stand to a location where he said that he had a lot of luck out in the past. I was stoked to get a different view. I had a fallow doe feed for a while and she gave me 10 different shots opportunities including about 2 yards from me. But fallow was not on my menu. I did have one whitetail doe feed into me from the right. She poked her head around the bush, looked in my direction and turned around. I had seen her through the brush and she would have been a shooter for me, but wasn’t given the chance. Pigs moved in from the left. 10-15 at least. Most in the 30-50lbs range, maybe one or two were in the 75lbs range. I let them feed for a while hoping mom or dad would come out… no luck. Took a shot at the biggest one, heard the arrow hit a branch and land under the pig. Pigs scattered. No other shot. Animals seen: pigs, small fallow doe, couple whitetail doe, One nice Sitka buck that was taken by a hunter about 15-20 min after he moved on from me. Guide picked us up after dark about 8pm. My buddy had his only pig (70-80lbs) come in but as he went through his draw, the chair made a loud noise and the pig was outta there not to return.
Animals seen: Fallow doe, she walked within about 2 yards of my stand, pigs
Animals taken on evening sit by anyone: Sitka Buck
Went back to the lodge for dinner. At about 11 Carlos offered to do a night pig hunt. He corned then let it sit for a while. He then guided me out and I missed a shot on a decent hog about 80lbs. I missed low as I was going off Carlos giving me the yardage, as I had not shot at dark. He then put some more corn down and dropped us off and let us walk back up the corn row. My buddy missed a shot on a 50 pounder. Carlos came back, took my buddy back and me and other hunter walked the corn row. I ended up taking a shot on a maybe 50 pounder and was able to connect with the one behind it, need to shoot at dark more often and learn to guess yardages better. Carlos came back picked us up then dropped us at the skinning shed. It was about 1:30-1:45.
Sunday morning up at 5:45, and not sure why after getting to bed at 2:30-3:00am. Wasn’t sure I was going out, but did. Carlos put me in a stand that I had not been in before, ready to sling by 7:15ish. He took my buddy and the Texas safari package guys to a low fence place. Sunday morning I saw the most animals of any of my hunts. 3 rabbits feed for a while, and then some whitetail started to make there way in from my left. There was a little buck (6point at best) leading the way with 3-4 does behind him. Without warning, the same pigs from the night before came rumbling in and the whitetail scattered. Pigs feed for about 3 minutes before I threw a rock to chase them off. Seeing that I shot one the night before and frankly it was not worth it, I was not about to go through all that work again. A blackbuck doe fed for a while then moved on, she would be back several more times including a nap at about 40yds for 5-10 minutes. Highlight of the sit was the Zebra that fed in. If it would have been on the menu, I would have been able to take a nice 15 yard shot on the Zebra. Instead, I shot it with the iphone and watched it move on. I had one small/young whitetail doe (spots still visible) feed for a while mom kept watch from a distance. Never got a shot off on mom as she stayed out of range. Also had a bunch of fallow does/whitetail does feed off to my right at about 50yrds. Wouldn’t have been able to get a shot off due to the branches hanging. If they would have come into about 40, I may have been able to squeeze a shot off. By far the most animals that I saw the entire weekend.
Animals seen: Zebra, whitetail, fallow does, Blackbuck doe, pigs.. and a nice red stag at about 100yds.
Animals taken on morning sit by anyone: blackbuck doe
Back to the Lodge around 9am. Packed and gone before 10.
My opinion is that most the animals I saw were 1 to 2 years from being ready to harvest. I was there for mainly for meat, but didn’t want to take 4 small pigs that weighed in at 30lbs-50lbs. I would have liked to see larger pigs as well, maybe even something with cutters.
It was also mentioned by other hunters that there was no point in going out for any type of midday hunt as the animals are no where to be found.
Equipment:
Vehicles:
The old Nissan was not a joy to get into or out of, and riding on the hood was not fun either. He picked up 4 hunters at once Saturday night and someone had to ride on the hood… so I bit the bullet. Not to mention you get out and if you don’t remember the door will slam shut. We didn’t use anything else as they were “out of gas”
Stands:
My 7 footers seemed solid. My placement on the Saturday night sit was hard due to the placement on the tree. The tree came at a 45 degree angle, which made for a doable but uncomfortable sit, with some shots not possible. Last stand(by far the best stand for total animals and the animals I paid to hunt) had no cushion and it was not advised prior that I would need one. Lucky for me another hunter found one and I took it with me. My buddy did not fair so well with the ground blinds. On the chair squeaked bad, one the chair made it impossible to shoot from, there was a 10gal bucket that he was able to use that would allow a shot, if anything would have come in. One of the other hunters noted that you needed to be a skilled monkey to climb some of the stands. Some seemed to have missing steps where you had to pull yourself up.
Skinning area:
Sawzall was dead, a couple of knifes (most brought their own any way). When I skinned my 50lbs pig, the rope broke when winching it up.
Lodging etc:
Despite not looking like the Lodge or the other bunk house, I only had three small issues. The first was no hot water, not sure if it was broken or not. The second was that the bathroom light also controlled a light right outside the bathroom that ran into the sleeping area. It was the brightest light in the bunkhouse. Third issue was that the toilet would overflow upon every flush. It’s not that bad, but the three small issues made it a little less workable than I would have liked. A petty issue is that my buddy went and bought some replacement tips for the pool cues, as you couldn’t use the pool table due to the state of the cues. Carlos made it seem like he told Doug, but nothing was done.
Guide performance:
Don’t expect Carlos to stick around when it comes to skinning/quartering your game either. When we got there he said that if we took something he would take it to the skinning shack, go have a beer or two then skin. The only time I saw him stick around the skinning shack was after the Sitka was taken. Frankly, his buddy did most the work. The guy that was on the exotic hunt did both his buck and doe by himself and stuck around to help me with my pig as Carlos went to bed.
I don’t feel that the guide really “worked” to put me in a place to get the animals to have a successful hunt, until my last sit. It was mostly a drive you out to the stand and pick you up. On my Saturday evening sit, I could hear him back at the lodge as I sat in pitch black waiting for my ride back. He did offer the night hunt which was good and he did move a stand, which was helpful.
He talked about all the game he and other hunters had taken, but I didn’t see anything like it. We even talked about Rueben and how he didn’t like being on the ground, but Carlos put him on the ground and pigs were all around… never happened for me. Probably the worst part, in my opinion, was he told us of the good sized 8 pt that he took before the Texas safari guys came out. The head/rack was still sitting in a bucket curing at the skinning shack. I am not saying that he doesn’t have the right to take it; it just doesn’t sit right with me. You know that guys are coming in and paying $1300 for the Texas Safari package, and you bag what was probably one of the best deer out there. The other guys didn’t see anything worth shooting at.
I heard that last year there were only 4 deer taken of the Quatro B, 3 of which met the 8pt or higher rule. And that was a year in which acorns didn’t fall. Not much of a reason to hunt whitetail there if that really is the case.
Overall:
For what I was looking for based on expectation from the green screen and my experience with other day lease operations, it was poor. I know it is hunting and things happen, but the non hunting issues left bad taste.
I have contacted Doug and he has offered to make it right, but I am not sure that I will be back. Good to see an outfitter be a stand up guy.
Matt
We showed up right around 4pm, with another hunter sitting outside the gates. We pulled up and entered the code Doug gave us and in we went. We waited for the gate to close and saw 3 Zebras grazing to the right. We pull up to the first bunk house and Carlos is speaking to one of the other hunters then comes over to greet us. He told us which bunk house was ours and who we were bunking with. We put our stuff in a bunk house not shown on the website and once inside we could tell why, nothing special with nothing more than 2 sets of bunk beds, a stove looking thing, microwave, sink and bathroom. The Lodge was really nice as just like the website showed, and I didn’t get a chance to see the other bunk house.
After getting settled we headed to the lodge and introduced ourselves to everyone. Two guys from the Houston area on a Texas Safari package, a guy from Austin on an Exotic hunt. The other hunter, who followed us in, didn’t seem to have a preference or package. We shot the breeze then went to sight in. After shooting for a bit, we got ready for out afternoon sit. The guys that were going for exotics went out earlier by 30-45 minutes. I would guess that we went out around 6. I was put in a 7ft stand, which was not at all what I was looking forward to, as being a bigger guy (300lbs+) ground blinds our more my speed. But I figured what the heck. The only issue I ended up having with any of the blinds is that they were not made for a bigger guy as I was not able to shoot from both the right and left. My buddy was put in ground blinds. First night for me animals… no pigs, saw a decent size one cross the road 250yrds out, 3-4 fallow with a small buck, 3 whitetail bucks, all under 4 points and 2 small whitetail does. The does were always on my right, which I could not draw to due to how I was sitting. Sat until right at dark maybe a few minutes past. No pigs.
Animals taken on evening sit by anyone: 1 Blackbuck, 16 inches, 1 Aoudad shot not recovered. 1 shot on a pig missed.
Back to the lodge to get cleaned up and eat dinner.
Up early, 5:45 get ready and hope to head out about 6:30. But there was rain, so we waited it out and got out probably about 7. Same stand as the first night. I heard some stuff but nothing ever came into sight. Second sit with no pigs for my buddy.
Animals seen: 0
Animals taken on morning sit by anyone: No kills
Headed back out about 5:30pm. Carlos did go out and move the stand to a location where he said that he had a lot of luck out in the past. I was stoked to get a different view. I had a fallow doe feed for a while and she gave me 10 different shots opportunities including about 2 yards from me. But fallow was not on my menu. I did have one whitetail doe feed into me from the right. She poked her head around the bush, looked in my direction and turned around. I had seen her through the brush and she would have been a shooter for me, but wasn’t given the chance. Pigs moved in from the left. 10-15 at least. Most in the 30-50lbs range, maybe one or two were in the 75lbs range. I let them feed for a while hoping mom or dad would come out… no luck. Took a shot at the biggest one, heard the arrow hit a branch and land under the pig. Pigs scattered. No other shot. Animals seen: pigs, small fallow doe, couple whitetail doe, One nice Sitka buck that was taken by a hunter about 15-20 min after he moved on from me. Guide picked us up after dark about 8pm. My buddy had his only pig (70-80lbs) come in but as he went through his draw, the chair made a loud noise and the pig was outta there not to return.
Animals seen: Fallow doe, she walked within about 2 yards of my stand, pigs
Animals taken on evening sit by anyone: Sitka Buck
Went back to the lodge for dinner. At about 11 Carlos offered to do a night pig hunt. He corned then let it sit for a while. He then guided me out and I missed a shot on a decent hog about 80lbs. I missed low as I was going off Carlos giving me the yardage, as I had not shot at dark. He then put some more corn down and dropped us off and let us walk back up the corn row. My buddy missed a shot on a 50 pounder. Carlos came back, took my buddy back and me and other hunter walked the corn row. I ended up taking a shot on a maybe 50 pounder and was able to connect with the one behind it, need to shoot at dark more often and learn to guess yardages better. Carlos came back picked us up then dropped us at the skinning shed. It was about 1:30-1:45.
Sunday morning up at 5:45, and not sure why after getting to bed at 2:30-3:00am. Wasn’t sure I was going out, but did. Carlos put me in a stand that I had not been in before, ready to sling by 7:15ish. He took my buddy and the Texas safari package guys to a low fence place. Sunday morning I saw the most animals of any of my hunts. 3 rabbits feed for a while, and then some whitetail started to make there way in from my left. There was a little buck (6point at best) leading the way with 3-4 does behind him. Without warning, the same pigs from the night before came rumbling in and the whitetail scattered. Pigs feed for about 3 minutes before I threw a rock to chase them off. Seeing that I shot one the night before and frankly it was not worth it, I was not about to go through all that work again. A blackbuck doe fed for a while then moved on, she would be back several more times including a nap at about 40yds for 5-10 minutes. Highlight of the sit was the Zebra that fed in. If it would have been on the menu, I would have been able to take a nice 15 yard shot on the Zebra. Instead, I shot it with the iphone and watched it move on. I had one small/young whitetail doe (spots still visible) feed for a while mom kept watch from a distance. Never got a shot off on mom as she stayed out of range. Also had a bunch of fallow does/whitetail does feed off to my right at about 50yrds. Wouldn’t have been able to get a shot off due to the branches hanging. If they would have come into about 40, I may have been able to squeeze a shot off. By far the most animals that I saw the entire weekend.
Animals seen: Zebra, whitetail, fallow does, Blackbuck doe, pigs.. and a nice red stag at about 100yds.
Animals taken on morning sit by anyone: blackbuck doe
Back to the Lodge around 9am. Packed and gone before 10.
My opinion is that most the animals I saw were 1 to 2 years from being ready to harvest. I was there for mainly for meat, but didn’t want to take 4 small pigs that weighed in at 30lbs-50lbs. I would have liked to see larger pigs as well, maybe even something with cutters.
It was also mentioned by other hunters that there was no point in going out for any type of midday hunt as the animals are no where to be found.
Equipment:
Vehicles:
The old Nissan was not a joy to get into or out of, and riding on the hood was not fun either. He picked up 4 hunters at once Saturday night and someone had to ride on the hood… so I bit the bullet. Not to mention you get out and if you don’t remember the door will slam shut. We didn’t use anything else as they were “out of gas”
Stands:
My 7 footers seemed solid. My placement on the Saturday night sit was hard due to the placement on the tree. The tree came at a 45 degree angle, which made for a doable but uncomfortable sit, with some shots not possible. Last stand(by far the best stand for total animals and the animals I paid to hunt) had no cushion and it was not advised prior that I would need one. Lucky for me another hunter found one and I took it with me. My buddy did not fair so well with the ground blinds. On the chair squeaked bad, one the chair made it impossible to shoot from, there was a 10gal bucket that he was able to use that would allow a shot, if anything would have come in. One of the other hunters noted that you needed to be a skilled monkey to climb some of the stands. Some seemed to have missing steps where you had to pull yourself up.
Skinning area:
Sawzall was dead, a couple of knifes (most brought their own any way). When I skinned my 50lbs pig, the rope broke when winching it up.
Lodging etc:
Despite not looking like the Lodge or the other bunk house, I only had three small issues. The first was no hot water, not sure if it was broken or not. The second was that the bathroom light also controlled a light right outside the bathroom that ran into the sleeping area. It was the brightest light in the bunkhouse. Third issue was that the toilet would overflow upon every flush. It’s not that bad, but the three small issues made it a little less workable than I would have liked. A petty issue is that my buddy went and bought some replacement tips for the pool cues, as you couldn’t use the pool table due to the state of the cues. Carlos made it seem like he told Doug, but nothing was done.
Guide performance:
Don’t expect Carlos to stick around when it comes to skinning/quartering your game either. When we got there he said that if we took something he would take it to the skinning shack, go have a beer or two then skin. The only time I saw him stick around the skinning shack was after the Sitka was taken. Frankly, his buddy did most the work. The guy that was on the exotic hunt did both his buck and doe by himself and stuck around to help me with my pig as Carlos went to bed.
I don’t feel that the guide really “worked” to put me in a place to get the animals to have a successful hunt, until my last sit. It was mostly a drive you out to the stand and pick you up. On my Saturday evening sit, I could hear him back at the lodge as I sat in pitch black waiting for my ride back. He did offer the night hunt which was good and he did move a stand, which was helpful.
He talked about all the game he and other hunters had taken, but I didn’t see anything like it. We even talked about Rueben and how he didn’t like being on the ground, but Carlos put him on the ground and pigs were all around… never happened for me. Probably the worst part, in my opinion, was he told us of the good sized 8 pt that he took before the Texas safari guys came out. The head/rack was still sitting in a bucket curing at the skinning shack. I am not saying that he doesn’t have the right to take it; it just doesn’t sit right with me. You know that guys are coming in and paying $1300 for the Texas Safari package, and you bag what was probably one of the best deer out there. The other guys didn’t see anything worth shooting at.
I heard that last year there were only 4 deer taken of the Quatro B, 3 of which met the 8pt or higher rule. And that was a year in which acorns didn’t fall. Not much of a reason to hunt whitetail there if that really is the case.
Overall:
For what I was looking for based on expectation from the green screen and my experience with other day lease operations, it was poor. I know it is hunting and things happen, but the non hunting issues left bad taste.
I have contacted Doug and he has offered to make it right, but I am not sure that I will be back. Good to see an outfitter be a stand up guy.
Matt
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