Had a great weekend in West Texas

We were the lucky ones to get chosen to come run our dogs for a great bunch of guys at The Shin Oak Ranch in West Texas. Let me just say, What a ranch! Beautiful lodge, great guys, great cover and lots of birds! Me & my buddy didn't shoot, just ran the dogs and we had a blast! We hunted just a few hours on Friday afternoon and found eleven coveys, hunted a few hours in the morning and only a couple of hours Saturday evening and I think we found 13 or 14 coveys (was 82-83 degrees Saturday!) Then just hunted a couple hours Sunday morning and found four coveys I believe. (they were running big time and flushing wild Sunday)

We saw more deer than you could even imagine, a Crapload of Turkeys & hogs and rolled up on a buck fight Saturday morning that was the most brutal buck fight I have seen. The big one of the two, was a very big deer.

I think with the extreme conditions that we had, the dogs did pretty darn good. This has been the kind of season dreams are made of, if it stayed just like it has been this year, I would be happy. Gary, I know you will read this so I want to say thanks for the invite and we look forward to running dogs for you next year. And tell Glen I can't find him on Facebook either.








More pics will be in a reply.

Anyone know what kind of cactus this is? Some of the worst I have seen for the dogs to deal with.

WOW! Glad the bobs are back. Looks like a great weekend.

Thanks for the pics Kevin. Someday soon...........

Did it have a barb on the end of the quill?

CC,
This is called Chula cactus and it is bada$$! I was taught to take a plastic hair pick comb in my vest for both me and the dogs. It works great!

Thanks Kevin and Paul for a lot of great pictures and memories. The dogs were awesome and look forward to it again someday!

P.S. Keep Paul in good shape, he's one of the best (human) bird dogs I've ever seen.

Looks like a great weekend indeed. Above my pay grade.

Cool...power of Texas Hunting Forum at work to hookup guys with land/birds with a guy with good dogs and a good camera

I noticed from one of the pictures that you used 2 UTVs. I'm helping in the guiding of a Quail Coalition donated hunt next week. We'll use 2 UTVs. How did you divide up your hunters and your handlers?

Bill.....The handlers used their UTV and the hunters used theirs. Even though there were four shooters we rotated quite a bit. It really helped rotating especially when the birds were moving and we had to follow them a good ways. This would allow the person rotated out to catch back up with us in the UTV and keep the hunt moving along at a good pace.

All four hunters / shooters were on their Polaris Ranger, we followed behind in the Mule. They just took turns shooting, there was a couple of points that all four shooters did go up but they were in a line & spread out.

Meanest I have ever encountered, and our place South of Sterling City had some nasty stuff. This stuff sticks to the dogs if they even brush by it. The slightest touch and 8 sections of it is stuck to them. And it will get you while trying to get it off of them, needlenose pliers are a must!

I believe that is called Jeff Davis cholla or thistle cholla (Cylindropuntia davisii). It is different than tree or walking stick cholla. They are not kind to man and beast alike.

Very awesome!

I have had the pleasure of hunting on the ranch and Gary and them are very blessed to have such an awesome property!

Who would think that Sand, sand burrs, and cactus could grow so many, deer, turkey, quail and pigs????

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

J.J.

You sure that's not a cholla cactus?

Looks like a "holla" cactus to me, cause that's what I'd do.

I looked it up, it is cholla. There are several different varieties of it but I think this one was Snake cholla or maybe coast cholla. Either way, watch out for this stuff, those needles are sharp and strong, Daisy came up with one in her chin, I grabbed it and next thing I know, it's into my thumb and pointer finger through my glove. Bled pretty good from that one. Then I looked down and she had them all down her side & back leg. I am going to get a hair pick, thats a good idea.

I clicked onto their website. Looks as if they sell everything except quail hunts. Quail are precious little birds.

Who's website?

This one. I guess I'm a little confused;

I have had the pleasure of hunting on the ranch and Gary and them are very blessed to have such an awesome property!

Who would think that Sand, sand burrs, and cactus could grow so many, deer, turkey, quail and pigs????

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

J.J. [/quote]

Not sure who that guy is but thats not the Ranch we were on. This was just north of Noodle, TX

What a setup

Looks like great times Kevin...had to pass on two invites, you know what they say about a third Sir...I wont allow it to happen Amigo, GREAT PICS

Kent Outdoors is a North Texas waterfowl outfitter with a few other things along the way. He turkey hunted the Shin Oak last year.

Nobody like a showoff Kevin!!!