The Crockett Hunt Part 2

We rolled out of Rockwall around 3pm, I had taken off a half a day to load stuff, and since no one was going to be home that weekend I had to pull Morgan out of school because I am not going to leave a teenager home alone.

We got down to the campsite a little after 7pm. When we got into the forest we drove down some roads that we have never been down before and got a little twisted around but I had a new app on my phone that was a topo map and we did ok. The smart phones are awesome when they are loaded with the app's that make life a little easier.

 

We slept in Saturday morning as we were looking for a new hunting site, so after we got up we went scouting for a spot. I had hunted in a spot last year but could not find it until Joe showed me where it was. It is loaded with acorns so we set up there to hunt. We hunted there Saturday afternoon and did not see anything. We feel like this will be a good spot . Last year there were scrapes all around it, but a fire had been there and all the small tree's used in the scrapes were gone, so we will have to do some more recon in the area.


Sunday morning around 4:45am the storm came in, I had woke up and heard the thunder so I went and got my phone from charging in the truck and pulled up the weather app. There was a big storm headed our way. Morgan woke up and asked about the storm so I gave everybody a weather report, and told Morgan that all we had to worry about was getting hit by lightning or a tree falling on us. The tree's were fairly small and the wind was blowing from the northwest  and the tree's did not appear to be affected by the wind, now the one's across the street did not have this look, they were leaning into the neighbors camp, but nothing happened. Sitting in a tent during a thunderstorm gives a person an appreciation for a home, the thunder is louder and the lightning is brighter. Needless to say we did not go out this morning , I went back to sleep and awoke around 8:00am and it was drizzling so we went to our hunting site talked about things and decided to get our stands and head back to camp and roll up things for the ride home.

We went home by way of I45, it is 52 miles from camp to the highway and 194 miles to the house. We drove the rural route going down it was a little bit longer of a drive but 20 miles shorter, a person can make pretty good time until they get behind the slow movers, now I drive 65 mph in the 70 mph to save gas so I don't consider myself a speeder by any means , but these folks were going 50 mph in a 70 mph, 2 lane road.

The Crockett Hunt



Morgan and Joe at camp.



Don't leave the door open or bugs will invade.



 

Our camp

 




Our camp again

















Me, Morgan and Joe left to go to  Crockett around 1:30 pm Thursday 06, 2011 and Willie came down Friday. It was Morgan's first time to hunt down there. We got down there around 5:30 and got our camp set up bu 6:30 and then went off to our area's where we were going to hunt. Our tent is the blue one, we have plenty of room  for us and all our gear.

 Morgan set up by a water hole in a pop up, this is where Charlie killed his doe the first time he hunted down there. I waited til the next morning to find a place as it was dark after we located his hunt area. I went about a 1/2 mile down in the woods and found me a pretty good tree to hunt out of (I use a climber). I had found some acorns so I thought it would be a good place to hunt, as there were lots of oak tree's, turns out that the only acorns in the area were where my tree was ( I didn't find this out til after the Sunday am  hunt when I scouted more of the area). I will hunt here in the future as there are 2 creeks converging and all the acorn tree's, kinda of a bottom area.

There are a lot of place's to hunt, so it can get to be somewhat overwhelming sometime's. The best thing to do is find the acorn's, they need to be white oak acorn if you can find them as the deer like them better. Then after you find the food source you have to find a good tree to hunt out of if you are using a climber if not then a good place for a pop up, which can be hit or miss as it is so dry there is not a well defined trail to set up on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

We will go back on the weekend of the 10-21-11 and see what we can do. Joe got a doe last week, so congrats to him. Hopefully it will not be in the high 80's this week.

Morgan and Joe cooking breakfast.

                                                                                                                                                                                A big part of going to Crockett is the camping  and eating at camp. This year due to the drought campfires are not allowed nor are charcoal grills. We had a propane grill and Willie picked up a propane grill at a garage sale.

Hunting out in way West Texas



Cabin in Dryden





Joe with a javalina that he shot.

 Two years ago I was invited to go bow hunting for mule deer in Dryden Texas. Dryden is one of 2 towns in Terrell County which borders the Rio Grande, sitting about halfway between Del Rio and Alpine Texas, it is a hard 10 hours drive from Dallas, and even further if you go down the road where the bridge has been washed out and you have to double back 60 miles.

When we got to Dryden it was close to 1 am, and the only person we saw was a Border Patrol sitting on the dirt road which we had to take and was a hour drive down this dirt road. When we got to the cabin and unloaded and settled down after the drive it was pushing 4 am.


Joe and Greg over looking the Rio Grande 10 minutes from camp.



When I got up the next day we were surrounded by mountains which Greg told me were in Mexico. After he showed us the feeders, we got to choose where we wanted to hunt. We had brought our pop up blinds with us as there are not any trees to hunt of in that part of the world. Everything has a spike on it and will prick you when you walk by it.

This was a very secluded part of Texas, we left Dallas Thursday and stayed until Monday morning, we saw a border patrol driving one day and a guy with 2 boys that were dove hunting. This is not a place where you go to town and have lunch or if you forgot the milk you run to the store, when you leave you will be go a minimum of 6 hours, so luckily we did not forget anything, but after 3 days we were running short on water and Diet Dr. Peppers so I was kinda glad to pack up.



Wayne and Joe over looking the Rio Grande.



I seen, shot and could not find a javalina the first day, deer season did not open til the next day but we could hunt the javilina's. I seen a spike and a doe the next evening but they never came in close enough for a shot. I did not see anything after that till the Monday am hunt when I hunted the feeder about a 1/4 of a mile behind the cabin. That morning I had a group of 9 mulies (3 spikes and 6 does) come out of a canyon (around 8 am) to the north and they were moving south, they were about 40 yds on the other side of the feeder. One of the spikes was coming to the feeder but a doe started stamping her feet and blowing before he got into bow range and spooked him off. I sat there for another hour till around 8:50 and did not see anything else so i started packing my stuff up. I was on the back side of my pop up loading my chair on the back pack when I stood up to stretch and look to the south past the feeder and saw a wide set of antlers walking south through the cactus, this rack was every bit of 24" wide, he was a trophy in any one's eyes.

Greg posing with his bow



Joe and Greg chunking rocks in the Rio Grande





This was a awesome place to hunt and felt very blessed to have been invited.



Greg and the Rio Grande



Wayne and Joe

Joe and the Rio Grande

Morgan The Hunter

I have been taken my son hunting with ever since he has was 4 yrs old, I took him when he was 2 but he liked to pick stuff up off the ground to eat ,so... I had to wait a few years before he could go back to the lease.

Now we would go and sit in the blind and play tic tac toe for hours, he would bring a game and play or he would fall asleep, but what ever the case he was there. He was not the quietest hunter and when a father takes his son he should expect this, so as the years went by I just expected the noise because I was making more noise shushing him and I was not creating a fond memory.

He shot his first buck when he was 9 and has been shooting every year since. I was just as happy letting him shoot as I was shooting a deer myself.

Now I have got him climbing tree's with a tree climber and using a crossbow.

My Hunting Son

This year I outfitted my son with a full set of archery gear, he got a Parker crossbow among other things , I had given him a bow (diamond razor edge) 2 years ago but he has not practiced and not able to hunt with it. So in order to get to hunt during bow season i had to do something drastic.

Hunting on the cheap.

When we go hunting, I try to save as much money where ever possible, whether it is gear, groceries, gas or places to hunt. The easiest is using coupons for the food I buy. I started clipping coupons a year ago and have learned several things. It is best to use the coupons when the food is on sale, that way maximized savings is realized.

 Well here lies another problem : the food we want is not on sale at the time we need it. So what needs to be done is to start stockpiling the food, an by that I mean, through out the year when the stuff goes on sale I buy as much as I can with the coupons that I have, so come hunting season I have most of the food except for the milk, eggs and bread products that can not by stock piled. The meats go on sale during the summer for the BBQ cooking season, so I buy the meat and freeze it, as does other BBQ foods that I can store in the pantry for later use.

Since I started couponing I have come to realize that there is a bunch of money to be saved and I have become a better shopper, always looking for the best deals, which is easy when I have access to 5 different grocery stores within 3 miles of my house.

Hunting at the LBJ Grasslands

First time me and Morgan went  hunting at  LBJ was 12/22/10. We met Troy and his son, Jason there. We set up our camp and scouted for a hunting location. The first time I go to a new place it takes time to scout and try and figure the deer movement and the human movements. This was mainly a scouting trip. It was really cold that night, Troy and Jason slept in the back of their truck, Troy froze, me I got a good sleeping bag and did just fine, Morgan froze also. It takes freezing a couple of time to figure out what you need to have when camping in the cold, they will  be better prepared next time out.

Bow Hunting in Davy Crockett National Forest (Oct 6 thru 10)

Bow hunting in Crockett is always fun, there are a group of us that go, there were 6 me and Joe, Robert and his son Joe and Felix and his dad. Felix got a ticket for not having and archery stamp so he was depressed and left early.

I hiked down in the woods a little more than a half of a mile, I had found a stand of oak trees that had some acorns under them, which was the first acorns that we had found, there was also a fresh rub.

I started hunting this place Thursday afternoon because the previous place didn't pan out and I had hunted there 2 hunts, anyways me and Joe find this spot and I decide to hunt it. Now like I said it was over a half of a mile down there so i got set up and hunted till dark.

Being the brave soul that I am, I had convinced myself that the pigs were not going to mess with me and they didn't , there was a lot of pig sign. Sitting in a tree for hours can give a person a lot of time to think and sometimes not all the thoughts are comforting, I quit watching the horror movies a long time ago.

It was Saturday morning before i saw a deer it was a 6 point but he seen me first i was looking out into the oaks and turned and he came in from my left side behind me at 17 yards and was gone, had I not seen anything I was going to find somewhere else to go. Saturday night I had 8 small pigs, the size of soccer balls come by at 20 yards but decided not to shot as I didn't want a squealing pig messing up my deer hunt, as i explained back at camp that I was there to deer hunt and not pig hunt.