Mandi and I, along with our girls Taylor and Kailey, loaded up a couple dogs and rifles, and headed out to the hill country Friday morning for a weekend of deer and hog hunting with Jesse Paul aka Lionandboarhunter. We got to the ranch a little after noon on Friday, and got settled in, then took a ride around the ranch. About 4:00 we headed to the stands, Jesse Paul took our oldest girl Taylor, and Mandi took Kailey. It wasn't long and I heard a couple of shots. Turned out that the girls each connected with a doe, perfect neck shots. We were all pretty excited that the deer cooperated and the girls made good shots. Jesse Paul and Mandi got the deer cleaned up, while I got the fire going for dinner and cooked some chili, camp potatoes, and corn bread over the coals. After dinner we had a real nice camp fire and told some "war stories" before heading to bed.
Saturday am, Mandi slept in, so I went with Kailey and Jesse Paul went with Taylor in pursuit of her first buck. Kailey and I didn't see any shooters that morning, but we did hear a shot. We were hoping the Taylor got a buck... as it turned out, there were 8 different bucks that came to their feeder. She was after a nice tall 9pt, and shot right over him. He ran off, and didn't come back the rest of the morning. We headed back to the camp house, woke Mandi up and then rode around the ranch to see if we could run across any shooters. Not far out of camp we came across this guy.
He wasn't shot by the girls, or anyone else for that matter. Just found him dead, no holes in him, and no sign of fighting something, he wasn't even stiff yet. Not sure what he died of, but he was one heck of a nice deer. I doubt I will ever be that close to a deer of this caliber again.
After finding the big deer, and driving around a bit, we all went back to camp, stoked the fire and made bacon, eggs, and biscuits for breakfast. After breakfast we decided to make a late morning hog hunt. We kicked out Brandy and Ruby and a few of Jesse Paul's young dogs, all the dogs burned out covering some country. They ended up split up, so we went and picked up the young dogs in hopes of getting them all grouped back up. While we were trying to catch up with Brandy and Ruby, we got within about 1/2 mile and heard them open up. About time they started barking, my Mule started shredding it's belt.
We tried to turn around and head back to camp while the dogs lined out the hog, but that wasn't in the cards. The belt broke in two, leaving us stranded. Brandy and Ruby showed bayed at 3/4 mile, so we unclipped the young dogs from the Mule. Jesse Paul, Mandi, and Taylor went to the camp to get a truck, while Kailey and I headed across country to the bay. We found all the dogs bayed on a young boar in some stacked cedar. Jesse Paul got there and shot the hog, then we loaded up the dogs, as it was starting to warm up a bit. Went back to camp, unloaded the dogs, and found out that both my dogs had already blown their pads in one hunt....
We hung out around the camp house for the afternoon, then headed back to the stands at about 4:00 again. Taylor and Jesse Paul were going after the 9 that Taylor shot at that morning, and Mandi and Kailey were trying out a different stand at the front of the property. I took a stand at the back of the ranch. I got to see plenty of Axis, Black Buck, and white tail while sitting, but nothing that I was comfortable shooting. Mandi and Kailey had a real nice deer with 10"+ drop tine, but none they were okay with shooting. Meanwhile Taylor and Jesse Paul were shooting at the 9 again, I say shooting because Taylor missed twice while the deer stood their patiently waiting on her to connect. Third time was a charm, and Taylor had bagged her first buck.
Taylor and her her first buck
After that, it was back to camp for a steak dinner and some conversation with Jesse Paul's dad while sitting around the fire. We called it a night a little earlier, as we were pretty whooped from an action packed day.
Sunday at daylight, Jesse Paul and Kailey headed to the stand hunting for Kailey's first buck. It wasn't long and I heard a shot. Kailey had just bagged her first buck too.
Perfect first buck, it was a young 6 pt, and she was all smiles.
After the Sunday morning hunt, we headed home with a couple coolers full of meat, and two excited girls, and one super proud dad.... Thanks Jesse Paul, for providing a weekend that my family will never forget.
