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686

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Everything posted by 686

  1. This can’t be overstated.
  2. From what I’ve seen, both exemption paths are doable, it really just depends on the ecology of the tract and you want to do with the property. The way we’re managing our place, I’m confident we could have changed from Ag (cattle/grazing/hay production) to wildlife without much additional effort to satisfy wildlife requirements (maybe a few bird boxes and reveg with native grasses in lieu of Klein; etc.). The dilemma is messing with grass/cattle or not. If our place wasn’t so setup for cattle, we might have changed to wildlife, but we’ve got some good sized grass pastures that are setup decently for grazing, and rotational grazing/getting the grass down will actually help forb production/antler growth for whitetail (per King ranch studies). Additionally, with beef prices the way they are, a low maintenance cow/calf operation can offset some expenses. If we didn’t have improved grass pastures with some cross fencing, plenty of stock tanks for water, a corral, etc.; we’d have leaned toward wildlife a lot more.
  3. I’ll play. We’re on 200 acres, low fence in Lampasas county. Our place was the original Storm ranch (as in Storm’s hamburgers in burnet and lampasas). It was in serious disrepair when my folks bought it 6 years ago. My dad got with the county Ag extension office and we’ve been under contract to remove cedars and reveg with Klein grass the last few years on about 100 acres. The Extension money barely pays for the diesel and some equipment maintenance but it’s something. We’ve taken down over 10,000 cedars easily. We’ve used skid steers with a grapple bucket and a dozer mostly. My dad made his own custom root grubber from grader blade: On a kick ass day I can take down 500 cedars with this machine: The cedar was so thick in the back that I found a bus completely hidden in a thicket while tracking a deer. The previous owners hadn’t said anything about it, they might not have even known it was there. The hardest part of the clearing is burning. We’ve probably set over 100 burn piles off. The next season after we burn a pile I’ll spread the ash and plow and seed. The spot where this pile was is now a food plot: We’re almost done with the “initial” clearing. A ton more forage has sprung up in the areas where cedar was removed, and an old seasonal spring started flowing again. We have some useable soil in a few areas and I’ve been doing fall food plots for about 5 years. I’ll post more on food plots and wildlife impacts later.
  4. I think this is the most Christmas-y thing to ever happen at our house. This and a lump of coal I got a few years back are by far my favorite ornaments.
  5. Is that Quigly’s special lady on the right side in front of Jedediah Nightlinger?
  6. Big body on the buck with the broken left beam
  7. I had a good week in Colorado last week. Didn’t get an elk, but had a good time. Had a young bull almost run over us; stopped at about 20’ away as he was running on the trail we were on. We locked eyes and he wheeled around and was gone in less than 2 seconds.
  8. Nice work! Is that a Sako?
  9. It’s really fun to see people finally “get” hunting - awesome that he had such a great day too! Nice of you to let him hunt your spot and shoot a 10 point as well!
  10. Hunting the third elk rifle season in Colorado with a friend. Saw three bulls today but couldn’t get a shot on one. Rained a lot this afternoon, supposed to snow tomorrow.
  11. That’s awesome! I had an opportunity to buy one of the original Mateba Autorevolvers about 15 years ago and I really regret not doing that.
  12. For it to be full 2020, he would need to push the feeder over, stomp on the mechanism, and then take a shit on it.
  13. The sway back and the belly make him look 5+ to me, but overall body frame seems small for that age. Tough one.
  14. What county?
  15. Beautiful stuff! What action on the 6mm-06? Douglas heavy barrel?
  16. Over the years my dad has come upon 3 deer stuck in fences and still alive, and was able to free all of them without incident. I usually find a dead one every couple years at our place. Lost a decent 8 or 10 point a few years ago in a fence.
  17. What cartridge are you considering? I’m trying to resist a 257 Weatherby, 270 Weatherby, 6.5 Swede, and 6.5x284.
  18. That is one hell of a buck!
  19. I basically had the same thing happen. I did at least have a couple thousand .22 and an ammo can of .45; but only about 100 rounds of 5.56.
  20. hunting in the hill country I would invariably hit a rock, so aluminum body broadheads were a one shot deal. I had better luck with steel body. If you’re in sand or soft dirt, it’s a little easier on the wallet.
  21. It’s been a few years since I’ve shot my bow, but when I was shooting more I shot Rage some, and they do some amazing things, but I did have blades get caught on something and “deploy” while sitting in my bow a few times. Luckily I caught it before drawing back on anything. I switched to slick trick fixed blades after that, but I think the mechanical companies have improved the blade retention devices since then. Are those Wasps aluminum or steel body?
  22. To paraphrase a Hellboy quote: “I’m not a very good shot, but these bullets have 4000 ft-lbs of kinetic energy...” I don’t like long tracking jobs, and I like to feel confident out to longer range if the situation arises.
  23. Yeah, I’m coming up with a 20’ radius. ((8 x 16) / pi) / 2
  24. Since we’re talking meat, I’ll elaborate a little. As you can see from the big bloody spot in this photo, the exit wound was a little bit back, but bright lung blood, no guts cut, which was obviously nice. Entrance wound was just at the back of the opposite shoulder, a little further back than I intended. He was walking, I only had seconds to get the shot off, excuses, etc. He was also quartering towards me more than I thought. Luckily I caught enough shoulder on the entrance side to slow him down significantly, and he was down within 30 yards. The benefit of the shot being a few inches back was that minimal shoulder meat was lost, so that’s nice. Also, I like heart, and while the lungs were shredded, the heart was intact - I trimmed back one piece of rib and I was able to reach in through the entrance wound and retrieve it. Yeah, the entrance wound. 300 Weatherby, 150gr Nosler Partitions, serious business. I break my deer into quarters and primals and wet age them in a cooler for a week or so, draining water, adding ice daily and a little Kosher salt. So I’ve got a little time here to decide what to do with him. First thoughts: Backstraps: leave whole for stuffing/roasting Neck: burger grind Front shoulders: burger grind Hams: jerky and roasts Heart and tenders: chicken fry or new recipe I bought a grinder awhile back, so I may try to process this one completely myself. I need to decide what fat to mix with the burger grind (bacon, pork tallow, beef tallow, etc). My wife and kids like venison, but they don’t like tough/stringing parts that processors will put into burger sometimes, so i may be able to get more consumption from them if I am more judicious with the trim, so I’ll be watching that closely. I also picked up a burger forming attachment for the grinder, so I may try to pre form patties as I grind and separate with wax paper before freezing to make it easy for the wife to use later. Dropped the head and cape off at the taxi I use to get the skull bleached and the hide tanned. Should make a nice euro mount and I’ll see if the wife or kids want to use the hide for something neat. I might have shoulder mounted him, but my Africa trip taxidermy came home last year and I just got the wife copacetic with that, so probably need to go a little understated here.
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