A few pics from my hunting trip in W. Texas

Flydown and I were headed to TX on the 31st-2nd but since he had a change in jobs, he wasn't able to go.

The Guide, Skeet Jones was kind enough to get me in contact with another Arkansan that wanted to go, but was on the waiting list. We got together and met and realized neither of us were deranged, psycopathic killers (Except for coyotes :wink: ) and we took off. Skeet has over a million acres to hunt in W. Texas and you couldn't meet a nicer guy.

We got there on the 30th and got settled into the house we were put up in. Got a little rest and talked to Skeet for a few hours. Then the next morning, we take off to get rid of some pigs on a ranchers property. He has been having problems with the roads getting tore up and needed a little payback. We were happy to oblige. It was 40 degrees and wind was about 20-30mph and to rough to call coyotes in the daytime.

To set the stage, here is the hunting rig we were in for the weekend. This is a night hunting setup for coyotes. we rode around with a gunner in the chair looking for hogs on the first day. (we saw well over 35 hogs, but they were usually a good ways out and the wind was to strong to take long shots.)


We took turns riding around in the chair till one of us got something or missed something. Luke, the guy that went with me, saw the first hog but it was across a "creek" namely the pecos river. lol.... He killed the hog, but we had no crossing without driving 30 miles around to get it. Lesson learned on that one and the idea was to get rid of some anyway.

I was up next, we rode for a bit and then I saw some feet under some mesquite, turned out to be some Javelina. So I got one. :thumb: Was a little guy, but he was the 1st of many critters to take a dirt nap.

Shortly after, Luke spotted some more pigs to the right and he shot another one. He hits it, but it wasn't a kill shot. No blood to be found and after about 3 miles of walking, we take of for the next ones. It was my turn. :wink:

We pull up about another mile and I see a hogs butt sticking my way out of a mesquite tree. I could make out the right ear out of the scope in the shadows and made a head shot. This hog was about 75yds out to the 1:00 from the front of the truck. Never knew what hit it. --- Headshot---
After that one fell there was 2 more that split from the other side of the bush. I got another one at 100yds with a running headshot and then the other one went down at 150 with a vitals shot. I got a triple on the first hogs I have ever killed. Thank goodness for the AR15....

After that excitement, we drove a little further with Luke in the seat and we flushed 2 coyotes and he shot at them. He missed on both though and that was that. We flushed another pair shortly and he got one of them though. Skeet was also getting involved after we saw a huge sow cross behind us. We put the spot and stalk on her.

Here is the pic from the first day..... The 3 small hogs and the Javelina were mine. The hogs were about 125lbs, the big one was close to 250lbs. This is luke in the picture next to his coyote.

 

The night hunting was a little less exciting as we took a bit to get use to the shooting at night. Plus we had a high pressure front and the animals were not moving until the moon came up. That was at 3:30am and progressively an hour later each morning. Overall we did pretty good. I got it down pretty good on the first night though. I got a kit fox at 250 yds out.

Here is the final photo minus the earlier pork. :thumb:


Final total was 18 kills. 4 kit fox (one not in picture due to being frozen for taxidermy) 8 coyotes, 1 javelina, 5 hogs. And some jackrabbits, but that doesn't count.


The best part though. Seeing this countryside.


Here is Skeet and Luke with the Fox headed to the taxi...dermist.

 

We had a lot of fun. Yet, this was a very.. below average trip according to Skeet. And had we done some better shooting we could have added a bobcat and a couple of other coyotes to that list. We all miss sometimes, I just prefer not to... :thumb: (Although, you'd be surprised how much the wind can make the truck rock and being up that high sure makes that seat sway when it does blow hard.)

The average hunt in that area nets 6-8 coyotes a night. There have been trips in early november that had netted 14 coyotes in one night. On one trip in the 80s they got 37 canine critters in one night between 2 trucks.

I don't know if any of you have been out to West Texas, but that is some large plots of land. The could care less about acreage. It is about who has how many (1 mile, 640acre) square blocks there. He has a couple that are over 250 blocks that are near his camp. I would love to have enough land to tell somebody, "go that way for 7 miles, then turn left go another 12 miles, then right another 2 miles. . (just to get to something)

To put this in perspective, Skeet is the county judge of Loving county in Texas. There is a total of 14 people in the "city" of Mentone Texas.... The entire county population is in Mentone. Pretty much the entire county is family and friends and he hunts the property everywhere in the county and beyond. Fellas, this is truley a place with no crime. Skeet said that he has tried 2 cases since he has been judge. They were both probate will cases. He has it made.:thumb: (Besides, ole Skeet could tell who has been to his house by looking at the tire tracks they left.)

 

We had one bobcat show up, but the other guy was in the chair and missed him. He had 2 shots at him but they are much more mellow about coming in and he stayed behind the bush the whole time.

That was one long stand too.

It was really hard at times to get good shots if the wind was blowing. The side of the truck catches the wind and it moves everything. There isn't a better way to go hunting them though. We had one coyote that I wanted to put a Carlos Hathcock on. Out in the open there, where there is not any cover. The sound travels a very long way. We had one set that we started where we pulled up on some coyotes not more than 150 yards away. They knew what we were and they were not coming in. So they stayed there and didn't move until we left ( when this happens, they look away and you can't get them to turn their heads to see the eyes. They freeze basically and wait us out). At the next stand, Skeet used the same call sequence (On every stand really) and the coyotes from the last stand started a warning bark at the group that was responding to us. The happened 3 times after that. We traveled over 8 miles, and everytime we got a response to coyote sounds, that one coyote would blow the whole thing for us. I kept telling Skeet, get me within 500 yards. We'll fix that problem. lol... We never went back that way, but he got a kick out of that. Then we talked about Carlos for about 30 minutes and the book about him.



http://www.texaspredatorpursuit.com/search.htm At the bottom of the page.

 

Really not that hard. It would be harder to find them in a vehicle, then move closer.

We actually were looking for one pig that the other guy shot and walked up on others that we heard. Wasn't even the same group. One was a 350lb boar. I was going to shoot him when I got a better look around the bush, but was getting ready to charge me once I cleared the mesquite. He was snorting and making a big ruckus. Luckily, just as he advanced a step or 2, the other 2 guys came up behind me and he ran the other way.