Bird Hunters dressed up like Eskimos!

Just home from a week at Dos Jefes with friends, a bunch of bird dogs, and more quail than this man could have ever dreamed of seeing in such a short time. Our friends the Hoffmans (Jerry & Julie) from Dallas join us each year at the ranch for Deer and Quail hunting and trips to the shopping meccas of McAllen and Kingsville's "King Ranch Store" and some place named the "Cactus Flower". Too bad the 'world famous King's Inn" closes during the holidays!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....Jerry and I and our combined 6 dogs, my son Eric and daughter in law Sarah and their 3 Brittanys, along with two of the finest quail shooters I have ever witnessed, Austin's Gareth Cook (with 1 tremendous Brit) and Ed Small (with 1 terrific Lab), challenged 20 foot tall sunflower loaded with state of the art Tritronics, DT Systems, Dogtra and Garmin technology and found, and even pointed, a world of quail. The most impressive thing about the weekend was the 'size' of the covies...I know, I've been accused of 'overcounting' in the past, but these covies were HUGE! Many 15 plus birds and Ed Small even claims to have seen the largest covey (or a convention of multiples) containing 0ver 30 (!) birds. Thursday afternoon in two hours, we moved 21 covies and flushed numerous more as we drove out of the Mill Pasture area.

The cover is still very tough and Gareth's incredile dog "Annie" kept pulling us into some very difficult country with multiple finds that we could never have seen had it not been for the Garmin Astro Collars (3 of them at work at one time!). Riding along in our VW "Boss Buses" became more like sitting in 'mission control' with beeps and squeaks from all the electronics that are now a must in running bird dogs.

Oh well, it was a great weekend (in spite of a horrid case of allergies on my part). Jerry, Gareth and Ed are real gentlemen and fine sportsman....Gareth's Lamb chops and Ribs and Jerry and Julie's Nebraska "Scotch Pheasant" made the evenings very special.

Happy New Year guys and thanks for the memories!

The "Other" Jefe! (The Smart One!)

Dick Nelson, and wife Phyllis, spent this past weekend at Dos Jefes Ranch and filed this 'report' last night. What a neat partner the Nelsons have been! They are so much fun to be with and the two of them can keep a roomful of guests mesmarized with the many stories of their worldwide travels and from years in the top echilons of some of the world's most important corporations!

"We just spent a wonderful weekend at DJ. Perfect weather, ice on the dog's water buckets Sunday (at Falfurrias, TX!). Richard Solomon, our new foreman, has our camp in tip-top shape . Grandaughter Caroline and pal Chris joined us. He wanted a deer, his first. We put them in Guajalote Blind about 10 AM and Phyllis and I had no sooner gotten back to camp when the walkie-talkie announced- "8 point buck DOWN." He had made a perfect shot and got a huge bodied buck. An old battler, mossy horns and a broken brow tine, would guess about 125 B&C. Much too easy. But my pursuit, even at 81 in Jan. remains quail. And God has blessed us with a HUGE crop this year. The problem is Mother Nature also blessed us with a ranch full of thick 3 foot weeds and an unbelievable crop of 16 foot tall sunflowers. Earl Campbell in his prime would have a tough time busting into position for a covey rise. You have to see the weed growth to believe it! We are praying for a 2 inch rain followed by 30 mph winds to lay the weeds and sunflowers down. Maybe by the end of January. You cannot get to the birds and can lose your dogs in the cover in the twinkling of an eye. When we bought the ranch in 1989, there was very little cover. I have hunted So. Texas since 1966 and have never seen cover even remotely approaching what we have this year. Think Congo! The magnificent thing is that the bird numbers are astronomical. So when Caroline left on Sunday, Phyllis consented to hunt me an hour or so. It was a very strange hunt. Bill Young (the other Jefe) had reported many unexplained wild flushes, and that happened. Huge coveys, short flights but into impenetrable sunflowers. The birds then held, sort of, but you just try a smooth swing in a sunflower jungle. Miss and another miss! But just before I wore out (which was quickly) I made a beautiful shot on a high left quartering cock and went back to camp with my bird as proud as Punch. Believe it, for me it was as pleasurable as one of those bygone days limit hunts. Maybe next time?"

Thanks Partner....great report and would love to include more stories of your most memorable hunts here on the 'blog'!

Checking in

Dos Jefes without Sunflower!!!

With temperatures of 91 degrees and winds of 25+ mph, it was not exactly quail hunting weather this past weekend in Falfurrias, Tx. In spite of the heat and sunflower stalks dense enough to misplace a small city, the quail were everywhere! So much so that we lost count quickly. Our friends (Jim Brown, Gareth Cook, and Dalton Tomlin) estimated 80 to 100 covies moved in the 2 1/2 days of hunting...most birds located without thrilling dog participation.

One very bright spot however...Gareth Cook held tutorials on use of the new Garmin Astro GPS and I love it! In fact, Dolly De Lamont might still be lost some 900 yards away had we followed my instincts and gone 'South' to find her, when the Astro said she was 'Northwest'! I'm a believer!

Insomnia

With temps predicted in the mid 40s tonight in Falfurrias, Tx but in the mid 80s by Friday, it is easy to get a bit depressed about being here in the city! But one thing is keeping me awake in spite of the forecast...the bird population is phenomenal this year! Richard, the man on the scene at Fal, rode the fence last Thursday evening and called with an estimate of 'driving up 40 plus covies of quail". Now Richard has lived in this country most of his life and is not known for 'exaggerations" so sleep is battling with visions of bird dogs on point "as far as the eye can see".

Regardless of the numbers, I have trouble sleeping before most hunting trips anyway, a trait I first discovered at the age of 7 when dad took me on my first squirrel hunt with my brand new Christmas gift, a 22 calibre single shot. Its still in my gun case! And the passion dad and I shared still lives in my dreams!