Predator Call

For the last few weeks, my nephew has been wanting me to load my dogs and hunt with him on the home ranch south of San Antonio.  I have not made the trip and don’t have it on my schedule as long as a band of ornery javelinas are on the warpath.  The last two times he has hunted, he has had dogs cut in the hindquarters by javelinas.  The scary thing is neither dog was bothering the javelinas, rather cold trailing coons.

This is not the first time I have seen javelinas become overly aggressive and it is generally in areas where hog dogs have harassed them.  The hog dogs will bay them and then get out of the way while an unsuspecting hound is an easy target.  My nephew was lucky for it is pretty rare for a dog to survive such an attack as the javelinas are masters at cutting the hamstring, slowing the escape.  Having both dogs survive makes me think that there may not be many in the band. 

At any rate, I won’t be cutting my hounds loose on the Roberson ranch until someone gets control of those mad porkers.

See you outdoors,

Gary

Last Thursday I drove to Polar, Texas and picked up my hunting buddy J. Martin Bassinger and drove to Dumas, Texas approximately 40 miles north of Amarillo.  We were looking at a large ranch to see what hunting opportunities it might produce.

Though I have hunted several ranches in the Texas Panhandle, I have never seen a ranch with such a wide variety of game.  We saw pronghorn antelope, mule deer, whitetails, Rio Grande turkey, waterfowl, blue or scaled quail, bobwhites and coyotes.  The ranch was traversed by two spring fed creeks and a nice lake with approximately 5 surface acres, 10 when full.  Though this ranch appeared to be open, there was adequate cover with the best stand of wild plum thickets I have ever seen.  The only large trees were huge cottonwoods that lined the drainage areas.

Some folks think that the windy plains don’t offer many hunting opportunities but this ranch sure proves that wrong. 

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson   

Steve, Dustin (aka-Shed) and I drove to Dryden, Texas Friday afternoon to try to call up a bobcat for CARNIVORE.  We made one call that evening that produced 6 deer but no predators.  Saturday morning, the first stand yielded a gray fox that could not resist the sound of Cottontail Duet.  I had been playing the distress cries of a grown cottontail which I am sure had lured him into the area.  As soon as I switched the Compucaller III to the “duet”, the fox dashed from a thicket with a mockingbird pecking at his back.  Shed missed his first shot as the trigger pull on his Savage Model 10 is a little lighter than he is accustomed to.  The fox did not spook and his second shot was true.

The third stand produced another fox that pranced up to the caller with his tail arched.  He was trying to make himself appear to be about twice his size.  After nosing up to the caller, he trotted back toward cover.  Shed “gave him a barrel” but the bullet appeared to to hit under the little critter. 

Believe it or not, it was difficult sleeping in our old cabin for the recent rains have produced quite the mosquito population.  We ended up having to shut the doors which made it awfully hot; too hot for this old man.  We decided to drive back to civilization and air conditioning.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson

Dustin “Shed” Whitacre drove in for the long weekend to shoot a little footage for CARNIVORE.  We started out Friday morning by taking the hounds north of Menard and coon hunting at sunrise.  Shortly after dumping the hounds, they stuck and treed within a hundred yards of the pickup.  Old Lizzie finally struck a cold track an hour after sun up and started trailing east.  Tear was trailing with her while Daisy and Rip seemed to be swinging out in front, trying to pick it up.  Rip and Daisy winded the coon out front as he had already found a tree for the day. 

We hunted the dogs again Sunday morning and Rip and Tear treed a coon half a mile out before Lizzie and Daisy got to them.  I am extremely proud of these pups as they are only 10 months old.  We struck another good track and Lizzie and Rip crossed two fences and a county road only to put him in a hole in the ground. 

We treed one more coon about 8:15 a.m. when we roaded the dogs by a deer feeder.  They winded the coon as he had climbed a tree near the supper table.  It was a good morning, good fellowship and another segment for CARNIVORE is in the can.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson

Miss Deb and I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina to attend the NRA Convention last Thursday.  I would be helping in the SAVAGE ARMS booth.  Promoting SAVAGE rifles is an easy task for me as they are without a doubt the most accurate rifle “out of the box”.  I would even go a step further, SAVAGE rifles are the most accurate, period.  

While most of my hunting involves predator hunting with the Model 10 Predator Hunter which I helped to design, I am also a huge fan of the centerfire big game rifles as well.  My latest purchase was the Model 14 American Classic in .270 WSM.  My first hunting season with this rifle was a huge success as I killed a whitetail buck at over 350 yards, one shot and he fell in his tracks. 

The newest feature that is being offered on the centerfire rifles that has the competition scratching their heads is the ACCUSTOCK, a three dimensional bedding system that should improve accuracy.  Improving the accuracy on my Model 10 will be a tall order as I have achieved a .3″ group with three different factory ammos.

While visiting with my friends at BROWNING, I had the opportunity to meet Marcus Luttrell, author of LONE SURVIVOR and a true American hero.

Ron Coburn, Chairman, CEO of SAVAGE ARMS treated myself, Deb, Keith Warren and his daughter, Mattie to an evening at the NRA Freedom Celebration.  I was privileged to hear speeches by Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck and Oliver North.  Charlie Daniels was the entertainment to end up the evening.  It was a great time.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson

Last Friday, I loaded my 10 year old bluetick hound named Betty and 8 month old Rip (Grandmother and Grandson) and drove to my folks ranch.  Along the way, I picked up my nephew, Nathan in San Antonio and then stopped and visited with Windy Miller south of San Antonio.  Our plan was to drive to Floresville and pick up Rip’s sister from Robert and Melanie Hittson as her front feet are too flat to be a show dog.  (The Hittsons have shown the World Champion on many occasions). We had a good visit with the Hittsons as always and enjoyed looking at all the bluetick hounds.  After loading the gyp and showing Rip off, we proceeded to Devine to meet up with Windy and Rick Stewart who wanted to tag along. 

We dumped the dogs south of an old stock tank and proceeded to trot them down a pasture road.  After going a quarter of a mile, Betty struck.  I got out and found that she had taken the back track and told the guys she would turn it around.  Though it was only his third time out, Rip was staying with his Grandmother.  In a few minutes, Betty realized that she was going in reverse and came back across the road.  She open on the other side and Rip went to her, giving mouth as well.  

The coon was a tough one, as she was one that would not really run, rather preferred to squat and ease along.  Finally, after trailing for nearly a mile, Betty treed and had the coon.  Along the way, Rip had picked up the trail when the coon was dodging.

The second track was much better.  They jumped the coon and had him running in a matter of minutes and both dogs were doing a great job.  The dogs treed along Black Creek in a big oak tree and had the coon.  We struck another track but were unable to put an end to it as Betty trailed into a herd of cattle.

I have not predator hunted on the ranch at Devine in almost 30 years.  It brought back a lot of memories, listening to the hounds trailing through the sandy, mesquite and live oak country.  The coons still run and the brush is still as thick as it ever was.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson 

Last Sunday morning we met J. Martin Bassinger at his house near Polar, Texas.  He already had his hounds collared with Tritronics training collars and Garmin tracking collars.  We drove onto a ranch near Lake Allen Henry and cast the dogs.  After roading the dogs (driving the pasture roads while the dogs follow looking for the trail of a bobcat) for about two miles, one of the older hounds started wagging his tail as if he smelled something he liked.  The other dogs sensed that a bobcat had been in the area and they got busy looking for it. 

Most of the dogs crossed the road going west, toward Lake Allen Henry.  In a few minutes, I heard the dogs running north along the lake shore.  In a matter of minutes, the dogs were out of hearing.  J. Martin pulled out his Garmin hand-held screen and we could see that the dogs had changed course and were treeing 672 yards away. 

When we arrived at the tree, we found a bobcat in a snag almost over the water.  When we walked out on the bluff over the lake, the female feline was at eye level.  With two high definition video cameras rolling, we captured the best video that I have ever seen.

After shooting the bobcat, Dustin Whitacre with Mossy Oak bailed off the bluff to retrieve the kitty that was getting mauled by nine excited hounds.  Dustin snatched up the bobcat and was holding it above the bouncing canines.  It was about that time that two of the dogs bumped him into the lake.  Dustin said that it was a little cool as it was 30 degrees.

See you outdoors,

Gary  Roberson

Just returned from a hunt with an old buddy, J. Martin Bassinger from Polar, Texas.  While J. Martin is a cat hunter with great hounds, he is nice enough to carry me around coyote calling.  We hunted near Gail last Friday and the success we had helped me forget about the tough time we had in New Mexico. 

Shortly after setting down to make the first call, I heard coyotes barking (socially)about a half mile downwind.  I knew that these dogs had me but was hoping something would approach from the west or north.  I know that these coyotes got around behind me and later made a visual on one walking back to the truck.  That is the bad news, the good news is that this was about the last call I made that day that did not have a coyote or more on it.

I was calling with the COMPUCALLER III and they were loving the Grown Cottontail.  I had two different pairs show up on the last call of the day and I killed two of them.  The last shot is one that I will replay many times as I killed the dog running at approximately 150 yards.  I think that I counted three somersaults before he quit rolling. 

We were shooting a pilot for our new TV show, CARNIVORE.  It will air on the PURSUIT CHANNEL beginning July, 2011.  PURSUIT will be part of all standard packages on Dish and Direct TV which will make it the largest channel carrying hunting and fishing programming.

See you outdoors,

Gary

I hunted my favorite country in eastern New Mexico last week and while the weather was good, the calling was not.  With a full moon and coyotes more interested in breeding than coming to call, that lead to a tough hunt.  I feel the primary factor is a low population.  I hunted for five days and drove hundreds of miles of ranch roads and found very little sign…you simply can’t call what is not there. We called eight coyotes in five days; we normally call at least 10 per day in this area.  I realized that we were going to have a problem the first morning when I heard coyotes howling in mid morning and later in early afternoon.  Howling at odd hours is typically exhibited when they are mating.  The last morning I witnessed the howling and mating from over half a mile away.  

The coyote is a resilient creature and when populations are low, food sources are generally high, resulting in large litters.  If conditions are good, which they appear to be this year a coyote will typically raise 6-8 pups.  So wait until next year when I will have a chance to get even…heck, I might get ahead.

See you outdoors,

Gary