We arrived Friday afternoon and were greeted by Pam Haun as Terry had clients out in the Gulf on a fishing trip.  Since I had been there before we just got a small bit of advice, "Stay on the roads!"  It had rained quite a bit in recent days and the Haun ranch runs on both sides of Coleto Creek and to say there were some muddy spots would be an understatement.  We drove the ranch, Marshal and Micah checking the different stands so they could pick where they wanted to hunt.  No sooner than we got back to the bunkhouse and got unpacked, it was time to go out.  July in Texas is a bit warm and the creek bottoms have a generous share of mosquitoes, so we were all glad of the various precautions we had taken against the skeeters after getting into the stands, the heat was..well...it was hot!

I had taken a stand across the creek from main body of the ranch so it was nearing 7:00 pm when I climbed in.  I had been sitting enjoying the sounds of nature for an hour or so when, out of nowhere, a nice 8 pt. buck appeared out of the brush about 50 yards away.  He was on full alert, moving quickly and then freezing for long periods as he peered intently in one direction and then another.  After several minutes of this, he was gone as quickly as he came.  As the sun set, I was presented with a small parade of young bucks, one 4 pt. and three 6 pointers and they all were very alert.  I didn't see any hogs that evening and made my way back to pick up the other guys to hear their stories.  Everyone had seen deer but the hogs hadnt moved in the heat so we decided to try again early in the morning.

All three of us decided to concentrate on a large low area of the ranch in the morning with myself in a rifle blind with the video camera and Marshall perched in a ladder stand with his bow.  Micah had elected to sit in a tower blind overlooking a large amount of pasture and treeline.  In the early morning light of dawn, I could see movement in the woods behind Marshall and turned on the video camera, but there was not enough light penetrating into the woods as the sun had yet to rise.  I looked through my scope and there they were!  A large group of hogs was moving through the woods toward the stand where Marshall was waiting.  I lost sight of them in the brush and waited.  Several seconds later Marshall came on the radio and said they seemed to be hanging up in the woods and wouldn't come out.  Since the wind was not 100% favorable from the stand I was in, I left out the back and headed around the perimeter of the huge pasture towards where I had spotted a group of hogs traveling along a fence.  I couldn't relocate the hogs once I arrived in the vicinity.  I finally saw them so I started slowly through the dove weeds and other knee high grasses.  We were unsuccessful that morning, a LOT of hogs seen but they didn't offer any shots.

We waited until dark to go out in the evening, I dropped Marshall and Micah off and drove to the edge of one of the large fields and started slowly across it.  I had only gone about 100 yards when I spotted something blacker than the night.  A quick look through the scope showed me hogs at about 75 yards!  As they started to pass in front of me, I picked one of the leaders and put the crosshairs where they should do the most good and fired.  The pasture came alive with hogs running for the heavy cover they had just left!!  I waited a couple of minutes and got out the flashlight out to look for signs of success in the area the hog had been standing when I shot.  About that time, Marshall came on the radio and said "hey, this isn't looking too good!"  A quick look showed a HUGE electrical storm bearing down on us and a quick radio conference determined the outdoors was not a good place to be, so I ran back to the truck and picked up the guys.  We sat in the bunkhouse until a little after 11:00 and there was no letup in the impressive lightning so we turned in.

Sunday morning we were all back in the woods well before daybreak with a lot of anticipation after the number of hogs we had seen the previous morning.  Sunrise came and went and I didn't see any hogs, but I did have the pleasure of watching 3 more 6 pt. bucks make their way into the heavy cover from the open areas where they were feeding.  I guess the storm of the night before had altered the hogs regular travel patterns as between the three of us we could see a LOT of territory but didn't see any hogs.  I searched for about an hour for some sign of the hog I had shot at the night before and could find nothing.  It seems I made a clean miss under the slight light of the night before.  A shot came from what seemed to be the other side of the ranch, and when we got back to the bunkhouse we saw that Joey, another hunter there that weekend, had scored a perfect eater hog.

The Haun Ranch has been passed down through several generations—beginning with Terry's great-great grandfather who immigrated from Germany to Texas, to his great grandmother, to his grandfather, then to his father, and finally to Terry.  Haun Ranch has been in Terry's family since 1876.  In 1976, the ranch was recognized as a Texas Family Land Heritage farm.  This means it was in the same family for 100 years with continuous agricultural production.  It was initially a range cattle operation, becoming a dairy in the early 1930's with Terry's grandparents.  When the dairy business went into a decline, Terry sold the dairy herd in March of 1997, and began leasing the ranch out for hunting, etc.  Terry also leases 200 acres from his mother and 150 acres from a neighbor.  The hunting-cattle ranch is now about 700 acres which has 10 blinds and 10 feeders with a continuously flowing Coleto Creek on it.  Terry also owns and runs Rip Tide Charter off-shore fishing guide service which he runs out of Port O'Conner, Texas.

All in all, we had a great time and will definitely be going back.  We had seen about 12 or so bucks and several does, turkeys, and a lot of hogs in 48 hours.  Terry has some outstanding bird hunting as well Terry also offers offshore fishing trips and has some great photos of fish.  So, if you are looking for a great place to hunt or fish, give Terry a call at 888-990-6460 or you can check out his web site at http://www.captainterry.com/

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