Friday dawned clear and 34 degrees, brrrr.  I headed out the south side of Austin about 9:00 a.m. with the gate of the West Kerr ranch targeted for noon.  As I rolled down 290 through Dripping Springs and Johnson City, one of the sure signs of Spring in Texas was evident, Bluebonnets!  It’s still too early to tell what sort of year it will be for them, but here they come!

I arrived at the gate about 12:15, no one around, and I realized I had left the gate code at home, so I turned and headed back up  the road watching the signal on my phone, or waiting for a signal to show up I should say.  Found a high spot and called my wife, she read me the phone numbers for the ranch off the Internet and I soon had Kelcie on the line.  Kelcie’s family owns the West Kerr Ranch and she would be taking care of us this weekend.  I was on the ranch within just a few minutes and we went straight to the bunkhouse.  Steve and Bob were dressed and ready when we got there so I quickly changed, loaded the daypack, and off we went.

Bob was the first out to his pasture, good lucks were given, and he was off.  We came to my pasture next, I jumped out, Kelcie and Steve continued on.  I had most of a section to myself so I turned on the GPS, marked the gate, and started to walk along one of the areas which run through the ranch that had been cleared of cedar.  I hadn't gone but about half a mile when I came across yet another sign of spring in Texas. I had walked about half a mile down the cleared area and came to a crossroad that Kelcie said would be one of my borders.  I turned and followed this road, looking for a cross fence, the next border.  I soon found this fence and started down it, looking for animal crossings and immediately came across one that had been used a lot since the last rain a few days before.  There were a lot of tracks, both deer and sheep. I looked around and found some brush and set up a ground blind about 75 yards away, intending to use it in the next couple of days!  I had continued on down the fence line for a while when I saw animals moving along one of the cleared areas.  Now, these cleared areas have a good bit of growth back in them so all I could tell at first was there were a lot of them and they were moving!  I settled on the ground, peering through the brush trying to tell if it was deer or what.  Suddenly, a ram appeared, went under the fence, and was out of sight on my sight in a split second.... another... By now, I had figured out this was what I was after and flipped open the Butler covers on the Leupold Vari-X II.  Now several rams were in sight coming under the fence and finally one stopped directly in front of me about 75 yards away, perfectly broadside.  CRACK!  The .06 spat 150 grains of Winchester ammo downrange just as the ram took off.  He hit the ground momentarily, regained his feet, and took off into the brush.  I watched as several other sheep flew through the opening along the fence and disappeared into the heavy brush.  Now the wait.....

I think the waiting after a shot is worse than waiting to get the shot!  After 30 minutes or so, I went to check for evidence of the hit.  Immediately I saw bright red blood and knew this one was mine!  I followed the trail for a short ways through the thick cedar cover and found the ram.  He scored 83 ½ using the Record of Exotics scoring method, placing him well into the Bronze category.

After field dressing the ram and getting him out near the fence (whew!), I hiked back to where I had entered the pasture and climbed into a stand I had noticed which overlooked a feeder.  I was now armed with the video camera and it was about 4:30.  A little while later, I saw this buck coming out into the cleared area.  He went to the middle of the road about 200 yards away and started feeding on a small bit of alfalfa Kelcie had dropped out.  He had a nice 5 pts on his right antler but only two on the left and they weren't quite right.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, I took the following pictures; can you tell what is going on here?

 

This is the same deer, I had watched him leave the road and move behind some trees on the way back to the brush.  When he came out from behind the trees, he was acting very strange.  He had dropped the 5-pt antler off the right side when he was behind the trees and went through a lot of contortions.  I guess it felt a bit odd! 

It was getting close to dark now and the clearing came alive with whitetail! I saw about 20 or 25 deer in the last hour of daylight, and two more sheep!

Soon it was dark and Kelcie was right on time at the pickup point.  Bob and another hunter I hadn’t met were in the truck so I hopped in the back to go pick my ram up. When I hopped in the back, I found a ram, a hog, and a bobcat already loaded and only two hunters in the truck!  This was going great!  Next we picked Steve up, he had not seen any sheep that afternoon, only deer.

Back at the bunkhouse, I met Eddie and Trey who had come down from Dallas.  Trey had taken a ram and a hog on his hunt and  the bobcat turned out to be Bob’s. Pictures were taken and the cleaning began.  After the game was taken care of, everyone sat down and got to know each other with everyone having stories of past hunts, ranches, and game.  Soon it was like a group of old friends sitting around a campfire.  The alarm was set for 6:00 a.m. so everyone turned in around 11:00.

Saturday morning saw a beautiful clear morning and the other guys excited to get back out on the ranch.  Bob was hunting the area I had been in the day before so I told him about the crossing I had found and where it was.  I had decided to return to Austin, having taken the ram I had come after, so I bid the West Kerr adieu.

The West Kerr is an outstanding ranch in all respects, the accommodations are top notch, they have a walk-in cooler and taxidermy is available on site.  Kelcie has a taxidermy shop right next to the bunkhouse!  I had seen two flocks of turkeys while I was walking the pasture but they wouldn't stick around long enough for me to get the camera out of the pack and I saw more Saturday morning on the way out.  This is going to be a great Spring for turkeys on the West Kerr!  They have ample game on this ranch and Barbara does an outstanding job of managing the resources.  Definitely a place I will return to!

Visit their website at WestKerrRanch.com