Youth Exotic Hunt

[texastrophies]

I put my son in a drawing for a youth exotic hunt a few weeks ago, and he was chosen. The hunt was this past weekend on the Escondido Ranch just outside of Junction, Tx. The ranch is high fenced with approximately 1200 acres of heavy brush, cedar and oak trees, with a creek and numorous canyons running through it. They have everything from whitetails, elk, sika, aoudad, axis, fallow and I think that is all, on it. The hunt consisted of 6 kids that ranged from 9 to 13 years of age.

We arrived at the ranch friday evening and the first order of business was for everyone to get into their orange vest & hat. Even though these are not required by law in Texas, they were required by the people putting on the hunt. You had to wear it from the time we arrived until the time we left on sunday (except for in your tent). Next we all headed out to the rifle range to check both the kids ability to shoot and that the rifles were still on.

We then came back and set up our tents/camps, then had a presentation by the Texas Youth Hunters Program (TYHP) and the ranch owner on the rules that were to be followed and the type of game that we would be allowed to harvest. Each kid would be able to harvest two of the following: axis doe, sika doe, feral hogs or aoudad with horns less than 12" long.

As soon as we got out of the truck Friday evening we heard elk bugling and this continued all weekend long. Man it got me pumped for the Colorado trip.

Saturday morning was slow. Saw a couple of whitetails, and an aoudad that was about 16". None of the other kids took a shot, either.

During the day on Saturday, the kids went through a skills trail, had a presentation by the local game warden and got to fish or play in the creek. Some of the parents took naps.

Saturday evening started out slow, saw a couple of whitetail and a huge axis buck, with antlers over 34". Then right before dark, a couple of does came into feed, but the guide couldn't determine if they were sika or fallow. After about 10 minutes, he said they were indeed sika does and Jake could take the shot whenever he was ready. Well it didn't take long before there was a sika doe laying on the ground about 80 yards away. We were all as happy as could be.

When we got back to camp, we found out that one other kid had took a shot at a feral hog but they couldn't find it, and it appeared that it had just been grazed. After a quick bite to eat, Jake got hands on training on how to clean, skin and quarter an animal after harvesting it, with a little help from both the guide (Matt) and I.

Sunday morning was back to normal Texas heat, we had a sika spike feed around us for a while, and had elk bugling all around us. After a while we saw one bull elk that was pretty good sized, and shortly after that we heard it and another one sparring. While they were clashing antlers together, I happened to glance the opposite direction and saw a third bull elk running towards the action. He came right by us and never looked our way.

When we got back to camp, we found out that three other kids had harvested two sika does and one axis doe.

Time to pack up and head out.

Not to start anything, but this hunt was on a stocked, high fence ranch, and nothing about it guaranteed a shot or an opportunity. We were still at the mercy of mother nature and the whims of the animals. There were 18 hunts (six kids, three hunts each) with only 4 animals harvested and one miss.

link to pics

Here are a couple of pics

[hutchies]

Re: Youth Exotic Hunt

Congrats to him and a happy dad. If he is old enough to kill and clean you need to start teaching him to cookem too.

[stevebeilgard]

Re: Youth Exotic Hunt

great story. congrats