West Texas / SE Arizona trip

E5B

New member
At the beginning of the month the family and I left NC for our home turf (I'm from West Tx and wife is from SE Az). We chose to make this trip our family vacation over standing in lines waiting on rides. Our goal was to visit friends and do a little hunting, or was it......hunt and do a little visiting. Realizing that the summer months aren't the ideal months for calling and hunting in general, we had to take what we could get (kids out of school, leave etc). We started off in the Davis Mtns of West Tx, luckily I know several landowners. We did some calling but had nothing answer. Did quite a bit of hiking and cooking out which gave the kids much needed exposure to how I grew up. The wife did, however, shoot her first hog during this first week. How this came out is interesting. I had the wife, oldest and youngest sit under a tree overlooking a dirt tank while I took the middle kiddo on a hike. Two hours later I eased up to the tree where the wife and kids where and started formulating a new game plan. The kids were perfectly content in the shade of the tree (youngest was asleep) so I told the wife to take advantage of being able to hunt alone. I told her to ease down a road then turn back up a draw in hopes of getting a shot at a hog. 10-15 minutes later (I 'may' have been napping) I was surprised to hear 3 shots. Sure enough, she was going slow enough to sneak within 50 yards of a big sow. She was super proud that she accomplished this on her own.
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She used a Win 70 FW 243 (my oldest sons rifle). Not a bad hog for her first!

The next day, I shot a big hog:
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I was using a CZ 527 204. Seems like every time I run into hogs I have my 204 instead of my 308. Put a couple of rounds into her and she laid down. Knowing these things, I pulled my Glock 27 as I walked up on her from behing and sure enough she got up, spun around and charged. She took just a couple of steps and I fired three times hitting her in the head and/or neck all three times. Got to be careful with these things!

After a week of hunting the Davis Mtns we headed for SE Arizona (wife is from that area and fellow PM member AN22 (close friend) lives in the area as well). While in Arizona, the wife and kids did some visiting while myself and AN22 did some calling. Again, not the ideal time of year but I got more enjoyment from hanging out with Alan and seeing some gorgeous country! We made half a dozen stands in a day and a half. Saw one coyote on the first stand before we even started calling...shot and missed. The next day I made up for it by shooting a double. These two ran in together and I shot them with the 204.
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After five days, we headed back to the Davis Mtns for some more hunting. We had a rare opportunity to hunt another friends ranch (low fence, free range) for aoudad. Not even an hour into the hunt the wife took this nice ram with the 243. She made an amazing 172 yard shot off hand on a moving aoudad. He measured 30 1/8". It's going to make a nice mount. Super proud of her. Words can't describe the joy I got from watching how excited the wife and kids were. The kids watched the entire thing go down and was cheering Mom on.
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[url=http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/image_26_.jpeg t=_blank]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/image_26_.jpeg[/url][/ BTW, the wife regularly mentions that her auodad out measures the one I shot in 2002.

We stayed on the ranch the rest of the day looking for an aoudad for my oldest son (12) and came up short. He did, however, shoot his first javelina. That made his (our) day. The look on his face was completely worth it and took his mind off not finding another aoudad. [img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/image_30_.jpeg

The next day, me and the wife did some calling together in hopes of having her shoot her first coyote. She had my shotgun and was sitting near the call and was 50 yards behind her with my 204. Two minutes into the stand a coyote runs up and gives us a perfect broadside shot. We both shoot simultaneously and it went down.
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Shortly after, my middle son (9) shot his first jack rabbit. I wish I could have video'do his reaction to his "one shot, one kill".
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It was a great trip and much needed vacation. The wife and kids had a good time. I need to figure out how we can make a winter trip.



 
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Quote:Seems like every time I run into hogs I have my 204 instead of my 308.
Could have been worse, at least it wasn't a 17hmr.
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Great family hunt. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
hm
 
This is what hunting and time in the outdoors is about. Time spent with the family cannot be taken away and will not be forgotten. Very nice story.
 
Just got word that the wife's aoudad is moving right along. Expected completion date is 1 Nov. Looking forward to getting it on the wall.
 
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