Day Deer Hunt

As you probably know, I dropped off my deer lease that I've hunted on for a number of years back in the Fall of 2011. With my retirement still shaking out, I decided the money spent for that lease could be better used for other entertainment... A dear (deer?) friend from church invited me to hunt opening day this past Nov 3 at a ranch out south of Coleman, TX. This ranch is 1100 acres and is owned by a friend of my friend, named Ron Carroll. Ron has had a successful construction business in the DFW area for many years, and has been blessed, for sure. My friend Dennis became friends with Ron through his connections with Southwestern Bell (from which Dennis is retired) and AT&T, as Ron did many construction jobs for those companies over the years. Ron started looking for ranchland about 10 years ago and he found what he was looking for out south of Coleman about 15 miles. There were no "real" improvements on the land at the time he bought it, but in the past 10 years he has turned this land into a hunter's "Mecca" of sorts - primarily for dove and deer.

 

This is a shot of the "bunkhouse" where hunters stay. Ron told me this was originally just an old barn with a long porch running along the north side. They took the barn layout and created this very nice bunkhouse area. The doors you see here lead into a mud room, and then more doors inside lead to a long living room area equiped with sofas and chairs and TV and other items.

 

 

This is a shot of the north side of the bunkhouse. The long living area is behind all these windows.



 

 

Here is a picture taken from just inside the door, looking at the sleeping quarters part of the bunkhouse. Note in the left edge of the picture is a kitchen area and a long cabinet.

 

 

Swinging a bit to the right, you get a good look at the sleeping area. There are 12 identical bunkbeds set out in the great room of the bunkhouse. Not seen, are three separate bathrooms available at the rear of this area. Each of these bathrooms has a shower, sink, and toilet. Between the three bathroom doors are built-in wardrobe cabinets. At the far right, all the way to the back, is the second door into the sleeping area. That door, like the doorway I'm taking the picture from, goes into the long living room which spans the length of the bunkhouse, just the other side of the wall showing at the far right edge of this picture.

 

 

Here are just a few of the "trophies" positioned around the bunkhouse living room area. Many of these deer were taken from this property.

 

 

Ron has a lot of different things mounted besides deer. The badgers, coon, and coyote were all taken off this ranch. Not pictured were a bobcat, porcupine, and various duck, geese, and quail as well.

 

 

Swinging the camera 90 degrees right, here is the shot of the long living area. Originally, this was just the long covered porch of the old barn...

 

 

Here are just a few of the ranch wagons Ron has available for tootling around the place. In addition to these, there were probably a half dozen open-air ATV four wheelers at the hunters' disposal as well.

 

 

Friday afternoon several of us made use of the firing range Ron has setup to ensure our rifle scopes were still on target. I put three shells through my rifle and made just one slight adjustment.

 

 

Here are the targets down range. The targets mounted on the yellow plastic rectangles are at 100 yards. Not sure what the nearer range is - probably 50 yards or so. Not pictured, Ron also has a skeet shooting range setup on the ranch as well. It is even lighted, for practicing one's shotgun skills even after the sun has gone down.

 

 

Here is a shot of the "work" barn. Equipment used around the ranch is stored here. In the background, looking through the right end of the work barn you will notice the end of a similar barn.

 

 

This is a close-up shot of the "party" barn patio. Various cookers/grillers are out here along with some tables and refrigerators stocked full of various drinks. To the right is a large walk-in cooler.

 

 

Here is a shot of one wall in the party barn. Note the variety of stuffed animals - pheasant, coyote, exotic deer, and even an alligator!

 

 

Other areas inside the party barn are tables for eating and various gaming tables like ping-pong, foosball, air hockey, billiards, and even a shuffleboard table.

 

 

Recently clean-shaven yours truly leaning against one of the range buggies on Friday afternoon.

 

 



I ended up hunting Saturday morning and evening - but alas, I drew the "dry hole" each hunt as I didn't see any deer. Others there that Saturday did see various deer, and Dennis' grandson actually shot at an 8-point trailing a doe but missed. I leave you with a shot I took out of the blind early Saturday morning with a light fog hanging over the area. It was much more beautiful in person than the picture shows...

 

 

After the Saturday evening hunt, I stayed for grilled, stuffed dove breasts and grilled fillet steaks. So heavenly tasting... I hit the road for home soon after, as I had duties at church the next morning that I had to fulfill. Though I didn't harvest any meat, it was such an enjoyable weekend. Mr. Carroll was such a generous host - providing all this equipment along with all our meals at no cost to us. He really made us all feel welcome.

Tom