Still Rambling

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="088085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Andy Milam's Hunting Adventures</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Andy Milams Hunting Adventures"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gone Western"><U>Gone Western</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Buck by a String"><U>Buck by a String</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Unbelievable Season"><U>The Unbelievable Season</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Quest"><U>The Quest</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Rock King"><U>The Rock King</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="One Great Week"><U>One Great Week</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Canadian Bacon"><U>Canadian Bacon</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ramblings From a Man"><U>Ramblings From a Man</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Oklahomas OK"><U>Oklahoma's OK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Buddys Buck"><U>My Buddy's Buck</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hunting the August Rut"><U>Hunting the August Rut</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Challenge"><U>The Challenge</U></A>   |   <B>Still Rambling</B>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Changing Tactics"><U>Changing Tactics</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Blue Bulls of the Wild Horse Desert"><U>Blue Bulls of the Wild Horse Desert</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bowhunters Heaven"><U>Bowhunter's Heaven</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="089d2e83.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hunting Articles"><U><B>Back to Hunting articles</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Andys Photo Album"><U><B>Back to Andy's photo album</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="08a07073.jpg"> <div> <I>Still Rambling</I></div> <div> July / August 1996 Texas Trophy Hunter magazine</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="29766210.jpg" border=0 width="358" height="545" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> STILL RAMBLING </div> <div> (Just in a better Ground Blind)</div> <bR> <div> Well another season has passed and plans for the next one begin.</div> <div> I really overloaded myself this past season setting goals that were virtually unrealistic, but I had a great time trying to achieve them. After all, I have achieved seemingly unrealistic accomplishments before. I think the difference is that I had not <U>planned</U> on doing so. As usual dealing with landowners turned out to be the only unpleasant task which I'm sure is part of the reason so many hunters <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" ><I>now days </I></FONT>are choosing hunts with quality outfitters, day leases or package hunts instead of leasing. Even then, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men, you know how it goes.</div> <div> Most serious hunters, like me, analyze past seasons and think of ways to make the next year more productive. New strategies, new places to hunt, better blinds, the list of things you could do differently and the wide array of gimmicks as well as potentially potent products available goes on and on. The only sure thing in this business is that big bucks are hard to come by. Even if you are lucky enough to harvest a mature buck, maturity doesn't assure you of world class antlers. If that's your only measure of a trophy you have a long row to hoe. The best buck I arrowed this past season was a 6 1/2 year old, 120" 8 point that I took on opening day on our October Lease in Frio County out of one of my newly introduced “Taj Mahal” Ground Blinds. When telling other hunters about my trophy, it never failed,</div> <div> the first question would be, “What did he score?”     I could sense the disappointment in many who had not seen a photo of my trophy. They were more impressed hearing about the 130 " 10 point that I took later in October on the same lease. Truth is the 120" 8 point, in my mind, is more of a trophy. Not to take anything from the 10 point, it's more myself that I'm disappointed in. I shot the 8 point as a mature buck which was a trophy representative of the area I hunt. I shot the 10 point because I felt he would make P & Y even though I did not feel he was fully mature. Choices like these are ones we deal with often and who's to say what the right choice is. Only our conscience can guide us when we are out there one on one with the game we hunt. The area I hunt in October is rifle hunted after we are through and when presented with an opportunity at a 4 1/2 year old animal with tons of potential, it is easy to rationalize. “He'd of never made it through rifle season ". The only sure thing is that if you take him, you will never know. That is what I did and I will never know. What I do know is that when I look at him on my wall next to the 143" 10 point I arrowed from the same spot in '93, I wish I had let him go.</div> <bR> <div> My next adventure and learning experience for the season entailed a trip to Indiana where I stayed on the Indiana / Illinois border and spent time hunting areas in both states. The first couple of days I was being led around like a lost pup through the Indiana side of the Wabash River Bottoms. This land is open to public hunting and it never failed when I would see some decent sign I would look up and there would be someone's deer blind. Deer blinds were everywhere. Late the third morning, after a death defying pre-dawn drive which was highlighted by a spin-out through the mud and up over an old wooden bridge, where my life flashed before my eyes, I arrowed a young 7 point as he chased a doe by me. I had no idea where I was as I had been separated from my hunting buddy for a couple of hours, and I had no idea why I released an arrow on such a young buck. Something like when in Rome do as the Romans do was the best I could come up with. It was a fine shot on a trotting buck at 20 yards but the end result was a buck I wasn't real happy with. I only say this because I personally have harvested plenty of mature bucks. I don't mean to imply that the same circumstances and the same buck wouldn't be a trophy to someone who had never arrowed a buck or who had taken very few. He did turn out as the best deer salami I've ever had but I'm sure a doe would have tasted as well and I would have been more satisfied with myself.</div> <div> After that, I buckled down and got serious about finding a trophy. On the tenth day of the most frustrating hunting I'd ever experienced, I stalked to within 20 yards of a massive 8 point with a 12" drop tine only to have my shot opportunity blocked by the thick underbrush. I was presented with a fine shot from the front shoulders forward but lacked confidence with that type of shot and didn't take it. Could I have gotten him with a neck shot? I will never know. What I do know is that the people who hunt this country deserve BIG DEER. I was extremely cold from the day I got there to the day I left. I found it amusing that the locals didn't use ice chests they just throw a box of drinks in the back of the truck and they are always ice cold if not frozen.</div> <div> I stayed and hunted another 11 days without an opportunity at a mature buck. I saw some fine bucks but the mature ones were always out of range.</div> <div> By the time I returned to Texas I was ready for something</div> <div> I hadn't done in 5 years. I wiped the cobwebs off my 300 Mag. and headed to Mexico. Anyone who thinks rifle hunting is not challenging should give this a try. I felt as inadequate with a 300 mag in this vast country as I normally do with a bow in hand. I did end up with my best buck of the season, a massive 9 point with some of the most incredible brow tines you've ever seen but that is another story.</div> <div> After my successful Mexico adventure it was time to fill my last Texas tag. Earlier in the summer, at one of the Trophy Hunter Extravaganzas I was approached by a man whose father owned a fairly large ranch in South Texas. He wanted to trade a hunt on his Daddy's private ranch for some of my new Taj Mahal     ground blinds. He assured me that a "Pope and Young" on this private,"Bowhunting Only” ranch would be no problem.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> I had never been on a package hunt before and thought it would be interesting to see how the big boys do it. He wanted to trade 5 days for two blinds but I told him 7 days for three blinds would be better so that we would have one blind set up for me.</div> <div> He agreed to this and said he would even put up a feeder near the blind for me and keep it fed. This sounded like such a sure thing that I sold my spot on my lease in Artesia Wells where, to this point, I had been dealing with one of the worst landowners I'd ever met.</div> <div> In mid September I delivered the blinds and even set them up where he wanted while he watched and then helped put several tons of corn into various feeders. By this time he had changed his mind a little and wanted the blind designated for me to hunt out of left in the box so he could use it on a West Texas hunt. <U>After</U> his blinds were set he also let me know he had changed his mind about where I could hunt. Instead of hunting “his 6000 acre ranch ", where we had just filled all these feeders, I would be confined to the area up front by the highway where the ranch workers rifle hunt. Although I didn't care for this much, I had enough confidence in my hunting abilities to feel I would still have a good hunt. After all he did say he would feed an area up front for me regularly .........................................and,</div> <div> I could come up ahead of time and put up a blind ....... whatever.</div> <div> In early December I called to pin down the exact dates of the hunt and find out if he had put up a blind for me as we originally agreed or not. He told me that not only had he not put up a blind for me but plans had changed once again</div> <div> and that I would be unable to hunt the area up front. He claimed to have seen a 23" 8 point and was sure I'd understand that he had to save bucks like that for himself. Whatever.</div> <div> Should I come up ahead of time and set up a blind?     No, that won't be necessary," he replied.</div> <div> By now I knew this hunt could be a disaster but, here again confidence in my abilities prevailed. I felt sure I could find a good buck somewhere.</div> <div> I showed up for my hunt the day after Christmas at 8:30 A.M. When driving in he came out of a Taj Mahal     set on an oat patch in the front pasture (the one that was supposed to be set up for me, in the area I was originally supposed to hunt and rode to camp with us. He couldn't wait to show me the</div> <div> 12 point he had shot there with his rifle. He said it was too good a deer to take a chance on someone else getting it. After sitting around all day with no mention of where I was to be hunting it became painfully obvious that this man had put no forethought into my hunt.     At 4:00 P.M. he turned to one of his other companions and said,     we'd better get ready." Nothing had been said to Mary and I so we went out to the truck and got dressed, then went and stood by his truck. When he came out all he could say was he hadn't yet decided what to do with me.</div> <bR> <div> Whatever.</div> <div> He had only had since June to figure it out. I could go on</div> <div> and on but I won't. I do have to mention however that it was obvious that he was scared to death I was going to kill one of his good deer. I explained to him that when Andy Milam is on the ranch something's going to die. Can you believe he told me that if I killed a big buck I couldn't keep the antlers? He would make me a replica set. Duh      </div> <div> I of course told him what he was doing to Goofy.</div> <div> After loosing several days trying to straighten out the fact that I was either going to <U>Hunt,</U> or leave, I got down to business. I hunted hard the remainder of the trip in blinds that I put up ( I did have the forethought to bring some extras ) and harvested the best buck I saw on the entire hunt, a 4 1/2 year old 11 point, on the last morning. The guy is so mad that I killed one of his deer that he will be cursing me the rest of his life.     He said he would forgive me if he could keep the antlers.</div> <div> I don't think so.</div> <div> What's that they say about dance with the one that brung you? Maybe I should have been at the Martinena. The best news is I can still claim that none of my book deer were taken on package hunts.  Not that I'm against package hunts, I've just preferred a seasons worth of hunting over a few days worth, a choice which had to be made on my budget. The hunt I've just described could hardly be considered a package hunt anyway, that's just how it was originally represented.</div> <div> What did I learn and what will I do differently next year? Number one, I should let go of the high goals and hunt one deer at a time and try a little harder not to shoot a deer until he is mature or has such an outstanding rack that it doesn't matter. (The new word record typical, the Hanson Buck, was a 3 1/2 year old.)</div> <div> Number two, I will work harder to keep myself out of the position of dealing with cantankerous landowners. Stick with the professionals who make their living trying to help you find a good deer or providing you the opportunity to hunt an area where you have an opportunity at good deer. Number three. Too much pressure whether self-inflicted or externally inflicted can take the fun out of the hunt and, after all, we do this for fun. Don't we?</div> <div> Do I wish I'd taken the neck shot at the drop tine buck?</div> <div> No. My proudest accomplishment of this past season was not the size of the bucks I harvested, unfortunately the biggest got away, but the fact that I didn't have to blood trail any </div> <div> of the 4 bucks I arrowed. All expired within sight of the spot I shot them from bringing my string of perfect shots to 6 in a row and 8 of the last 11 bucks not requiring blood trailing. That feat I'm proud of and it could only be accomplished by waiting for an opportunity, not trying to create an opportunity. And the three in Texas were all taken out of my new blinds which felt good.</div> <bR> <div> What about the rifle hunt? It was the most fun I've had in years. There was no pressure and no one cared what my trophy scored.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>