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Mustang Ranch

Spring Turkey Hunting - 2007

Reports and photos from the Mustang Ranch spring turkey hunts are posted below with the most recent hunt shown at the top of the page. Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Hunt # 4 April 27- 30

Talk about ending a season on a powerful note! Four turkey hunters from Kentucky collected eleven gobblers on the final turkey hunt of the 2007 season at the Mustang Ranch Camp. It's mighty hard to have a more impressive finale than that.

Mike Cook is from Shelbyville. Garrett Bowers and Steve Wilson live in Lawrenceburg, and Jason Bolin lives in Louisville. Only Jason was a rookie. But not anymore. He collected his first-ever gobbler, plus another one, to boot. All the rest limited out with three toms each. Looks like the great state of Kentucky has produced some mite-fair turkey hunters.

Surprisingly, there were a couple of twenty-pounders taken on the hunt. This late in the season, a bird of that size is a rare commodity. Mike Cook's second bird had the best spurs of the bunch with a set measuring 1 1/4" x 1 1/8". Nice. Eight of the eleven Rios had beards in the 9" range

The Tally Board - Hunt # 4

Garrett and Mike

Garrett Bowers took three gobblers during his stay.

Two fine gobblers.

Here's another pair of Rios.

Nice spurs on that turkey mister.

Ben McCulloch get the story on this turkey.

Check out this decoy.

The mounted hen decoys worked great.

Photo time.

The Mustang Ranch skinning shed.

Mike Turner is measuring those beards.

Freezing birds for mounting later.

Time to leave.

Good thing they brought that trailer.

Hunt # 3 April 20-23

The great state of Illinois sent four turkey hunters to our third hunt at the Mustang Ranch Camp. Both Chuck Guthrie and Paul Tonsor had hunted our Home Camp previously, but this was their first visit to Ben McCulloch and his Mustang Ranch. They were accompanied by Mark Depping and Bryan Hagen. Actually, Mark now lives in Los Angeles, CA, but he is an Illinois guy at heart. Being about sixty miles east of San Angelo, the scoresheet from the Mustang Ranch was much imporved over our other two camps west of town where the hunters were struggling to put birds on the tally board.

The four Mustang Ranch hunters did great. Two took three; one took two; one took one. So that total of nine birds from only four hunters at the Mustang Ranch Camp exactly equalled the sum of birds taken by the total of our twelve hunters back to the west at our other two camps on almost the same hunt days. Indeed, both Chuck Guthrie and Bryan Hagan were tagged out at the 2/3 mark of the hunt. So they got to lolly-gag around camp swapping stories with visitors, all the while rooting for their companions who were still out in the trenches.

Even with the success of his hunt, camp owner/manager Ben McCulloch agreed that the turkeys in his area are now acting much differently than they did only a couple of weeks ago. As we go into the final stages of our spring battles with the Rios, we are going to have to reach deep into our bag of tricks if we expect to win the conflict before the final bell rings to end the season. There is one final hunt at the Mustang Ranch next week.

On our visit to the camp, it just so happened to be steak night. What a deal ! For goodness sakes, don't visit the Mustang Ranch Camp if you are on a diet. It is impossible to lose weight with Little Ben in charge of the kitchen. And he will draw a crowd as we learned when an opportunistic game warden "just happened to drop by" on steak night. These guys ain't no dummies. If you're going to check out a hunting camp, why not time your arrival for that special meal?

Hunt # 3 - All from Illinois

Bryan Hagen and Little Ben McCulloch

Just a little something to tide us over.

Finally. Mark collects his Rio

Hey Mark. Show us that gobbler of yours. Looks great. You done good.

The formal photo.

This interview is being taped. Mark's other dwelling is in Studio City, CA

Meanwhile, in the skinning shed - - -

Don't Mess With Texas

Lee Dycus, the game warden visits camp.

And it never hurts to check out things in the skinning shed.

Jeri Duncan and Ann McCulloch

The best part of a visit to the Mustang Ranch Camp.

Come and get it.

Bryan and Paul

Paul, Chuck, and Bryan

Bryan Hagen

Mark and Bryan

Paul, Bryan and Chuck

Chuck Guthrie

The formal portrait.

The whole crowd on Hunt # 3

Hunt # 2 April 13-16

Jackson, Tennessee sent four hunters to the Mustang Ranch Camp for the second turkey hunt of the season. It could not have been better. All four hunters collected their limit of three turkeys. And they did it by noon time on the second day - only 2/3 of the way through the hunt. It looks like Ben McCulloch had some turkey hunters in camp.

To make it even better, it was a family group: a father, two sons, and a son-in-law. To say they had a large time would be an understatement. The first half of the hunt the weather was a bit windy and a little chilly, but that didn't slow them down. However, once they had all tagged out, the wind quit, the sun shown brightly, and the weather was beautiful. What a spring-time. Yellow flowers carpet the range land, and the highlight of any Mustang Ranch hunt is watching, at dusk, the turkeys fly up to roost in the huge power-line towers that are about a quarter-mile from the hunting lodge. It it truly a remarkable sight.

We collected an unusually large number of photos from this hunt, but dog-gone-it, it was an unusually good hunt.

Hunt # 2 hunters, all from Jackson, TN - plus their guide

This group knows how to bring turkeys into camp

Another group photo

Harbert Sr. and Albert

Even more turkeys

One happy hunter

Albert collects a pair of gobblers

Ty uses a home-made mouth call.

Here's Ty with another one.

Albert again.

The final bird is taken, and it's time to have a little fun.

Looks right-natural, don't he?

Alcohol and turkey hunting just don't mix.

A Boone and Crockett trophy.

Triple spur ?????

Ben cooks a little something.

Meanwhile, in the skinning shed - - -

More capes skinned out by Albert.

Waiting for supper - the steaks are almost done.

Steaks are ready. Better get in line.

Hunt # 1 April 7-10

The first spring turkey hunt of the season at the Mustang Ranch camp was plagued with the same kind of bad weather our hunters had to endure at our other camps - snow, ice, wind and cold.

Charlie Williamson from Bay Minette, AL, brought his son and grandson. Charlie and son Scott had hunted with Ben at the Mustang Ranch camp a couple of years ago and it was great to see them once again. This time, they brought along Andrew (grandson and son to the pair), and Andrew collected his first-ever turkey, plus another gobbler, plus three catfish and a bass. Looks like Andrew, under the guidance of his dad and grand-dad, is well on his way to becoming an all-around sportsman. Genetically-speaking, it would be pert-near impossible to keep Andrew from taking up turkey hunting. Charlie is a walking storehouse of knowledge about turkeys and their habits. We've learned a lot from him.

They were joined by a most interesting hunter from Michigan, Tim Frank. Tim works for Homeland Security, and during our lunch before the hunt, poor Tim had to endure everyone's complaints about travel restrictions with guns. He took it all in stride.

With the Mustange Ranch camp being about 60 miles east of San Angelo, naturally they got more snow that we did our Home Camp which is about 10 miles west of town. Ben McCulloch, owner and manager of the Mustang Ranch camp, reported at least 6 inches of snow. The warm spring ground soon melted the accumulation into scattered patches here and there. But it was plenty wet and plenty cold for the duration of the hunt.

The group of four hunters took nine birds. Two took their three, one took two, and one took one. There were a couple of twenty-pounders in the group, and Charlie's bird had the longest spurs of his 170+ bird collection with 1 5/16 x 1 3/8 hookers. And you can find a couple of 10" beards on the Mustang Ranch tally board. So it was a good hunt, nevermind the weather.