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2008 Season Re-cap and Best-Bucks Gallery

This page contains a summary of the 2008 season and photos of the best bucks taken.

BUCK OF THE YEAR

BUCK OF THE YEAR - Taken by E.J. Deseta, West Chester, PA 19 1/2" 14 pt. 157 7/8"

       HUNTING WAS GREAT IN 2008

Our 2008 season was a good one. We will make our case for this fact with some statistics below. But here is something to chew on right now: 2008 produced six bucks which were taped with 150 or more inches on their heads.

Somehow, the fun and excitement of Adobe Lodge hunting can never be captured by measuring antlers or crunching a bunch of numbers. It' always either the new people you meet - the good food you eat - the belly-laughs that make your side hurt - being out-of-doors with Mother Nature in all Her Best - or all of them combined. Good Grief. How can such exhilarating experiences be reduced to figures and percentages? Our theory is this: collecting a buck is just icing on the cake.

Weather-wise, it was a dry fall. Just like the one of a year ago. Precious little moisture came our way, mostly in October. Wheat fields and winter weeds never stood a chance of making any forage for the hungry deer. This isn't the first time - we've seen such conditions in years past.  During the fall of 2008, almost every hunt throughout the season was plagued with one day of wind when "dry fronts" blew through.  But there seemed to be an above-average number of super-warm days, too. And most likely, a given hunt would see a bit of both. Every four-day stretch had bad weather (wind) combined with extra-good weather. Typical Texas, you might say.

Dry weather almost always increases the deer activity around our corn feeders. Hungry deer are careless deer. On some odd days here and there through the season, hunters would report seeing few or no deer. But most of the time, the reports of deer sightings were great. And against conventional wisdom, some really good bucks were taken during the times of the full moon.  Predicting deer movement is an impossible exercise. Here's the way we tell it: "Deer hunting at an Adobe Lodge camp is ALMOST always great." Notice the underline. Remember: our hunting is 100% Fair Chase.

For some reason, and who knows why, rattling wasn't too successful in 2008. Although our guides gave their rattling horns a workout, the buck's response to their efforts was ho-hum at best. But fight, they did. Hunters were seeing plenty of damaged antlers after mid-December.

What did seem to work were grunt tubes. Over and over, hunters and guides would report their good luck with these devises. Several times, we even heard of a complete 180 degree change in the direction of a departing buck: "Yonder he went, but now, here he comes" so to speak. Wow.  That's big news. So, on your next hunting trip, remember that a grunt tube ought to be treated like an American Express Card - "Don't Leave Home Without It".

Another milestone which characterized the 2008 season:  the hunters' use of cell phones to text-message each other. What with the better coverage now to be found out on remote ranch land, it was especially the younger hunters who would be sending photos to each other of what they were seeing. The question then arises: how many deer did they fail to see while sending all those messages back and forth?

And how many times did we see these devices being used to immediately send back home a photo of a buck that had just been taken? With such space age tools now a fixture in every hunter's pocket, you have to wonder what deer hunting will be like ten years from now.

Now, to the statistics. But here are a couple of disclaimers:  our success percentages include not only bucks brought into camp, but they also include the few bucks missed or lost. Our reasoning here is that, indeed, a hunter found a buck that he/she liked. Also, please be advised that some hunters just didn't get to hunt the full duration of the scheduled hunt due to either family health problems back home, business demands, or late-arriving airplanes - all marked with a * symbol.

Success Rate:
     All Camps, all prices:                   90.3%

Success Rate by Camp:
     Home Camp
             Regular Price                      96%    (Reg. price hunters = 64% of the total)
             Trophy Option                     75%   (T.O. hunters = 36% of the total)
     McManus Camp                          100%
     Mustang Ranch Camp                   90%* (10% of the hunters left early)
     Hatfield Camp                            100%
     Bar H Camp                               100%
     Weather Rock Camp                     50%* (half the hunters left early)

More Statistics from our total number of hunters:
     Veteran Hunters                          49%
     First-time Adobe Lodge hunters     51%

     Family members/kin folks             39%   (predominately fathers/sons)
     Solo hunters                                9.7%
     First-ever bucks taken                  10   (and maybe a couple more)

So that's our story of the 2008 season, and we're sticking with it. If you weren't here, we wish you could have been.

The fall of 2009 will be here before we know it, fast as time seems to go these days. If you want to nail-down a date to hunt with us next season, just holler. If you cannot make your decision just yet, then give us a shout when you can. Remember - the earlier you book, the greater your choice of available dates. But we have a pretty fair track record of working-in hunters at virtually the last minute. Please don't ever hesitate to contact us anytime.

2008 TOP TROPHY BUCKS