2011 Mustang Ranch Turkey Hunts
Hunt Reports and Photos
Please note: Hunt reports are posted in reverse order with the first hunt of the season at the bottom of this page and the final hunt at the top of the page. To see the chronological order, scroll to the bottom and work your way to the top of the page.
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Hunt 3 April 28 - May 1
The Adobe Lodge turkey season ended with one final hunt at the Mustang Ranch Camp, and just like all our previous hunts, there were high points and low points. A couple of hunters collected their first-ever turkeys. One hunter was able to take two fine long-beards. But sadly, one hunter, in quest of his Grand Slam, never scored. Doggone the luck, anyway.
Back for the third year in a row, Keith Wahoske from Zachry, LA was the lucky hunter to harvest two nice gobblers, despite weather which was way-less than ideal. Wind blowing a gale out of the southwest, and all that. And you'd have to check the spurs on that first bird, just to be sure he was, in fact, a mature gobbler. Unfortunately, Keith's shot took off most of the old boy's beard. But his spurs proved he wasn't a jake. Keith's second bird, although a bit lighter in weight, was even better, spur-wise. So Keith "done good", collecting a pair of long-beards, and joins the elite group of 2011 hunters to achieve this mark during this difficult season.
Larry and Helane Burns, from Palm Coast, FL were here accompanying Larry's brother, Bob. Bob is the dedicated turkey hunter of the group. Larry and Bob, growing up in western Pennsylvania, hunted a bunch as youngsters. Now re-located to Florida, Larry has been hunting turkeys, without success, for the past several years. Wife Helane, is a rank-rookie when it comes to hunting. Of any kind. So Larry and Helane were eager to take their first-ever turkeys. The good news: they did. Both of them. Helane even pulled ahead of her husband by taking two birds. With one shot. So you might say that now Helane has taken twice as many turkeys as has Larry. Our hearty congratulations to both Larry and Helane, and we extend our welcome to the wide-world of turkey hunters.
Sadly, Bob Burns, who has been instrumental in re-introducing his brother back into hunting after all these years, and who was here in quest of his grand-slam of turkeys, left unsuccessful on collecting his Rio Grande gobbler. He already has his Eastern and Florida birds. Leaving West Texas, they were all headed for a Merriam hunt. We wish them success.
So the final tally was five turkeys for the four hunters. Two took a pair; one took one, and one took none. Three of the turkeys were jakes. The first full day of the hunt was brutal - winds of 35 mph, at least. So hunting conditions during a third of the time were way-less than ideal. That scenario has been the rule for the entire season. Moderate winds will occur maybe one out of five days. Not good odds, at all. The drought in West Texas continues, resulting in abnormal turkey behavior, to say the least. So to have two of the hunters take their first-ever birds on this final Mustang Ranch hunt was good news, indeed.
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Hunt 2 April 14 - 17
Frank Gonzales from Palm City, Florida likes West Texas turkey hunting. He's was here for the third year in a row - Home Camp first, then two years with Ben McCulloch at the Mustang Ranch. Each trip, he is accompanied by his old turkey hunting buddy, Hal Hutchins from Utica, MS. In 2011, a couple more of Frank's Florida friends were along, as well - Mac Ivy from Ft. Pierce and Ray Smythe from Port St. Lucie.
With all four being experienced and dedicated turkey hunters, this hunt posted the highest success of any of our 2011 hunts at any camp. Five long-beards were taken by the four hunters, despite the fact that the doggoned weather was particularly unfavorable.
Indeed, the first full day of the hunt was particularly difficult - a chilly north wind of 25-35 miles per hour. With the humidity being below 10%, a range fire north of San Angelo, fifty-five mile to the west of the Mustang Ranch, burned out of control all day and threatened houses on that side of town. The next day, the wind shifted back to the south, but turkey hunting continued to be a challenge.
But for Florida turkey hunters, the old cliche stands: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." You ought to see the blinds they were building out of mesquite limbs. A photo of one of them can be seen below. No telling how long it took to cut and drag that quantity of material.
Until the final morning, only three birds could be found on the tally board. But Hal Hutchins, who is a master at a "photo-finish", finally collected a fine Rio, thus making all four successful on at least one bird. Mac Ivy was the only hunter to harvest a pair of them and got him on that last day. All five gobblers taken by the group of four weighed in the 17-18 lb. range, and all sported 9 " beards. Most all the spurs were within an eighth, up or down, of being an inch in length.
With Florida boys in camp, you'd best be alert for tricks. When Mac and Ray returned to camp with a dandy long-beard on that first, windy morning, they set up a giant scam. Using a complicated device they'd found in the skinning shed, the diabolical pair laid that gobbler out on a table and somehow attached his beard to appear that it was being stretched.
When Frank and Hal finally arrived, they were told that the bird had been a jake, but now his beard had been lengthened to an incredible 9+ inches. It only took a few seconds for Frank and Hal to learn the truth, but a prank's success isn't always measured with a stopwatch.
Too bad that such a device doesn't exist. Can you imagine the commercial possibilities? You could sell thousands of them at the annual NWTF convention.
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Hunt 1 April 2-4, 2011 There are lots of turkeys on the Mustang Ranch. The proof can be see each night as the birds fly-up to roost in the huge electric line towers which cross several miles of the property. Oodles of birds in the towers, alright. Just sitting up there and waiting for daylight. But finding them while hunting is another thing altogether.
Especially when the hunting conditions are less than ideal. And especially when all the hunters insist on hunting in the classic spring manner by calling up the toms. So the “rules of engagement” and the weather made for one heck of a tough hunt.
In camp at Ben McCulloch’s Mustang Ranch were a pair of Texans: Bill Walker and Earl Everett, both from Frisco (up near Dallas) and both very experienced and skilled hunters of turkeys. The other two were a father/son pair from Ohio. Tom Huff, the dad, and son Craig are equal veterans of the spring sport. So Ben had some outstanding troops in the field. And his staff was second-to-none either, with son “Little Ben” cooking and Mike Turner guiding.
With the start of Hunt 1 being the opening day of the Texas season in our part of the state, conditions seemed more like mid-summer. Temperatures way up there in the 90’s, at least. The next day, it got worse. Hotter still, and with a gale-force wind to magnify the heat. As practiced by the rest of the camps in our group, Ben employs the use of grain feeders (usually grain sorghum, called milo, for turkeys) to direct/hold the birds on his ranch. Turkeys will go when they can find feed. It isn’t rocket science. Gotta keep'em where we can hunt'em.
Many hunters will hunt opportunistically around the feed barrels, sometimes sitting virtually right under one. Others reject this approach, preferring instead to use calling devices exclusively. This latter option was the choice of the entire group of four hunters. But they had given themselves an impossible burden, for this reason:
The ongoing drought is having a severe impact on the breeding rituals of the turkeys. It is impossible to know, of course, the extent to which gobblers are actually breeding hens. But the evidence suggests there is precious little “he-ing and she-ing” going on. Winners of turkey-calling contests can’t make a gobbler appear if that sex-drive is broken. Maybe a few Viagra pills should be mixed into each of the feeders?
So with all these excuses, the turkey harvest on the first hunt was about as poor at it gets. Only one long-beard was collected by the group of four. But being the experienced hunters that they are, all the sportsmen chalked up their adventure as just another part of the complex sport of spring turkey hunting.
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