2020

[TXCO]

Sitting here at home on a slow weekend for us and I thought Id share the most memorable year of my life so far. While its been a crazy year for everyone, its been even more eventful for us. We welcomed our first child this year. Its ssomehow turning into one of my best hunting years, even though Im hunting less than ever!

Im very lucky to have a healthy baby boy, loving wife, and supportive family who loves the outdoors. Ive been hunting with my dad since I was 4 and can happily say I beat that this year with my son. My dad and I have spent so much time outdoors together and I love time with him and introducing friends to new experiences. All of that happened this year and more.


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[TXCO]

2020 started off with a late season mixed bag trip to South Texas. I took a friend who shot his first archery animal, a turkey. I hunted some new land and shot some quail but no deer were had

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[TXCO]

Next was turkey season, one of my favorite times of year. My first stop was my parents little farm. I got into birds twice which is hard due how small the land is. Thankfully they were cooperating and I called in 4 different toms over 2 days.

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[TXCO]

Next In the middle of our country shutting down, I met my dad at my granddads farm. I actually hadnt hunted it in 25 years due to some family issues. It was a stormy rainy weekend but we made it and the widlfowers were in full bloom. We had one morning to hunt and got very lucky by getting into a group of younger birds. It was our first double in 20 years of turkey hunting.

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[TXCO]

That was my last trip before the baby. The next couple months consisted of skeet shooting, making turkey jerky, sausage, smoking wild hogs and brisket. I shoot 3-5 wild pigs a year which are great to eat.

In June our baby boy arrived! He immediately got to helping me on the grill.

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[TXCO]

My saint of a wife let me keep my antelope hunt even though our son was 2 months old. This is now an annual trip for us. This year we brought along 2 friends who had never hunted the west. I prefer solo and backpack archery hunts but really am enjoying doing more group and family hunts regardless of weapon. It was a great hunt.

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[TXCO]

I got out for one evening bird hunt with my dog. Shes been going crazy with the baby since she gets less activity and attention. She did well and loved it.

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[TXCO]

Late September found me in Colorado with 3 tags in my pocket. I was bow hunting by myself a new unit and had very high hopes. Well it turned out to be a big education. The amount of people in the unit on vacation was amazing. Everything was very high due to sunny warm weather. I saw more bull moose than bull elk. I went 1/3 takin a delicious young buck too close to a trail head on my way out plus a grouse and some trout. I had one close encounter with a 170 buck and only really got close into elk on the last day. They were mostly nocturnal and I found a bull bugling below the CD on a ridge right after sunup. I snuck in quiet and got into the herd. I got within 10 yards of several cows but the bull was on the opposite side of the herd tending a cow and bugling. It was so thick in the timber I never got a good look at him. I didnt want to risk calling and spooking them and I figured the bull would come check the cows near me eventually. They eventually started to move past me and what I thought was a small herd ended up being over 20. I kept expecting the bull to step out but Those lead cows got behind me and winded me. They didnt spook but turned around and pushed the herd away from me. It was a good experience covering the unit and putting over 50 miles in the field at 10,000ft even though the big ones eluded me.

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[TXCO]

In midoctober we went and met my parents at their farm for a weekend escape. As I said earlier, its small only 70’acres. So a tough bowhunt but we know the neighbors well. I sat a couple times in my favorite stand and lucked into this nice buck who I watched drop with 60 yards. I aged him at 5 yrs old and had some trail cam pictures of him from last year. Hes actually the biggest bodied buck weve taken there at over 200 lbs live weight. His tenderloins were unreal and we cooked them with some garden sashito peppers.

The best part is getting a picture with him and my 4 month old son and with my dad there to boot!!!

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[hobbes]

Congrats man. You've been having a good year.

 

[TXCO]

Id be remiss to not talk about my wifes excellent cooking. From prickly pear juice margaritas to duck empanadas we eat well. She follows Hank Shaw but also we just sub in wild game on many normal recipes.

Mongolian Mule deer

Venison poblano burgers

Wild Pork sausage cheese balls

Fried quail and waffles

More tenderloin

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[Michael54]

Awesome! I kinda relegated myself this year to staying home and hunting around home and stockpiling points. I have a 4 year old son that is starting to get into the outdoors bigtime and a new bird dog and fresh beagle pup of my breeding that i wanted to put all of my attention on this year. But i have been having a very satisfying hunting season nonetheless.

 

[TXCO]

So with 2 months to go and a lot of uncertainty in the world and wifes and Is careers, Im so happy to have had such great memories so far. Ive got one more mule deer tag in NM and will chase some ducks and whitetails again. But the freezer is full and Ill be happy to spend even more time with family. Hopefully this isnt the last update of 2020.


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[hobbes]

The food looks good, especially the tenderloin with the roasted chillies. Are this Hatch Chile peppers? They don't look quite big enough.

 

[TXCO]

The food looks good, especially the tenderloin with the roasted chillies. Are this Hatch Chile peppers? They don't look quite big enough.

We grow a variety of peppers- red chili, jalepeno, sashito, poblano, and bell. I think that picture was sashito. We do buy green hatch chilis in season and its possible.


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[JustinNC]

Awesome thread. Seeing the whole year play out in one thread makes for an interesting read.

 

[TXCO]

Awesome thread. Seeing the whole year play out in one thread makes for an interesting read.

SLDMTN was my inspiration. Except his are far more adventurous than mine!!

 

[twdjr]

You've been having a great year! Congrats and Congrats on your new family addition!

 

[TXCO]

Got to add more to the story with a quick visit to New Mexico right before everything was shutting down. It is incredible what those people are about to go through again.

The hunt was a low end and tough unit. I definitely saw 5-6x trucks to legal bucks. Day one was all about dodging traffic on the BLM. The was the only deer older than a 2 yr old I saw and got very lucky.

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