Hunting
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Hunting
Stories
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The
Game Warden Buck
| By Jim Autrey
What do a Game Warden and a last minute buck have in common? It all started when Keith Davis of "Gone Huntin" TV show invited me to join him on a New Mexico Mule Deer Hunt. We were to be hunting with Adobe Lodge Hunting Camp of San Angelo, Texas and Jim Schwartz the man in charge of the New Mexico deer hunt. I was to meet Keith in Midland, Texas where he was scheduled to arrive on his fight from Birmingham, Alabama. All was going as planned until the weather turned mad and Midland was forecast to receive an early snow and a strong cross wind caused his flight to be diverted to Dallas. This coupled with mad information forced Keith to rent a car in Dallas and make the six hour drive to Midland. Arriving late and with the snow coming down, we decided to wait until morning to make the trip to the Felix River Ranch where we were to meet Jim Schwartz. This 150,0000 acre ranch is located just east of Artesia, New Mexico. Upon arrival at the ranch we found most of the hunters still out but we unloaded and waited for Jim Schwartz and his hunting party to arrive. It wasn’t very long and Jim’s party arrived and Angie Newsome the only lady on the hunt had harvested a nice mule deer buck. There is nothing like success to nurture hope in a hunting camp. So we headed out for the afternoon hunt only to have it cut short by getting stuck on one of the muddiest roads I have ever seen. There is nothing like getting stuck, the feeling of helplessness coupled with frustration and disappointment. Well in the morning would be another day. The next morning, we discussed the strategy for the day’s hunt with Jim Horn our guide and Wayne Jones who was a hunter joining our party from Iowa. I was along with Keith as acting cameraman. It was decided that due to the mad road conditions that we would stay out all day and go as far back into the ranch as we could while the roads were frozen and hope we would be able to get out in the evening. Jim let us out in a Cholla flat and we made our way through the melting snow and mud to ridge over looking a small drainage. It didn’t take long to spot movement down the creek from our location, but closer inspection revealed only three does and that was it until Jim picked us up about 11:30am for lunch. A short lunch and back to our perch on the ridge and five hours of seeing nothing, until on a far hillside we saw another doe. Now it’s dark and time to try get back to the lodge without getting stuck. The road conditions gotten worse but Jim managed well and we arrived back to the lodge to find the others had about the same experience. I don’t know how many hunting camps you have been in but it doesn’t take long for some to become disenchanted. That was today and tomorrow will be better?? The next morning we set out bright and early, but the melting snow had made the roads even more impassable. Jim let us out at another small flat and we watched to little success. In about 30 minutes Jim returned and suggested we try something different, but with time running short I recommended that he return Keith and I to the lodge and we would get our gear ready and head for our next hunt in Texas. We were only about ½ mile from the lodge when a pickup pulled up beside us; it was the Game Warden. He checked our license and asked if we had been successful finding a Mule Deer Buck. Keith told him how things had been going and he told us that there was a nice buck down the road about 300 yards pass our turn in and since it was on the ranch we were hunting, that we should go and see if we could get him. Jim turned the truck around headed to where the buck was last seen. After a little walking and glassing, we spotted the buck and Keith was able to get a successful shot. The buck was a 5x4 by western count and a real nice trophy for a trip that came with in minutes of ending a different way. So, next time you are stopped by a Game
Warden, he might just be going to tell you where to find a deer.
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