Still messin’ with Texas whitetails

Four basic elements sustain the dusty little cow town of Albany, Texas: oil, cattle, football, and deer hunting. The selfproclaimed “Home of the Hereford” in Shackelford County, situated about 35 miles northeast of Abilene, is also home to some two thousand human residents (give or take a few). In the fall, this prosperous ranching community goes all in for their Friday night lights, beating a drum 24/7 in the town square, a traditional show of support for Albany High School’s beloved Lions as they make their perennial run through the state playoffs.

So last month, when I made yet another sojourn to this little western village nestled in the Rolling Plains Region of Texas, the landscape a mosaic of mesquite trees, hackberry trees, pecan groves, and, most prominently, prickly pear cactus, I didn’t come for the oil, beef, or even the football.

No, it was the chance to collect a bruiser whitetail buck that again drew me here for the fourth time in the last seven years.

On my initial visit here in 2010, I made a mistake typical of Pennsylvania deer hunters on their first visit to the Lone Star State when I filled my tag with a modest ten-point buck. He may have been a wall-hanger by Keystone State standards, but hardly trophy material in Texas where, of course, everything (with the exception of this year’s edition of the Dallas Cowboys) is bigger and better.

I learned my lesson on that trip after I collected my buck and was on stand hunting feral hogs on the last evening of our excursion. That’s when I spotted two giant bucks, both jawdropping whoppers, and finally understood what constituted a true trophy buck by Texas benchmarks. I vowed to return the next time and not settle for anything less. Over the course of the next few years, I travelled to the Lone Star State twice, including once in November of 2016. On both of those trips I passed up a passel of nice but not braggin’ sized bucks and never fired a shot.

But last month I returned to the “Don’t Mess With” state along with trip organizer Harry Kidd of Broomall, West Chester’s Brian Mcfadden, Ron Dill and Ron Koch, and Ridley’s Tom McAndrews, a gentleman better known for his bartending brilliance at the Chesapeake Inn in Maryland. On last year’s Texas tour, Kidd, McFadden, Koch, and McAndrews all collected nice bucks. Dill and I were the only hunters who came home empty-handed despite having plenty of opportunities to bag younger bucks.

This time, as in past years, following our flight from Philadelphia to Dallas we rented a pair of cars for the three-hour drive to Albany. There we met up with Steve Ford, whose outfitting service, “Big Game Management,” would again host our hunt. Ford targets prime deer habitat in both Shackelford and Callahan Counties, all open range (as opposed to the high fence variety) and boasting some of the most impressive free-ranging whitetail bucks you’ll ever encounter.

Ford’s operation has been steadily growing since he started out back in 1993. It now encompasses some 14,000 leased acres on which he maintains 45 stands (both ground level shooting shacks and elevated tripods) and 63 feeders. Maintaining the feeders can be a costly and time consuming task. Each feeder holds 350 pounds of deer corn that lasts for about three weeks. Ford estimates that he’ll go through at least 80 tons of corn in the course of a season. About half of the hunters he guides are Texans, the other half, like our crew, come from out of state. Last year Ford hosted about 30 deer hunters who harvested 25 bucks. That’s an impressive success ratio, especially when you figure that many of them, like yours truly, are holding out for the trophy buck of a lifetime.

Hunters who fill their buck tags early can then focus on feral hogs and predators, specifically coyotes, although bobcats are not uncommon and mountain lions also roam the Big Country. Last year Ford’s hunters downed 100 hogs and more than a few coyotes along with 60 turkeys mostly taken during the state’s spring gobbler season. Big Game Management also hosts dove shoots and quail hunts with the populations of both these popular game birds currently flourishing here.

When we arrived at our lodgings in Albany, Ford reported scouting plenty of shooter bucks and had captured many of their images on trail cameras. He assured us that there was plenty of reason for us to be confident. Would this new-found confidence be warranted? Check out next week’s column to find out.

For more info on hunting in North Central Texas with Steve Ford’s Big game Management guide service, check out their website at http://www. biggamemgmt.com/ or give him a call at (325)762-4441.

FIREARMS DEER SEASON WINDING DOWN

While it’s estimated that Monday’s opening day accounted for 25 percent of the state’s annual deer harvest, the second and third most productive days are the first and second Saturdays of the season. Now that hunters with unfilled tags have returned from upstate deer camps, our local woodlots can expect to see significantly more hunting activity this week and especially on Saturday, Dec. 9, the final day of our firearms season for whitetail deer.

Tom Tatum is an outdoors columnist for Digital First Media. You can reach him at tatumt2@yahoo.com.