The shiny new deer protein feeders are in place, the dozer will be here soon to enlarge food plots and also create new ones. Cameras have proved deer activity at all the new protein feeders. All task items relating to our deer-related plans are on track. Even though hog hunting has always been good here, by shutting down a few hog hunting areas to convert to deer hunt areas, we should be able to draw the
same amount of hogs into fewer areas. Hog hunting has been excellent, late winter and early spring is always a touch-n-go time to hunt because of the changing weather. In the warm, windy days the hog activity has been nocturnal only. On over -cast days or days with almost no wind hogs are still very active in daylight situations. Almost all hunters have gone home with fresh wild boar meat, also quite a few “mounter size” Boars have been taken. As we go into the spring season the hogs are becoming more nocturnal, part of the reason is hunting pressure, and a large part of it is the weather is warming up, naturally pushing them to feed in the cooler night-time hours. Just to help out first time hog hunters, make sure you have the correct license, a good red light, and be as scent-free and quiet as possible while you are hunting. Also remember, the most successful hunters are those who are willing to spend the most time in the stand.

My season here is winding down, Jean and I will be migrating north at the end of March. We will spend a couple weeks traveling and then spend time with our families in Minnesota before we report to duty at a lodge in Northern Minnesota. Canada is one the other side of the lake!. I will be putting my rifle away and taking out my fishing pole, hopefully I won’t get too tired of catching walleyes and northern pike! We plan to travel back South in October, here to Ranger Creek Ranch. The last five months has been a wonderful journey! I have met so many good people, and shared some very special moments with many of you. I feel I have made many new friends and I sincerely hope our paths cross again.
Keep yer gun clean, RickO

We finished up our waterfowl season with a bang, Rich Jehle's group was the last group out to hunt and they ended up crane hunting both days according to head guide Cash Parrish they left out pretty happy they got 13 crane the first day and 6 the second day.

With Deer season over, now it is time to focus my attention toward changes we need to make concerning the welfare and huntability of the Deer for next season. There are several habitat improvement projects in the works. We will be constructing several new deer-only food plots and protein feeding areas, also moving blinds to hunt these new areas. After reviewing this past season I am excited to be part of the Ranger Creek Team and I anticipate next season’s hunt.

The Wild Boar hunting has ramped up. There was a lot of daylight movement of hogs during Deer season and up to the end of January, which correlated to many harvested Hogs. Many groups of hunters were going home with several hogs for each hunter! As always there were quite a few Trophy-size Boars taken and enough “eaters” to feed a small army for many weeks. Talking about Army, It touches me deeply that people in the armed forces, serving their/our country, come to Ranger Creek Ranch during their leave to spend time. We only hope we have provided you with the “time-off” you seek.

With the dry weather and wind the Hog activity has slowed down somewhat and they have become a bit more nocturnal. We are still seeing Hogs during daylight hours but most activity has been at night. Hunters are having to stay in the blinds a bit longer than a month ago, but are still harvesting hogs.

Several hog hunters have seen the Aoudad Sheep in the canyon behind the lodge. One of definite trophy size has been seen twice. The Aoudad sheep have survived and flourished in these canyons quite well. I believe they are native to North Africa, probably brought here by early entrepreneurs for who knows what reason. The rams have horns with thick bases and they sweep back towards the rear of the animal. They are similar in color to a Whitetail Deer and have fringes of long hair on their neck and forelegs. I had the opportunity to catch a group of eight on video in November and also a few years ago on one of the other properties here. Both times there was a trophy ram with the group.

Back to the Hogs, we are definitely not going to run out of them. They will be getting a little tougher to hunt as the winter progresses. Hunters will have to work a little bit harder for their harvest, mainly sitting a bit longer in the stands. As always, hunters should be prepared to be as scent-free as possible, have good lights with them, and also be as quiet as possible. If we can persuade rain clouds to come our way, this will help get the hogs more active. We also continue to see plenty of coyotes and bobcats, they have been active in daylight hours, probably in search of meals. A few days ago I was treated to a special sight, while out servicing feeders I watched a Bald Eagle soaring on the breezes. It reminded me of my home in Minnesota, which is positioned between Grindstone and Elbow lakes and almost every day I could see them flying between the two lakes in search of their meals. One can never tire of watching them, such a majestic symbol of our country.
Keep yer gun clean, Rick

In late October the deer were observed in their normal feeding patterns, and the bucks were somewhat still in bachelor groups. In one of my first scouting evening I was treated with a landscape occupied by eight bucks, six of which can be classified as “shooters”. One of these bucks was a magnificent monarch, and to this day I believe still walks. Even the young bucks had promising potential. Many
a early morning and late afternoon was spent watching and patterning many of the deer on Ranger Creek property. Along with this scouting and the aid of technology, in the form of game cameras, I became quickly impressed with the deer in this area and the effects of the actions taken by Ranger Creek to improve the quality of the deer herd. This is when I truly realized how much effort and dedication has been applied to the welfare of the deer and the deer habitat on the plains, hills, and canyons of Baylor and Knox counties. The 2007 Deer season started warm and windy, not good for the eager and enthusiastic hunters to harvest the prized “wall-hangers”. The deer feeding was limited to the early morning and late evening, making hunting very difficult. Despite these tough conditions a few shooter bucks were observed and some taken. Then the magical moment happened when the weather turned cold, prompting the breeding phase of the rut to kick into high gear. Now bucks were seen everywhere, at any time of day. Hunting was about as good as it gets and this is when the largest bruisers were harvested. It was in this time I had the opportunity to video tape a very impressive twelve-point buck against a backdrop of snow-covered landscape, a moment I will never forget. It was very difficult not to take this deer myself. Hunting conditions were not quite as good at the end of the season. The weather had again become warm and windy. The rut was, for the most part, over. Despite these conditions “shooter” bucks were observed and taken. To the hunters I guided and spent time with; I treasure the moments I was able to spend with you, the highs and the lows, and I look forward to our paths crossing again.

Keep yer gun clean, RickO

Calvin Taylor and his group from Oklahoma went duck hunting the first morning limiting in ducks and killing some geese. The other two mornings they goose hunted and it was a little slow. The second afternoon some of their group went on a hog safari. They did have opportunity and shots were fired but they did not come in with any of those Texas Wild Boars.

Tyler Schlagel, and his granddad, David King from Longmont, Colorado hog hunted with us during the Christmas holidays. Tyler has hunted with us before. He is remembered in the past by having “jump the wild boar that he thought was dead and to turn around and drop it with a quick response shot” He is always well thought of as being a great guy that brought his mom on his first hog hunting adventure! His granddad dropped his first wild boar at Ranger Creek Ranch, and Tyler being a veteran hog hunter harvested a couple of really big hogs in addition to a coyote. I hope the coyote was good eating, Tyler. We are especially proud that Tyler is now serving in the Marines…. Way to go!!!

Chip Swinney and his sons Trey and Peachy along with their bouncer Charles had some really good duck hunting in the mornings. They bagged 16 ducks the first morning and 18 the second, plus they took home two redheads to mount. This active group also hunted wild quail in the afternoon pointing 4-5 coveys each afternoon.

Stan and Laney Mayfield hunted quail with our guide Ricky Moss. The morning hunt was not too good, but the afternoon hunt, after the heavy frost left the grass, was really good. We do appreciate these guys coming to Ranger Creek Ranch during their time off to do some hunting.

Steve and Lloyd Marshall and their family duck hunting crew had some good hunting. These guys have been coming out here for at least 10 years and are always a pleasure. They got a wide array of ducks.

All hunts are going good so far. We have had some really good hunts and have had some really good people here in the past several weeks.
We will be winding up our whitetail hunts this weekend and have had a very successful deer season. Our feed and management program is paying off. After the close of whitetail season we will catch our second wind to hunt upland birds, ducks/geese and hogs.

The weather cannot decide if we are having a global warming effect or if it is really winter. Between now and next week we will experience both!

Merry Christmas

We hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday season. We have had quite a few people in since our last filed report: Brian Smith and his friends were in for a goose/quail hunt. The goose hunting was pretty good considering some of the weather we have been having here. Next in was Jim Gibbons and his son from Minnesota. They came in to do some whitetail deer hunting. They ended their hunt with Jim getting a nice 11 point buck which had a 22” spread and a hog.

Jim Gibbons and his 11 point buck

Our friend Larry Black was here the last of November and first of December. Larry came to Texas to hog hunt with us after going on a waterfowl hunt in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Larry learned that not only do we have hogs BUT we have more geese/ducks than Stuttgart, Arkansas! He limited
out on geese/ducks here but only shot 3 at his other waterfowl destination in a couple of days!!!

December was a great month for hunting at Ranger Creek Ranch, we kicked it off with Ron Woodard and his group here from Florida for a duck hunt. These guys know duck hunting and duck shooting. Very few shots were fired during their hunts but limits of birds were taken every morning.

Joe Ruddell and “the grumpy old men” were in next for some duck/goose hunting. I guess they had a pretty successful hunt considering the biggest complaint they had was they limited out too soon !!!

Joe Ruddell and his gang

Josh Rueter and Craig were here from Wisconsin and Minnesota. They had a great whitetail hunt with both guys getting their bucks on the first day. The tally at the end was 2 bucks, 1 doe each and several hogs for Josh. Way to go guys.

Philip Runion and his college buddies come in to do some duck hunting and afternoon hog safaris. The total for 2 ½ days was 15 hogs and 116 ducks. It was not a good week to be a hog or a duck in Knox County!

Tom Snyder and his two kids were here a few days before the holidays to do a little duck/hog/pheasant hunting, Tom has been hunting at Ranger Creek for several years and, as always, it is good to see these dads bringing their kids out to experience and keep hunting traditions alive.

We would like to welcome Rick and Jean Matson to the Ranger Creek Ranch family. They are down here from Minnesota for the winter working. Rick will be doing some guiding and maintenance and Jean will be helping out around the lodge. They have been a great addition to the RCR staff.

HOGS

Brian Canay from Alaska came for a Wild Texas Boar hunt along with his Colorado buddies Gary, Marty, and Jim shot a couple of nice hogs.

GOOSE

Our goose season has proven to be an excellent year for geese killing, we don't even call this hunting so far this year. IT IS AWESOME!!! Limits of specks and lesser Canadians have been taken from our hunters. Tonight the scouting report showed the geese standing on top of the pit blinds..in the morning they plan to just take their nets and save the shells!! We will keep you posted.Hopefully, they will take their shotguns for backup.

Mike Cloud and his buddies Dick, Robert, James, Daniel, Cody, and Daniel

DUCK

The duck season has been good to excellent. Most hunters have limited out or at least have had the opportunity. Mallards, wigeons, pintails, gadwall, teal are being the predominate birds that are being bagged

DUCK/UPLAND/HOG SAFARI

Jim Sliger along with his son Logan from Atlanta, Georgia went on a Ranger Creek Ranch. Grand Slam hunt with a guided duck hunt, guided quail/pheasant hunt then ended up the day with a hog safari killing 2 hogs and a raccoon..I just wonder if they are going to eat everything they killed? Of course, we fed then some of that good ole Texas BBQ before they headed back to Grandma's house.

The Colorado boys have come and done it again they came down here and whipped up on them Texas hogs, we had two groups in last week from the Centennial State John Thiede and his buddies Mike and Brother Bob started out their hunt the right way by taking three hogs their first night out, and then John and Mike both getting another hog each the second night. John and his buddies have been coming down and hunting with us about five years now and they are a true testament of the high quality of hunters that we have come out to Ranger Creek Ranch and we really appreciate you guys and look forward to seeing them every year. Meanwhile right up the road were John Garber and “Dan the Hog Man” they (I mean John) got two hogs on their second night, as always it’s good to see John and Dan we were just sorry that Beau and Grandpa didn’t make it down with them this time.

We have had a gap in the field report due to being BUSY. We want to thank Pollock Paper that have dove hunted with us for 5+ years, Terry Lynch with his group of law enforcement officials that have hunted here 10 years.

Pollack Paper

HOGS: Randy Long has personally killed 2 hogs up to the date this field report was written, but his buddies from Missouri have had opportunity but cannot seem to get a hog down. I think maybe the "boar fever" is spreading in their group.

DOVE: The dove hunting has been outstanding the last few days. If you are wanting to dove hunt

IT IS NOW TIME ………… CALL TO BOOK A DOVE HUNT AND TO SEE CURRENT CONDITIONS. No fronts in the forecast so it should be good for awhile.

TEAL: We just thought hunting the High Plains Mallard Unit was awesome the past 2 weeks…..the North zone proved itself this weekend. Teal galore. Chip Swinney and his East Texas Waterfowl sidekicks had a limit out weekend. They also double dipped with limits of dove as well. Those East Texas Guys Got r Done.

Texas Air was out this weekend with a great group, they arrived Friday for an afternoon hunt with everyone having a pretty good hunt according to Cash Parrish, head guide at Ranger Creek Ranch. Then it was back to the lodge for steaks and all the trimmings. Saturday morning after brunch we had a skeet shooting contest with Gene Hensarling and Glen Brunkenhoefer tying as co-champions from Round 1 and Ross Fields and Donny Brown getting bragging rights for Round 2. We would like to thank these guys for all coming out and helping make this a great weekend. We look foward to seeing them again next year.

The People:
We opened the weekend of Dove Season 2007 with the Preston Center Rotary Club lead by Bud Bush that has been hunting with Ranger Creek Ranch for the past consecutive 14 years, along with some our regular faces such Bill Norvell and his group, Brad Alexander and his friends from South Carolina, Jack Leslie from the great state of California and his son Craig this being their 5th year to join us. Charlie Dickerson and “Bird Dog Chase” his 7 year old son that was in training this weekend, I am not sure if Chase will overcome his indulgence of Dr. Pepper…. the kid seemed he has never had the opportunity to drink Dr. Pepper before but he drank his weight in them this weekend) Lance Leslie and his 2 sons Reid and Brian.

Charlie and Chase

Reid, Bryan, and Lance Leslie

Check out more pictures on our picture page.

We want all of our customers to know that WE ARE booking Goose hunts!!!

We will be hunting our clients over roost lakes and peanut fields in the Canadian and Specklebelly Capital of West Texas aka Knox County. Please call to schedule your hunt now 940 888 2478 or email ranger@rangercreekranch.com

We are no longer associated with Ranger Creek Goose, Greg Bradford, or Erik Guggenheim.

DOVE: We are still seeing dove everywhere….looks like an awesome season coming up. Our Milo fields are as good as we have seen them in years. To keep you wondering….We will be adding a new set up to the dove hunts this year. When your booking your dove hunt don’t forget the morning teal hunts that will be offered during the last 2-3 weeks of September (don’t know exact dates at this time)

QUAIL: We are seeing and hearing quail all over the ranch. It seems really exciting because we have not seen these numbers in years…..time will tell on what will actually be produced. There should have been a large number of quail hatched in the month of June but we will not be seeing them for a few weeks…..With the above average rainfall the western ragweed, sunflowers, etc are flourishing along with the grass cover on the pastureland/rangeland. For those that not hunted with us we quail hunt on the rangeland that is adjacent to our food plots of Milo, and sunflowers.

HOGS: We still have more hogs than you can imagine. If you are looking for a hog hunt during the month of June and July call me (Ranell) for a “SPECIAL SUMMER PRICE”

DEER: We are still improving and expanding our whitetail deer operation. We have shut down our game cameras during the last several months but will get them going in August-September and will post them during those months. We are feeding protein (as we have in the past few years) in our gravity flow feeders to maximize the horns. However, the weather is a BIG ASSET in getting them really BIG this year.

HUNTERS EXTRAVAGANZA: Be sure to come by our booth to say “HI” during Fort Worth’s Hunters Extravaganza TTHA which will be held August 17, 18, 19th We have met some really good people during the last 19+ years that we have ran our hunting operation on our ranch, and would like to see you if all possible.

Our summer has been busy with various family reunions, wedding receptions, and various parties at the Main Lodge, along with getting everything ready for our Opening Season September 1. That is why Ranger Creek Ranch is noted to be Texas at It’s Best.

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