Big Buck Report: New Year's Eve Fireworks

It gets pretty lonely in a deer stand. Unless you’re with a hunting buddy, you’re left with fuzzy recaps of the day's activity when you get back to camp. You're left to describe everything you saw to the other hunters and huntresses, which let's face it, can house some embellishment — especially if you come back empty-handed. Now thanks to video, you can get a better since of what it's like to deer hunt at the Texas LG2 Ranch.

During the New Year's Eve 2013 evening hunt, I was positioned in Mark's stand on the east side of the property. It wouldn't be long before my guests arrived. I'll let the video set the scene from here. 

*Warning: If you don’t like hunting shows where animals are harvested on camera, this video might not be for you.

The Dawn of a New Ranch Blog Era

As many of you know, we recently said goodbye to the ranch patriarch, Billie G. Though his jovial presence will be dearly missed, his passing helped us better appreciate the many blessings in our lives. The love of our Lord. The bond of family. The fellowship of friends. And a place where we can all hang our hats and laugh at the memories we've made together. This site is merely a placeholder for those moments in Texas LG2 Ranch history.

Since creating this blog back in 2008, there have been plenty of memories added but few design updates. If this was to house our precious moments, the blog needed to get with the times and have a more modern feel. No more stale brown background. I give you the new look of the Texas LG2 Ranch blog. Trumpets blaring. Teresa supplied the background photo — a beautiful landscape portrait of the wheat fields. You'll find more of her excellent photography as well as other ranch photos here. It's a small step toward rekindling the early blog magic. In the future, look for more content, more photos and more video, including footage taken during the hunt. Happy blogging, everyone!

We Lost a Great Husband, Dad, Grandfather and Great Grandfather

On December 5, 2013 our #1 hunter and tractor driver transitioned from earth to his heavenly kingdom after a lengthy illness.  Billie G. will be greatly missed by his family and friends.   We will especially miss his time sitting on the back deck of the ranch house holding court about his life experiences and how important it was to "work the earth".  Now he is in a place where he will never run out of diesel or pecan orchards to mow.  We miss him greatly and will cherish our memories forever.  Texas LG2 will never be the same.

September Teal Season Provides Refuge for Blood-thirsty Dove Hunters

NEWSFLASH: The dove aren't flying this season. I should know. There's about 50 fattened beauties perched on top of my child's playset. While the HOA frowns upon firing shotguns in residential backyards — Damn, libs! I thought this was 'Merica! — I'm forced to find other birds to hunt this season. After an unsuccessful dove hunt out at the LG2 Ranch on Sept. 22, I'd all but lost hope in the next morning's hunt. So I did what every unsuccessful hunter does: I slept in. In the morning, the view from the porch confirmed my decision. Nothing was flying. Instead of wallowing in the covers, I decided to get up and go for a morning 4-wheeler ride with Noah. While heading out to the pastures, I decided to take a peek at Proffitt Lake to see if there was any activity. Just as the 4-wheeler came flying over the top of the dam, I spotted some movement near the shoreline and jammed on the brakes. "Teal!" I whisper to my son, pointing at the north edge of the lake. We reversed it out of there and headed back to the ranch. I grabbed my 20 gauge, loaded a few steel shells and left the little one with his grandparents. "Are you going to shoot them, dad?" Noah asks. "Don't shoot the ducks." My heart sinks. I look over to gram for a little help, maybe a "let's go inside, Noah" but she was as floored as I was. This would be our first life lesson: "Oh Noah, I have to shoot the ducks. They'll get away." Leaving him and myself confused by the explanation, I slowly backed toward the 4-wheeler and gunned it before his head stopped swimming with fatherly wisdom.

This time, coming up over the ridge again was disappointing. The teal had moved on. It was pointless. I sat there at the edge of the lake, totally exposed in my white shirt and black nylon shorts. Staring across the lake, I spot some movement across the southern shore. Bingo! Three teal! I walked around hoping they hadn't spotted me, all the while knowing they had. I rounded off my approach and surprised them from behind. Boom! Boom! Teal down. Who needs dove hunting when you have September teal season? I drove the two waterfowl back to camp and proudly displayed the birds for my son. Noah was so happy with the result, he hugged the bird and wouldn't let go. He held it up and showed all of the other ranchers. It was my first September Teal Season kill, and the first in a soon-to-be-long stream of father and son hunting discussions.

NEW SEASON AHEAD

It has been a couple of years since we updated our blog so hopefully this year it will be different.  Food plots were established two weeks ago by Teresa, Phillip and Mark.  With great rain over the past 10 days the plots should be coming up.  The outlook is good for whitetail hunting with a couple of large 6+ year old bucks showing up on cameras.  Duck season is looking good but we need water in the front lake to flood the back timber.  Dove season has been a bust up to now, so hopefully with the latest cold fronts the "big birds" are now in the area. 

The Big Quack Attack: A Special Edition of the Big Buck Report

To ring in the New Year, the BBR Crew opted for duck hunting on Proffitt Lake since a full moon had the deer making late-night maneuvers. Teresa, Bill, Mark, Sam and Phillip were rewarded for their early wake-up with five puddlers that dropped down to join the party. Sam, the resident duck expert, noted that we harvested the first two Spoonbills at the ranch as well as a drake Pintail that Mark wants to add to the trophy collection.

While positioned in the flight path of a few sandhill crane, Mark was able to drop a big bonus bird into the pond. That capped off an exciting morning on the lake. For a full recap that’s packed with cranes singing, ducks swirling and a near on-camera takedown, check out the third episode of the Big Buck Report below. To check out all the LG2 videos, visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/texaslg2ranch.

Rainin' Crane

On Sunday morning, 12-20-2009, Sam G and buddy Andrew A harvested a couple of sandhill cranes. More would have been harvested had Sam G not made the rookie mistake of not loading his gun. He did not fire one shot at the first group that passed just 30 yards overhead.