Mistakes to Avoid When Booking a Guided Hunt and Summer Night Hog Hunting

It’s hot but not too early to be thinking about the upcoming hunting season. M6 Outfitters joins the show to walk through some common mistakes when booking a guided hunt. Dayton and Nathan rejoin the conversation after a brief and successful hog hunt in a coastal field

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to Lone Star Trail, a new outdoor show aimed at bringing you hunting and fishing updates and compelling stories from around Texas and right here at home. Get ready to join us down the trail. Now, here's your host, Nathan Smith.

SPEAKER_07 0:26

Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of the Lone Star Trail. I'm your host, Nathan Smith. Glad you could stop by and join us for another episode. Wow, it's hot, obviously. It's July. Triple digit heat all across the state. More to come. Same song, different verse. But uh it's never too early to start thinking about the fall hunting season. And today we talk with M6 Outfitters. Gunnerman with M6 Outfitters is on the program today to talk about some do's and don'ts when it comes to booking your guided hunt. If you've never had the chance to do a guided hunt, uh you want to listen in and learn a little bit about some of the things to expect when it comes to booking your first guided hunt. Also on the show we have House Rules with Dayton House. Yep, Dayton is back again this week. You're going to want to stay tuned for some more adventures and tales with Dayton House on House Rules. Pour some more coffee, and I'll see you after the break. Whether you're looking to buy your next hunting property or have acreage to sell, you need Brian Clark and Ranch Pro Real Estate in your corner. They use the latest in technology to make listings easy for sellers to maximize value. In the market to buy that perfect ranch or hunting getaway, call Ranch Pro Real Estate at 325-642-3630. That's RanchPro Real Estate at RanchProReal Estate.com. The land is their life.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

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SPEAKER_07 2:52

You're listening to the Lone Star Trail. We're glad you're here. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to the show. On the phone, we've got Gunner Mann. He's a professional hunting guide. Gunner, thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

Hey, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_07 3:12

I want you to start off uh a little bit. Tell us about how you got started in the hunting business and what what made you kind of just go all in on the guide service.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Growing up, my we we grew up in Dallas, and uh my dad had a deer lease out in Richland Springs, and we'd come out here with me and my brother and my dad uh early. And growing up, I really honestly wasn't really all that involved. I was kind of all gung-ho on the sports and didn't really care to come out to the deer lease. Uh and then growing up, my brother, he he always every weekend he was with out here with my dad. And uh he we I remember being real young and sitting in a blind with my brother, and he'd say, shoot that deer, and he's uh two years younger than me. So he'd say, shoot that deer. I said, I don't want to clean it. So he so he would so he would clean the clean the deer for me. And up until I mean even through high school, I I think I didn't, I don't think I really ever put my hands on my own deer until after high school. And uh, you know, then we kind of we didn't really separate ways or any way anything like that, but just kind of growing up, you know, I without being in school together, we started doing our own thing, and that's kind of when I started. But uh really my my brother and my dad, they kind of never really pushed it on me, but I it was always there.

SPEAKER_07 4:55

Right. Okay. Well, tell me about your your guide business. What's the what's the name of your business?

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Uh M6 Outfitters. We've been uh that's that's new. Uh it's been S D Whitales. And I was partnered up with a guy out of Zephyr for a few years, and uh then we kind of he retired and we went our own ways. And uh so S D Whitales is now M6 Outfitters.

SPEAKER_07 5:24

How how many years have you uh have you been doing this?

SPEAKER_03 5:28

This is my ninth year in the guiding industry. Uh I kind of went full-time three years ago. And then last starting out, I was doing we had a glass company with my family, and uh I was doing that part-time or most of the time, and then started guiding here and there, kind of randomly. Uh and then it just got busier and busier and I guess 20 oh just a few years. I mean, I guess about three years ago, I've that's kind of when I went full time.

SPEAKER_07 6:08

I'm sure you get lots of stories you could tell. Maybe some you can't tell on the radio, but uh what yeah. If you had to kind of define or or pick out a hunt that defined your your business or operation or maybe turn the corner for you, what what's that one hunt that that you were part of early on that did that?

SPEAKER_03 6:31

You know, I don't know if I could really point it down to one hunt. Uh you know, it be out every three or four days, it's almost like somebody news new is walking through the door, and you really, if you've never hunted with them before, you don't really know who's really coming besides a few minutes on the phone when they're booking. Uh but just overall, you know, every year you're gonna have one or two people that you just really can't make happy. Uh anything you do. But just the different people coming in and out. Uh, we're about 80% repeat clients, so it is nice knowing kind of who's coming and what to expect year after year. But yeah, I don't think I could nail it down just to one hunt, just being around the I mean, just different people.

unknown 7:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Learning, learning about where they're from and kind of what they're doing. And I mean, when you're sitting in a deer blind all day long, you kind of get to know somebody.

SPEAKER_07 7:34

Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. If you could separate uh yourself or your business, I guess, what what's or what let me try that again? What separates uh you guys from an average um outfitter in in Texas?

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Uh well when I first started guiding uh you know, the the guy that I was working for, he and it stuck with me still, he would always say you control the controllables, uh, you can control your guides, you can control your lodging accommodations, uh, you can control the the food, w whatever the chefs preparing. Uh you can't really control the animals, you can't control the weather. So if if you can take care of the if you can have good food, you can have good accommodations, uh, a good guide, then I mean you're you're already above most people at that point. And I do a lot of traveling, hunting, and visiting different people. Uh and I kind of take a little bit everywhere I go and say, this is what we can do better, this is what we need to work on. Uh so I I mean I use I use a lot of I guess other people, you know, uh just trying to always be better. But we've got a great group of guys. I've got uh myself and then uh three other guys that are with me pretty much all the time. And it's I mean it's almost like a brotherhood. I know exactly kind of what the other guy's thinking or doing before he's even doing it, and and then vice versa with them. So uh we really we worked well together, and I mean that's that's kind of really the key is controlling the controllables.

SPEAKER_07 9:23

Right. How did you guys uh how'd you guys mitigate the warm weather we had this last deer season? What did you guys do for that?

SPEAKER_03 9:33

It was tough, yeah. It was really tough. Uh you know, early we so we start our rifle season on we got five different properties that we kind of take care of, and most of those are on MLD permits. So we start our rifle season in October, and going out in October, a lot of the times uh you either need to hunt water or find a big batch of oak trees that acorns are gonna be dropping because they're they're not really interested in corn at that point. You can't bait them in like you would think. So early season this last year was really tough. Uh we did a lot of our hunting, just old school, looking knowing what trails they travel down and just putting the time and effort in, honestly. Late season it was a lot, I would say late season, but uh I guess November when the rut kind of started to get there, uh it it did get quite a bit easier, but early season when it was hot, it it was tough.

SPEAKER_07 10:46

If somebody has has never booked a guided hunt before uh anywhere, what what would they expect or what could they expect from one of your hunts, one of your trips? We're in turkey season now. You want to talk about turkey season? That's that's great. Or what's the case?

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah, we could talk about turkey season. I've been out, I got an Axis hunt going on right now, but uh we've kind of been out scouting birds and just getting prepared for opening day is this Saturday uh for us in the north zone. So I mean if if you're gonna book a turkey hunt and come out, we we kind of do a little bit of everything. I've got a do-it-yourself package where I kind of get give you an address and I'll send you a pen, meet you at the gate early morning and say and take you out and say, hey, the birds are been roosting in this area. Uh here's the property line, here's what the train looks like. Uh kind of give them a little pregame pep talk and basically say, Go have fun, uh, be careful. Sometimes they'll say, hey, tag along if you want, and always like to, if if they don't mind. But turkey hunting, a lot of these turkey hunters, they like to go by themselves and do their own thing. Uh some people like to sit in the same spot all day long, some people like to run and gun. So it kind of really depends. And then we got packages that where we we give you the full meal deal and uh we cater to you, we guide for you, we call the birds, uh, we take you everywhere we need to go. Uh chef prepared meals. When you come in, you don't have to worry about cooking dinner late or eating breakfast when we come in, it's already ready. Uh so I mean usually about a week or two out, I'm calling the the next group and saying, hey, you all ready? If you don't need anything, most of the time it's do you have any allergies? Uh is there anything you just absolutely don't like to eat in case we in case we make something and you didn't tell me that you just don't like onions. That happens a lot.

SPEAKER_07 12:54

First world problems, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Yeah, right, right. But I mean, we kind of really we really do it all. Uh we do some day day meat hunts, but we do a lot of uh the all-inclusive package where we we feed and house you and make sure you're comfortable. And you really, I mean, if you just show up with your your gun and your binoculars, some people don't even bring binoculars, they just show up with a box of bullets, and uh we we get after it.

SPEAKER_07 13:26

And that kind of talks uh toward a little and that kind of goes into the next piece, and you've kind of covered this a little already, but that you know, that high-end hunting experience that a lot of guys are are either interested in or you know, or maybe they're new to hunting in general and they're used to certain things and they don't want to give up those comforts of home. Um, you know, it's not really just about wildlife management. You're really more in the people management business.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it's uh definitely more kind of in the entertainment industry. We do a lot of uh corporate style hunts. We were like just we just did one recently where a guy brought out some of his clients and we had shirts prepared for them with the guy's logo on them, and uh with our logo, they get a little like a hat and a shirt when they come in and uh kind of like a little cooler bag or something like that. We we do little stuff like that when I mean not not for not all the time, but when we got a corporate group that's coming in and they're kind of saying, hey, we really, really gotta take care of these guys. So uh we kind of go the extra step and do do a little bit different stuff. We got candles. So yeah, really roughly. I mean, we do rough it. I I it's not all it's not always, I mean, five star. Uh I've got some uh Colorado tents, the canvas wall tents. And yeah, sometimes I mean some people want, I mean, some of the highest end clients would rather go get in a tent and actually be in the woods. And uh I wouldn't really say we do like a wagon boss camp, but uh I mean we got a black stone and a barbecue pit. So uh little bit we do family hunts. Uh right now the guy that we have in camp for access, he's just a single guy. So I mean we really do a lot of different stuff, huge range, yeah. Yeah. So pretty much the the best way to do it is when you when you call or email, say you you're looking to do a hunt. Well, the first thing, well, what kind of hunt? What do you what do you what do you expect out of a hunt? What are you looking for? Looking for a bird hunt, uh dove, quail, turkey? Are you looking for an exotic, something super rare? Are you looking for white tail? You want native white tail? Do you want uh high fence white tail? Are you looking for a really nice just South Texas deer, or are you wanting a crazy 300-inch non-typical monster? I mean, you you tell me what what you're looking for, and I'll tell you what we can do best for you.

SPEAKER_07 16:23

I'm on your website here, everything from uh access to zebra and all things in between looks like. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Um odd ad, black buck, elk, gimsbach, red stag, uh man, everything.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Turkey, frogs, we do we do all that stuff. Uh the most that I mean, the the stuff that we do kind of more of, we do a lot of Axis, a lot of black buck, uh a whole bunch of white tail. This last year, I think we did 74 whitetail bucks. And uh I lost count on the does, but I mean, just in the three months of season, uh we we were after it pretty good every day. And then I mean, in in between all that, we were still doing uh a bunch of Axis, black bucks here and there, all dad, uh some Gems Buck, Oryx. But we do a we we do a lot more of the black buck and the axis. That seems the more popular with the white tail. Right, gotcha.

SPEAKER_07 17:29

Well, I mean, it was a great it was a great uh year for Dove. I mean, last year everywhere, so your dove your dev lines were probably awesome.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

Yeah, uh I I think I think so. The Game Warren's always stopping by. Uh I mean, and if if if he's there open in the morning, I mean, as soon as it's daylight, uh that's a that's a pretty good sign for me. Most uh a lot of people get nervous when you see the Game Warren drive through the field, but uh opening morning, or at least open in morning and opening weekend, we kind of make a big deal out of it. And I'll have a grill out there and be up at 3 a.m. making breakfast tacos for everybody that comes through. So yeah, this this year opening day, I had I think 64 bird hunters, and I almost all of them limited out that morning uh pretty quick, and then a handful came back that evening. But yeah, it's usually a pretty good sign when the game warden's there because he's going where the birds are.

SPEAKER_07 18:36

Right, right. Well, yeah, that is a good sign. Do you guys run dogs for people? Are they allowed to bring their their own dogs or your dogs?

SPEAKER_03 18:43

We have we have dogs. Uh and we, I mean, sometimes we just want to run our dogs, just especially as soon as season opens up. It's been hot, it's hard to run dogs during the summer and keep them in shape uh without getting overheated. But yeah, we we like to kind of spread out. And if I've got a couple dogs that I really want to work, I might send one dog with somebody that I trust and say, hey, run run her this morning and you know, let her let her fetch your birds. And a lot of times people enjoy that. Or if somebody a lot of people bring their own dogs, and that's completely fine. Uh, every now and then we'll get somebody that maybe is older or uh showed up in shorts and flip-flops. And I'll say, let me, I'll sit with you if you don't mind, and let my dog get your birds. So it it's kind of I I just enjoy being out there.

SPEAKER_07 19:40

Sure. Well, watching a dog that knows what it's doing work is is more entertaining than shooting birds.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Oh, yeah. Uh absolutely. I watching a dog work and do what the dog is supposed to do is really fun to watch. When when it's when it's going good and the dog's listening, uh it's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Stay tuned right here. Lone Star Trail will return after these messages.

SPEAKER_07 20:14

If you follow the podcast, or if you're new, either way, we talk a lot about trapping. You're gonna find that out. Uh, we've got our own predator issues out here in Brown County we try to mitigate, but I want to talk a little bit about Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Solutions. My good friend Philip Woods out in East Texas. Uh, he's an expert when it comes to managing predation on Texas farms and ranches. If you've got trouble with coyotes, with bobcats, with uh beaver, if you've got nuisance predators impacting your bottom line, you need to call my friend Philip Woods. 713-208-3517 is his number. That's 713-208-3517. You can email him at woodscattlecompany at gmail.com. Uh, Philip Woods out there in East Texas, he does a great job, but he's statewide. If you got problems in South Texas or the panhandle, uh Professional Trapping Services, Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions, that's who you need to call. Whether you're looking to buy your next hunting property or have acreage to sell, you need Brian Clark and Ranch Pro Real Estate in your corner. They use the latest in technology to make listings easy for sellers to maximize value. In the market to buy that perfect ranch or hunting getaway, call Ranch Pro Real Estate at 325-642-3630. That's Ranch Pro Real Estate at Ranch Pro Real Estate.com. The land is their life. You're listening to the Lone Star Trail. We're glad you're here. Now let's get back to the show. If you're just joining the program this morning, we have Gunner Man with M6 Outfitters on the phone. And we've been talking about uh how you got into the business hunter gunner, how you got into the business gunner, and uh and just some things that you guys do with your company and uh just what what folks might could expect if they book a hunt with you guys. And we talked a little bit about the warm uh season we had uh for the the typical uh rifle season for deer and you guys started in October uh last year with that. But um let's talk a little bit about um just some typical mistakes that you see. You talked about earlier before the break, you talked about uh getting to know folks, you know, in a deer stand when you're with them all day or or over a weekend. What are some common mistakes that you see hunters make uh when booking a guided hunt? Whether that's with you or uh somewhere else. And I'm not necessarily just talking about uh on the hunt itself, but what are some what are some common mistakes that you see?

SPEAKER_03 22:55

My my favorite common mistake that I see. Uh so when when you show up to the ranch, the first thing we'll do is uh we have liability waivers that we'll sign. Uh we'll have a price sheet out that way there's no confusion on what what you're spending or what you want to spend. It's it's all there and laid out for you. And the next thing we'll do is uh we'll go out to the range and get get comfortable, make sure you're comfortable with your rifle, make sure the scope didn't get knocked off, or or really whatever you're traveling with through the airport or anything really. If you're coming 30 minutes down the road, I still would like for you to shoot. Just to give me a better peace of mind. And when people come in and do that, within the first two minutes, uh you can really get a good feel of what their gun safety is like. And the biggest mistake that I see is the people that are coming through the door and talking about how great of a shot all over the world they've been hunting and just kind of done this and that. Getting them on the shooting bench and saying, all right, well let's see it. And they leave their they might not bolt their gun, or most of the time they'll they'll get so worked up and get excited that they leave their gun on safety. And when they go to pull the trigger, they jump and just anticipate that bullet, and it's it's pretty comical. Like, oh yeah, that's embarrassing. But so just gun safety in general, it's not really uh it's not a really laughing matter, you know. It's I want to go home at the end of the day, especially if somebody's carrying a rifle with me or pistol or shotgun. Uh but just not bringing the wrong box of bullets. Uh they might bring a 308 and grab a box of 306 off the shelf and like, well, uh a lot of people when they I mean we do on our on our our exotic hunts, all of our exotic hunts are high fence hunts, and a lot of people assume when you say high fence that it's like fishing in a barrel, or um it's not always the case. Uh some I mean, sometimes you pull in the gate and what you're after is right there. Uh I'm not gonna say that's never happened, but for the most part, we we do have to go out and hunt. None of these animals on these ranches are uh brought in day to day. All this stuff that we have isn't ranch raised and they know when to hide and where to hide. Uh when when they hear the the test shots going off at the shooting range, oh yeah, uh oh, time time to go hide.

SPEAKER_07 25:55

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

That would be a pretty good mistake for when people are booking a hunt before they even show up. Is expecting a I mean we do offer a hundred percent off opportunity, but it's definitely not a hundred percent success rate. Uh people miss, people wound, uh gun malfunctions. I mean, there there's a lot of things that can happen.

SPEAKER_07 26:24

Sure. What's the worst miss you've ever seen as a guide? Oh don't I'm just asking me to do it.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

You don't have to make me talk about my buddy Matt.

SPEAKER_07 26:36

Oh right, Matt, if you're listening. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

No, I've I've got a we we we do have some misses. Uh sometimes. I mean, just this last year we were shooting whitale, and a lot of times when I'm sitting in the blind, or if I'm sitting on a pop-up with somebody, I'm saying, hey, all right, that buck that just walked in, he's on the left, he's walking right, uh, he's got his head down, he's up, he's looking at us, he's looking away. I'm telling if if there's a guy sitting with me, I'm telling him everything that's going on, and he's following along and talking back to me. And you would kind of think, all right, there's only two or three bucks out there. Uh we're talking about the same deer. Especially when I mean sitting side by side, and man, I've had it's happened twice. Uh shoot the completely wrong, wrong deer, uh, or just I mean, blow up the rock that is four feet to the right of it. Oh man. It's a it's a little different. Uh I've had I've had we do a lot of uh I mean I'm I wouldn't we do a special needs kids hunt and stuff like that, but not even really in that category. But you some of these younger kids are using uh oh, I think it's called like a phone scope or uh like a digital right digital scope where you you know I I can look at their they can put their phone screen on the scope and they can just sit back in a blog pod and I mean it's like playing a video game almost.

SPEAKER_08 28:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

But so some of those times, I mean, especially with younger kids they they miss, but I mean I I have seen some uh well shoot. One of my one of my best friends, he came out, I can throw him under the bus. Uh his name is Santiago, we call him Chago. We've been best friends since we were five years old. And uh he had a bachelor party and he asked me to put something together for him. He came out here and I said, All right, we've got an axis. I said, I think he's blind. I don't know if he got sprayed by a skunk or what, but I mean he he's blind, and this would be a good one for you. He he's pretty new to hunting. He shot three times before that deer even moved. I said, it was only about a hundred yards. I said, he's the one in the front. Uh we were we were hunting a wheat field, and he was one of the first ones that came out, and uh I was I was cow calling with him, and he he was kind of coming towards us and he stopped at a hundred yards, and I said, Hey, all right, there he is. That that's the one you want. He said, Okay, he shot, and the deer didn't even move, did did not even, I mean, like barely turned its head the other way. I said, shoot him again. He said, So he shoots again, and then the deer just kind of turns his head the other way. And I said, All right, shoot again. And this time, like I couldn't even tell where he was hitting. And then at that point, I said, I think you're shooting like five foot high. I I'm not really sure what's going on. I said, and then and at that time he kind of ran a little bit and stopped. I said, All right, shoot him again. And he goes, Hold on, I gotta get more bullets. Uh yeah, my buddy Chago, he ended up leaving with the buffalo anonymous. Yeah, a bigger target. We we came back to the range, and I was I mean, I was convinced that the gun got knocked off somehow in the just get to the blind. No, it was bullseye. I mean, we we checked it. I'm not making any excuses for him. Right. I've I've I've made I've made my mistakes.

SPEAKER_07 30:52

Sure. Well, yeah, we've all that made those mistakes, but it's a lot funnier when it happens to somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Oh yeah, yeah, especially when it's a good friend. Right.

unknown 31:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Because you can really I mean some of these people that come in, you it's hard to kind of tease them or kind of play because you don't really know how they'll react. Uh sometimes the testosterone just kicks in and they get defensive about it.

SPEAKER_08 31:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

Uh but I mean knowing somebody, especially if they're coming back year after year, you you can really start to know know people and then it gets it gets fun.

SPEAKER_07 31:36

Right. Well, that's great. And that camaraderie and just getting to know folks, that's uh that's a huge part of you know hunting and just the that kind of yeah, the camaraderie is probably one of the most important things.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

I mean, if you get your deer, if you get your turkey or whatever we're going after, uh, you know, that's that's a bonus. But when they're going back and they're that they mount that deer, put it on the wall, they're gonna tell stories about oh yeah, my guide, he his friend missed that access three times.

SPEAKER_07 32:11

Have you seen uh I don't know if you follow Jeff Foxworthy on YouTube or Facebook or anything, but he's a big hunter. I don't know if you if you know him or not.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

But I I I follow a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 32:22

Have you seen the inside of his uh trophy room? No, I have. You need to find it, I'll try to send it to you. But on YouTube, I think it is, he goes into his trophy room and he's kind of being interviewed about different things, and and he said, you know, these are all memories on the wall. They're not they're not trophies, they're memories about uh each individual hunt. And he said, you know, I can I can recall each and every one of these hunts, where we were, who was with me, what happened, what crazy thing happened or didn't happen. And uh, you know, it's special.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Oh yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I mean, one of the uh I've got a a uh guy that's working for me right now. He's one of my full-time guides. He uh just graduated from Tarleton this last year with animal science. And he was probably we're probably a month into uh deer season this last year. And I mean it's kind of on a different scale, but a little bit the same. Uh one of the guys says, Man, what's the what what was your favorite hunt? And the the guide said, Man, when I was with uh Jonathan, that that guy, that guy was really fun. We had a good time. And he said, Well, that was probably your biggest tip too, huh? And he said, Well, actually, no, that uh that guy didn't even tip me at all. Uh, he's never been on a guided hunt before, didn't really understand the the tipping way. And he said, I actually just really enjoyed spending time with that guy. Uh they talked a lot about their faith and other stuff in that in that area. And he said, I just really had it enjoyed sitting with them, and that was one of the best things that I that I got to do all week.

SPEAKER_07 34:15

That's awesome. You know, there's not many other things, activities that we do in this world anymore that it's kind of a natural setup for for those kind of conversations and those kind of connections.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Oh yeah, absolutely. Uh a lot of I wouldn't say a lot, but I mean for me and myself, uh sitting in the woods is about as good of talks with the the good man above that I can get with as being out and uh seeing seeing nature.

SPEAKER_07 34:46

Yeah. Well you can't help but be uh impressed at the God that we serve, you know, sitting in his his creation. So I think that's another reason.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Uh, you know, that's a that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_07 35:08

We did uh we did a big cat, the West Texas Big Bob Cat contest last weekend, and we had really high hopes. Our team had really high hopes going into it. Like, you know, like every everybody does.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 35:22

Did you guys hunt in it last weekend?

SPEAKER_03 35:24

Uh no, I I can't stay up that long. Okay. My brother that I talked about earlier in the the interview, uh, he does all of those uh I mean, all the local contests. And he's if they're the contest on the weekend and he's not working, he he's a police officer now. And if he's not working, he he's doing a contest. I asked him on Sunday, I said, How'd you do? He said, Well, we donated.

SPEAKER_07 35:48

Well, that's all we did too. But you know, we stopped, we had super high expectations going in. We had had some acreage that had not been hunted on, and it it was uh next to a place that hadn't had any kind of hunting at all on it. And uh so we had we had lots of high expectations, high hopes, and uh as the wind increased Saturday night, our our hopes uh decreased. And anyway, we walked we kind of disbanded at about five or so in the morning after having not shot anything, not even seen anything besides hogs.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Yeah, not the bug running around.

SPEAKER_07 36:25

Yeah, and I uh we did shoot some hogs, but I thought, you know what, it's too late to go to bed. I'm so irritated with myself and just the situation. I'm gonna go sit in a deer stand and just watch the sun come up. And so I did that, walked down past a creek, past a tank, and just got in a stand and and just sat there literally just waiting on the sun to come up. Played the call, you know, off and on. Anyway, I wound up getting a coyote to come out about six o'clock that Sunday morning. But um, but man, it was just kind of a reminder, like, you know what, this is not a problem. This is a blessing to have been out all night trying to hunt with good friends and just having a good time. So it was it was just kind of a reminder to me, like, you know what, this is this is a blessing, not a not shouldn't be a frustration. It was frustrating, but but man, what a blessing.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Oh, I know it is, yeah. Yeah, my brother said that uh they they got their I think you what is it? You gotta have five Fox to qualify.

SPEAKER_07 37:25

Yeah, five foxes.

SPEAKER_03 37:27

He said they they knocked that out really quick and we're all excited, and they were hunting a bunch of on unused country too. And uh he said then it was just nothing. It was dead, it was windy, and then I think they called it about 2 a.m.

SPEAKER_07 37:41

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was it was not ideal conditions, but you know, it never is truly. I mean, there's always gonna be something that's like out of your control, like you were you were saying earlier. So oh yeah. Gunner man, m6 outfitters. Uh man, what a what a great time it's been talking to you and uh learning more about your business and just getting some insight. We're gonna talk again. Um I want to talk about shark fishing, because I know you guys do that too. We're gonna save that for another show. So uh we're gonna talk more about shark fishing, that's gonna be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Uh if you've never done it, uh I'd like to talk to you again about it.

SPEAKER_07 38:18

It's uh we definitely want to talk about it and hear about hear about shark shark fishing for sure. So uh shark hunting, shark fishing, whatever you want to call it. It's it's gonna be uh a great great topic. We're gonna talk about that on an upcoming uh episode. So so stay tuned for that. But Gunnar, thanks for uh for your time. Uh thanks for your expertise, and uh, we'll talk again soon.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Yeah, hey, thanks for having me on the show. Uh I really appreciate it. And if you haven't anything, just give me a shout.

SPEAKER_07 38:48

You're listening to the Lone Star Trail, and it's time once again for House Rules with Dayton House. Dayton is a retired government trapper, a firearms expert, an outdoors enthusiast, and a true Texan. At 76 years old, he's still going strong and enjoys sharing his passion of the outdoors with others. Well, here we were. Expecting to be here till one of one or two in the morning, and a group of you counted 18 come out, and we were able to put down five of them.

SPEAKER_09 39:26

Several large boars that had been wallowing in the mud, and then several little pigs, I'd say under 15, 20 pounds, perhaps. And I don't know that I killed any little pigs. I shot at one, I think, but uh tried to target the larger ones. They're easier targets and easier to hit running.

SPEAKER_07 39:48

So we've got a kind of a southeastern wind, uh breeze, it's not even a wind. And uh the hogs were moving north. So we kind of paralleled them, walked out to about 75 yards and set up and unloaded on them.

SPEAKER_09 40:06

And it's not really good dark yet. No, no, you could it's only nine.

SPEAKER_07 40:11

We we got it, we took what 15 minutes maybe?

SPEAKER_09 40:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 40:14

And it's it's now 9:30 in the evening, so yeah.

SPEAKER_09 40:17

And we're done for the day. Yeah, that's fun. A good day at the office. Yes, exactly. It's not often that a hunt ends that quickly. Yeah. I was expecting two or three hogs, and here 18 show up, and I wasn't ready for that many.

SPEAKER_07 40:37

You know, and that is what we we talk about, and we have talked with Bodonchuk some on the show, and we're gonna get him on the show again soon to talk uh about some of these questions because okay, so with coyotes, with deer, with even with bobcats, there seems to be some more regular type patterns that while you may not see uh one of those every time you go out, there's a somewhat of a formula to follow. But pigs, uh, they're just so tough to you just never know what to expect. Yes. You don't know how far they range, you don't know how uh, you know, these hogs, this group of nearly 20 could have come out at two in the morning. Or not at all.

SPEAKER_09 41:21

And you know, there's just it's just hard to tell. As thick as that property is across the fence to the east, and as quick as they came out tonight, I think they're bedding up and staying on that property 24-7. But other times when we've hunted here, it might be two o'clock in the morning before hogs show up. So they may have come four, five, or ten miles.

SPEAKER_06 41:43

Right.

SPEAKER_09 41:44

So it was an interesting hunt, and I'm glad Nathan was here to share it with me. Well, thanks for the invite. Uh, back to my near accidents and death experiences. A couple of times I've broke ribs working cattle or uh get caught pinned up against the fence with a bull and broke a rib, and a few weeks later, well, I lean over the tailgate of the pickup to pick up something and crack that rib again. So it seems like my whole life in the last 40 years, I have a broke rib half the time. And about the third time I had a broke rib, I never went back to the doctor again. You knew you saved yourself that thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_07 42:33

Yes, uh-huh. You know, I something I just noticed about you though, uh, when we got to this place, there's some bulls you were looking at at maybe buying, and uh I noticed it wasn't the muscling or the structure. First thing you noticed was the uh attitude of bullshit. So maybe those broke ribs are uh learning experience.

SPEAKER_06 42:54

It's wisdom talking.

SPEAKER_09 42:55

Yeah, one old bull had a high head, and I uh ruled him out immediately. I don't want one that's wild. If I can ever get him back in the pen, he's gone to the auction sale.

SPEAKER_07 43:05

Well, and his calves will be the same way.

SPEAKER_09 43:07

Exactly. Yes, so I don't need that. Uh first time I ever broke a rib, I was four years old, and brother and I were sniffing gas in an overhead storage tank.

SPEAKER_05 43:23

Why were you doing that?

SPEAKER_09 43:24

For the fun of it. I didn't know uh drugs were invented back then, and all the only drug we had was gasoline. And these overhead tanks are eight to twelve feet off the ground, and I wasn't giving him enough his turn, so he pushed me off this tank and I landed on my shoulder and broke her uh collarbone, but I didn't know it at the time. We went to the doctor and they didn't have x rays then, or this doctor didn't. He grabbed my arm. Well, your arm's not broke, you're all right. And then back in old. When I broke the other collarbone on the other side, they x-rayed that one and said, When did you break that other side? And I said, Well, I didn't know I broke it. And they showed me the X-ray and it joined up perfectly. Has a little knot there. Yeah. And in 05, when I broke that collarbone, well, it overlapped about an inch and a quarter, and I should have had them operated on it and put a pin in it and straightened up, but uh I didn't, and it still bothers me some today. That sharp edge is sticking up and hadn't worn down like it needs to.

SPEAKER_05 44:36

But uh four your fourth year of life was pretty tough. Well you got to be five years old.

SPEAKER_09 44:43

That's right, yes. Four years old was a learning experience. But uh that was a fun time. Growing up on the farm, we made our own fun. We friend loaned us a go-kart, and first day we rent the engine on it, so we tied a catch rope on it and saddled horse, and it was powered by one horsepower. And we'd crossed tank dams and diversion ditches, and wonder if we ever lived over that. But you could get airborne, kind of like uh skiing on water. You make a hard right turn and you get airborne out there at the end of it, and foolish things like that was fun. And we never got hurt on the old uh golf cart. They're hard to turn over, and for a kid's toy, well, that'd be a perfect uh uh Daddy wouldn't allow us to have motorcycles. He said they're too dangerous, but he never saw us on the golf golf. But that was fun. I enjoyed that. Uh I fainted four times in my life, and it's always been in the doctor's office because of pain. And you go into the ER and you may sit there two or three hours, but when you faint, they rush you to the room immediately.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

You just gotta fake it, I guess. Cut cut in the front of the line.

SPEAKER_09 46:18

Yeah. But each time I've passed out or fainted, well uh the doctors were right there immediately, and uh no problem I didn't uh have any after effects of it or didn't fall and skin my nose anyway. I hurt my neck in uh junior high in football exercising, and my neck would pop if I'd turn it sharp to the left or let it pop, and people within three or four feet of you they could hear it, so I laughed about it in all those years. Well, I'd pop my neck quite often. Then later on that began to be a problem. And I had a pinch nerve, and they had to uh stretch me out and go in there and put four triangle blocks between those vertebrae and a plate in the back of my neck, and they go in at your mouth.

SPEAKER_05 47:23

Really?

SPEAKER_09 47:24

And put all that in your neck at the back side of your neck, and the doctor said that I was built like a fire plug, and they had to stretch me too much to get all that back in shape. And when I came out of the ER, I was paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Wow. I could move my arms but not my legs. And that's scary when you wake up and you can't move.

SPEAKER_06 47:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_09 47:54

And so they rushed me back into the how wait, how old were you then? Oh, that was in uh 26, 2006, I guess. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 48:05

All right, 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_09 48:06

Yes, uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 48:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_09 48:09

And they rushed me back in there and did all kind of CAT scan and everything and determined that the doctor didn't do anything wrong. It was just I was having the after effects of being stretched too long. Yeah. And the next day I was able to walk and back to normal.

SPEAKER_07 48:28

My goodness, that was scary.

SPEAKER_09 48:30

That is scary whenever you wake up paralyzed.

SPEAKER_07 48:32

What what went through your mind whenever you woke up and realized you couldn't feel your legs?

SPEAKER_09 48:37

I had retired the year before, and I thought, you know, I'll never be able to walk, what am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_08 48:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 48:44

And first thing I thought of was how to get rid of all the cows and the property and what to do and who to give it to, and uh it turned out it w wasn't that bad.

SPEAKER_06 48:56

Kind of depressing there for a minute though.

SPEAKER_09 48:58

It was. Yeah. Yes, very scary. Yeah, I bet. And the pinch nerve caused me to lose the grip in my right hand, and I still suffer from that, some nerve damage, and I have uh probably 50-60% loss of my grip because of that nerve damage. But I've got a plate in the back with uh six or eight screws, and does it go off when you walk through a machine or one of those? Well, I'm soda I wouldn't hear it, but I've told them that I have that problem, and uh uh usually my overall sets off the machine more than the plate does. I have to go sideways through some of those to uh and I've been strip searched a couple of times, literally. At airport? At airport, yes. Yeah. And so that's kind of embarrassing, but uh they take you in a private room there and the guy's real gentle with you, and I give them a real problem about it. I said, Well, for $50 I could have got this done downtown. But uh you got to roll with the punches, I guess.

SPEAKER_08 50:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 50:17

Uh let me tell you about the first cow to ever kill when I was working for the trapping. I was 70 it was in 1975 when I hired on there in Mills County. I was 25 years old, and I planned on retiring when I was 55 and had 30 years of service, and I I kept that. But the first code I ever killed, I'd been working two or three days, and the guy that was training me was Hammond Humphreys, and we were setting a trap along a fence line where a trail coach is coming under the fence, and instead of putting a snare there, well he wanted to put a trap. Leg hole steel trap. And while we were setting, while we were setting the trap, coach went to howling. Airplane had came over and just a few hundred yards down there we could hear a coat howl. So we went ahead and set the trap, and Hammond said, I'm gonna give you a single shot 22 and five shells, and you go to the left, and I'll drive around the other side and shoot up in there, and we'll just drive that old coat into that trap and catch him immediately. So I went over there where he told me to set, and he shot, I think, 20 shots with his 22 pistol up into that mountain. And I shot my four shots, but I kept one shell. In a few minutes, here come the old coat down the trail, but he turned and came toward me.

SPEAKER_05 51:54

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_09 51:55

And I gut-shot him and watched him go over there and lay down under a tree. In a few minutes, Hammond came up there and we went over there and trailed him up, and that was my first coat to ever kill.

SPEAKER_05 52:07

That's pretty uh rare.

SPEAKER_09 52:10

With a single shot 22. Yeah. The last coyote that I ever killed was just a few days before I retired across the road from my house and my property, and I'd gone over there to try to call up a gray fox. Had a deer blind, and usually I sat up there near the deer blind, and here come an old coat down the trail. I hadn't caught any, I just saw him and had a single shot uh six millimeter PPC. It was a target rifle, but uh super accurate, and so I shot him. So my first coyote and the last coyote was with a single shot rifle.

SPEAKER_07 52:55

Six millimeter PPC PC. What is that? I don't I don't know what that is, I guess. Uh what was it close to? But I might remember that.

SPEAKER_09 53:03

A couple of guys a shortened 223. Okay. A couple of guys named I don't I can't remember their names, like Purnell and Poncho or something PP. Okay. And then the C was for cartridge, so that's how it got its name. These two men gave their initial to the caliber, and it was super accurate. It had the same bullet as a 243 or six millimeter caliber. But uh uh it it would kill a coat. Yeah. But I wouldn't recommend it for hunting because it's a single shot, and I had a 36-power scope on it, and the that's kind of worthless on calling coats.

SPEAKER_07 53:52

But uh you could see uh fleas on the hair of a coat.

SPEAKER_09 53:59

And I have no idea how many hogs or coats that I killed during my 30 years working for the state. I'm sure that was recorded somewhere in some computer, but we changed the computer system two or three times during those 30 years, and I never kept up with it. It wasn't important. Yeah. But uh to this day I still write everything down. I have a calendar there on the table, and like tonight when I get in, I'll put down, we shot five hogs at Beattie, and I keep them running total every year of how many coons, skunks, and hogs that I get. It's amazing how many you get and forget about it.

SPEAKER_06 54:47

But uh I started doing that this year after you after I saw your calendar. I started doing that this year.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

Stay tuned, like here. Lone Star Trail will return after these messages.

SPEAKER_07 55:04

Let's face it, whether you farm or ranch or ran wildlife, encounter problems with predators, no doubt. My friends at Texas Farm and Rance Wildlife Collections have the answer to your predator fixed farm at problems. They specialize in taking care of those petty raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, beavers, whatever wildlife issues you're having. Texas Farm and Rance Wildlife Collections is your answer. 713 208 35.7.3 208 35175 at f dot com. Look at this website customers get wrapped up over the years. Let them help protect your land and lifestyle. Well, that's all the time we have for this week's episode. Thanks for stopping by. Also, you can connect with us on Facebook and share your hunting and outdoor photos and stories with us at Lone Star Trail Radio at gmail.com. Until next time, for all of us here at the show. So long.