I announce the following with great regret:

Due to inconsiderate neighbors who moved in from out of state building their house / barns / septic system just across my property line on my North Boundary, causing total disruption to local game populations  and due to Texas Tech University using a Helicopter to wipe out hogs on their property 2 miles away hunting here has tanked and will no longer be offered. I can’t ask people to come hunt here knowing that the chance of success is limited to non existent. This entire “Airgun Adventure” has been long, stressful and very expensive to say the least.

Click to access Dickens-—-Texas-Parks-Wildlife-Department.pdf

Not all game species listed are legal to hunt with an airgun.
Not all game species listed are available to hunt at T3P Ranch AOH (Airgun Only Hunting).

For the first time in several years everything at the Ranch is GREEN. We have had over 9 inches of rain since the last week of May. I know this might not sound like that much for some Gulf Coast residents but here that can be the entire amount for a year! The volume of the rain that has fallen from the end of May to date on my acreage exceeds 123 million gallons. That is over 1 billion pounds of water which weighs about the same as a large cruise ship or a WWII Battle ship.

The mesquites have the heaviest thickest foliage I have ever seen in my 62 years. As a result wild pig sightings have tapered off since they do not have to roam large areas to find food stuffs or water. You can bet that they are still here though.

All cattle and fish ponds are full which is very good for the catfish which usually struggle with inadequate oxygen supply due to algae bloom each summer. This year the influx of new water has postponed this annual occurrence.  Turtle populations are booming. Quail populations remain low due to hail storms during nesting season this Spring. Cotton Tail and Jack Rabbit populations are low as well due to excessive predator populations (mainly coyote). Mosquito populations remain surprisingly low considering the environment is ripe for their hatching. I suspect that the swallows and dragonfly’s are a controlling factor keeping the mosquito’s in check.

The temperatures this summer have also been 10 to 15 degrees below the normal 100 plus degrees we usually experience for days on end during this time. It is a nice time at the ranch indeed as the LORD has blessed us greatly this year.

Usually fire danger is quite high at this time of year but not this summer so far although some ripening summer grasses do present a slight danger for fire.

Unfortunately due to the rain I am not getting to shoot as much as some summers as most of my time is being spent on the tractor shredding the fields to control emerging mesquites. Mechanical elimination of smaller and bushier mesquites is much more cost effective and responsible than use of chemical herbicide for this purpose. The cattle have finally fattened up after the Valentines day bovine massacre due to the polar vortex visiting Texas during that week. The older cows just could not stand the stress of that kind of cold weather.

All Wednesday’s, Saturdays and Sundays for the month of July and half of August are not available for booking a hunt but all other days are available.

We are now listed in the hunting section of Airgun Nation as an AGN approved hunting “outfitter”. Why not drop in for a visit if you are ever out this way?

Over the last week or so wild hog activity has skyrocketed. Last week I drove my Mule over most of my 500 acres looking for victims (cattle) of the BAD subfreezing temperatures that began on Valentines day. Found I had lost 5 cows during that BAD weather incident (10 head of cattle total since December 23, 2020).

I also noticed that fresh “pig digs” are literally all over my property. Pastures are full of diggings and even my 400 yard shooting range has fallen victim to the digs with holes at the 100 yard mark covering nearly 25 feet side to side and 8 feet in the other dimension. They are averaging 8 to 12 inches deep all over my grassland property. Needless to say the pigs are doing me a favor digging up cactus and Johnson grass roots.

Having said that they are still a problem since they are leaving very rough ground in their wake. While going to pull one dead heifer out of one of my dirt tanks I spotted 2 hogs that I would guess went about 200 to 250 pounds.

Hard to believe we were without electricity and water for 5 days in the worst subfreezing temperatures and chill factors that I remember since 1970 just 3 weeks ago (thank God for my woodstove and lots of mesquite that got us by with no infrastructure damage to my water system) while today it is 85 degrees with 30 mph winds causing a significant sandstorm.

I should note this IS Texas and the weather may change drastically in as little as a half hour. I have seen the temperature drop 60 degrees in that amount of time on numerous occasions.

Due to a total lack of interest in hunting of game species at the Ranch for 2 years in a row now, we have made the decision to discontinue ALL hunting of Texas legal game species on Ranch property. It is simply not worth the investment in the permit required by Texas nor the time involved in the effort.

As usual Airgun ONLY hunting for Wild Hogs, Coyotes and pest animals will be available. $100 per day (24 hour period) per shooter will be the fee collected for your  use of the Ranch property.

Hog populations are increasing and several groups of pocket pigs (piglets) have been spotted lately. This can be attributed to the well soaked ground and abundant moisture that has occurred in the last Month.

Here at the Ranch we were blessed with another snow storm late Saturday into late Sunday afternoon (09 thru 10 Jan 2021). Approximately 5 to 7 inches of wet snow fell (our biggest snow in several years) and it has greatly increased ground moisture content. Additionally more wild hog sign was noticed Monday morning immediately following the storm. A rather large bobcat was also seen beside my shop building 50 yards from the house Tuesday afternoon which explains the sudden lack of quail and cotton tail rabbits lately. Game populations are on the move since water for now is plentiful.

The Special late White Tail Deer season kicked off yesterday and runs through 17 January 2021. Time is running out to harvest a White Tail Deer at the Ranch this year.

We do not plan to offer ANY Deer hunting at the ranch in the future due to general lack of interest in the type of hunting we offer. There are plenty of wild hogs and predators though and till the end of August we will still offer hunting for those animals, however we are considering closing the Ranch to hunting permanently also due to a general lack of interest in hunting here by any airgunners. We are barely recouping the cost of the Hunting Lease Permit from the TPWD at this time.

Drought conditions at the Ranch have improved with 3/4 of an inch of rainfall last week followed by 2″ of snowfall which melted over a 2 day period to nourish the land.

Pig Digs have been sighted over a wide area of the fields and pastures as well as along the highway boundary.

I lost an old cow 2 days ago while she was calving. She was about 15 years old and was going to the auction next time I went but she decided rather than provide me some income that she would provide me some coyote bait. I put her about 120 yards from the back door in the pasture. Yesterday she was untouched but last night a cold front blew in and this morning there were 4 very pretty dogs on her and one jet black animal that is not yet identified at this time although I suspect it was a black panther or jaguarundi which used to roam these parts in sizable numbers. This is exciting because sightings are rare. All the animals get a pass this morning to make them less skittish for when I do begin to take them either tonight or tomorrow. The old cow and calf should provide several days of good predator shooting.

Edit: The cow carcass was picked completely clean over a 48 hour period!

We still have plenty of openings for airgun hunters so click the link below and book a hunt today.

White Tail Deer Season starts early Saturday Morning 07 November and wee still have openings for Airgun Hunters. This property has been a NO deer hunting allowed private conservation area for the past 20+ years. Properties around it all lease for hunting regularly which usually results in a concentration of deer here at the first of the season since they know the area as a “safe place”.

Quail  season opened last week but due to very low rainfall amounts the numbers of birds are too low to allow quail hunting this year and still maintain populations for the future.

A major ice storm and freezing rain came early last week leaving a large area of broken trees. Ice grew up to 1″ in thickness over the 3 day course of the storm. In addition to that power was still out for some rural locations while many broken power poles were being replaced as much as 4 days later. Here at the Ranch we experienced an outage of 14 hours during which critical water well heating systems were rendered useless. Water supply issues were quickly resolved shortly after the power was restored since no freeze damage had occurred.

The moisture total for the storm was .8″ which is more than the total of the last several months.

Increased moisture and much cooler weather has caused an uptick in hog populations present so it is also a good time to hunt hogs and as always coyotes are plentiful here.