Spaulding Smails

<50 lb, and I'm going full poacher's quarter. >50 lb, and I'm dragging it into the woods to feed the buzzards. We killed two little sows (35 lb each) right before Christmas. Those were some of the most tender backstraps I've ever had. My entire family loved them, including my wife who usually steers away from wild game. Conversely, I shot a 100 lb boar at the start of deer season and his ass was nasty. Covered in ticks and I could smell him from 20 ft away. I wasn't about to touch that meat.

Depends on the set up of the ranch. If they're just dropping you in a blind, then I would hope they have been watching movements or have some idea of location, etc. Pigs get wise and get nocturnal if you whack em under the feeder hunt after hunt. From my experience, even when they're not nocturnal, they're moving right at first light and last light. Get in the blind plenty early in the morning and stay plenty late in the evening. If you're shooting a semi-automatic rifle, take dead aim on the first one, but see if you can pop a few more once they start to run. Also, eat steaks and drink whiskey and have fun.

We had a pretty awesome week last week. Headed out to the ranch late Christmas Day. We're just getting everything buttoned up, so it was the first time I took my wife and all three kids to stay the night. My mom and dad came up as well and brought my 85 year old grandmother. She grew up in Knippa on a ranch, so she loved being out there. It was nice to not work our asses off and actually sit back and enjoy the place. My dad hunted Christmas evening and saw a cull buck that we've had our eye on. So, my son and I went to that stand Wednesday morning. He came out to the feeder shortly after the timer went off. We watched him for a bit with another small buck. It took him a while to clear the feeder and the other deer, but my son put a decent shot on him. He pulled it a bit and missed the vitals, but I knew he hit him solidly. He limped back into the brush and we watched him just stand there for a good 30 min. He started to move and was walking towards the back fence line, so I decided to hop out of the blind and head around his flank in the hopes of pushing him back away from the fence line. The strategy worked, and he moved back behind the feeder. I lost sight of him, so I headed back to the feeder. My son did a great job of keeping the binoculars on him and saw him tucked back in a little clearing at about 150 yds. He put a good shot on him that time and dropped him. It's his first buck and the first deer taken on our new ranch. Nothing special, but a good cull buck for a 10 year old. About 140 lb on the hoof and we aged him at 3.5 years. He was stoked. We enjoyed the morning together skinning and quartering him, ate a big late breakfast, then went out and popped a few dove that afternoon. Just a damn fine day. Followed that up with my annual duck hunt this weekend. Much slower than in years past. We think it was the fact that there's so many ponds full right now. One bird shy of two 5-man limits, but those took two hours instead of 30 minutes. Had to work harder than in years past and had some long shots on occasion, but we made it work. Also didn't have the variety that we've had in the past. Lots of teal, a few gadwall and widgeon, and too many ring necks. But, it was still a blast. We're just spoiled.

That dude had been scrapping this year! Love wide racks that don't kick back in at the end of the main beam. Nice job!

My company seems to work on a ton of projects that fit into this motif from an architectural standpoint. It's one of the styles (along with true modern) that I don't care for personally, but have a true appreciation of from a stylistic and craftsmanship perspective. It's so simple, sleek and elegant, but hard to pull off properly. It accentuates space and compliments it instead of dominating it. Really a tough design concept to do well, but when done so properly, it makes a space. And, it's a really great feeling to see the true MCM architecture complimented by true MCM furnishings.

Depends on how you are going to hunt. If from dry land and someone else is putting out decoys and retrieving dead ducks, then just warm clothes and gloves. If you and boy will be getting in the water, then waders will be needed. Other than that, a facemask, license, waterfowl stamp, steel shotgun shells and your shotgun. This is exactly right. When I duck hunt with a guide, it's pretty simple. Be warm, have license / stamp, shotgun / shells. If I'm hunting for myself, my list grows by 3X. 5X if you factor in my dog and his stuff. We're headed out tomorrow, and my buddy has decoys galore. It's going to be chilly, so my list for the blind is as follows: Waders + boots, long johns, wool socks, base layer, fleece shirt, heavy jacket, gloves with removable fingers, camo beanie with built-in headlamp, face mask, neoprene shell belt, duck straps, shotgun, 3" #4 steel shot, ziplock bags, game shears, knife, calls, dog's neoprene vest, eCollar and a big thermos for coffee

Cross post in one of the hunting threads. This is Murphy. Murphy is my right hand man. Goes to work with me. Hunts with me. Plays with the kids. Watches the house. He's a good dude. He is also a bad ass. And a bird retrieving machine.

I've refrained from chiming in on this thread for a while, but the dog thing struck a chord. I love to bird hunt. Dove, duck, goose, quail, pheasant. All of it. I absolutely prefer wild birds, but I also like to work my dog, and we'll buy a few dozen quail 2-3 time a year so he can work. Dove, duck and goose hunting lends more control to your dog, but the first time I took my dog quail hunting, I was a nervous wreck. Hell, I was afraid I'd do something stupid. I can't tell you how protective I am of my dog and how belligerent I am on gun safety with my son (at all times) and with my guests when my dog is around. There are no second chances when you pull the trigger. I won't let anyone shoot quail anywhere near my dog until I've had a chance to watch them. Regardless of the cost or the training, that's my best friend, dammit. I have no idea how I'd react if someone blasted my dog. Dude doesn't point, but is a flushing / retrieving machine. He's a great family dog, but flips the switch when the gun comes out of the safe. With my kids, it's all about repetition. I love the idea of the laser pointer. I'll ask them 20-30 times while we're hunting, "where is your barrel pointed." We check and re-check the chamber, we talk about crossing fences and climbing stands. Hell, we took my six year old daughter out to the ranch a few weeks ago. I laid down the laws to her the same way I did with my son at that age, and she was too freaked out to shoot the BB gun that afternoon.

In a time crunch, I've used honey instead of sugar. Tends to give it a nice golden color much quicker.

This is awesome. You should start a new thread when you're ready so we can track / ridicule / judge / appreciate / applaud / be envious of you without getting side tracked on all of our other day trips.

Friday party for my employees (approx 60) at the office: Shrimp boil to include taters, onions, cauliflower, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, sausage Sunday evening (first night of guests): Blackened redfish, shrimp & grits with andouille sausage, collard greens, homemade French bread and bread pudding with homemade ice cream and bourbon sauce Christmas Eve: Beef tenderloin, béarnaise sauce, mushrooms, asparagus, loaded mashed potatoes, rosemary bread with olive oil, and pumpkin cheesecake / chocolate pecan pie for dessert Christmas Morning: Homemade cinnamon buns and breakfast casserole Christmas Day: Beer-belly turkey on the smoker, venison sausage, pinto beans, German potato salad and cookie cake a la mode for dessert Needless to say, I need to up my run mileage to offset this pending caloric onslaught.

Spam Buffalo Vienna Sausages Fritos spicy bean dip Chef Boyardee ravioli And, if we're going with just stuff that is pre-packaged, give me V&V smoked sausage all day long.

May have to change plans this coming weekend. I was going to take my son out to our place to shoot a doe. We haven't had any bucks that I'm terribly excited about taking, but we're heavy on the doe side of the equation. We haven't done a formal survey yet, but the numbers seem to indicate that we need to thin out the female side of the equation. We finally got the A-frame set up, so we have a decent cleaning station as of last week. We had been holding off on shooting anything other than hogs for the simple fact that quartering a deer is infinitely easier when you have the right set up. My uncle called Sunday and invited my son and I down to his place. He said he's heavy on management bucks and needs to take a few out. May be this weekend or may be some time in January. Waiting for schedules to sync up. Regardless, one of these guys would make a great first buck for the boy.

It certainly does. I opted for the F350 solely based on increased gooseneck towing capacity. We need a larger (heavier) dump trailer and I'm upgrading to a gooseneck flatbed so I can haul both our Bobcats on the same load. Price difference between F250 and F350 was relatively negligible and gave more versatility.

@Anastasis I think that's just internal decay. Pretty common among Red Oaks. Half my Red Oaks have similar voids. Cue @cactusflinthead to either confirm my statement or tell me I'm full of shit.

Thanks. My last truck was two tone as well. I really liked the light tan / dark tan combo, but my company logo has silver in it, so I wanted to do the same color combo. I know, I know. They've gotten stupid expensive. My BIL works at the dealership, so that took some of the sting out of it. We've bought six trucks from them this year, so I got a pretty decent deal on this one since it was my personal truck. Also, as a business owner, I needed to spend some money this year to avoid paying Uncle Sam too much. I had my last truck ('04 F150) for 11 years. Finally traded it in on this one with 242K miles on the odometer. I tend to keep vehicles for a long time, so I justified it to myself by that type of ROI. Quite a bit. And a lot of it is heavy. We have another F350 flat-bed dually and we just picked up an F450 flat-bed dually last week as well. We tow heavy dump trailers, equipment, etc. I need to be able to move them around as well. Looking to add a gooseneck dump trailer next year along with a gooseneck flat-bed dovetail that we can haul our Bobcats with. I'll get my money's worth out of this one, and the tow / haul capability is why I went with the one ton.

Finally picked up the new truck. Took a month longer than anticipated from Ford. Headed next week for headache rack and tool box. Possibly a brush guard. Trying to figure out if I want to do a leveling kit and bigger shoes now or wait a bit. Decisions, decisions.

So, I decided to put my arm to the test over Thanksgiving weekend. Went to the local HS a few miles from my parents' house. Hopped the fence with my son and we threw the ball around. 43 yards was the best I could muster. With a college ball. Also, 43 yards looks like nothing when watching on TV but feels like the deck of an aircraft carrier when you're at ground level trying to heave a ball.

I always felt like I'd have nothing to contribute to this thread. My FIL and BIL can be lazy and entitled, but for the most part, they're harmless. My MIL is great and a huge help with my kids. We get along really well with my side of the family which is where we spent Thanksgiving this year. My parents and my only sister live in New Braunfels. My sister's husband is a good dude. He can be a bit loud and obnoxious, but takes good care of my sister and their kids. They NEVER spend time with his family, and my sister is always pretty quiet about them. I met them at their wedding 10 years ago, but have only seen them a few times since then. Well, he finally opened up to me this week. My nephew came down with a nasty stomach bug, so they took turns at home with him. He's had digestive issues since birth, so he actually spent Wednesday night in the ER. My sister came over for Thanksgiving, then went home to relieve my BIL so he could come see the family and eat. He explained to me that his dad is giving him a hard time because he's getting married Saturday (7th wedding, 6th wife), and he told him he wasn't coming to the wedding because his son was sick. His dad told him, "Kids get sick. I'm not sure why that means you can't be there to support me." Support a 65 year old man getting married for the seventh time. BIL then proceeds to tell me that his 89 year old grandfather called him that morning to tell him that he found his mom passed out in her own vomit / shit / piss because she borderline OD'd on pain meds. That's after my BIL gave her $1,000 earlier in the week b/c she "fell while walking the dog, sprained her ankle, had to miss work and didn't have enough money for her bills" which means she took the cash to get fucked up like Elvis. He felt so guilty for enabling her and felt bad for his elderly grandfather dealing with that alone. He said he offered to drive to Houston to help, but his grandfather had it under control by then. Sounds like best case scenario is he foots the bill for rehab. Worst case scenario is... worse. I completely understand why he: A) enjoys spending time with our family B) doesn't talk about his family

FIFY. “Hey, put on your keep your stripper outfit on when you get home from work, we’re going to go out and take some pictures with the Ferrari and poor lighting.” Again, not that there's anything wrong with that. My only objection is homeboy's shoe choice.

Absolutely. Definitely in the playbook. I have yet to see one with a rifle in hand, but I plan to whack the first decent axis buck or mature doe that I see. I've heard they love alfalfa, so I'm taking a few bales out there next week to put near one of our stands.

My previous employer had our corporate meeting in Indianapolis six years ago. One evening, they rented out the RCA dome and we got to go onto the field to screw around. It was pretty sweet. They had NFL balls out there, and of course, dudes were trying to kick field goals. Of the 500 or so employees, I think I saw two guys kick anything over 30 yds. I didn't even try. Again, a bunch of old, out-of-shape fuckers.

Agreed. He's actually an 11. There's a little kicker on his left G2. I'm far from an expert, but I aged him at 3-1/2. Even on the game cams, I haven't seen anything better than that and I haven't noticed any older deer either. The biggest axis I saw was actually dead on the side of the road about 100 yds past our gate this spring. There's a few passing through there, but haven't seen any trophies on that front either. We have a fair amount of pigs, and they've been fun for the kids to shoot this fall. We just bought the place in January. Low fence west of Junction. So, I'm not banking on any B&C quality deer, but it will be awesome to try to manage them in the coming years to see what we can get. I'd be ecstatic with a decent 5-1/2 YO 10 pointer every couple of years for my son or daughter to shoot. We fed protein April - August and will do so a bit earlier in the coming years. Also hoping to get a food plot down next year or the year after. It's just fun to get out there. Good deer would be icing on the cake.

Pulled the SD cards in the game cameras for the first time two weeks ago. Seeming some good activity, but no shooter whitetails. Been so busy working (at home and at the ranch) to spend much time hunting. Hoping that changes over the holidays.

My oldest is 10, so I'm still a few years away from that, but I can certainly see it gaining on me in the rearview mirror. I was throwing BP to him a few weeks ago at the ball field. We were the only ones there, so I didn't bother with the L screen. I damn near took one in the chops. So glad I had my glove on. I've always felt fine throwing from the mound and having enough time to react, but he's just hitting the ball too hard now. At least he's as slow as I was, so I have a few more years before he can out run me.