For as long as I can remember I've wanted to kill a desert mule deer and free range, "native" elk here in Texas.  Sounds easy enough for someone that lives in Texas and ownes an outfitting company, right? Well it's not anywhere as easy as it sounds and good desert mule deer country is extreamly tough to find.  Add in free range, "native" elk and it's almost impossible.  But after years of looking I've finally found the ranch where both is not only possible but very probable.  

The name of the ranch is the Cerf Ranch and it's 12,000 acres between Ft. Stockton and Sanderson.  When I was out there last week I saw 7 bull elk and about 40 mule deer and about 10 whitetail.  The Cerf is in the heart of the highest density of desert mule deer in Texas.  Throw in the elk and whitetail and you quickly get one of the premier hunting ranches in the state.  I will be offering desert mule deer, elk and whitetail hunts on the Cerf this fall.  The desert mule deer hunts are $4500, the elk are $5000 and any whitetail we see during your hunt can be harvested for $1500.  As with all of my hunts, these hunts are fully guided and include meals, lodging, and field care of your animals.  We will be staying on the ranch in a 3 bedroom house.  Hunters should expect to harvest desert mule deer scoring 150-180", elk scoring 300-350" and whitetail scoring 120-150".  Desert mule deer and elk hunting is more challenging than hunting whitetail, so get to the range and be prepared before you head to the Cerf.  

We can legally hunt elk year around in Texas but will start our hunts, both rifle and/or archery hunts, in September during the bugling season.  The desert mule deer season is regulated by TPWD and runs from November 26th - December 12th.

If you or anyone you know is interested in hunting desert mule deer and or elk in Texas please let me know.  This is a great oppertunity and a great ranch and I'm very happy to be able to offer hunts on the Cerf.  It took many years to find a good desert mule deer and elk ranch, but it was well worth the wait!!! I can't wait until September!!

Last week Trueman came down from Indiana for his 1st ever hunt, a South Texas spring turkey hunt.  I really enjoy having 1st time hunters and Trueman was no exception.  Since Trueman was a 1st time turkey hunter I asked a friend, and my best turkey guide, Billy to come help call to make sure that Trueman went back to Indiana with 2 nice Rio Grande Turkey's.

Before the sun came up Monday morning we made our way to within 200 yards of one of the turkey roosts and started softly calling to the turkeys in the roost.  Despite our best efforts, when the turkeys flew down from the roost they flew away from us and kept following the hens away from us.  As the sun came up, so did the wind and by early morning the wind was easily 20 mph which made it very difficult to hear any turkeys gobbling.  After taking a short break for lunch we headed to another location on the ranch where we had been seeing turkeys strutting and got lucky enough to find 2 hens and 2 toms.  Despite our best calling we couldn't pull the toms away from the hens and were getting ready to leave when we noticed a lone tom that had snuck in behind us.  He put on quite a show for us but stayed just out of range and then a lone hen came in and pulled him away from us.  Once again we were about to call it quits when Billy was able to call the tom away from the hen, he came in and Trueman made a perfect shot and had his 1st Rio Grande Turkey on his 1st ever hunt. 

Tuesday morning we started out at another turkey roost, but once again the toms followed the hens away from us once they hit the ground.  Since the turkeys were still in the area we didn't go far, but it took us a few hours to find them and get in position.  After getting in position, Billy started calling and again Trueman made a perfect shot to collect his 2nd Rio Grande Turkey in as many days.

Like I mentioned, 1st time hunters are a blast and I really appreciate Trueman making the long drive from Indiana to South Texas to hunt with us.  We had a great time and Trueman went back with 2 great turkeys.  His 1st bird had a 9-1/4" beard and 1" spurs and his 2nd bird had a 9-1/2" beard and 1-1/8" spurs.  Not bad for a 70 year young, 1st time hunter!?!?

March 20th was opening day of Spring Turkey Season in Texas and I had the pleasure of having DJ come down from New England for his 1st South Texas Rio Grande Turkey hunt.  Being an avid turkey hunter, DJ has hunted turkey's all over the country, including the Texas Hill Country, but he had never hunted turkey in South Texas and I was really excited that he gave me the oppertunity and joined me between George West and Freer.

We got to the ranch Friday afternoon, got our gear unpacked, and headed out to do a little scouting and make a game plan for opening morning.  The forcast was for a strong front to move through South Texas early Saturday morning and we knew our morning hunt would be cut short so we were trying to be prepared.  Well, we were prepared Saturday morning, but the tom's were "henned up" and had other ideas.  They were pretty quiet once they flew down from the roost but we had a few gobbling enough to get us further and further away from the truck just to make sure that we would be completely soaked to the bone before stumbling back to the truck. After returning from George West, to dry all our clothes, and eating lunch we headed out to make up for lost time.  With the wind at a steady 25mph, and gusting to over 30mph, we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us.  As we headed back out we spotted a lone tom strutting and headed towards him.  We were able to get within about 70 yards of him, set up the hen decoy and started calling.  After about 20 minutes of gobbling like crazy he sprinted in to our set up, stopped when he saw the hen decoy and DJ made a great shot at about 17 yards.  With all the rain we have been having in Texas there are bluebonnets everywhere so we grabbed DJ's turkey and went to get some pictures.

After some great pictures we were off to see if we could double up in 1 afternoon.  We headed back to a location where we had seen several tom's and about 6 hens the previous afternoon and got lucky and they were there again.  After sneaking, crawling, duck walking, and crawling a little more, we got to within about 80 yards of the turkey's and began calling.  We called for over an hour, but both tom's were very content to stay with their hens and could care less about what we were doing.  With the sun fading and the turkey's not cooperating we were about to pack up the decoys and call it a day when I spotted 2 red heads walking through the brush.  Unfortunately they saw us as well and we thought we were busted.  Luckily they were more concentrated on the hens than us and continued toward us and the decoys.  The only problem was that with the sun fading, the 25mph winds, and having been sitting in the shade for over an hour, both DJ and I were freezing and shaking like crazy.  Once the tom's saw the decoys though it was all over.  They came to within 25 yards, DJ took a deep breath to help control his shaking, and he once again made a perfect shot.  All the turkey's scattered but as we were about the get up and collect everything, the other tom came back in and tried to jump on the dead gobbler and show him who's boss!!!!  It was an awesome way to wrap up and afternoon and an awesome hunt!!!  With daylight fading we hurried to get some good pictures.

The final tally was: Rio Grande Turkey #1 22lbs & 10-1/2" Beard, Rio Grande Turkey #2 19lbs & 9-1/4" Beard.  2 great turkey's, within a couple hours of each other, in those weather conditions, and both on opening day.?.?  I thought that was pretty awesome and I'm pretty sure DJ did as well!!!

With DJ getting his 2 tom's we were able to relax a little and on Sunday we decided to take a few pictures of all the wildflowers that were blooming.  2009 saw South Texas in a terrible drought, but in October it started raining and it hasn't stopped and South Texas is in great shape.  I don't think I've ever seen this many wildflowers in South Texas in over 25+ years.  It's absolutely beautiful. There are so many bluebonnets in some areas that it looks like water.  It's impossible to explain and definitely not a very common occurance, so you have to make the most of it while we have it.

We had a great time, a great hunt and I really appreciate DJ coming down to hunt with me.  I've got Trueman, a 70 year young, 1st time turkey hunter coming down on Sunday afternoon and we will start hunting Monday morning.  I'm really excited to meet him and can't wait to get to hunt with him.  I'll keep you posted and thanks for reading.

Wes