Gary Reeder
Lynn, the fellow that keeps track of the animals at the
Friday, September 08, 2023, 16:01

hunting lodge spent a lot of time riding thru the woods and canyons on an ATV yesterday and said we are going to have a helluva hunt. He spotted exotic sheep on groups of 15 and 20 down in some of the canyons and in another hunting area he said there were a lot of big buffalo of different breeds, including a white buffalo or two. He said he saw a lot of regular Bison, some Watusi bulls, and some Longhorn bulls. He said there were some unusual bulls that were Bison/Watusi cross and some Watusi/Longhorn cross.
He was going back out this afternoon to another area a couple of miles down the road that usually have a lot of sheep and especially a lot of Spanish Goats. This area is heavily wooded and the fields are covered with high brush and briar thickets. It is a hard area to hunt but that's where you find the trophy animals. Kase and I hunted this area a couple of years ago on my last HHC there and saw some really nice exotic sheep plus a couple of critters that neither Kase or I were able to tell what they were. Sheep size but solid black.
Another area they call the Canyon is tuff hunting. The canyon walls are straight up and down and mainly it is home to a lot of big hogs. It is tuff getting them out if you shoot one down in there. Some of these pics are during the summer and some in the winter with snow on the ground.





Kase and I both took big hogs down in the canyon and had a hard time getting them out.

Two young hunters shot a big hog down in the Canyon and managed to tie it to a big pole and get him out.

Another place that is a great place to hunt is the cornfield. Alan plants corn in there and rather than the way most folks plant corn with the stalks a foot apart, Alan plants then about 2 or 3 inches apart so it is extremely dense. You can't see 2 feet in front of you. The hogs think that is their home so they tend to run at anyone they see in there.





I shot a hog in there that was mad and looking for someone to fight. He was maybe 3 feet in front of me and I couldn't see whether he was facing me or facing the other way. I just shot at the black and it ended up being a shot in the head between the eyes. The guys mentioned what a good shot it was, but I just shot at what was in front of me squealing and shaking his head. I didn't really know whether it was a head or ass shot.

I look forward to hunting the cornfield as it is a hard hunt just trying to get the hog in your sights.

One of the areas that is very dense and hard to hunt requires you to do some sneaking around and usually you end up spooking a big hog out of the brush.

Quite often you end up taking a longer shot than normal. Animals like Red Stag or Elk tend to feed at the edge of the woods and it is hard sneaking up on them, so you end up taking a shot from one side of the open field to the other. The elk in this pic was shot from the trees back behind me at a range of 65 of my steps.

The hogs like the fields and rocky hillsides where they can root around and get to grubs and such under the rocks. Usually they will keep an eye on you and if you move toward them they take off. So that leaves taking a longer shot than normal.

sometimes if the animals are especially wary you have to take a shot from one hillside to another in the middle of some heavy woods.

These are just some helping hints. Bring a couple of guns that will do it all and you are set.