Well first of all I would like to thank Alex Gutirrez(aka-gatorgar) for his unbelieveable hospitality. When Alex found out that myself and longbowben were coming to Zapata Texas fishing, he invited us to come hunt some javies with him. We never thought his generoous offer would go this far. We arrived at the Falcon State park where we had reservations to camp for the week. Without unloading our truck we hit the water for a couple hours of fishing until dark. When we arrived back at the launch ramp we were met by a man who asked" Are you guys Mike and Ben". When we replied yes he said he recognized my license plate"STKBOW" and waited on us. Alex asked if we unpacked yet and when we told him no, he said good. Your staying with me this week. And he wanted nothing for lodging. Remember, we only met Alex here on the gang and never met in person until now. Heres me,Alex, and Ben at the cabin.  

So to the cabin we go. Upon arrival we found a very modest, neat and awesome cabin. Hot showers, A/C, comfy beds, the works. Heres a pic of ben in the main room.  

So you can see why we were so excited. this was great. It gets better. After meeting the local house residents(batman is the cats name) we were told of his importance. batman can sense rattlesnakes. those that know me know that this Marine doesn't fear much of anything. BUT I HATE SNAKES! Needless to say me and batman became best friends. As long as batman was around, no rattlers.  

So the next day we went off fishing while Alex prepped our hunting areas. After looking at the area I finally realized why you Texans hunt with bait and tripod stands. Ain't no way your getting this Ohio boy to walk through those bushes. And there are no trees. I take all the bad comments back that I said about baiting in Texas. No other way to get the animals out in the open(if there is an open area)Heres a pic of the area from the back porch of the cabin:  

Been waiting for you to start on this story...lets see how much you embelish it  :D

So we go to sprinkle some corn on the road/trails of the hunting area. We drive Alexs Blazer down the road and sprinkle the bait out so when the javies come out we stalk up and shoot them. In theory that is. On our first trip down into the hunting area(did I mention I hate snakes) guess what is crossing the road; you got it, a 6 foot plus rattler. Now me and Ben are in the vehicle feeling pretty safe right now when Alex jumps out with his .22 rifle and walks right up to about 3 feet from this snake. Well the snake does not like this so he attempts to B-line for the brush. Alex grabs him by the tail and pulls the snake back into the road. Me and Ben are thinking " Forget Jeff Corwin, this guys nuts!". Well he's trying to shoot this snake in the head so not to mess up the skin. Finally Alex gets the barrel inches from the rattlers head and kills it. Now me and Ben finally get out of the truck. Me with my quarry I bravely harvested.LOL(I'll take credit now) Pretty brave when it's dead, ain't I.    

Aaand......

Dead and headless I might add.  Here I thought that these big tough Ohio boys would come back me up when I jumped out and grabbed the snake.  No such luck, she was pretty docile though, so I don't think I was ever in any real danger (I mean she only struck twice at me). 18 rattles if I remember right.  I ate her two nights ago deep fried, man was she ever tasty, wish ya'll could have tried her as well.

So the first night was eventful enough. The hunt starts tomorrow. Tomorrow evening comes and low and behold 3-javies on the trail. Now I'm supposed to stalk up the road where we killed(or should I say Alex killed) this snake, staying close to the brush, and shoot this javie. Yea right. So I venture up this road and guess what, I spooked all 3. Alex says" Mike, you guys have to stalk them in the brush. So here comes tomorrow.

Me and Ben get the bait out (Alex was working. As if he hasn't done enough for us already.)Go back and get our bows and off we go. Alone in rattler country. Now Ben has an excuse, he's an Air Force guy. But being a Marine I have to be brave. So I let him walk the center of the road while I road on his back!    

       

So we no sooner sit down and i decide to take a stroll to check another lane. About 200 yards down the trail and I turn around to see a Javie come out of the brush 25 yards from Ben. Now Ben sits on a brick with bow on the ground. He was completely ready.     The javie feeds for a minute and heads into the brush. Ben grabs his bow and sneaks over to where he last saw the javie. At 20 yards the javie sees him and does his puff up thing with his hair. Before the javie could dart Ben gets the shot off. I got to watch all this through binos. When I get back down to Ben he said, "I can't believe I missed. When he puffed up I completely lost my spot." After a good chuckle between us it was once again my turn.

Quit rubbing it in Alex, I'm writing a story here.  

We turn down another trail and there we go, 1-javie all alone. So this time I get up my nerve and hit the brush. Figuring I needed to cover 75 yards of brush to get close I was wondering how many rattlers I would encounter along the way. So off we went into the bush. Almost to my spot I can see Alex had arrived down from us and was coming to us in the bush. I could see he was poroud we finally hit the bush on a stalk. Well I was able to get about 15 yards from the javie and when he was behind a bush I ducked down behind a cactus. With an opening at only 11 yards I sat and waited for the shot to present itself. Not sure how but the javie spotted me. I found a small opening and figured it was now or never. After picking my spot I let her fly. Well it was never, cause the bush claimed my arrow. The javie wasn't sure what happened but figured he better bolt anyhow. What an adrenaline rush!!!!

Sorry no pics of the javie hunts but I can tell you this. Although we had to cut this hunt short, me and Ben had the most fun on this hunt and never shot a thing. Alex is a great person and we can't thank him enough. That man opened up everything he had to us and showed us a great time. Thank you Alex we definately will never forget this hunt. It is a pleasure to call you friend.
Hope you all enjoyed our adventure. Me and Ben sure did.

Mike

BTW- Alex, get your cold weather gear ready for deer season, it was in the single digits here today.  

You forgot to mention the follow up shot on that second javie, LOL.  I have not seen another snake since ya'll left so I guess ya'll were just lucky that first day.  By the way how's was the fishing at Fork?
It was a real pleasure having ya'll down here and I hope we can do it again sometime.
Alex

One, Two, ten, whos counting shots.  

Man , that sounds like a great time.  I have only met Alex 1 time,  when I delivered his bow to him and he seemed like a great guy.  Glad u guys enjoyed our South Texas kind of huntin.  Bob

And a mighty fine bow it was Bob. Got to shoot it and it was nice. Your a fine craftsman.

Thanks neck.

Glad you guys had a great time, sorry I couldn't make it to the ranch to meet you guys with work and all but anytime you guy's feel like hunting javi's let alex or me know and you guys are more than welcome to hunt them and stay at the cabin.