On March 12, 2008 Dudley And Dudleys Son Frank ...

went on a trophy boar hunt on the Lambshead Ranch in West Texas. This is a historic ranch located on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. The ranch is 45,000 acres in size and this area was settled in the 1850's by the Matthews and Reynolds families. The ranch is located near historic Fort Griffin. Frank and I left Fort Worth about 3:30 AM and arrived at the ranch before daylight. We went into the camp house and were greeted by the ranch staff and our hunting guide Tom in the photo above. There was a roaring wood fire going in the fireplace and we sat and talked about the ranch. When it became light enough to see, we went and loaded our gun and hunting pack into the ranch 4wd drive Suburban with a high rack on top and away we went. We drove all over the ranch seeing many of the historic buildings and ranch houses which have been restored. These date back to the early days of the ranch. We forded the Brazos river four different times, the river was up and was just barely passable. We drove up to the top of many ridges were you could see for many miles. The views were spectacular and I wish I could have taken more pictures but we were too busy hunting. We saw lots of wildlife. Frank and Tom got out and made several hikes down through the river bottom looking for a trophy hog. Frank said it was all he could do to keep up with his guide and he is in pretty good shape. On one of their walks, Tom found the skull of a whitetail buck that had died recently that had a huge non typical rack with 11 or 12 points. the old buck probably died of old age. We saw lots of wildlife during the course of the day. We lost count but saw in excess of two hundred deer, probably in excess of fifty hogs, 25 or so turkeys, numerous ducks and a raccoon. About 1:00 PM we drove up to a big stock tank and there was a herd of black Angus cattle bedded down in the shade by the edge of the water. Tom said there is a big boar over there which is what we had been looking for. Tom drove on down the road and he and Frank got out and prepared to make a stalk on the big boar. I wished them luck and waited in the truck. After about ten minutes they came back to the truck and related that as they were moving into position for a shot, the cattle became spooked and ran off into the brush which caused the boar hog to get up and run off before Frank could take a shot. We hunted until dark and Frank never got another chance at a trophy class boar. He could have shot a big sow or smaller boar easily but I was proud of him, he wanted a trophy and hunted hard all day but learned that sometimes when you set your goals high, you go home empty handed. The trip was worthwhile, there is a lot more to hunting than making a kill. The day out in God's great outdoors was enjoyable and spending all day hunting with my son was priceless. We left the house at 3:30 AM Wednesday and got back at 11:30 PM. We were totally exhausted but glad to have made the trip. I am going to try and work out a deal with the ranch manager for Frank to go back out there during deer season and bag a couple of does so we will have some deer meat next year.