David Strege writes, "The desert mule deer is a common sight in the Trans-Pecos region of west Texas, but when wildlife biologists conducted surveys recently, they came across an extremely uncommon sight. In fact, it was what they called “the rarest of rare” animals.
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What the Texas Parks and Wildlife—Trans-Pecos Wildlife District spotted from a helicopter and captured in video was a melanistic (black hair) mule deer fawn, “a one-in-a-million anomaly.”

Read the full article here...

George had his eye on two different bucks this seaosn, after he filled his other coolers with some South Texas does and some smaller game. This tall brow tined buck was 5.5 yrs old, and made a brief appearance at just over 200 yards, while chasing some doe. George identified him as one that was "on the list" and sent a shot with his 280 A.I. into the heart of this unique buck. 

You'll notice George is decked out in his new First Lite gear. George recently joined the The First Lite Pro Program. He will be writing a full article on his experience with his new First Lite gear, after the conclusion of the Spring turkey season in 2022. Stay Tuned!

Matthew Mitchell, from Matthew Mitchell Architecture, downed a monster 10pt buck in Dimmit County, in December. Matthew is an avid outdoorsman, a truly ethical and disciplined hunter, and is an incredible cook! Check out his website to learn about his talents in the architectural world, as well! 

Robert "Bob" Lemmons was born a slave in Lockhart, TX (Caldwell County) in 1847. He became one of the most notorious cowboys of early Texas, and made an unprecedented rise in traditional social and economic status - from a slave to a rancher and landowner. Bob was one of the greatest mustangers of all time. He became a legend in his day by perfecting his unique method of catching wild mustang horses - by himself and his horse.  

"I made the mustangs think I was one of them. Maybe I was one of them. Maybe I was in them days.  After I stayed with a bunch long enough, they'd faller me instid of me having to faller. Show them you're the boss. That's the secret."  -Bob Lemmons

My personal connection is that Bob purchased an adjoining ranch to my great-great-grandfather, where the two ranched together for many decades. Later Bob and my great grandfather, Erskine Rhodes, would also ranch together and they became very close friends, as well. In Bob's later years, when his eye sight became extremely compromised (before going completely blind), he moved into a modest one room home about 100 yards from Erskine's home, which had a "slick line" wire running between the two, for Bob to be able to easily navigate his way around. From what I understand, he lived there for at least ten years. His son, Robert, worked alongside Erskine on our family ranches ranches, and they both were considered family to the Rhodes. Bob passed away, just shy of his 100th birthday, in Carrizo Springs, TX. His son, Robert, the only child of 8 to outlive his father, continued to work with my family for many years after.    

My mother, Janie Helen Bowe Blitch, recorded historical accounts from family members and friends that knew Bob. She used those as she wrote her Master's Thesis, "Old Bob," which captured a great deal of our family history with Bob and stories she unearthed along the way. I have reached out to Bob's relatives to hear their family stories of Bob, and to share some some pictures and artifacts from Bob's life.  I have also contacted various authors and historians, and am currently researching more about this life and the rich history of the area - and the fascinating role of Black Cowboys in early Texas. I plan to publish a book in the near future, that highlights Bob's lifetime accomplishments. 

Bob Lemmons' story is but one more illustration that Black men were leaders yesterday as well as today

Robert "Bob" Lemmons was born a slave in Lockhart, TX (Caldwell County) on November 20, 1847 or 45 He was purchased by Levi English and given to his son, Bud. They spent a great deal of together and became like brothers. On July 4th, 1865, that would all change.  A group had gathered at Ed Burleson's for a day long  celebration. While rounding up his horses, Burleson was attacked by Indians but managed to flee to the house. The men decided to pursue the attackers; Captain English, Bud English and Bob were among the riders.  When they came upon the Indians, the band proved to be thirty-six Commanches, well armed and mounted two to a horse. They at first retreated, but, noting that the settlers had all fired their  muzzle­ loading rifles, quickly dismounted and charged. In a few minutes a desperate hand-to-hand battle took place, in which English's men were compelled to retreat.  Bob managed to escape and hide, but Bud English and two other men were killed. Captain English and the remaining settlers, all wounded, but the three men, returned to the ranch. Only after nightfall could Bob return to the battle scene and recover Bud English's body. He moved to  Carrizo Springs, (Dimmit County), Texas with the English family on October 1865. ; Soon thereafter, Mr. English gave Bob his freedom. He soon found employment with Duncan Lammons, a man who taught him about horses and gave Robert the surname “Lemmons,” (a variant spelling that evolved over the years). Robert Lemmons farmed, hauled supplies, and went on cattle drives for Duncan Lammons. 

No other cowboy equaled Lemmons in capturing mustangs, which were in high demand for roundups during the cattle drive era of the 1870s and 1880s. Lemmons usually worked alone totally isolating himself from humans to gain a mustang herd's trust and thereby infiltrate the heard.  He then uprooted the herd hierarchy by mounting the lead stallion and then taking control of the herd, which followed him into a pen on a nearby ranch, followed by the rest of the herd. Sometimes it was herds that had worn down meager fences, and sometimes Bob went to rescue a herd that had been cut free by the native Indians. Regardless, Bob would many weeks carefully calculating the herd, to become a part of it. Many of the other cowboys that were going out to search for/recover mustangs had a different technique. They would spread out and make a very large perimeter with a dozen men and they would run the horses back a forth, as they would slowly close the perimeter. Eventually, the herd would be so run down, they were able to move them more easily. Effective, perhaps in getting them, but the horses paid the ultimate price. Many times they would bring back very weak horses as a result, and there would be many that would not survive the stress. Bob's tactics had the opposite results. The horses he brought back were not stressed and run down. He made sure of that, and when someone wanted the job done right, Bob was the one they went to!
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In 1870 at age twenty-two, Robert Lemmons had earned a small fortune of $1,000 for gathering wild mustangs.  He bought his own ranch and learned how to read and write. Eleven years later he married Barbarita Rosales, a Chicana, on September 3, 1881.  The couple had eight children, but many did not survive long and only one son outlived Bob. The couple went through a lot, including having to deal with folks that did not condone them bing a mixed couple. They had to lie and say Barbarita had black ancestors, as mixed marriages were illegal in many areas. 

During his life Robert Lemmons had amassed 1,200 acres of land and impressive holdings of horses and cattle.  With his own financial security achieved, Robert and Barbarita Lemmons became well known as people who helped their neighbors, greatly, during the Great Depression.  Bob Robert Lemmons died on December 23, 1947 at the age of ninety-nine years.

I will be continuing to add stories about Bob, and will be sharing many references to where you can explore more him. Stay tuned!

references: www.blackpast.org, Janie Helen Bowe Blitch's thesis. 

Bob Lemmons book coming soon!

In the last couple of years, I've occasionally noticed a stand and fill feeder set up in my neighbor's driveway. I've planned to say hello to the fellow hunter whenever they were outside, but the timing never worked out. Alas, two weeks ago, I saw it again and finally decided to inspect it up close to see if there was maybe a "for sale" sign on it. There was not, but I did see a cool sticker with a logo for Outdoor Addiction Products and link to their website.

I wrote the company and asked if they had someone in my neighborhood that sold these. Turns out, the owner, Matt, lives there and brings these home from the shop for customers to come pick up, locally. We exchanged some emails and talked about how we both came to work in the outdoors industry. Next thing you know, he's sending me coordinates to map his family ranch and he's bringing over a feeder to my house, so I can take it to the ranch the next morning! Can't beat that for customer service! I now hold the "closest delivery" record, apparently!

I've been replacing all of our (ladder-filled) tripod feeders with stand and fills. I consider myself fairly athletic and well balanced, but I've taken nearly a half dozen diggers off of the ladder while hauling and dumping in 50lb sacks of corn. It's not worth the continued risks...and I'm not getting any younger! Shhhhh.

I have bought a few stand & fills before, and while I have been fairly pleased with them over the years, the design and engineering of the Outdoor Addiction stand & fill far surpasses the other brand's designs and functionality, tenfold.

the OA stand and fill has a few key features for me: There are no exposed wires (take that you stinking raccoons!). The battery and timer is fully protected! It has a built in solar panel to keep the battery juiced up. There is a funnel to channel all the corn, so nothing builds up and sticks to the bottom (not easy or fun to have to clean those other ones out!). The spinner is brilliantly protected from varmints, which is a huge plus! No more wasted corn (looking at you, raccoons!). It has solid skids, and it it built like a tank!

Wanna see for yourself? Take a look at a little demo video I made this week....

If you are like me, and want to own high quality equipment that will last a LONG time, and you want something reliable, affordable, and made by hand from good people like my neighbor, Matt....then stop reading this and go check out the link below to order your stand and fill feeder, or many of their other awesome products: hog traps, custom metal signs, feeders, and even beef brisket jerky! Yum!

George Blitch spent many long hunts looking for a mature buck that would be a good one for the ranch's management program. He connected on this one at about 250 yards. This 19.5" wide, post-mature buck fit the bill and will feed him and his family for a good long while! 

We are working with a team of trained pilots to set up custom flight paths to get you the most recent imagery available of YOUR property. Once we get your property located, we will send in a submission to get a flight quote and timeline.

In most cases, from the day we book the flight, we will have imagery back in hand within 1-2 weeks! So, if you just dug your pond, cleared new roads or food plots, and you want to get a map that shows it, immediately, then this is the perfect option for you! As each property has its own unique size and shape, we will need to send the information over to the flight team. They will then give us a quote for pricing and flight dates (weather pending). 

Our clients that have scheduled custom flights for their latest imagery, have been extremely pleased with the top notch quality and resolution...and the quick turnaround!

Let us know if you are interested!

Thanks,
George & Colin
713-302-2028
info@mapmyranch.com

Annealing Made Perfect is known as a leader in the reloading industry, with their World Class induction brass cartridge annealer. We'll be featuring some videos and first hand experience in the near future with our Mark II Annealer. Their reputation speaks volumes and everyone I've ever spoken with that have used it, swear by it. Check out the videos below to learn more about the Mark II and the technology behind AMP world wide success! Well done, Alex and Matt! Cheers!
​~GBB

"Annealing Made Perfect" is the brainchild of father and son team Alex and Matt Findlay. Alex has extensive experience in the firearms industry. Matt is a qualified engineer and tool maker. As passionate reloaders, we are always striving for the ultimate in accuracy. Like most guys, we were vaguely aware of annealing brass, but always thought of it as "black magic”. Everyone had an opinion on how to do it, and no two opinions were the same. The more we looked though, the more we found that many of the very best shooters were experimenting with annealing as part of their case preparation. Frequently they were frustrated at the lack of consistency available with traditional methods.

Our goal was to produce a safe, reliable and totally user friendly induction brass cartridge annealer which would give absolutely repeatable results every time. After three years of R&D we have succeeded.
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Of course, that was only half the challenge. What about the science of brass hardness? What is the correct way to get repeatable neck hardness, and for that matter, how do you even measure it? Try finding the hard science to that on the internet, as opposed to "informed” opinion. It didn’t exist. We decided to invest in significant metallurgy research.

Colin - the mapping wizard and co-owner of Map My Ranch connects with a great buck in Dimmit County, TX. Lots of meals for the familia! Well, done sir!

...When I told them I was punching steel at 800 yards few months ago. 

So, when we got together over the weekend at the ranch, they said "prove it". No pressure there!  

Let me rewind a bit...about 3 years ago, I really started thinking about getting into long range shooting. I started to spend some time setting up targets at 150, 200, 250 and 300 yards, whereas before I had simple stuck around the 100 yard mark. Two seasons ago, I got a great management buck at 212 yards...my longest shot at a whitetail. I really wanted to get comfortable at 300 yards and under, and hopefully move beyond that someday.

As some might have read in a previous post, I decided to go big and get a custom rifle for my 40th bday back in April. After many discussions with some awesome members on the Texas Hunting Forum, I contacted Jason Garvey (http://www.precisionriflehunters.com) and we discussed plans to develop a .280AI rifle and ammo specific to what I wanted. He put together the perfect rifle and ammo for my needs and when I went and took the class and picked up the rifle, he had already doped out the rifle for me. I slapped on a new MIL scope (had always been an MOA man before this) and went to town on the targets. 

Fast forward to last Thursday, when I checked my "0" at the ranch with my buddies. 100 yards was center bullseye. I set up my new metal targets from member "jbd76266" at 200 and 300 yards. I had to make a couple minor adjustments at 200 and 300 yards for holdovers, as I was .3 mils low at 200, from my previous doped 200. After my adjustments, I took a rip at 300 and was less than an inch left of the center....and I felt good with that. Wasn't going to go for a deer past 300 this trip, so I didn't set up targets beyond 300 that day. Well, after I took those 4 shots in total, I put the rifle up for the day.  

The next day, my friends and I found a good chance to set up a long range target. From the field in front of the ranch house to a blind we could see (without any interference), we could set up for a 756 yard max shot. They set up a metal target with a paper target in the center, while I drove out to the blind. I got a sack of corn that was about 1/4 full and used that as a rest on the thin, dingy window pane and set up for the shot.Called to make sure it was clear down range and got the green light. 

My previous (DOPE) hold over was 5 MILs at 800 yards at Jason's range. But, now I was in South Texas and I knew I had to make some slight adjustments. I knew I was .3 low at 200 and 300. After doing some estimating, I decided to go with a 5 MIL adjustment at 756 and see how that did. 

Here's the result: