An Inexpensive Trophy Hunt

EDITOR'S NOTE: At the Quinn Ranch, a hunter can bag a trophy buck, three does and hogs and coyotes during his hunt. When you consider the amount of money you spend each year for a number of year for licenses and permits, gas, motels, food, hunting equipment and supplies without ever taking a trophy buck, then you'll realize the inexpensive cost of a trophy hunt where you know you'll see nice deer.

This past season at the Quinn Ranch I saw what I thought was a bear coming to my stand. The animal was big, black, low to the ground and looked to weigh more than 200 pounds. But I realized I'd never heard of black bears in Texas. I didn't know whether the state had a season on black bears and knew I didn't have a tag. As I looked in my binoculars and studied the bear in the low light of the late Texas afternoon, the bear began to change dramatically into a big, black, sharp-tusked hog. Even at 80 yards I could see the boar's white tusks. The only word to describe this hog was huge. As I readied for the shot, I remembered something that John Quinn had told me when I hunted at the Quinn Ranch three years earlier, "If you see a hog on the property while you're hunting turkeys, take it. I want to get rid of the hogs on the place because they compete with my deer and turkey for food."

But did John Quinn still have his distaste for hogs? Dave Streb and I had arrived in camp less than an hour earlier, put on our Mossy Oak camouflage and headed to their stands before dark. Quinn had quickly told all the new hunters about the size and type deer they should take, but he'd failed to mention the hogs. Even though this was a trophy boar and one I felt sure John Quinn would want me to take, I didn't know for sure whether to shoot. I'd learned from years of hunting experience that the best plan any time I hunted land I was unfamiliar with was not to harvest any animal that the landowner hadn't given me explicit permission to take. When I arrived back at camp that night, John Quinn said, "You did what! You should have known you could take hogs. I would have gotten more excited about your taking a trophy hog than about your bagging a trophy buck. Any time you hunt on my ranch and see hogs, take all that you want to carry out of the woods with you. I'll provide help and a truck to load up as many hogs as you want to take. Heck, we'll even clean them for you and pack them up so that you can take them home with you. We appreciate our hunters taking hogs."

Of course I never saw another hog on the rest of the hunt, but I did spot numbers of deer and plenty of trophy deer. I could have taken a 130-class B&C buck on two different occasions but passed them up while waiting on a bigger buck. I wasn't disappointed in my hunt because for three days of hunting, I'd seen shooter bucks every morning and every afternoon: deer I would have taken proudly in my home state of Alabama but passed up while looking for a bigger buck.

Let's face the fact that $3,000 is a lot of money to pay to hunt deer for three days. So, how can anyone say the Quinn Ranch hunt is an inexpensive trophy hunt? Here's why:
* You'll more than likely see more big deer than you've ever seen in your life.
* You'll get an opportunity to take a 120- to a 130-class buck almost every day that you hunt.
* You'll stay in a warm and comfortable lodge.
* You'll eat some of the finest food ever. Don't plan to go to the Quinn Ranch when you're on a diet. Even if you have strong willpower, you will eat more than you should.
* You will hunt from a dry shooting house, so you'll stay comfortable regardless of the weather.
* The shooting houses are big enough to take a beginning hunter with you and allow them to take the buck of a lifetime.
* You will see older-age-class deer than you're accustomed to seeing in most states.
* You can take three does during your trip, besides being able to bag a trophy buck, hogs and coyotes.
* You still can go to the stands with a video camera and video the bucks you see after you bag your buck. Then your buddies back home won't think you're lying about the size and number of bucks you saw.

If you consider the amount of money you spend each season for deer hunting and the number of seasons you've gone without seeing or taking a 120- or a 130-class buck, then you'll quickly realize that a Texas hunt is one of the most economical ways to take trophy animals.

To learn more about hunting Quinn Ranch, write to John Quinn at HC 69 Box 440, Brady, Texas, 76825, or call him at (915) 597-2647. You can also visit their webpage at http://www.jquinnranch.com or e-mail them at info@jquinnranch.com.