Wild Bobwhites and Huge Rattlers in South Texas

Field Journal

December 10, 2015

I recently hunted quail in South Texas on the Dos Condados Ranch located in Jim Hogg and Starr counties. Keith Burns and his family own a fantastic ranch that is home to enormous whitetails and tremendous numbers of bobwhite quail. Due to the plentiful rains of 2015, the quail numbers are the best we’ve seen in years.

Dan Higman and his sons, David and John, returned for their annual hunt at the ranch. Outdoor writer, Gayne Young, joined the trip too. Conditions were tough: high humidity, temps over 80 degrees, and tall green cover everywhere. Regardless of the less than perfect conditions, the dogs found and pointed many big coveys. There was no shortage of shooting. We had fun with a few coveys of blue quail too.

Along with the abundant quail was an abundance of rattlesnakes. I’d heard reports since the spring that snakes sightings were higher than normal. In two days of hunting, we had four close encounters with fully-grown rattlers – two of which I almost stepped on. Crazy! Gayne is the editor at the Texas Sporting Journal and wrote a short piece about the snake encounters.

Next week, I’m headed back to the Burns’ ranch for a deer hunt and another quail hunt. I hope it cools off and the snakes go underground (where they belong during the hunting season).

This is the year to hunt quail in Texas but I advise hunters to wear snake chaps, pay attention, and listen closely for a horrible buzzing sound!

Happy Holidays,
Gordie

Gordie’s Book

“There are some things I knew about Gordie White before I read his book…and one important thing I did not know. I knew that he was not only an experienced hunter, but a passionate, with a genuine love for wild places and wild creatures. I knew that he’d been brought up as a hunter, and that this is, essentially, his life as well as his hobby, both his avocation and vocation. It’s my chronological misfortune to consider him young, but he’s filled his years with a tremendous amount of experience, from Canada to Africa and back again, with multiple stops in between. I knew these things because we’ve shared African campfires together…and I knew one thing more: Gordie White is one of the good guys, honest, self-deprecating, not given to the shameless self-promotion that, in this era of mass communication without accountability, turns inexperienced ‘wanna-be’s’ into self-proclaimed gurus. But there was one important thing that I did not know about Gordie White: The man can write! Although I’m sure there are more, there are two things that make a book like this worthy of reading. First, the writer must have a genuine story to tell. Second, he must be able to tell it. Gordie White passes both tests, and has given us a great story, worth telling and worth reading.”

Craig Boddington

Wild Bobwhites and Huge Rattlers in South Texas

Wild Bobwhites and Huge Rattlers in South Texas

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