At the QB Ranch, the "Q" is for "quail" and the "B" is for "buck." The place
has plenty of both.
"Watching" the Wind Blow
February 20, 2009
Atop a highway bridge spanning Central Texas’ Lake Austin stands a sign that makes me chuckle every time I see it. That’s because it advises drivers to do something that, if you think about it, seems implausible:
“WATCH FOR AIR CURRENTS”
I guess it isn’t impossible to watch for air currents -- you know, the wind -- but I don’t know how you could expect to see it. Then again, some of this city’s free-spirited souls might have found a way; after all, “Keep Austin Weird” has long been the rallying cry of its more “unconventional” residents. (In case you missed it, this is where ambitious computer hackers recently changed the digital readout on several highway department message boards, spicing up the morning commute for local motorists with the warning, “NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!!”)
So maybe it takes a special kind of crazy to actually observe moving air. However, if you’re in search of a place where the effects of the wind are easy to observe, Texas is high on the list. Especially several hundred miles northwest of Austin, where the wide-open Great Plains fade into the more rolling, brushy landscape marking the upper limits of the Edwards Plateau. Continental air masses blast through so often, and with such vigor, that “wind farming” — using huge wind turbines to generate electricity on a commercial scale — has become one way to literally generate income from rangeland suited to few other enterprises.
King County isn’t the wind capital of the Lone Star State, but due to its location midway between Lubbock and Wichita Falls, nature’s fan switch is on more often than off. Not that it affects too many people — with fewer than 400 residents, this is the third-most lightly populated county in the entire nation. The sparse settlement is due to the bulk of King’s acreage being contained within a handful of huge, private ranches whose roots lie in the very foundation of Texas history.
Best known among these is the 6666 Ranch. The “Four Sixes” (often shortened to “the Sixes”) got its name from the cattle brand of its owner, legendary rancher Samuel “Burk” Burnett, who in the late 1800s carved a vast inland empire from the rolling grasslands of Northwest Texas. While most of the huge ranch has always been wide-open prairie, some parts are steeper, brushier and harder on both cattle and those who work them. One of these areas is a 15,000-acre block long known as the “QB,” which stands for “quail” and “buck.” You see, even in the old days, locals recognized this acreage as being better suited to hunting than ranching. In fact, when former President Theodore Roosevelt visited this area to hunt wolves in the early 1900s, he helped the landowner begin a long-term program — perhaps the first of its kind — for managing the ranch’s wildlife.
The author put his 12-25X Nikon fieldscope to use on this post-rut
hunt.
Now let’s leap forward a century. The “QB,” as it’s still known, now is co-owned by partners Wayne Kirk, Ron Goldschmidt and Randy White, who have a deep interest in the land’s diverse natural bounty. Upon purchasing the QB, they began to focus their efforts on managing the local whitetails and other native game, as well as several exotic species and a free-ranging herd of bison. The ranch’s surprisingly abundant surface water also came under intensive management, resulting in exceptional bass fishing in a scenic private lake. The QB truly is an oasis in an otherwise dry land.
Last summer, Wayne hooked up with longtime outfitter Rick Adley to start offering hunts for a variety of species. I’ve known Rick for many years, through his outfitting operations on other properties around Texas. In 2005 I hunted with him in Baylor County, where I shot a mature 9-pointer. So when I got an invitation from Rick to sample the whitetail action on the QB, I didn’t hesitate to accept. I’d never hunted King County, but due to its location and Rick’s involvement, I knew the ranch was worth a visit.
Cameraman Mike Clerkin and I got to the QB in time for a quick look around on the afternoon of Dec. 13. By dark we’d see a 2 1/2-year-old buck and several does and fawns on a plot of winter wheat, but it was evident that the blend of hot, windy weather and a full moon was keeping the lid on movement. That became even clearer the following day, when we looked over a lot of good habitat but saw only a handful of deer moving.
Northwest Texas is notorious for its fickle weather, and we got a sample of it just before dusk on Day 2. One moment, the air was hot and lifeless — the next, it was as if you’d stepped in front of an air conditioning vent cranked up to full blast. I’m certain the temperature literally fell 5 degrees in a minute…and kept dropping. At first the change was refreshing, but when we awoke the next morning to a temperature of 22 degrees and extremely high northwest winds, all of the charm was long gone.
With the wind howling, we weren’t surprised to see the poor deer movement continue. By that afternoon it was a lot more tolerable, and sure enough, we saw a bit more activity. One of the deer was a mature 8-pointer that hopped into a big wheat field an hour before dark, then promptly left again without offering me a shot with which I was comfortable. That was depressing, but at least the big bucks seemed ready to start showing themselves again.
While the following day held promise, it went unfulfilled; we didn’t see any mature bucks on the plots we were watching. Discouraging, but so it sometimes goes in whitetail hunting. Now we were down to our fifth and final day, and we needed a lot of help.
It came in unexpected fashion. After another morning of poor movement on the wheat plot we were watching, Mike and I decided to use my Nikon 12-25X fieldscope to glass some distant fields, just in case a mature buck might still be on one of them. And sure enough, one was. The bad news was that he was over a mile away from the ridge we were on; the good news was that he was still out feeding at 10 a.m., and there was at least a chance we could get to him before he eased off to bed in one of the nearby juniper flats.
After a long approach, we found ourselves within 100 yards of the downwind side of the wheat. Creeping along, we saw several does and fawns on the far end, walking as if headed to their daytime bedding spot. But where was the buck?
This 5x5 was feeding in a secluded food plot when the author spotted him from over a mile away.
That question answered itself moments later, as we looked through a hole in the brush and saw him half a football field away . . . and walking straight at us! Controlled panic ensued as Mike slapped the tripod into position, focused the Sony HD camera and began to roll on the buck. Meanwhile, I dropped to one knee, using my Underwood shooting sticks to steady my gun as I tried to guess where the deer was heading.
At first, we were confident he’d appear to our left — then realized we were wrong. A glimpse of the buck passing through the junipers and mesquite brush confirmed that he was about to pop out to our right, and at a range nearly as well suited to a bow as a rifle.
Fortunately for us, when the 10-pointer stopped and looked our way, I had enough of a hole to get a round from my .280 Rem. into the upper part of his lungs. At the rifle’s report the deer wheeled away, but he didn’t make it far; we found him sprawled, stone dead, no more than 30 yards down the trail. Once again, a 140-grain Winchester bullet had more than done its job.
It isn’t often you spot a mature whitetail from better than a mile away and within an hour end up shooting him at 40 yards. But it happened that morning, and Mike and I were elated with the outcome. We’d dealt with way more wind than we’d wanted and had come out on top.
Given that success under unusually challenging conditions, I hope to return to this ranch someday to see what the whitetail hunting is like when things are “right.” I can only imagine how much fun it must be to hunt there when those bucks living in the mesquite flats and juniper canyons are really on the move. If you’re looking for a Texas hunt that features a unique blend of “Brush Country” and “Hill Country” habitat, give Rick Adley a call, at 817-656-1200, or visit the ranch’s Web site: www.qbranchtexas.com.
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