State: Texas
County: Presidio
Location: Between Van Horn and Valentine
Property Name: Coal Mine Ranch 32,000 ACRES
Rifle used: Remington 700, 7mm rem. mag., Berger 168grain VLD
Pard's Rifle: Remington 700, 300 win mag, Berger 190grain VLD


This April my Pard and I were invited to hunt the historic Coal Mine Ranch. All we had to do was show up for a work weekend and we would be invited back for opening weekend of Mule Deer season, sounds easy right? Well think again!

Coal mine gate sign

Early April 2007. Our project for the weekend was to re-wire a 100 year old Adobe house, no biggie right? Only about 1000 sq. ft., piece of cake. We loaded up a bunch of materials and headed out for an 11 hour drive and arrived on a Thursday evening to begin work the following Friday morning. After breakfast we got started, trying to fasten electrical wiring to Adobe proved quite the challenge, but working feverishly we managed to finish the job by about 8:30 P.M. Friday evening. We mistakenly thought that when we finished this project we might get to goof off and look around the ranch some, boy were we naive. Saturday over breakfast the Ranch Manager, a real slave driver fellow, informed us that since we had made such good progress Friday that we would have time to re-wire the tool room, barn, tire shed and tack room if we hurried. Oh boy what a funny guy he is. Well we did it anyway. All B.S. aside the Ranch Manager was a great guy and he took us on a drive around a small part the place, you see the Coal Mine Ranch is 32,000 acres. He took us up to the cap rock and showed us the sight of a B2 bomber crash. There was still misc. debris spread over a rock slide and you could plainly see where the plane planted into the rim rock. This is a beautiful piece of property. You would think you were in New Mexico or Arizona instead of Texas.


Fast forward to November!
Back for the hunt. We arrived at the ranch on the evening of Thursday the 23rd. and settled in. The weather was cold lows in the 20’s, and us being new guys had to bunk on the porch, good thing we brought our heavy sleeping bags. After a great meal and quality time around a fantastic campfire we turned in at about 10:00 p.m. I woke up at about 5:30 a.m., OPENING MORNING is finally here. The Ranch Manager tells us to hunt the area he showed us this spring since we already have a GPS track of the area. Pard and I have breakfast and take off in his Jeep ( we towed it to the ranch ) we would drive a while and stop to glass, we continued this until about 11:00 a.m. when we jumped about 5 deer in a canyon. I bailed out and chambered a round in my rifle, I found them in the scope about the same time Pard did in his binoculars, about the same time he said the third one is a good ‘un I shot. This deer was hookin' it up the mountain, I lead the deer what seemed like a foot easy. Imagine my surprise when I saw him do a back flip and go sliding down the mountain side. We later laser ranged it at 228 yards, I could hardly believe it! After I settled down, and it took quite a few minutes, we took off to collect the deer. 2 ½ hours later we found him. We had to take a very round about route to get to him due to the steepness of the area and we looked on the wrong hillside for about 2 hours before going back to the area I shot from to get a new perspective. I am speechless when we find him I had no idea he would be as big as he is. A 5x5 for my first mule deer. This is my first Muley, on my first Mule deer hunt. I am one lucky son of a gun.

My deer

While we were field dressing the deer it began to snow. After field dressing we had to drag him about 400 yards up the mountain side and then another 100 yards down the other side to get him to the jeep. Us fat, flat land guys don’t breath well at 5000 feet. We made it back to H.Q. at about 5:30 p.m.. Another great meal and campfire. I am on cloud nine.

Day 2

Today the pressure is off, well it wasn’t on for that long to begin with, but we got to find Pard a deer. We are going to hunt up high today by the crash site I mentioned earlier. It snowed all last night so today there is 2 or 3 inches of snow all over the place, man I hate snow, but it’s pretty to look at. Any way we grind it up to the top under the cap rock following the track from the GPS stopping and glassing the likely looking areas and we end up back in the area where I got my buck yesterday. We stop and walk around to see if my gut pile has been eaten on and as we walk around to see we jump 3 deer, all bucks, I am on the first one with my binoculars and he meets the ranch criteria for a shooter buck and I tell Pard to shoot him, Pard tells me number 2 is bigger and I look at him about the time Pard’s rifle goes boom. His buck is down too. His deer fell not 75 yards from where mine fell yesterday.

Pard’s deer picture

A beautiful 4x5, and wide too. And now all we gotta do is get him out of the same dern canyon! Well we had practiced yesterday so out we go. At least we did not have to crawl all over creation to find this one. Back to camp for Supper, the fire and a nice Cohiba stogie, what an incredible 2 days!!!!!!

Day 3

Today is just a goof off and recovery day. We ride around in the Jeep and look for some quail to shoot at, we don’t find any but we had a great time lookin’ some more of that beautiful ranch over. We take the deer apart and get them in coolers for the migration back home.

Day 4

Drive, drive and drive some more. Back in Bubbaville at about 8:30 p.m.


This was a great hunt. A wonderful experience, I was allowed to share with the best friend a man could have.

I would like to thank the owners of the Coal Mine Ranch, and the man that got me invited. There was a great bunch of guys hunting there that I really enjoyed spending time with. It was a true privilege and honor to spend time with all of you. I will cherish the memory always.

Ranch Cemetary with H.Q. in Background


A part of the Cap Rock


Cap Rock with snow


Gettysburg Peak


A shot I liked

Congratulations on a great hunt and some nice bucks.

I love Spanish Daggers and will not allow them to be cut on our place. I make roads around them but try to leave the brush that helps support them. I've got two huge Pitas that I'll try to remember to take a picture of to post on here. I'm not sure why I like them so much, I just thinks they are neat. Nice pictures, of the deer too!

Alan

some very fine deer hunting in some VERY beautiful and awesome country! congratulations on the hunt, jtex!

Conratulations. Nice job. If they need a carpenter, I'm available

Super report, JTEX. Both deer are nice, but yours is probably in the top 10% for Texas desert mulies. Your pard's deer with the one side having an unbranched g-2 is the most common structure you'll see in that area. Getting one with both tines branched is an accomplishment. I'd be proud of either! Thanks for the great photos, especially of the countryside.

I remember when that B-1 crashed and was recently reminiscing about it with an airforce physician who was stationed at Dyess at the time. Musta been a helluva train wreck, a two hundred thousand pound airplane running into a wall of rock at the same speed as a .22 long rifle!

Awesome! Sounds and looks like a fantastic hunt! Thanks for the pics and the story...
Drum

Those are some terrific deer -- your buck especially so.

Thanks for sharing the photos. I love that part of the state. My wife's family lived near Balmorrhea (she was born in Pecos), but we haven't been back since her grandfather's funeral several years ago.

What amazes me about the area is that the terrain looks like it would have a hard time sustaining a single rabbit, yet the countryside is both rich in game populations and diverse in the number of species you'll find there.

NICE bucks - I love that area out there...

Thanks for all the kind words.

I am very proud to have that fine animal for my own, I dropped the cape off at the taxidermist just today.

The landscape is very rugged but almost bare. It looks like it would take two sections to pasture a pigeon there is so little vegitation, but the two deer were carrying plenty of fat.

The crash site is just....well I'm not sure what the right word would be, humbling maybe? The ranch owners did have a bronze plaque made and placed on a boulder at the base of the slide where all the debris is just under the crash site. It commemerates the sacrifice our servicemen make for our safety and continued freedom.

I did sabotage some wiring while I was there so that we will be needed again next year( just kidding ).

A great report from some of God's country for certain. Congrats on two great deer and for your efforts to repair the premises. This is the way Texas landowners/hunters treated each other before the nonmentionable "high fence" rhetoric.

Certainly a solid 20%+ of Texas w/o a good fence much less a high one

Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on a great hunt and a well deserved mulie!!!

Bob

Some great animals and beautiful country! I have bad memories of Van Horn but the landscape is great!

JTEX,

Two great Mulies, and an outstanding write up.
Thanks for the share, and super pictures. Interesting country for sure.

Don

Thanks for all the kind words.

We were informed that they do have another electrical project for next Spring. Who knows, we might find a big free range Aodad to go with our Muleys.

Great photos.