I always love it when I get a call from James Ferguson and the conversation starts out like this – “Mark such and such date on your calendar. We’re going hunting at the so and so ranch.” The next thing I do is pull the bottle of White-Out from my desk drawer and start painting over whatever else was already on that date!

A few weeks back I got such a call from James and the destination would be B&C Outfitters. Our host Mark Balette operates B&C on the 3500 acre JB Ranch in the piney woods of east Texas near the town of Groveton.

I met up with the Fergusons on Friday in Ennis where we stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading down the road to B&C. The drive is only about 2 ½ hours from Dallas or from Houston. We arrived with plenty of daylight left for unloading and met with Mark a few minutes to discuss plans for the next morning’s hunt.

Mark is in the process of building a lodge for the hunters. It wasn’t complete for our hunt but far enough along to be very comfortable. We had good beds, AC, and running water so we were set for the weekend. The lodge is going to be very nice when completed. I don’t know if he has plans to paint the outside or not, but I’m hoping not. It is covered in old faded barn tin and looks really cool to me.

We rolled out of bed at 4:30 AM Saturday and made the 1-mile drive to Mark’s house and the area of the ranch we would be hunting. The plan was for James to hunt for an Axis buck (he has a powerful hankerin’ for one) or possibly a Sika deer and Donna and I would be hunting hogs.

Mark has been operating this ranch for near 20 years and knows the place like the back of his hand. He busted his tail all weekend to keep us in animals and you won’t meet a more cordial host than Mark Balette.

We loaded ourselves and our gear in the Polaris Ranger and headed to the pasture well before daylight. Marked dropped James and Donna off at a pair of stands he had set up to allow for filming as well as shooting and then took me to a well hidden stand a couple hundred yards away overlooking a road where he had been seeing lots of hogs travel. It was obvious from the tracks in the road that this was a hot spot.

We had timed our arrival about right as I was able to get all my camera and hunting gear set up and settled before first light. I heard hogs right away and felt good about how the morning was progressing. Just as the sun peeked above the trees, I noticed movement in the brush and seconds later got a look at an awesome Axis buck chasing a doe. It was a beautiful sight against the magnificent sunrise. Moments later an Axis doe and fawn fed for several minutes only 20 yards from my stand. The wind occasionally blew toward the doe and fawn but the combination of a good soaking of Wildlife Research Center Scent Killer and my Max-1 camo kept me well hidden.

No hogs for me that morning but as luck would have it - James saw hogs. Ain’t that just the way it always goes! He had a close encounter with a big Axis buck at 23 yards but just couldn’t get a clear shot and had to watch it walk away. James and I sent text messages to each other via cell phones and decided to climb down a little early to scout other areas of the ranch for a possible change in location for the afternoon hunt.

A call to Mark on the phone brought him right away and we were off for a tour of the ranch on the Ranger. The ranch is absolutely beautiful, covered in tall pines and hardwoods with some open areas with beautiful vistas. Several lakes on the place dotted with water hyacinth and Lilly pads are home to huge bass, catfish, and even a few alligators. On the ride around the ranch we spotted tons of animals! Elk, Red Deer, Blackbuck Antelope, Axis Deer, Sika Deer, Whitetails, and Fallow Deer seemed to be around every turn.

After the scouting trip it appeared that the best chance for Axis or Sika would be in the area where James and Donna hunted that morning. I would be moving to stand in a large oak tree overlooking a road running beside one of the big lakes. The spot was covered in tracks and just felt “hoggy” to me. We made the decision where to hunt for the afternoon and headed back to camp for some lunch and to let the young folks take a nap. I may have dozed off too – hard to say!

The weather was stifling hot so we stalled the afternoon hunt until about 6PM. I had hardly settled into the stand when I heard pigs raising a ruckus in the woods near the lake. Things were looking good. A half hour later, I was watching a huge white Fallow buck 200 yards away when I heard a noise just behind my stand.

I slowly turned to my left to see a nice black boar of about 150 pounds feeding toward my shooting lane. I switched the camera on and lifted my bow from the hanger. At one point he was less than 10 feet from my stand but brush blocked a clear shot so all I could do was wait. I had to hit the “record” button on the camera several times to keep the camera from going into “sleep mode”. The wait was excruciating!

About the time I thought I was going to get a shot, two small pigs and a sow about the size of the boar broke out of the brush got things stirred up. I tried several times to draw on the boar or the sow but they would never hold still long enough for me get the camera on them and draw the bow!  This video stuff can be such work sometimes!

I’m not sure what tipped her off, but somewhere in all this the big sow apparently smelled an ambush and darted back into the brush. The boar and the smaller pigs stayed in the road feeding and I waited for a chance at the big boar. The sow began to growl repeatedly and I just knew the whole bunch would take off any second. The big boar stayed just out of my shooting lane and I figured I had better take a shot on one of the smaller ones before the whole crew left.

I checked the camera one last time to be sure the pig was in the picture and let the arrow fly. The Lumenok worked perfectly and I watched the Muzzy MX-4 drop the pig right in his tracks! I love it when I don’t have to track! He wasn’t big, but he was a pig and I was plenty happy to have him on the ground.

I pulled out my cell phone to text James about my success and noticed I already had a message from him – “Killee Sika” (he can’t spell).

By the time I took a couple of pictures and loaded the pig onto the 4-wheeler it was dark so I was sure James must already be back at camp.  Turns out he killed the Sika pretty early in the afternoon and Mark had come down to pick it up so James could stay and hunt the rest of the evening for hogs and Axis. The Sika buck came in with a cow and calf elk and it took James several minutes to get a clear shot on the buck without interference from the elk. His shot was right on the mark and the big buck fell within 50 yards of the stand.

The next morning found us back in the same stands we hunted the previous evening. I heard hogs early but never saw any. I did get to witness a nice parade of Red Deer so the morning was still very entertaining. James had more close calls with the Axis, but none ever close enough for a shot. A real shame too, as a couple of them were monsters in the 36” range! He did manage to put the smack on a nice boar hog before leaving the stand though. The Muzzy did a number on this one too and it went down on the spot.

We had an awesome hunt at B&C Outfitters. With only a day and a half of hunting, we managed to take 2 hogs and a Sika Deer and saw literally hundreds of animals! I highly recommend this place. B&C Outfitters offers a wide variety of hunts for many species of exotics as well as free ranging whitetail, turkeys and hogs. Day hunts and package hunts are available for gun or bow, guided or unguided.

Check B&C out at: http://www.bandcoutfittersllc.com - then give Mark a call and set up your hunt. I am confident you’ll be happy with the results.

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:  

Mathews, Inc., The Gean-Edwards Company, Lumenok, 

Tru Fire Corp., Limbsaver,  Huntin' Hoist,  Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks, Advantage Max-1 Camouflage, Nikon Sport Optics,  Muzzy Products Corp., Wildlife Research Center, Whitetail Pro Log, The Armory, Display It Hardwood Cases and Gator Trax Boats

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