I gotta echo about what's been said about Thomas THE "hogdancer!" He is just a super guy and hunter both! I just got back from hunting week II and the first three days I hunted exclusively with the man (who unfortunately could not stay the week) and I actually got to watch him through binoculars an entire stalk on a javelina. It was in essence, a "dance" as Tom would move and stop and crouch and rise in perfect synchronicity it seemed with the javi's looking away, feeding, moving. I mean this was right down the middle of the road with the j on one tire track and T-man on the other. I then watched him center the heart at about 15? yards! It was just too cool!

Thomas was also just a relaxed, down to earth, modest, fun guy and I consider hunting with him and Kevin Shea (another fine gentleman, equally humble and joy to hunt with) the highlight of the week.

Oh, I think by Wednesday "we" had taken two hogs and 4 javelinas out of 25 guys. Tom had taken a hog and a javelina on the same afternoon and had already shot the one I told you about. Barry Wensel had killed a javelina and a hog. Kevin a javelina. These javelinas are a CHALLENGE and these guys know how!    

Who's Thomas Burns?

Is he the guy who copied Joey Buchanan's Swamp Rooter Bow?

Do any of you know if my new book "One with the Wilderness" made it down to Gene? I haven't been able to get a hold of him. Thanks, Mike

Biggie...  

Hi Mike,

Yes, your book made it down and just about everyone was buying it and signing each others copies!        

I confess I have only read a smidgen as I mostly slept on the plane, but what I read so far is excellent!

Steve

Biggie, I knew Thomas before he became a celebrity. He used to be a pretty nice fella. We'll see what a little notariety does for a guy. Good thing he backed outa our mule deer hunt, otherwise we wouldn't have any chances for ourselves. Hope you put Jerry on some hogs this weekend. My guests only killed 14.

The Wensels introduced Thomas as: "We have a celebrity with us and he wanted everybody to know that-Tom Burns!"       The whole week continued to be just a blast of great hunts and stories, belly laughs, and heartfelt camaraderie. I wish y'all would've been there!

I talked to Gene and Barry Sat. morning Mike, and yes, your books are there:^)

Thomas is the real deal I can vouch for that. Glad to see you getting em on the ground.

Marty, how many guys have we seen fall into the celebrity trap over the years???
It's really sad. A year ago, Thomas would've given up one of his toes to go with us on that PBS Mulie hunt in Utah. Now, he acts like he doesn't even know us......

Hey Biggie,
I got a few toes that I could spare  

Hey Biggie, Joey begged me to improve on his design, I was just helping him out.
Randy I would have really liked for you to have been on this hunt, would have been fun.
I got in touch with a replacement for me on the mule deer hunt, got to watch out though he's killed more hogs than.....  well you know the story.

Biggie, please start a thread about that Mitten fella's book and see if it made it to Texas will ya?

Thomas has 6 toes on his other left foot, so that wasn't really a big deal to give one up now was it?

Thanks Marty. The last I heard Gene was using the boxes of books to lift his cot a little higher to stay away from the sand fleas. That reminds me, I want to get you a picture...talked to Whitey about it. Mike

It must have made it .I bought one from Gene sighned by Mike.He had a whole box of them.I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.I will be posting some pics and story's soon.Got to rest today.Ya'll got some good story's comin.Border Bob and I double teamed them critters the last evening      

I don't have a lot of photos to post -- I spent too much time laughing, eating, or both, to get the camera out very much.  This was easily one of the best hunts I've ever been on.  Yep, the animals were there, but more importantly, so were a bunch of my favorite people.  If you notice in the following pics, everybody's smiling.  If they don't have big smiles at the moment the camera clicked, they were just resting their cheeks for a second.

 








Okay, so Vance wasn't smiling here, but he's in formal attire.  Nobody smiles much when they're all dressed up.          

I got to go 2 years ago.  It was great.  I got to meet some fine folks, including two people I have looked up to (and annoyed) for a long time.  When I was young, I started hunting with a compound.  I did not know anything about bowhunting, and did not even know you could even get a wooden bow and hunt with it.  I read Gene Wensels "One Mans Whitetail". The chapter titled "Born Again Bowhunting" really hit me hard, and I can recite every word written in it off of the top of my head.  I was SO excited.  That book alone made me ditch my compound which I only used for a couple of seasons.  I was already a serious outdoorsman.  But after reading that book, I found there were so many people out there that felt the way I did about the outdoors.  Being able to say Hi to Gene and Barry was one of the highlights of my life.  I also got to hang out with Thomas, as well as Rob Burnham.  Two of the finest people I have ever met.  I really felt at home.   I never loosed an arrow, but it was the best time you could ever ask for.

We spent a week dodging stuff like this:



No one came out unscathed.  If you hunted, you got poked, clawed, stuck, or scratched.  And when you were chasing a wounded animal, you endured all of the above.  Here's proof.



A little ointment and Charlie's ready for round 2.



Many of us borrowed JC's tweezers to pull thorns.  He had another trick, too -- duct tape. Slap a strip of that over the thorns, yank it off, and the thorns were gone.  'Course, your hair was, too, but it was worth it (partly to get the thorns out, but also for the entertainment value).      

Then there were these guys.  One pasture held three bulls:  this fellow, a black angus, and another longhorn with some of the most impressive horns I've seen.  He was very shy, though, and I followed him around in the mesquite thickets for 15 minutes without getting a good photo.  Then it finally dawned on me just how stupid it was to chase three unfriendly bulls in that stuff.  I was asking to be turned into toe jam after they finished doing other unpleasant things that I don't want to think about.    :eek:  

Hello guys- just got settled in back home. There's a ton of stories in this hunt but the most important ones are about the people involved as opposed to the game taken. This place is game rich and for the more experienced like Thomas Burns it was probably a cakewalk. For those of us who are primarily deer hunters it was an incredible learning experience. I personally would have paid $$ to follow Thomas around just to see what was what. I shot twice, hit nothing, and consider this one of the best hunting experiences of my life. We had twenty-six men in this camp that I'm proud to know and in spite of wind, dust, and crowded quarters I hated to leave. The only other thing I've experienced in my life that comes close is Tom Phillips' Bear Quest hunt in Quebec. Meeting Jeff Springer, Vance Brewer, Joe Coots, Doug Campbell, Charlie Lamb and everyone else made this a week to be treasured in memory even if I did mmmmissss twice. I'll know better next time.