Rancho Creek

[Shawn D]

Just wanted to let you know how my hunt went with Rancho Creek for a hog hunt. We arrived in camp and met up with Bill Adams who explained the layout of the ranch. He explained that there would be a feed route ran every afternoon. We then paid him our remaing balance before the hunt the next day. After we paid him he advsied that he would not be on the ranch for our 4 day hunt because he was going fishing. He did explain that his son would would be there to assist us and run the feed route. Well the first evening hunt came and there was no one there to run the feed route. On the second day the son advsied that the truck would not run and that we would have to feed our on area. So I decided to look at the vehicle, which started up after one crank. The son never went back to check the truck to see if it would start up. Later i showed him that it would start thinking he would run the route. But he still did not run the route for he had to work and go out to parties over the weekend. It seems that Rancho Creek is not to concerned about return customers to their ranch.

So we continued to hunt doing eveything for ourselves. We had only one hog harvested for the four day hunt. This was the only hog that showed up during daylight hours. If you plan to hunt this ranch for hogs you better be prepared to hunt at night. But even hunting at night we did not have any sucess. I understand that this is a cheap hunt but I feel there could have been better customer service.

The bunk house was a "SHACK" that was still dirty from the previous hunters. The trash was not even removed from the trash cans. The floor inside was dirty with mud. I had to mop it up just so you could walk on it. There were items in the Frig that I threw out before it walk off by itself. They had eight bunks in the trailer with childrens mattresses on them. so I hope you are short. The area around the camp was trashy down to the sons trailer which had bags of trash surrounding the trailer. It would only take a little clean up on their part to make it look a little better. But they were not concerned about this.

While talking to the son he asked what to you think about the hunt. So we told him about the corn and the conditions. His reply was "I am sorry you fell that way" So we told him that we would not be back as a repeat customer. The bad thing about the hunt is that we had heard from some other hunters that they enjoyed the hunt and the Bill treated them very well.

The reason I am writing this is to inform you of the treatment you might recieve form Rancho Creek.

[biggen]

Sorry you had a bad experience!! :(

[bowjunkie]

Shawn,

I would contact Bill yourself and let him know of your concerns. I do not know anything about the son, but know Bill to be a straight shooter and concerned about his costumers. A phone call/email/letter to him may not make the bad taste go away, but at least it may prevent someone else from getting the same.

Sorry to hear the hunt wasn't up to your expectations, but welcome to the site and thanks for contributing.

[Shawn D]

I plan on giving Bill a call today. He was not there when we left so I could not tell him my concerns. For some reason my cell phone did not work in that area (thats Nextel for you lololo). I was wanting to let LSBA know of this since I saw you have a hunt planned in the future.

Thanks,

Shawn

[bowjunkie]

I hear ya on Nextel...Dang service always cut out for me right at the overpass bridge there in Hondo headed to Sabinal. Kim and I finally merged our seperate plans (Sprint/Nextel) and went with Verizon and get service every where we couldn't before.

Glad to hear ya gonna give Bill a shout. Let us know what he says please as those of us who have hunted there have always gotten sterling service, but Bill himself was always there.

[Shawn D]

Well I gave Bill Adams a call about the hunt. His reply was what do you expect for $50 a day. I told him that your hunt states a feed route was to be ran every afternoon. His respones was that the truck would not start and that he could not control that. I told him that the truck started for me everyday. I asked him if his son was there to run the route for us and he said yes. I told him that his son was not even there most of the time due to him having personal plans for the nights. Plus his son had no interest in trying to run the route for us. So I guess what he described over the phone prior to the hunt was false information on it.

Anyway I tried what you said so we will see if it helps for future hunters there.

Shawn

[Marc Smith]

I am Shawn's buddy from Colorado. I was there on the hunt with him this weekend.

What Shwan has failed to mention is that we had an entire production there to film the hunt. We had a guy with video equipment from an industry leader in Groundblinds and Tree stands. I made arrangements with Mr. Adams and made it very clear as to the fact we needed everything top shelf. We were all experienced hunters and did not need to shoot hogs from feed pens, however please feed the feed route a couple of days prior to our arrival and while we were there to ensure opportuinty for everyone. Had this been done, the dirty conditions and filth would not have been an issue. But the "who cares" attitude and absence of Mr Adams magnified the condition. The 3000 acres of Rancho Creek are beautiful, excellent deer and turkeys galore. The man has tremendous hogs on the place, but for Pete's sake when you know you have six professional bowhunters and a film crew coming that are willing to give you "FREE" publicity on The Outdoor Channel and DVD's would'nt you think he would have pulled his head out and at least made an attempt.

The $50.00 a day is not an isuue, however 3-4 days of precious vacation, $420.00 air fare and and Groceries, I was out $1,000.00. Mr. Adams never considers the hunters true cost.

The silver lining to this hunt was from the Folks across the street. On day four I realized just how screwed we all were, I called my good friend Will Watson over at Southhills Ranch and explained the situation. He was disappoited I had hunted with someone else, however being a good person, said, "Marc, Come on over to the Ranch and I'll put you on a hog tonight." "If you don't get a shot I won't even charge You." That is a true class act, even when they could have critisized and ridiculed, they came through.

All of my Texas Hog hunting money will always go to Southhills Ranch.

[Tuffbroadhead]

Sorry to hear about your bad expirence......The next time your down south give Pedernal Bowhunts a try, I have hunted with them fivew times in two years and had a great time and harvested 2 hogs over 250lbs and won a free mangement hunt on one of there ranches..

[MILNRICK]

Sorry to hear you had such a bad visit to that ranch. FOr what it's worth, we usually hog hunt at least every other month at either Cactus Creek (Nixon TX) or White Antler (Dilley TX) and have never been disappointed.

Go to www.cactuscreekhunt.com or www.whiteantler.com for more information. You'll be glad you did.

[Shawn D]

Thanks guys for the information on any future hunts.

Shawn

[Tomme]

Shawn, sorry you had a bad experience. I've hunted Rancho Creek for four years. In that time I have taken three bucks including a 127 class animal and two hogs. I know the ranch has some good hunting and has a bunch of hogs. I haven't heard Bill's side of this, but I WILL be talking to him.

[Shawn D]

Tomme,

I am looking forward to hear what Bill has to say the hunt. Please let me know when you talk to him.

Shawn

[hogslayer]

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. I do not have the details but as the new hunt committee chair, I would have welcomed an e-mail and would have independently investigated. I am sure out of professionalism, Bill would not post difficulties that he experiences with hunters or members on an open forum.

As the Chair, I have spoke to Tomme and will get with Bill. I will communicate with those who would like to know the outcome.

In the future please e-mail me directly if we are proposing a hunt and you have details on the property. I welcome that and will openly share with the EC.

Even the best operations have a bad day and unless we can uncover a trend they all deserve considerations.

[biggen]

I agree Bobslayer!!

[Mike Harr]

After reading these post I would like to know if this is a fair place to hunt. I booked a spot for your spring fellowship hog hunt Jun 24-26. Have the problems been fixed, or exaggerated? A little info please.

[Chunky]

Mike,

I am signed up for the hunt also. I remebered this post from when it was first put on here, but didn't not connect the two. Hummmm. I hope the problems have been worked out, maybe someone else has better information.

I think we have made great progress in adding these hunts to the club events, I would hate it, if a bad experience caused hard feelings and we would do more harm than good.

I know Tomme has been in contact with the ranch, maybe he can bring us up to date.

Mark

[Ronny]

Guys I think Tomme is away from the computer. As for the hunt, things are fixed as best as I can tell. I am also going on this hunt. Tomme has talked to Bill and this hunt will be right.

[biggen]

To all concerned, Tomme called Bill shortly after the first post. As in all misunderstandings there are two sides to every story. We are going to have a great hunt and it is not just about the harvest! At least that's what I keep telling myself when I come home empty handed all the time!! :oops:

Brad

[Mike Harr]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have 3 kids and I have learned that there is at least 2, sometimes 3 sides to most stories!! :)

[Chunky]

I know we will have a good time, because the point is fellowship afterall. Still if it is dirty and trashed it would take away from the experience. I don't have to take game or even a shot to have a great hunt,,,,but I do like to see game. If no one sees game that is disapointing.

I think we should go into the hunt with an open mind and the intent to have a great hunt, and just see what happens. We can always blame it on the cursed pig!!!!!

[Shawn D]

For those who are heading to Rancho Creek. Rest asure Bill has hogs on his place with a variety of sizes. The only advise I can give is plan on having a lighting system set up on your bow and stay late. We only had one hog harvested during the daytime huors. The other hogs we came in contact with was at dark. We were not set up to hunt hogs at night when we arrived at the ranch. Had we been the results would have been much differ even with the conditions. One suggestion I could give you is invest in a Hawg Lite. After returning from the hunt I discovered the product on the web. This product would increase your hunting sucess.

In short I hope all of you have a great hunt and great sucess.

[biggen]

Thanks Shawn,

I second the hawglite comment. I will have an extra for the hunt if anybody would like to try it!! Along that note it will be a full moon weekend!

www.hawglite.com

Yea that's me in one photo!


Brad

[Chunky]

What is the cost of the light? Wonder if it would work on my recurve?

[MILNRICK]

There's another source for lights that can mount on your bow. Check Burnham Brothers www.burnhambrothers.com they've got what's called a 'shooting light' for $34.95. They're powered by a pair of 9V batteries and will really light up a hog. They're designed primarily to mount on rifle scopes... but we noticed the clamp jaws match perfectly with a 'basic' stabilizer. We've since drilled a 5/16 hole in the base and found they can be mounted to the end of some stabilizers or can be used inplace of one.

Hope it helps.

MnR

[biggen]

Chunky the owner of hawglite had a prototype for Tina Zimmerman that fit her recurve. It was pretty cool!