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Cowboys and Cubs

RE87-Zulu

PATRON
Sweetwater, Texas
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Just a cartoon of Cowboys and Cubs. From some life experiences...
 

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I really like that cartoon! That was me on Tuesday. Every fall I fly for a rancher and find the few strays that haven’t come in yet. They’re on a timber company Grazing lease and he likes them all in by hunting season, which opens tomorrow.

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Last week we found a pair in this little meadow. He has a handheld radio and I tell him where we see them and direct him from above. The guys on the ground have a saddled horse or two in a stock trailer and drive as close as they can get. Then it’s game on as these cows often don’t want to be moved. On Tuesday there was just a big black bull left and we scoured the creek bottom he’d been seen in last but couldn’t find him. After two hours I radioed we were going in. My backseater had to get to his football team, he’s a coach. But on our way back to town we spotted him. He was just 100 yards off the main road standing in some brush. The ground guys hurried on down and I told them where to stop on the radio. Out they Jumped without even closing the truck doors, Mounted the horses and were in hot pursuit. It was so brushy that at just maybe 50’ they couldn’t see him. He settled down soon and they got him in a corral about a mile farther down. It’s fun to see it work from above.
 

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I t gets pretty entertaining, I’ve been on both ends, flying and spotting and horse back while ol Hargus ( he was my father in-law and taught me to fly) would circle when he found some remnants he would holler out the door and direct us through the mesquite thickets, when we would jump them up then the race was on. Run them to a clearing and rope em, load them in a trailer and haul them to headquarters. Sometimes you chased them and sometimes they would chase you ...it was better to be in the Cub when they were doing the chasing, pretty funny stuff.
 
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Sometimes things go south ... Ol Hargus really didn’t kill him (he did pepper him up some) the cartoon, well it could’ve happened..
 

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When I was still flying my 12, I used to go find strays here in south central WA for the local ranchers who ranged the timber lands. Best day I had was finding 45 head scattered over 55000 acres. Black cows show up good in timberland. Now I search with a quad, not nearly as productive. Last Saturday they drove over 1000 head down the county roads and a state highway to their wintering grounds. Pretty neat sight!!
Mike
 
I was taught to never carry a gun when working bulls or with a pup! :lol: There's a lot of people that wont quite see all the humor in your cartoons, but those that have been there, sure will!!! Great job!
John
 
I was taught to never carry a gun when working bulls or with a pup! :lol: There's a lot of people that wont quite see all the humor in your cartoons, but those that have been there, sure will!!! Great job!
John

Ha! Too true.

I came "this close" with a dog and a bull--at the same time. At the last second I aimed the 30-30 3 feet in front of the dog and 2 feet behind the bull he was chasing. The dog, at least, got the message.

The bull eventually went off to the hamburger-maker. It was a bad day....

BTW, I'm almost too embarrassed to admit I cow-spotted in the Bridger Mountains from a Tomahawk. But it did the job.
 
I was taught to never carry a gun when working bulls or with a pup! :lol: There's a lot of people that wont quite see all the humor in your cartoons, but those that have been there, sure will!!! Great job!
John

John, the cows I look for are in the southern end of Thompson River. They probably could roam as far as your place. He found one of his bulls up along highway 2 in March one year.
 
Yeah, we get "visitors" every now and then.... if Southern Pine keeps selling off land, we wont have to worry about range pretty quick. Just heard they sold one chunk of 30,000 acres about 2 miles from us, to one guy from TX that's going to develop 10,000 and the other 20,000 will be private hunting leases for the homeowners. :-?
 
Yeah, we get "visitors" every now and then.... if Southern Pine keeps selling off land, we wont have to worry about range pretty quick. Just heard they sold one chunk of 30,000 acres about 2 miles from us, to one guy from TX that's going to develop 10,000 and the other 20,000 will be private hunting leases for the homeowners. :-?

Yes a Texas Hunting club bought a big chunk of scattered sections on the south side of the Clark Fork here too. Probably the same group. But I think most of the Thompson River ground got put into a Conservation Easement when Plum Creek still owned it.

Change isn’t always for the good. I’m hoping the winter weather in October will scare off some.
 
We moved cows this morning. Not a lot left to graze out there this hot and dry summer.

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But we came up 3 pair short.

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Visibility is very poor today due to wildfire smoke. But I made the move from saddle to Cub and jumped up to have a look. No find ‘em so I dropped in to let the ground guys know as they loaded the last of them from the corral.
 

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The rancher below my property is putting his cattle on my place tomorrow. About 30 acres of my 40. He is putting up a e fence 30' one side of my runway, and offered me 500 bucks. My ground is ungrazed, his is done, in this drought. I'm doing it half to be a good neighbor, and half for the money. The rancher doesn't own the place below me, just runs his cattle on it. The first time, if there is one, they get onto the runway, and around the house, and they break my sprinkler heads and I have to clean dried crap of my wing bottom.....well I am hoping it doesn't happen.
 
Here is an old ad I like. Hiller Uh-12

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We're still doing good for grass on the range, but we've purposely got more range than we really need. Gives us a bit of reserve for years like this. We did get out of our #2 range unit a couple weeks early, but that was from wolf harassment. We'll address that in a month or 2. Our hay is a bit short, but I did find about 22 tons from a friend, that will help unless the winter lasts too long and starts too early. I'd love to find about that much more for the same deal, but doubt that'll happen.
I wish you'd quit sending that smoke up here! Can hardly breath and see today again. I'm pretty much over it all!
John
 

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I'm getting rain right now...supposed to be an inch by tomorrow morning. We'll take it!! But I do need a few weeks more of some good drying weather...we're just getting going with hay right now. About 600 tons to go.
John
 
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It took two flights with a ground search in between to find them. And wouldn't you know it, they're standing right where I landed in the above picture and the portable corral setup has been moved out.

A half inch of rain has tamped down the fires and cleared out the smoke.
 

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Checked water yesterday was so smoky I flew up the wrong canyon. On the subject of getting mad at cows my grandpa told me you should work cows with your woman before you married her to see if you are compatible. And you know he was spot on.🤠


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org
 
my grandpa told me you should work cows with your woman before you married her to see if you are compatible. And you know he was spot on.鸞


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org

My neighbor told me the same thing. Worked out right for me.
 
Back at it for 2023. Hunting season opens a week from tomorrow and he’s anxious to get them in. The problem this year is we’ve got the greenest September and October I can remember and the cows have plenty of green grass to eat still in the mountains.

Yesterday I found two pair but the ground guys couldn’t get to them.

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I'm not sure how well this image will expand but there are 4 black cows in the open area.

This afternoon I found them again about a mile beyond this point down in a creek bottom. And the main road was fairly close. I radioed the ground guys where they were and the hunt was on. Fun to watch from above. Stock trailer doors swing wide and a saddled horse comes out and a 4-wheeler. One pair was resistant to being pushed and took off on a run down the gravel road. But the cowboy’s horse was faster and quickly had them turned.

It was fun to be back on the chase for these cows. I missed out last year because of a Sitka Blacktail hunt.
 

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We're all in...but this green grass is pretty phennominal!!! I've got places of 8" of new green grass on my meadows!
John
 
Spent about 2 hours searching for a friends heard not long ago. Never did find them and they are surrounded by the lake and river. Haven't heard but the might have gotten rustled. It was some rough country.
 
Spent about 2 hours searching for a friends heard not long ago. Never did find them and they are surrounded by the lake and river. Haven't heard but the might have gotten rustled. It was some rough country.
Are they still into cattle rustling in Texas? Do they still hang the rustlers, or is that just for horse thieves?
 
Are they still into cattle rustling in Texas? Do they still hang the rustlers, or is that just for horse thieves?

Surprisingly, there's a lot more cattle thefts than you'd imagine. A very close friend who is a brand inspector for Montana, showed me some statistics a few years ago and I was floored!
John
 
Visiting Wyoming right now. lots of green everywhere there is water, trees still have green leaves in places.

Cattle looks like as tough a business as commercial fishing.
 
Are they still into cattle rustling in Texas? Do they still hang the rustlers, or is that just for horse thieves?
From time to time. Not much capital punishment anymore I don't think. The most serious one that I heard of recently was the illegal hunting guide shooting at an Air Tractor. He is doing Federal time.
 
Years ago when I was a youngster it was illegal to carry wirecutters on your horse in several states.
 
Once upon a time I was out hunting coyotes in the middle of the night with all the night vision crap. I was hunting alone and I have to say hunting alone at night your mind starts to mess with you. Well, I am seeing a couple lights moving back and forth out there at 1am and I get to thinking I am seeing UFOs. Could not figure any other explanation. I was hunting down a two track that had not been used in years. The following evening I went back to the same spot about the same time. This place was probably 5 miles from the nearest county road, a huge ranch. Next thing I know here comes a pickup that can't be the land owner. The truck stops right behind mine and somebody gets out. I am in the brush all night visioned up carrying an AR-15. I figure I have the advantage From the brush I ask who this person was and what he was doing while telling him who I was and what I was doing. As it turns out he was the neighbor looking for rustlers. Had 10 taken. Then it dawned on me what I was seeing the previous night where the headlights of the 4 wheelers the rustlers where using to round up his cows.
 
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