By Russell A. Graves

 

On the map it didn’t look that far. Only 481 miles down the road and I would be in Pearsall.  On a clear and warm Sunday morning I take to the glorious Texas road.  It was a road trip I’d waited on for months and now it is here… my Realtree Road Trip. 

From my hometown in Childress, U.S. Highway 83 slides south through the Texas heartland and is a backbone of sorts for rural Texas. My journey takes me down the highway through the big ranch country of the Rolling Plains, slicing across the edge of the beautifully rugged Hill Country, and I finally arrive in the South Texas Brush Country at the Halff Brothers Ranch near Pearsall some eight hours later.

The road into the ranch is long and rough. I’ve never hunted the South Texas Brush Country before and am delighted to see such an abundance of wildlife along the ranch road.

The hunt is sponsored by Realtree and I am here for dual purposes:

 

A. Hunt for feral pigs and Rio Grande turkeys

B. Photograph Realtree’s new Max-1 pattern

 

While I am here though, I discover another reason. I am destined to make some lifelong friends with the people I meet.

The thing about South Texas - or at least the thing I always hear - is that everything sticks, stings, or bites. Walking through the dank brush and hearing a rattlesnake’s familiar buzz on a couple of occasions, I now know why folks say that.

The first evening we pattern our shotguns and make sure they are ready for the turkeys that we hope find their way into our decoy spreads.

Although South Texas is know for its trophy white-tailed deer, feral hogs and Rio Grande turkeys abound. We awake for the next three mornings to see if we can harvest both.

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