Made it down to the River and back.We caught 50 head and 49 made it to San Angelo to the packer.Not a brand or earmark to be seen.The cattle were fat as town dogs and wild as deer.

We caught about 30 of 'em wholesale[the helicopter ran them into a well hidden pen we built the first day].We got from 5 to 8 at a time that way over a three day period.

The rest were taken retail fashion[driving onto greasewood flats where the cowboys could rope and tie them}.These were mostly bulls.

A lot of my pictures didn't turn out for some reason , but maybe I have enough to give y'all an idea of how it all works.

The helicopter eases them out of the draws onto a flat where the cowboys are hidden downwind:



The cowboys ride onto 'em and rope 'em.They head and heel if there are enough cowboys to go around,if not,they rope and trip them.





Either way, you wind up with this:



then he goes on here:



To wind up here:



More later.

Looks like a whole lot of fun.

That is a little different than how it works up here....grin


Those big older bulls must try to stand their ground most of the time or do they try and run for awhile?


Those guys better know what they're doing and it looks like they do!


Great pics Curdog, very interesting!

Damn hard way to make a livin' I am thinking!

yee-haw....what a blast.

Whatcha doin messin with my cattle!!!! JK..

Them's my cattle. I don't mark or brand but I do pull all their top teeth. Look in their mouth and if you don't see no front teeth they are mine.

These "cowboys" - most are ranchers and their family members - all are used to working in this kind of country, but their cattle are not as wild.This same bunch,for the most part, have been coming down to the WMA and catching these wild ones for about 14 years.

A couple of the older bulls had probably been roped before and escaped.They quit when the first rope hit their horns,and couldn't be heeled or tripped.Even with 4 ropes on him,one fought so long and hard that he choked down and then died.Probably weighed around 1700 or 1800 lbs. according to the ones who would know.

The pilot is extremly good at this.He has the bull so focused on the helicopter that he can bring him right by the cowboys at top speed so that when they trip him,it really takes his wind for a minute or two

Good time to be working there. If they have a wet spring, I will get over there just to see the country in bloom again--pretty spectacular when it happens!

about the same way they wrangle mustangs here. 80 head is a pretty good count. how big an area did you cover?

Looks like a hell of a time! I'm looking forward to more pics.

I've caught a few wild steers over the years with a slight variation on this theme, minus the chopper. Involves roping the critter with an atv, then dragging said critter onto a livestock trailer. Sucessful execution involves bailing out the front door of the trailer before the steer gets payback... Risk probably exceedes reward here, but lots of fun.

I'd like to know what those cattle do coming out of that trailer into the pens at the packer.

Gotta be some dark cutters.

Looks like a lot of work, but would love to see how those guys do it.

Any video?

is that up in the panhandle ??

looks like a blast

South border I believe.

Y'all run any illegals into those pens CD?

If I ain't mistook it is right next to Big Bend NP.

Pretty rare to see that Spanish Dagger dying from drought as in pic. 3. It's not looking good Mudhen.

Oh yeah, I bet 1700lbs on a mature bull. Most of the big canner bulls here are around 2000lbs.

Yep! It almost touches the Park,I think.I've never been to that part of Black Gap.

From the Headquarters :
[Taken on the way out]



To our campsite:



Where you actually look East into Mexico since the River is running South to North on that stretch, is 18 miles.

Then it is about 10 more miles North[down the river] to the draw where we built the pens :



The big railroad tie posts are left in place each year.We put all the rest up and then take it back down.

We were never more than a half mile off the river once we left camp.That's the only water around, so all the cattle will be along it.

This is our border with Mexico for [literally] hundreds of miles :



It's about 12 feet wide here.Almost a foot deep.

I remember back in mebbe the 80's or early 90's there was folks huntin' them. I think even Finn Aggard wrote about huntin' them. But it was way down closer to the valley in the reeds and cattails. Buff style.

Did I dream that? But regardless, I love that country out there. Thanks for sharin' the pics cur!!!!!!! (Is that a Pinzgauer on the one trailer????)

BN

Border is safer and more secure now than it has ever been.

This pic shows the front of our Growler , which is how my pard and I stayed close enough to the action to get decent pictures,[Better than the professional photographers that were there ].



There is a bull right under Russ's "one horse remuda".He named it the Red Grasshopper.He helps gather cattle in West Texas,N.M. and AZ. He's considered by most as being the best in the business.This is his show all the way since he has the contract with TP&W.



Better pic of him :

That's a good payday at about $1000.00 a head. 450 wt steers brought $2.50 last week at Gainesville.

There was a Mexican back then that offered hunts for 'em South of Del Rio , I've been told.

And I have no idea what that fancy word is , so I can't answer you.I'm pretty sure me and Donnie didn't bring one !

All these are required to be sold straight to the packer in San Angelo and they won't eat a bite of food between the time they are caught and the time they are killed.At least the big bulls won't.An 1800 lb. bull at the catchin' will shrink to 1400 to 1450 at killin' I was told.

But still,this hunt will probably pay itself out.Most times they are lucky to make expenses.

"And I have no idea what that fancy word is"...

I bet you didn't! LOL! It's that funny looking vehicle in the one pic on the trailer behind the white surburban ... Buddy of mine in Corpus has one.

BN

25% weight loss is pretty high ,why no feed,,how bout water

This particular area is not favored for crossing.They can go a few miles North on the river,cross into Reagan Canyon,drop into San Francisco Creek Canyon and come out at the Headquarters of the ranch we lease for hunting.

Out hunting camp house is only about 15 miles as the crow flies from where we built the pens.By public roads it would be over a hundred miles of driving !By private ranch roads , it would still be about 50 or 60 miles.

The folks who keep advocating stationing troops all along the border to secure it have no idea what that would require in the way of infrastructure.

And that lack of infrastructure is actually our best defense right now.You put water sources and roads in the Black Gap,The Nat'l Park, and Big Bend Ranch State Park,and you would solve AZ. and N.M.'s border problem.The Cartels would all flock to the Big Bend.

If there be an expert on this subject,it would be Randy,the rancher who gave me that number.I have no trouble believing it.These are NOT domestic animals that strayed.Some could be 4 or 5 generation feral.

The same guy who produced "Ice Road Truckers" was hired to come down and film this gathering for a proposed "reality show".They rented that thing from somewhere in Texas 'cause it had Tx plates , I think.They had 9 folks in their crew and seemed to be OK type people.They camped and ate with us and weren't much bother unless they had you pegged as [maybe] a main player in the deal,which I sure wasn't.

They damn sure got REALITY throwed at 'em.Not one thing was done differently to favor them.[except one little deal on the last morning that didn't involve any action].

They everyone of 'em -even the girls- fell in and made good hands when we were taking the pens apart.And it was plenty damn HOT!

For a cowboy that beats the hell out of mending fence all day.

Thanks for posting, cd.

Sammy, better get down there next time.

CD, are the horses OK with a chopper hazing for them?

Not to derail your thread, but it made me think of the time I had a C-130 haze for me. A local guy was an Air Guard pilot out of St. Joe, MO and he took great pleasure in doing low level training over his home turf. Many in the neighborhood were buzzed while cultivating or haying.

Anyway, I was called for a calving cow and was assured she'd be caught before I got there. When I got to the pasture she was on the run and the whole neighborhood was in on the chase. No horses involved, just pickups, tractors, ATV's, and some on foot. The cow bailed off in a pond, and we quickly surrounded her, but she stayed just out of lariat range. Nobody was too keen on going swimming to catch her. It was a standoff.

Just then a pair of C-130's playing follow the leader come over the horizon and banked toward us. The cow looked straight up as Eddie buzzed us at treetop level, and I got my chance to drop a loop over her head. Got a live calf and all was well.

So the joke in that neighborhood is if we can't catch a cow, we might have to call out the National Guard...

Sign me up, looks like work but fun as well.

All the horses except one had worked with Russ and the Grasshopper before.All the dust you see in this picture is caused by the filming crew's chopper.I was on the side of the draw.

You see any deer to speak of. I'm headed for persimmon gap today as the mt lions have nearly cleaned ALL the deer off a few hundred thousand acres. The rancher says if you blink you'll never see the young govt trapper move.

No deer.Word is that lions have reduced the sheep on Black Gap from 400 to 100.

I "found" my missing pictures.This is the draw shown earlier , but this time the pens are in place.



And the cattle that were roped too far away to walk the skid steer loader were manhandled onto this sled and pulled to the trailor with the Toyota pickup.





This is the remuda for one bunch of cowboys



And this is the other

Thanks for the great story and pictures!!

Great pics, that is some neat looking country.

Cool pics, looks like fun.

Wow Curdog, that sure brings back memories of before I had this nice cushy job. Those guys have it rough for just a paupers pay. If I could talk the wife into it, I could go to the Big Bend station when I leave here. Too remote for her, she couldn't handle west Texas. Great pics.

Allen

After expenses, it looks like a whole lot of work for not a lot of money. Especially split between a dozen or so people.

What you see is basically five families who make their living from cattle in form or other.They have about four "get-togethers" a year at alternating sites.This is one,and the only that generates any revenue at all.

They always gather enough to reimburse everyone for fuel,and the chopper gets his regular hourly fee.The rest is disbursed among them on some basis. MAKING MONEY IS NOT THE MOTIVATION.

We will go back down next month for a week of fishing.

Allen,talking your wife into moving to the Big Bend CAN"T be as diffcult as getting her to marry you!

Wicked cool thread and pics!

I'm glad you like it,Amigo.Kinda trying to get even for all the good pics and threads you've shared with us.

In case anyone wonders what a REAL West Texas cowboy looks like.......... :



I measured that gray horse at 16 1 or so.He was the only one that didn't like helicopters and 3 or 4 different cowboys rode him just to show off when he blew up.They claimed they wanted him 'cause he was the fastest,but I knew better.[I was young once

Sixteen, that pig eyed sucker would flat jar your liver when he hit the ground.

If he's 16 1 that's one big boy setting on top of him.

Man ain't that the truth Boggy!

And yep I would say that is a big ol boy on him.

Remove the "if" and you'd be right on both counts.

When we are at our place in OR during late fall we always watch for strays when we are riding our ATV. Those pigs will get down in the bottoms in the brush and you can't blast them out. We always try to get ear tag numbers and call the few locals we know. We have had more than a few beverages over the campfire with the ranchers and their dogs are more than happy to lay down and take a breather, some water and a few snacks. Still waiting for at least a quarter, but know they are just trying to make a living.

Ya'll are reminding me that I really enjoy Big Bend in the spring...



catching cattle? no...

...My last interaction with cattle was a bull on the deer lease. A group of cattle was in the road as I drove along. they all got out of the way, except the bull, who stood there defiantly in the middle of the road. I stopped the truck ten feet from him, and he didn't budge. I considered getting out to shoo him off, looked in to his eyes, took note of the "...you owe me money..." look in his eyes, and drove around him.

Tex,those bulls will be as gentle as a lamb if you scratch behind their ears. They also like you to put your forehead against theirs and think happy thoughts.

looks pretty short couppled for 16 H or is it just the way hes standing??
norm

If the dude is 6'5 the horse could go 16 hands.

LOLOLOL
ya right

norm

just like a tiger, I'm sure

What the? You trying out for a shot at an audition as the Tide with Bleach spokesperson or something? Now you're definitely suspect. There ain't no way a man can keep a shirt that white, and that clean, doing what you claim to be doing. No way, no how. I'm throwing down the Photoshop flag on this play.

The horse is REAL high-flanked,which is the first thing I noticed about him.It wasn't until I stood next to him[my shoulder is 15 hands] I noticed how tall he is.

Cody,the cowboy,is pretty tall.Here is another picture of the horse :

He ain't done nothing yet. Just waiting for hell to pop. Everybody starts clean.