From Dallas/Fort Worth CBS 11 News:

A Lewisville family is angry that their neighbor is skinning game animals in their back yard.

"I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it at all," Frank Hlatky said. "You can't get rid of that stench."

Santos Garcia is a long-time hunter and says he's been processing meat in his back yard for years. . .  .

Sunday, Lewisville police went to Garcia's house to investigate. City animal control and code enforcement officers went Monday.

Texas game wardens say hunters are asked not to offend the non-hunting public, but in this case they say Garcia has done nothing illegal.

We talk about mulie bucks differently than we do whitetails. An eastern whitetail is usually referenced by his tine count. We’ll say “I shot a beautiful 10-point,” or “my first buck was a basket-racked six.” Spread is mentioned, but typically only as an additional reference to put an exclamation point on size: “That monster 10-point had a 24” spread.”

For most mulie nuts, spread is THE thing. In fact, the generally accepted benchmark for a really big mulie is a 30” buck. Thirty means inside spread of course, and as serious mulie nuts recognize, that mark is getting tougher and tougher to achieve.

Which makes the buck that follows so much more impressive. Supposedly shot in “the Navajo Unit” (Arizona) by one John Keller, the inside spread is supposed to be 41 (as in forty one!) inches, with a gross B&C score of 275”! Great buck!

The one rarely-spoken truth about shed hunting is this; it can be a fantastic activity for hooking future whitetail nuts. Of course taking your kids on an actual deer hunt is a hoot, but it can also be frustrating, depending on the nature of the youngster. Some kids can handle watching a deer-less field for a couple of hours, others get twitchy and wonder why stuff isn’t happening as quickly as it does on your hunting shows. And then there’s the weather...

But shed hunting is an active pursuit. In my experience, most kids want to be doing something, and of course the biggest part of finding sheds is simply walking and looking. Pretty easy concept for a young mind to wrap around. When I started my kids out, I went to a little food plot, verified there were a couple sheds there, and waited for a nice afternoon. We “hunted” for only about 20 minutes before Brooke and Bailey found the two antlers. They spent the rest of the time examining deer tracks (and poop), bird nests, raccoon hair, a dead mouse, and…well, you get the picture. We hit that little field every spring now.

The joys of such experience are not lost on the two youngsters in this photo, sent to me by my good friend Ross. Among the eight sheds found by Josie and Dawson on Valentine’s Day was this matched set. Estimated score? About 38” B&C. From the smiles in this photo, I get the feeling Ross will have plenty of shed hunting help in the years to come.

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