Thought i'd share!

[sageadvice]

As a 10 year old kid, i took my first buck not 100 yards from the spot this kid and his Grandpa took their break. Most all of the footage here shows property that was owned by my family, the Cardoza Ranch, since the mid 1800's until about 30 years ago.

One of my Uncles hunted it once a week from his dune buggy, my Dad hunted some of it it from his 65 GMC pickup maybe every other evening, and i hunted all the rest of it, every day of the month and a half season, sometimes with them but usually by myself and on foot! An average hunt for me would be to cover 4-5 or more miles and see anywhere from 75-150 deer. Grandpa and i could drive the ranch all day and not hit the same road twice. I had it pretty good!!

In the beginning of this film, there is what looks like a parking lot with a bunch of cars. Up behind it on the Ridge is a Radio Antenna set of towers. Many a time i'd walk there, a big buck hangout area is just to the right there, from our Ranch House about 4 miles away and hunt that ridge on down over to the right, another 2 miles, to the end of our property. If i killed a buck, i'd field dress it and put it on my back and take it back to the Ranch House. That's just the way it was.

Toward the end of this flick, it shows what looks to be a good sized lake. That now would be in our back yard, within a mile or so of the old ranch house. All this land is now owned by the East Bay Regional Park District but it was once "mine" to do as i pleased. My Grandpa, my Dad's Father,and his brothers and Sisters was born up on that ridge and made a go of being a small time ranching Family, he had it Homesteaded, Grandpa made the Ranch even bigger by buying more land as he could, but the Park District wanted it more than the Family wanted to keep it after the Grandparents Passed.

Anyway, i got to hunt it near 25 years or so and i got my share of the best bucks to come off that mountain. Thought i'd share...

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[264mag]

Nice ranch! sounds like you had some great times.

 

[sageadvice]

Thanks 264, Yeah, it was. The country was thick enough that deer could hide and hardly ever be seen but open enough that you could spot from miles away and plan a sneak.

That very last pic, the one shot at that hillside was a shot of the original homestead 640 acres. From the top of that ridge, you can look right down on Blackhawk Ranch below and Livermore-Pleasonton beyond that. Many a night i'd be setting glassing as the fog would ribbon thru the valley below me, waiting, hoping for a wise ol buck to make a mistake and leave his hiding before dark thirty. That was the last section to be sold, was where i started my firewood business, and it holds a lot of neat memories for me.

A bunch of friends took their first bucks on that ranch hunting with me, It's where i learned and got fairly good at hard physical work, and where i was lucky enough to be part of one of the most loving families anywhere.

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[BuckSnort]

Very nice chunk of land..I have always dreamed about what it would have been like having grown up on a huge piece of land like that.. Just to take off on a horse (or quad) with a rifle in scabbard and saddle bags full of a days worth of provisions...

Disclaimer:
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[muley727]

Beautiful ranch! I think you grew up the way a whole bunch of us wish we could have. Sounds like lots of great memories.

 

[sageadvice]

Thanks Guys! Horses? Yeah, we had them, had to use them to gather and work the cattle. I rode back as far as a can remember but once i got bigger and stronger, i didn't need no horse so let them be.

Grandpa never turned down a hunter who asked for permission to hunt. Not once that i can remember and i remember a lot of guys walking, making noise on our front porch before knocking on the door to ask.

The pic's only show a portion of what i had to hunt, 1/4-1/3 maybe, something like that. Ducks sometimes on the ponds, wild pigeons, lots of Valley Quail, and great dove hunting too. Now the Country has lots of wild pigs and Turkey's too. Deer hunting was always #1 for me though, i just loved to hunt bucks!!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[eelgrass]

That's pretty neat Joey. Thanks for sharing the memories.

I got to looking at the last photo and started dreaming of how I would hunt that area. I started picking it apart, and I think there is a marijuana patch right center? Nice neat rows of something growing there?

Eel

 

[larrbo]

Pretty cool Sage.

 

[Paul_Crawford]

Cool. How come they sold it? pc

 

[oilcan]

Must have been great times Joey.I live just a stones throw away from there incredible country.I used to travel Vasco road to work and always wondered what size bucks used to roam those Hills.

 

[sageadvice]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-11-13 AT 07:16AM (MST)[p]oilcn, Yeah it was pretty special. Vasco Rd was the Eastern Border of the country that i had to hunt. We didn't own or lease any property right down to the road but with the Ranch House only being maybe a mile and a half up the hill, there were several ponds along just above Vasco that i'd "hit" while out on a stroll checking for ducks.

Some of that country had little or no roads, so i'd have that to myself as most who hunted our place road hunted it. I could always get off by myself or take a ride with someone, i liked em both but the best was taking family or a friend after their own buck. I enjoyed the heck out of that and usually had a buck or two picked out for them but you never knew when you might come across one not seen before. A 18" 3X3 was a dandy in that country, a shooter for sure and one not ever to be passed on. I might have 15 or 20 bucks in that category from there, some a bit better.

Paul, Why did they sell? Because they could i guess. My Dad's was the only "no" vote. Also, The Park was putting on a lot of pressure, our two big pieces of property on top was a big part of their ridge-land corridor concept in the reserve, "land Bank", project. They had threatened to use eminent domain to claim the properties. It sucked but now 25-30 years later, i'm getting over it.

Believe me, it wasn't all fun and games though we had our share. Takes a lot of work to fill the barns every year, feed the animals and keep all the fences, facilities, and roads in good repair like Grandpa insisted. There was a never ending amount of work to be done but as i've said in other threads on the subject, as a young lad, i thought that's what everybody did.

My Aunt has a Fancy Custom Home on that Ridge to the left-center there. That Canyon on down several miles held Bucks every year and i couldn't say how many doves i shot down there

My Stompin Ground! I took and packed out more than a few bucks off the top of that rimrock to the upper right there. Was a tough pack back to behind where this photo was taken. I also had a run-in with a big rattler while having a buck on my back coming down just below that rim-rock in the steep.

Wish this is a better pic but it shows most of the country that was either owned, controlled, or we had permission to hunt from friends of my Grandfather,.. with the exception of the country in the far background.

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[sageadvice]

Eelgrass asked, "I started picking it apart, and I think there is a marijuana patch right center? Nice neat rows of something growing there?"

Steve, lol, No, those are old almond trees. There are patches of nut and fruit trees all over the property. My grandpa and Uncle Joe even talked about growing Hay in those hills. More modern day, we had about a thousand acres much more conducive to farming to go along with the cattle country, what was up on the ridges.

In myself picking that last pic apart, i see that even though i hunted all that country, only about half, the right hand portion was part of the original 640 acre homestead and my Grandpa was actually born and raised in a small cabin down below the ridge in the very upper right hand corner.

Grandpa said that they hand cut and stacked firewood in the big horse drawn wagon to take to town, Livermore, about 12 miles away, to sell to the railroad, for their spending money. The idea of that enterprise, especially with what the roads were like back then, boggles my mind!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[cowboy57]

Pretty country I will have to agree to that.Even for a Giant fan LOL.COWBOY57

 

[bullskin]

As I remember it, ranching took so much time that there was hardly any left over to hunt. That is a beautiful place, with or without a rifle in the hand.

 

[smackdaddy]

BELIEVE ME....PLENTY OF POT THERE(I know ), and lots of hogs(no need for deer with the banner year of hogs!) and bass filling the BBQ and Freezer from the res.....(all at night.)
Its been my stomping grounds for 40 years!
smack

 

[tesmitty]

Joey,
Thanks for taking us all back in time!! Your story was one that reminded us of our youthful days when we could spend days in the field wandering around chasing animals!!
Thanks for sharing your memories!!
Todd

 

[Ridn9high]

Nice video and story Sage! I grew up in Livermore and killed many blacktails up Mines road. I have a lot of friends that still have big family ranches all over that area.

 

[sageadvice]

Ridn9, Do you know Stan Escover? We killed a ton of Bucks, thousands of squirrels, hundreds of quail, and a few pigs together. Him and i caught trout in Mocho creek, mines rd., back when we were so young, we didn't have a clue that there was such a thing as a limit! lol. Good people!!!!

Joey


"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

 

[Califelkslayer]

Nice story (s) Sage. Hunting these days must be a disappointment? But better than anything else going, huh?