Story by Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
This story originally appeared in the May 28 issue of Lone Star Outdoor News
At the Park Cities Quail Coalition 15th annual dinner and auction on June 4, Martin F. (Bubba) Wood received the T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award. Those who know him aren’t surprised.
Wood is recognized as a world-champion skeet shooter, the founder of Collector’s Covey in Highland Park Village and the numerous organizations he helped sup- port through the company; a publisher of 14 sporting books and countless wildlife prints; and the creator of the Texas Duck Stamp program, which provided more than $7 million in royalties to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
His true love, though, is quail. In 2008, Wood convinced his friend, T. Boone Pickens, to join the cause through Park Cities Quail, then a chapter of Quail Unlimited, helping propel the organization to one of the most successful and influential in the country.
“I got started with my dad,” Wood said. “He was a big hunter but wasn’t a big fisherman. He was, though, interested in what I wanted to do.”
The two spent many hours pursuing the bobwhite quail.
“It was stupid hunting because there were so many quail,” he said. “Then it got to be stupid hunting because there were no quail. Nevertheless, it was great times spent with a great dad. I had the greatest dad in the world.”
Wood’s dad, a former chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in the 1960s, set the stage for his hunting and conservation efforts.
“I grew up in that culture,” Wood said. “Three game wardens were groomsmen at my wedding. But I never thought back then there would be a shortage of quail.”
Wood is especially proud of the efforts and accomplishments of Park Cities Quail.
“It’s the most fun I’ve ever had,” he said. “There are all the guys with special skills that contribute to making it work. What they have done is remarkable.”
Wood, who shot his first limit of quail at age 9, is no stranger to a sudden loss of quail.
“It was the freeze of 1982,” he said. “I was hunting that day with a bunch of politicians and we killed our limit. After the hunt, the temperature dropped 20 degrees in a flash. It was 16 days before we could get back to the ranch. When we went back, we didn’t see a live quail.”
Some quail eventually came back, but the memory stayed, resulting in Wood’s determination to see the bobwhite quail return to West Texas.
His favorite hunting story was with the well-known writer, Gene Hill.
“I knew Gene through skeet shooting and he came to Texas and hunted with me every year,” Wood said. “His first time, I had my best bird dog, Rocky. I had told him how great Rocky was.”
The hunt didn’t start as planned.
“I put the dogs out, hunting into the wind,” Wood said. “What I didn’t tell Gene was that Rocky hated skunks. Rocky got on one, killed it and, like always, he brought the skunk to me. Here I was with this great outdoor writer who was watching a dog owner running around trying to keep his dog from giving him a skunk.”
Despite the smelly event, Hill offered high praise for Wood.
“Bubba, at least in my book, is about as fine a man with a 20-bore side-by-side as I have ever had the pleasure to gun with,” Hill said.
Wood’s favorite hunting companion? His longtime friend, Ray Hale.
“Ray was from Wichita Falls and worked for us and hunted with me all the time,” Wood said. “He was part of our family and an incredibly impressive guy. When Ray died, Gov. Mark White and Gov. Bill Clements, both who hunted with him, sent personal letters to the family. That was the only thing those two ever agreed on.”
Wood isn’t overly excited for the recognition of the Lifetime Sportsman Award.
“I really don’t want to be known for anything,” he said. “But I want to be known as more than just a guy who could put a load of No. 8 up a bird’s ass.”
