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NW80?

78,783 Views | 313 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by sunchaser
sunchaser
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AG
...around Cornudas and they were close enough to walk back and get a bucket loader to pick it up...
AggieChemist
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trouble said:

AggieChemist said:

ursusguy said:

I have seen massive heartattack while trout fishing in NM.


Pulmonary embolism. He was most likely gone before he hit the ground.


And for that I am most grateful. He would have hated to go out suffering and lingering.


I am wondering if he had a dvt from his surgery.
arrow
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AG
Sad news indeed. I was fortunate enough to get to chat with Doc on the phone back when him and I were using the same gunsmith for custom rigs. It was a fun conversation about the beauty of light recoiling cartridges with modern bullets. He instantly became a favorite of mine on this board, but it was still a couple of years later when I understood is reputation as a trauma surgeon and read more about his outdoor adventures.

I remember he had to quickly hangup because he was needed in surgery. Then he called me back later that day.

RIP Neel
jpistolero02
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I knew I shouldn't have attempted to repeat the story. Glad you guys that know it better are correcting me.
trouble
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Certainly possible.

At least he didn't ask you for a sponge bath
wadd96
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Here.
All the God's, all the Heavens, all the Hells are within you.
Log
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Centerpole90 said:

Badace52 said:

jpistolero02 said:

I can't do the story justice and I hope someone else can fill in more of the details. I forget the exact area of Texas where these run wild, but I think it was a buddy of his that managed a big ranch out there. NW80 always told his buddy that he wanted to shoot a free ranging elk in Texas. He got a call from him to come out and fish and possibly hunt for elk. They were fishing, drinking and having a good time and his buddy suggested they go scout for elk. Like most places they are not typically seen at the drop of a hat and I believe this was summer time because there is no season in Texas. They are in the truck and I want to say he threw a few rounds in his pocket not thinking they were going to see anything. Also, I don't think this was a large caliber maybe 6.5 something. They get to a spot and start glassing and damn if they don't see some elk and this bugger comes walking out. Needless to say his buddy says shoot and Doc was already on him. He had to shoot the bull 2-3 times before it went down and I think he maybe had a bullet to spare. I am sure I have butchered this story, but listening to Doc tell it was a hoot.
He shot it in the Davis Mountains from what I recall.
In the corral with the bull they'd gone to check on. That was the punch line. It wasn't moving with other elk, it was moving the a couple bulls in the pasture and when they were out checking cattle the bulls and accompanying elk ambled up.


That was the earless oryx he shot. It was buddies with a bull they couldn't catch, and they both wandered into a corral one day. Shot the oryx, caught the bull in one fell swoop.

Elk was when they high racking around, drinks in hand (and several down the gullet), not planning on shooting anything, and had an "Oh *****" moment when Mr. 400" walked out.
ursusguy
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Yeah, with the update I had the same question.
Centerpole90
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I came to know Neel years and years ago like many of you - TexAgs Outdoor Board. We actually discovered we had some common friends and as our friendship grew he would venture down and fish with us from time to time. I could go on an on about the stories and anecdotes, the self-deprecating jokes ( he knew full well how his persona played this board ), the wisdom and advice - but one of the things that always meant the most to me was how he interacted and treated my kids. Having no children of his own didn't keep Neel from doting on kids and pitching in to offer fatherly advice.

After sitting through my daughter's softball game he came home and sat her down while he showed her how to tie a 'redfish crack' fly (which he said he'd been tying years before we all knew what it was, SO NEEL!) in her all star team's colors. I still have that green and yellow fly with little pink whiskers - haven't caught **** on it yet, but she knows how to tie it. She also has a $100 bill hidden in the deepest corner of her purse/wallet that he gave her, folded up with his contact info. If she was ever in trouble anywhere in the world, that $100 was to be a safety net - to get her to safety so she could contact one of us.

I enjoyed the time I got to spend pushing Neel around on the bow of my skiff, but most enjoyed the trips where he was up there with CPjr pointing out fish or giving casting advice. He gave CPjr one of those buffs with the evil clown face on it once and remarked, 'that should make the OB's head explode'. Then he opened up a cooler full of ingredients and took over the kitchen for the evening - teaching a then younger CPjr how to make a mean shrimp gumbo....

kmac30
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Wow, just saw this. Here. Always enjoyed his posts
suburban cowboy
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Caught wind of who NW80 was in real life awhile ago.

I'm a young man so I come to the OB for wisdom above all. Had a few interactions with him on here but when he posted I payed attention. He was a legend of a man and an inspiration to a young Ag like myself.

RIP, old crusty sir.
sunchaser
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As many of you have come forward with different scenarios his passion was teaching. That could be to trauma surgeons, fly fishing or tying, hand loading, rifles especially pre 64's, he loved a 270wsm....I didn't, I prefer a 7mmm...he hated it, hunting clothes(Carhartt is as good as it gets), dogs, jeeps, skiffs, trucks, engines, Carmen deer and believe it or not he had an opinion on the lens color of sunglasses.

In the early days of the Outdoor board he would share those opinions.After he kept getting in trouble he started bouncing his comments off me before he posted. I got a call from him about sunset one day and he was headed to Cornudas to speed goat hunt. He had a bad stint in the trauma unit regarding a accident with a child on an ATV. I listened as he talked thru that for a good while. It then turned to, "Are you following that thread on lens color?"

He started reading his response and my response for about an hour was, "Neel, don't send that!"

...and then he said, "I just hit send." He imposed a sabbatical and didn't post on the outdoor board for about six months due to the flack that followed.....but he still has the same opinion on lens color. I think it was about lens color but I'm just going off my memory.

One of my sons went hunting on a cattle leased property below Marathon. He shot what he thought was a really nice whitetail for that part of the country.He took it into Hip-O in Alpine for a shoulder mount. The taxidermist said, "This looks like a Carmen!"

He sent a tongue sample to Sul Ross and they confirmed. It was shot about 55 miles out of their range and the the good doctor had an opinion.
jpistolero02
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Keep the stories coming. I remember the first time I called him. I had no clue who he was and why he asked that I call him. It was really early one morning and he answered the phone with, "This is Doc" or something along those those lines. I told him who I was and he immediately starts a cussing string about guys on Texags and them asking for rifle recommendations followed by a budget of $400. He couldn't believe all the other crap they would talk about buying and then ***** about spending money on a rifle. He liked that I knew about various calibers and spent the next 45 minutes talking about reloads. After that call I had to know who the hell this guy was and looked him up. It was really cool to see he was a big time doctor because you would have never guessed it. After that call I was also hoping that he wasn't sitting in an office where people could hear him. His choice of language was colorful to say the least. Man, I wish I would have met him in person.
chocolatelabs
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Sunchaser,

Where is that sunglasses post? I found one but it didn't seem like the right one?
CanyonAg77
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03ki11erAG said:

Never knew him and I feel like I missed something special. Here.
Me, too. Here.

And as one even older, he passed too damn young.
chocolatelabs
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Found it sunchaser...
Funky Winkerbean
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Can someone tell his backstory about his career?
chocolatelabs
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Here's my story of meeting Neel for first time.

I was in Austin area for work and we got to talking and he said come on by, so I did. Went to his house and I was greeted by his two big dogs and him. he was a big dude, so I was like on hell I hope this works out.

We went fly fishing on the stream near his house, and came back and he cooked me a steak. Was really good. I stayed for a few beers and we had a lot of laugh's that night.

I will miss him going off....
Apache
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Can you link it please?
chocolatelabs
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I posted to it so it is at the top now...
trouble
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Troutslime said:

Can someone tell his backstory about his career?


This does a pretty good job of it

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/hard-charging-doctor-among-the-cast-of-the-abc-medical-series.12285/
ttha_aggie_09
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Really disappointed to hear this... I never got to meet him in person but we talked and texted regularly after I posted a few pics for him one time of his monster W TX Elk (400"). After that we just hit it off.

T&Ps to his family
Badace52
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Log said:

Centerpole90 said:

Badace52 said:

jpistolero02 said:

I can't do the story justice and I hope someone else can fill in more of the details. I forget the exact area of Texas where these run wild, but I think it was a buddy of his that managed a big ranch out there. NW80 always told his buddy that he wanted to shoot a free ranging elk in Texas. He got a call from him to come out and fish and possibly hunt for elk. They were fishing, drinking and having a good time and his buddy suggested they go scout for elk. Like most places they are not typically seen at the drop of a hat and I believe this was summer time because there is no season in Texas. They are in the truck and I want to say he threw a few rounds in his pocket not thinking they were going to see anything. Also, I don't think this was a large caliber maybe 6.5 something. They get to a spot and start glassing and damn if they don't see some elk and this bugger comes walking out. Needless to say his buddy says shoot and Doc was already on him. He had to shoot the bull 2-3 times before it went down and I think he maybe had a bullet to spare. I am sure I have butchered this story, but listening to Doc tell it was a hoot.
He shot it in the Davis Mountains from what I recall.
In the corral with the bull they'd gone to check on. That was the punch line. It wasn't moving with other elk, it was moving the a couple bulls in the pasture and when they were out checking cattle the bulls and accompanying elk ambled up.


That was the earless oryx he shot. It was buddies with a bull they couldn't catch, and they both wandered into a corral one day. Shot the oryx, caught the bull in one fell swoop.

Elk was when they high racking around, drinks in hand (and several down the gullet), not planning on shooting anything, and had an "Oh *****" moment when Mr. 400" walked out.


These were the stories he told me as well. I remember the oryx being in the pen with the bulls and the elk being a chance encounter in the Davis Mountains. That elk is even more impressive on his wall than it looks in those pics.

When I asked him about it and where he shot it he came back with "You wouldn't believe me if I told ya..." and then proceeded to take me around his house and recount the stories of all his favorite trophies and a few of Duke's he had hanging on the walls. The two best stories were the oryx and the Elk and they stuck better than most of the others.
CM
No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See full Medical Disclaimer.
Texas 1836
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sunchaser said:


I love this picture
ttha_aggie_09
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He hated aoudad! During one of our conversations he said "you could nuke the entire western half of the US and the only things that would survive are cockroaches, coyotes, and aoudad".
Centerpole90
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Yep. I got the 2 mixed up.
BKClark
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Here's a NW80 story for ya. Back in high school at FWCD, Neel fancied himself a real cowboy tough guy (yes, I know that never changed) anyway, they took a school trip to the theater to see The Cowboys with John Wayne.

When the Duke got shot and died, Neel stood up and threw his cowboy hat down and yelled

"They can't kill John Wayne" and then stormed out of the theater.

True story as relayed to me by someone that was a classmate of his.
BTMTAT
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Long time lurker to the OB and I rarely post. I wanted to jump in on this one though to share some experiences with NW80.

I met and then got to know Neel serving as his dog's veterinarian in Georgetown. Neel always fancied himself a veterinarian and so he didn't follow the established protocols and procedures at our hospital, that was for the regular clients. He was never good at sitting still and flat out refused to wait in the lobby for a veterinary nurse to load him into a room. He'd walk into the back, usually through the back door, hollering my name. He scared the hell out of our technical staff as they weren't quite sure how to take his audacity. He would frequently stop in to chat about vet stuff, fishing, hunting, or whatever else was on his mind and I'm certainly going to miss those conversations. He taught me more than he knows about how to surgically handle emergency cases of trauma in dogs.

A couple of years ago, I did an emergency surgery on his beloved dog Pete (after a host of advice from Neel himself) for a bleeding splenic tumor. The surgery was initially successful as Pete made it out. A couple of days later Pete passed away acutely from what Dr. Ware and I later presumed was a pulmonary embolism related to the surgery or the splenic tumor itself. In what now seems an eerie prophesy, Neel spoke his contentment that Pete had gone with a pulmonary embolism, certainly the way that he himself would like to go out.

I last talked to Neel about 10 days ago. He was ready to breed his younger Catahoula, Blue, and wanted to talk about finding a dam. I just listened to the message he left me that day before I had a chance to call him back. "I've got an interesting concept to throw at you. What about a Catahoula - Malinois cross? I think it would be a son of a *****!" That conversation with Neel was like all the others I had with him previously. I left it smiling or laughing under my breath, appreciative of his zest for life, one of a kind personality, and his friendship.

Vaya con dios, amigo.
RickSawyer
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Damnit. This is terrible news. I loved his posts on fly fishing, loved his grumpy opinions... really enjoyed his input. Lost a great one.
FBG_Ag78
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Here!
BuddysBud
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Here
bassmaster07
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This right here is why I read this board. While I never knew him or interacted with him, here. May we all be so blessed in our outdoor adventures, not to succeed in them, but to include so many in them.
CT'97
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Here
WhoopN06
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Damnit. An absolute legend.

Here.
agsalaska
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BKClark said:

Here's a NW80 story for ya. Back in high school at FWCD, Neel fancied himself a real cowboy tough guy (yes, I know that never changed) anyway, they took a school trip to the theater to see The Cowboys with John Wayne.

When the Duke got shot and died, Neel stood up and threw his cowboy hat down and yelled

"They can't kill John Wayne" and then stormed out of the theater.

True story as relayed to me by someone that was a classmate of his.
Is FWCD Fort Worth Country Day?
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you never know if they are genuine. -- Abraham Lincoln.



 
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