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Anyone ever hunted Kent County? #5646246 03/11/15 01:52 PM
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Will be hunting a new property in Kent County this year. If you've hunted Kent County before, I would love to hear you experience there. Deer density, buck sizes, hogs, etc. Theres not a whole lot on the net about Kent county from my searches lately.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5646263 03/11/15 02:06 PM
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What ranch in Kent co?


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5646304 03/11/15 02:26 PM
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Cant say yet, as the deal is not completely done, but its pretty close to Spur.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5646617 03/11/15 05:44 PM
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I own a place on duck creek in Kent county. I also have family that owns land on the dickens / Kent county corner. Good deer in both areas. Kind of secret of wtx because not many people know much about that area.

Deer - There was a 155" deer taken last season about 2 miles from my place. We have a couple 150" class deer on camera. However, we only have one pic during shooting hours. Tons of does. The land on the county corner, the biggest killed on that place is around 130".

Hogs - There are tons of hogs but they have been sporadic as well. Last year we had large groups hitting the feeders. This year was lone boars coming to feeder in the middle of the night. None stayed around more that a week or so.

Birds - We currently have 3 coveys of quail that I feed year round. About 70-80 birds total. County line place has a couple of coveys there as well. They are starting to come back. The quail in the next few years should be really good. Been a long time coming.
As for dove, we still have over 100 birds hanging around our feeders. Even with the last few cold fronts, they still hang around.

Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5646754 03/11/15 07:12 PM
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Nice, Thanks for the info, hitman.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5647038 03/11/15 10:46 PM
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Good luck with the land. Just curious how you found it. Most of the land sales in that area rarely make it to a website. Most are sold by word of mouth. I bought mine that way. Friend of a friend deal. I actually know of a couple more place around there that is coming up for sale soon. Old folks that have died and their kids don't want anything to do with it. We love that area and some good folks. Just dont speed in spur. There are 3 sheriffs running around there now. Kind of funny to watch them make circles every 5 mins or so.

Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5647199 03/12/15 12:17 AM
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Low deer population most areas. Hit pretty hard with the drought. May take some time to get up to speed on management. Most areas up there its recommended to take a buck per 1000 acres per year.

Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5647258 03/12/15 12:43 AM
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My buddy got wind of it. We aren't buying it, Its a long-term lease. LO says there last group of hunters were old men and their grandkids and the old men just got tired of taking care of the place. Who knows if thats true or not, but the main attraction for me is that my buddy and I are the "lease managers" and we make the rules. We want to build it up as much as we can and really focus on getting some bigger deer. The lease I'm on now used to have the same type of rules and then some people got on that did not want to feed year round, feed protein, etc and the deer quality has really suffered, so we put out feelers looking for something else and found this place. Its essentially a done deal, but nothing has been signed yet. Its a large piece of land, just under 10k acres, so we should be able to do something with it.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5647346 03/12/15 01:27 AM
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I did some hog removal on a ranch out there few years back... It was LOADED with hogs.. I was there the year after they had a big fire. There wasn't too many deer due to that.. But they did say year before the fire was good white tail and some mule deer... Good luck!


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5647935 03/12/15 01:05 PM
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Thanks! I actually enjoy hogs, gives me something to do year round. Not thrilled about having to spend the coin for a feed pen with hog panels, but its all good. Theres hogs on my current lease, but they are pretty spread out and we only see them occasionally.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5648243 03/12/15 04:34 PM
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Its a good time to hunt there. Great rains the last couple years and the area has recovered well from fires and drought. Great 4 year old age class currently. Recommend 1 hunter per 800-1000 acres. Quail have recovered well. Would advise you to hog panel your feeders. Can be some great Mule deer and Whitetail.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5649173 03/13/15 03:05 AM
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When we hunted there back in the 90s there were very few deer in Kent county, but there were some whoppers. We hunted on the salt fork north of Clairemont, Panther canyon ranch. I miss that place. we hunted it for seven years. Biggest deer taken was a 180 class buck.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5649217 03/13/15 03:33 AM
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We've talked to the TPWD biologist. He said expect deer at 1/40 -1/50 acres in that area. We are going to run a hunter about every 700 acres. But the expectation is we are only shooting mature deer. I really don't see more than 2-4 bucks a year being taken on the place. So we will probably be harvest a buck every 2k-4k acres. We are near 2320 on the west side of 208. I hope it can be a standout place in 3-5 years with a group of good hunters.

Last edited by JBJTX81; 03/13/15 03:33 AM.

Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5649249 03/13/15 04:05 AM
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I hunted in kent for years off salt fork of Brazos. Lots of pigs, few mulies, whitetail good ones in 140's better were in 150's but rare. Badgers everywhere, good cats, and lots of turkey's. We had 6k acres there.

Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5652893 03/16/15 03:03 AM
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When we hunted there we had 10 guns on 10,000 acres. Now they're running more guns per acre. Marginal habitat now has deer. Hard to drive through there now without seeing stands on the edge of mesquite flats.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Erathkid] #5657707 03/19/15 01:59 AM
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Originally Posted By: Erathkid
When we hunted there we had 10 guns on 10,000 acres. Now they're running more guns per acre. Marginal habitat now has deer. Hard to drive through there now without seeing stands on the edge of mesquite flats.


We are running a hunter every 700 acres. Same ranch Panther Canyon. I just got the lease. We are going to be MLD 2 next year. feeding protein year round and only harvesting 5.5 year old deer. I expect us to take 1-4 a year.


Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: JBJTX81] #5658081 03/19/15 11:26 AM
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Originally Posted By: JBJTX81
Originally Posted By: Erathkid
When we hunted there we had 10 guns on 10,000 acres. Now they're running more guns per acre. Marginal habitat now has deer. Hard to drive through there now without seeing stands on the edge of mesquite flats.


We are running a hunter every 700 acres. Same ranch Panther Canyon. I just got the lease. We are going to be MLD 2 next year. feeding protein year round and only harvesting 5.5 year old deer. I expect us to take 1-4 a year.
Panther canyon used to be owned by Benny Dillard, it has since been sold. My favorite area was near the HWY, about 1 mile west of the front gate, the powerline road that goes north then drops down to the river. My stand was on the 'bald knob' back in the cedar breaks. AWESOME area. You're looking east toward the mesquite flat on the other side of the river.

Gawd I miss that place. Rattling early in the season is how I usually got my deer. Good luck. Is the front lake dry? We used to catch lots of bass and catfish there and found a native American campsite to boot. LOTS of rattlebugs on that place.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5658091 03/19/15 11:35 AM
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I almost hate to tell you what we paid per gun, $1000. Of course that was quite a while ago. I found the most bucks near the cedar breaks close to the river. Once the mesquite leaves drop that's where the big boys would hide out. We killed most of our deer near the front of the ranch, near the river. A lot of the backside was just open scattered mesquite. Fantastic quail hunting back then. The big field in the middle of the place we planted wheat, it's about 100 acres. Good area too.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5658408 03/19/15 02:31 PM
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Front lake is half full. I'm excited. I've seen some bruisers in trail cam pics the owner sent. we got it for a very reasonable price per acre. See my post in leases regarding the property.


Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5658775 03/19/15 06:27 PM
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Good area, but as always in this country two things are key, rain and pressure. You can't do anything about the rain except pray and cross your fingers but I can't stress enough this country won't handle more than 1 gun per 1000 acres IF your looking to manage a herd and shoot big mature deer. If you do more, odds are your going to have some unhappy hunters and mismanagement. Do yourself a favor and pay a little more per gun and stick to that 1 gun per 1000 acres, you won't be sorry.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5659587 03/20/15 03:13 AM
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I hunted north of Jayton in the late 90's. We had a ranch leased that was in both Stonewall and Kent Counties. Like posted above deer population was very light. We had 8 guns on 14,000 acres and not everyone killed a buck each year. We did have several deer in the 160-170 range killed in the 3 yr period and a few in the 140-160 range. 140 type deer were more common though. We did see some really big bucks(170-180) that just were always out of range in rough country or made it into the thick red washes. Water was key for us and if you had winter wheat the late season could be great hunting in bad weather on wheat. Most of the bucks were broke up by that time. Lot of hogs and tons of coyotes. I would agree about not putting on to many hunters. 1 per 1000 would be minimum for a lease I would get on up there.


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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5659677 03/20/15 05:41 AM
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I find myself on Google earth frequently looking over the ranch, wondering, 'what's down there now'. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Can you tell that I miss the place? Stay close to the river, away from the vast mesquite areas...I can't stress this enough. Of course now your buddies have read this. The powerline ROW west of the front gate is a winner. The tall shinnery through there holds deer. I've had bucks stand up whithin 30-40 FEET from me while I rattled...Darndest thing.

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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: stxranchman] #5659690 03/20/15 06:10 AM
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Originally Posted By: stxranchman
I hunted north of Jayton in the late 90's. We had a ranch leased that was in both Stonewall and Kent Counties. Like posted above deer population was very light. We had 8 guns on 14,000 acres and not everyone killed a buck each year. We did have several deer in the 160-170 range killed in the 3 yr period and a few in the 140-160 range. 140 type deer were more common though. We did see some really big bucks(170-180) that just were always out of range in rough country or made it into the thick red washes. Water was key for us and if you had winter wheat the late season could be great hunting in bad weather on wheat. Most of the bucks were broke up by that time. Lot of hogs and tons of coyotes. I would agree about not putting on to many hunters. 1 per 1000 would be minimum for a lease I would get on up there.


1. Its a 5 deer county. Is it possible that the herd has increase in number of the last 20 years?
2. I've talked to biologist. He is familiar with area. Says expect a deer/40 acres on this place.
3. We will be MLD 2 and completing annual density surveys.
4. Our harvest rules are very strict. Goal/expectation for harvest is 5.5 and 150". If it aint that or better we aint shooting! Lower the number of hunters won't change the number of bucks harvested. If there are 7 hunters for 12 hunters. The criteria is the same. No in the group expects to shoot a deer more frequently that every 3-4.
5. I cant see how having an addition 3 to 4 hunters over your recommendation planting food plots and feeding protein year round is going to hurt the herd.
6. We aren't a bunch of crazy meat hunters. All lowering the # of hunters does is decrease the availability of an additional 3-4 quality food sources for thee deer.


Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: JBJTX81] #5659895 03/20/15 01:36 PM
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Originally Posted By: JBJTX81
Originally Posted By: stxranchman
I hunted north of Jayton in the late 90's. We had a ranch leased that was in both Stonewall and Kent Counties. Like posted above deer population was very light. We had 8 guns on 14,000 acres and not everyone killed a buck each year. We did have several deer in the 160-170 range killed in the 3 yr period and a few in the 140-160 range. 140 type deer were more common though. We did see some really big bucks(170-180) that just were always out of range in rough country or made it into the thick red washes. Water was key for us and if you had winter wheat the late season could be great hunting in bad weather on wheat. Most of the bucks were broke up by that time. Lot of hogs and tons of coyotes. I would agree about not putting on to many hunters. 1 per 1000 would be minimum for a lease I would get on up there.

cheers Good luck and hope it works out very well for your group. I loved hunting that area, well except for the poaching.
1. Its a 5 deer county. Is it possible that the herd has increase in number of the last 20 years?
Is it possible the herd decreased with the severe drought in the last few years?
2. I've talked to biologist. He is familiar with area. Says expect a deer/40 acres on this place.
Ranch hunted ranged from a deer to 40 acres in some areas to a deer to 80+ acres in others
3. We will be MLD 2 and completing annual density surveys.
What will you do if you are only given 8 buck permits?
4. Our harvest rules are very strict. Goal/expectation for harvest is 5.5 and 150". If it aint that or better we aint shooting! Lower the number of hunters won't change the number of bucks harvested. If there are 7 hunters for 12 hunters. The criteria is the same. No in the group expects to shoot a deer more frequently that every 3-4.
What are you going to do with bucks that never reach 150"? There were some on the ranch we hunted that were mature.
5. I cant see how having an addition 3 to 4 hunters over your recommendation planting food plots and feeding protein year round is going to hurt the herd.
It won't if those 3-4 hunters are happy eating a tag sandwich. It takes a good group to have many settle with nothing for their money spent. It won't if those 3-4 guys are okay with the feed bill and other expenses every year.
6. We aren't a bunch of crazy meat hunters. All lowering the # of hunters does is decrease the availability of an additional 3-4 quality food sources for thee deer.
If you have the mature deer numbers and very good buck to doe ratio then there is nothing wrong with it. At your current deer to 40 acres and with a 1 buck per 2 doe ratio you will have 6 bucks per hunter in all ages classes to select from. That will amount to 17-18 deer per 700 acres. If you are at a deer to 50 acres it will be even less.



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Re: Anyone ever hunted Kent County? [Re: Matt1023] #5659991 03/20/15 02:20 PM
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Pretty much what stxranchman said above in reply. I have been part of and ramrodded large MLD properties/leases in this part of the country and my advice as I said earlier stands, 1 gun per 1000 acres. Expectations should be 140 class deer with the occasional stud being taken that knocks the top off the calculator. I would hammer does and I would be merciless on management or cull bucks, anything with less than 10 points and 2.5 yrs old becomes table fare. Your biggest problem is going to be getting 12 guns to buy into what your doing and having to deal with most likely 10 guns a year NOT harvesting anything but management bucks or lower end age appropriate 140 class trophy bucks and of course does. What you run into with MLD tags if you don't have rules in place is guys holding on to their tags to the last hour and not harvesting anything. This isn't good and expect a revolving door of hunters if this happens. I understand money is an issue and the more guns the more affordable and easier it is to find hunters, etc... but I am not driving 4 hours to hunt knowing that I might roll up in camp with 11 other hunters and taking into consideration what I just laid out being a possibility. Your in the right area, you have a good plan; I would just reconsider # of hunters. In closing, I have spoken with biologist too, and although a very valuable resource, they don't have the insight you and I have hunting a particular piece of property day in and day out. I suspect the 1 deer per 40 acres is a bit off; however, only you and your hunting partners will be able to note this thru field observations of which every hunter should be required to keep a record of for every day they hunt, # of does, # of fawns, # of buck under 10 pts, # of bucks over 10 pts and if guys are able, age class of each buck. Good luck and much success.


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