Going out to the ranch this coming weekend. I am going to meet up with the TX Forestry person who will be evaluating my ranch and writing a management plan for the plants and trees etc. I want to add that to my wildlife plan.

While I am there, I rented a t-post driver and am going to set up 4 feed pens. They will only be about 32x32 (actually going to try to make these into a circle instead) out of 8 16' cattle panels. I'll post some pictures of before and after shots.

I have a brand new 200lb Moultrie feeder for each pen (one actually has a crankable barrel feeder already) and also 2 Bushnell Trophy cams per pen, in case one goes down.

I bought solar chargers for everything except the cameras, but they should be fine for a few months.

I hope the weather is this nice!

R

John Where abouts you headed?

Out by Rocksprings

Sounds like some nice setups. Been using my Bushnell Trophy Cam on the same batteries since October of last year. Battery life is very good!

Now if only I had someone that wanted to go with me so I had company.. lol

The wife is staying home with the kiddos.

R

Hope you are prepared for hard rocky ground. T-post driver may not get your pens done in that rock. Might take a concrete drill if you have one to help start the holes. Are you buying 8 game cams? My advice would be go with 4 max. You will tire of looking at the same deer after a month with 4 of them IMO. Post up some before and after pics of the pens.

I already had 8 game cams, so I will have a lot of pictures till I get a good idea what is out there.

I thought about renting the concrete drill along with the driver. The areas I have picked out I checked by driving in a few t-posts manually, seem to be good areas, but I am thinking it would be nice to not take the chance.. heh

R

Got you on the trail cams. I have seen many people buy to many cams and then sell them off after a while. On pens what I have also done is take a piece of 1" or so rebar and cut a point on one end and drive it into the ground to crack/move the rocks for a pilot hole. Use a heavy sledge and it will help you on the tough spots. Uvalco is a great place to rent and buy things on your way out in Uvalde.

yea, my main thing, atm, is to have cams on each pen. I wanted to make sure they all work. Once I build the cabin, I will place some of them on that as well as the front gate, etc.. spread them all out a bit.

R

Sounds like you are going to have fun with the new place. Which direction from Rocksprings?

About 36 miles south of Rocksprings, off 377.

I am hoping the weather holds out.. this is awesome weather for doing this work.. heh

R

We had good luck with a hammer drill and pouring water in the hole as you use the t-post driver.Good luck Russ,I'm sure you're excited,this will be the first year on your new place,take lots of pictures.

You know it, Mike!

R

A hammer drill is definitely your friend out there. Forget renting. I found a good one used in a pawn shop and talked them down to $100. Use it all over the ranch, staking out feeders, anchoring blinds, fence and pen work... I'm just a half hour or so south of you, still in your kinda rocky country, and that is a tool you won't regret owning.

On a separate note, good size on the pens, and going round, with slight overlaps at all joins is a good call.

Doug

i hate the t post driver but it works as long as you don't have to do too many the best thing is drill with compressor it works so nice especially with the 90 pound drill

I over lapped my cattle panel by one square and wired the end of the over lapping panel onto the second vertical wire of the over lapped panel. Did this on four and then the other four. Two of us easily stood them up and because they overlapped and pulled in on each other they easily formed the circle we wanted.

I agree, free-standing round pens are the ticket in that country.