"I"m suprised they don't make it a doe only season for the month of october."


The state could manage all of their deer better if they would do something like this. TP&W has basically had the same seasons and the same bag limit for a long time. Innovative scheduling of seasons could help manage for health of deer and horns.

alot of ranches use MLD III to take their trophies before they break off points in the rut.

Again would work in some areas and not in others. Some areas fawns are born late summer. A lot of South Texas ranches won't shoot does until after Thanksgiving due to the age of the fawns on the doe. but I agree to pull the mouths off as early as you can and October would be better.

Its also nice to have over a month extra to get those late culls

better to do that prior to the rut, if you do it after your just eliminating mouths.

IMO, if your managing a ranch, you don't need to be worried about shooting trophy bucks unless you have your managment buck and doe situiation in order.

That'll largely depend on if you're managing for fun or to help make a living.

Let me ask you this then. If your rut happens to be in early Oct to mid Oct how would that change your management goals on what to shoot first.

Kill them in July/Aug... Patiently waiting on my summer harvest permits

i'd be game to help out on a mld lll place early in the year, just can't afford to pay a bunch for the right to hunt. being a non-resident it costs 325 for hunting liscense, plus transportation cost. i'd fill the freezer.
if you want the help or know of some one who does, hit me up with a pm

Ha that is what im doing when i say cull...making room....and i dnt like going off score as much as age when doing that

I disagree. I manage three ranches and consult with numerous others. The TPWD biologist came to each ranch one time, at the beginning of the MLD process. I write the management plans. I enter the harvest data. I conduct the census counts. I tell the biologist how many deer need to be taken (remember, he has only conducted one site visit). They have no interest from what I have seen and experienced. I see no need in having to pay a fee for the work and hours that I put into managing the State's deer while providing them with valuable data. My personal ranch is low fenced....my ranch and the State's deer, so to speak. I don't lease the property so income is not on the agenda. I need the MLD to keep the State's deer in check without decimating my ranch's habitat. Why should I pay for this?

Not for them coming to your ranch but for the paper work (permits, mailing, etc) and extra people in Austin that have been hired to handle the amount of people on MLD. That expense I am guessing pretty large and not what they are expecting. I am sure you have had the fear of not getting your permits on time in the last couple of years, if not I have and it was not a fun thing to have happen when you had scheduled hunts. If I remember right it was around 7500 ranches on MLD this year. I have only had a TPWD biologist on a ranch one time under MLD and that is with 3 ranches. They let me do exactly what you are saying. The only time they were out was for a browse survey. I do all the rest. But I was lucky like you in that the TPWD biologist trusted our data. You need to hear some stories that other tell but having to deal with their TPWD biologists on get and staying under MLD. They are told what to shoot and how many in some instances.

If MLD was mandated there would be much squalling. Some folks would end up with virtually no deer tags. People that are currently taking 4, 5, or more deer off small acreage would likely be cut to one or two deer, maybe less. And possibly no bucks.

then you better start popping culls and does beginnng 7:00am Sept. 28th

I will never do it because of the survey requirement. There is no way of doing an accurate survey and I refuse to lay out the money or the time to do something that provides crappy results. We manage our habitat, provide plenty of water, supplement feed in the fall and winter, etc. I take all my harvest data and let that tell me what is going on. I do pay attention to what I think my overall population seems to be but no one will ever know exactly what it is. As long as my deer body weights are stable or increasing and I have mature bucks and does to hunt each year it is all good. If any of those things dont seem good then Im headed in the wrong direction and need to change my plans to get back on track. Providing a costly or time consuming annual survey doesnt do me any good. JMHO.

Going to be a busy fella then if you have 150 permits.

we did all the stuff to get the MLD III in place, but we decided not to.

as RTP has stated, we provide food, water, cover, etc. We don't shoot trophys till december, take our does and culls early. november is more than enough to do this.

I do enjoy flying in the helicopter though, we did see three bucks that were pretty sizeable that had never been seen before, nor were they ever taken.

MLD IS NOT THE State telling you what you can harvest.Most land that is in the system have there own biologist and they set there own peramiters for what is to be harvested.You have to have atleast 800 contiguous acres to qualify.If you don't have your own biologist the state biologist for your area will assist you in formulating a plan.It just gives you alot more options for management.

this is what we are doing. If a trophy pops out, then so be it, but you have to get the mouths and ones you don't want breeding taken care of first

With the cost restraints for TPWD,cutting services,jobs,closing state parks, having to ask for donations to stay afloat,how could anyone argue that if you have special needs or wants that you shouldn't have to bear the cost of implementation.Everyone wants a free lunch...We should all be apalled...Better yet DEMAND that our license fees, etc,go to TPWD and not to be used for any other purpose! Ranches on MLD are a drain of resources that could be used to promote type 2 or any number of things.$1000 a ranch sounds like a good round number.

I could go for an administrative fee, but $1000 per ranch? Surely, you are kidding. You want me to pay $1000 so TPWD can promote Public Hunting Permits? Please read my post above. I have to shoot "X" number of deer to keep the carrying capacity in check on a low fenced property. These aren't my deer, they are reported to belong to the State. So, in your scenario, you feel that I should pay $1000 to manage a State resource?

Hey,If ANYONE gets a 5 month season and with all the required paperwork for TPWD,what's a $1000 extra. You can make that up in 1 hunt. This issue has come up more than once. All I'm saying is PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE. Period. Or open your place up to public hunting. TPWD is not here to be at the beckon call of landowners who want to SELL HUNTS. I just threw the $1000 out there...Certainly the numbers could be tweaked. Closing state parks so that we have more biologists to evaluate private properties that are in business to make money is not fair.

Maybe I should have stated,my license fees are going to benefit a private enterprise, why should my tax dollars go to subsidize something that should be a normal business venture? Let the market decide if you can turn a profit,if not,get out of business...BTW I am a landowner and could Qualify for MLD.

$250/deer tax rebate for $1000 administration fee. I'd be fine with contracting out TPWD duties to the private sector to avoid unnecessary State benefit plans & using additional budget space to employ more wardens for enforcement of current rules&regs..

Don't have a problem with that number for money but I want to know what I would be getting from them for that number. If that is what it takes to run the program, print the permits, mail them to me and then post my harvest data then I am fine with it. But I am not for charging that much then funneling the money to feed another free program. The ADCP permit was $300 back in the early 90's and they did almost all of the data by hand at that time so it was much more time consuming. Right now some counties do not have biologist on hand and no time frame for hiring a new one or transfering on in. I am not for more government control over what I or you can do on there land. But if the systems is overrun with MLD landholdings and short on labor to run the program then something will happen. They will either drop a lot of ranches from it or drop the whole program or charge a fee to help with the cost of running it. I would prefer to keep the program intact and charge a nominal fee if needed.