Hope both of you get better and still have good holiday season.

Ditto. Prayers for healing for the both of you.

Yessir.

I tend to agree. I`m probably not going to get a nice buck this year on our lease judging from the trail cam pictures and from the many hours I have already put in. I decided to try something new.
I`ve started hunting a 20 acre piece of wooded land across the road from our main lease that we`ve never hunted before. I had been sitting on the ground and finally brushed in a ground blind under some oak trees and sitting in a folding chair. No feeders, no cameras and no hand corn. I`ve seen several bucks that we have no picture of across the road on out main lease. It is like have a 2nd season to me. I`m even thinking about putting a setup on the place or moving my setup completely next year. Brings back memories of how we all used to hunt back in the day.

I have transitioned to pig/coyote hunting. Got plenty of pigs. If I see the big buck again, I’ll let him walk.

Yea, that’s the way we use to do it, it was always cold in Gillespie county when we hunted out there in the 70’s . We had one heck of an ice storm opening morning one year, my gun barrel was twice it’s normal size.

A buddy of mine took a small buck his son killed to a processor in San Angelo last weekend. The processor told him on an average year he capes out 60 bucks a week. This year he has caped out 10 low fence deer total.

It’s been my worst hunting season as well. Plenty of deer though; I’ll attribute mine to bad hunting and bad luck.

We’ve seen plenty of bucks, but the drought for the first two thirds of the year seems to have had a significant effect on antler growth. There’s still some time left, I’ve no desire to shoot a buck with potential in an off year.

We just now started seeing bucks ( in the last 3 days they started showing up) but have not seen anything with any decent antlers. We didn’t get any rain from January until August and even though I was pouring protein and water to them it’s bound to have hurt them antler wise.

Same boat, we are not going to kill a buck just to kill a buck. Made the decision it’s gonna be a doe only year unless someone happens to get a chance at a bonafide shooter.

I have only one buck I see every day. We call him the yard buck, a 4 point that is almost always in the yard/pasture. Went to get the mail today and had to shoo him out of the drive. Went walking to the blind Wednesday and he walked out of the woods about 20 yards in front of me. Not a care in the world. I stopped. He stopped. We eyed each other for a bit and then I started walking again. He stayed and ate grass.

Aside from him, I’m not seeing much the last few days.

This year is different but both these pics were on Wednesday in dickens. Could be worse.

As the post originator I give an update!! We are seeing an increase in activity. Corn is being consumed and we actually have had several deer at the feeders in day light, I have seen about 7 different Bucks only one a shooter. Racks were either spikes or very thin.
Having to go home Tuesday so hopping to have a chance in the next 3 days!!!!!!!!
Hope you all get the opportunity that has been missing at my place so far!!!!!!!!!

Between the coyotes and drought, I am not seeing much. I know of at least 4 coyotes that have been killed here and a place that joins me. A lot of folks think they are cute, but they don't realize that when they get too many the deer are prime fare for them.

I feel just the opposite. We have quite a few mature Atleast 5 yr old bucks. I’d rather shoot them now so that the 3 and 4 yr old bucks that are left will have more groceries to choose from this spring. Plus if you pass a mature 5 yr old this yr and we have another drought next yr he will be even worse antler wise. If it was a stud 4 yr old last yr and 10 points or better I may pass just in case we get good conditions this coming yr but 8s gotta go.

And if we have a drought year next year your 3 and 4 year olds will suffer regardless.

It all depends on your place and management practices. Some places a 4 year old is a shooter other places won’t shoot until 6 or 7 years old. “At least 5” isn’t an age class. If your having to kill 5 and 6 year old deer to make room for 3 and 4 year old age classes the property is over populated and I would suggest working on bringing down your doe population

Dr. Kroll

How do you suggest I work on the doe population when I lease 5500 acres in the middle of a 165k acre ranch that is surrounded by other lease pastures that I can’t control what is being shot? We shoot does every year and rarely ever shoot the 5 trophy bucks we are allotted. We see prob 3/1 buck to doe ratio matter of fact I’ve only seen a couple doe all season so far mostly just bucks. Of those bucks we have a few 10 points that are max 4 yrs old prob low 130s. We have 4-5 that I know of 120ish 8 points and a few older 6 and 7 points. We have seen 1 pretty nice mature 10 point. What good would it do so let these 120ish 5 yr old deer live another year when in a good year they wouldn’t be all that much better anyways?

Thanks,
Just some hunter who is beneath you

Start by shooting all those 120” 8’s on your 5500 acres that is in the middle of a 165k acre ranch.

If your that lean on does ( which probsbly isn’t the case they are just not coming to feeders due to the buck population keeping them out) start shooting those 120” 8’s at 3 and 4 year olds.

That should help free up some food for the better bucks. If it’s 3 years old and less than 8 points, it would get shot on sight.


Hope this helps 👍

It is amazing the wealth of knowledge on the THF. What else can I say.

That would be a great plan but the biologist doesn’t believe in cull/management bucks. Been that way for a long time and they don’t intend on using a new biologist anytime soon. 5 members and we get 5 buck tags. If you kill a mule deer you got to turn your WT MLD tag back in. Last yr we killed 5 mature bucks. 2 just under 140, 1 right at 140, 1 150, and one that broke 160. We had another 4-6 management type deer that were 4-5 yrs old that we couldn’t legally harvest. Now they are a year older and smaller than last year due to drought. So the way I look at it is kill the mature 5+ yr old deer even if they are sub standard this yr due to drought. In a perfect world and with more tags we would absolutely cull a lot of 3-4 yr old basket racked 8s that grow up to be 115-125 inch mature 8s

That’s a tough hand to work with, only being given one buck tag period. I probably wouldn’t burn it unless it was on a trophy unless it was a last day deer then I would shoot a management buck if nothing else.

I’ve never met a biologist in modern times who didn’t believe in shooting substandard bucks, not to try and influence antler growth down the line but to get a mouth off the pasture.

I’m assuming you don’t get any doe tags as well?

They will give us as many doe tags as we want. Issue is some guys hold out till last minute trying to get a trophy then once they decide to kill a management buck they are nowhere to be seen. It’s hard to get someone to shoot an old 8 when they know there are good bucks running around.

Yall need a new biologist. First time I've ever heard of this lol.

The ranch is ram by a board of directors. They have used the same biologist for a long time and we have no say so. He is very conservative with buck tags but gives us a ton of doe tags. Nothing we can do.