So not wanting to hijack the shooting fawns thread anymore, here is the hunting rules of the ranch I hunted 20 years. A little back story:

At my 20-year high school reunion, they had a "casino night". Whatever money you won could be "spent" on items up for bid. This particular hunt was billed as a South Texas, dove hunt. I bid on it and won. A gal I knew since elementary school's husband owned a family ranch near Pearsall, TX. He put up the hunt. As September got closer, I received a call from him saying the doves weren't cooperating and said if I liked to hunt deer, I could come as a guest on his ranch for a deer hunt. He had "regular" members who were friends and past business associates. Each "member" was assigned an area of the ranch where they could put up his blind plus a "guest" blind which he would keep up, feeders full and working, etc.

I hit it off with the owner and all his friends and members all from the San Antonio area. I was invited back every year, even after I shot my big buck. So many stories from these hunts, usually two weekends a season I could go. It just became a pain to drive from Plano where I lived at the time. I would usually shoot my doe but the 11 pointers never showed up except twice where I saw MONSTER bucks but couldn't shoot them because I hadn't taken my qualifying doe yet. It got frustrating too.

These hunts were from 1990 till 2020. Here are the rules which could change year to year depending on what the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists recommended from their yearly surveys.

Try not to get a headache reading these

This looks absolutely miserable to be apart of.

You lost me at Chinese for a Hunters' Dinner.

Our company lawyer took us to a place once turkey hunting that had about 5 pages of typed rules posted in each blind. The cabin did have copper tubing under the Saltillo tile for warm tootsies in the winter. That was classy.

Yes, it was. They had some frickin monsters on that ranch. Deer from there won the Los Cazadores big deer contest, including A 14 pointer I ALMOST got to shoot.

Did most of your friends from the San Antonio area have "09" as the last 2 digits of their zip code?

I never can see any images you post like this for some reason. It goes to Postinage and then usually real estate ads.

I get that rules can get out of hand and go overboard sometimes but I thought it was funny when you said they had monsters on that ranch and won the big deer contest. Could there be a connection there??
Well managed and structured lease and producing monster deer?

I have never seen a lease that produced true trophy deer that did not have some kind of structure/guidelines in place - the "free for all" leases typically have trouble producing large bucks.

Winning a contest is all that really matters.

We've had the same lease for 20+ years and the only time we've felt the need to have rules was regarding guests. Definitely helped to have clear guidelines about what they can shoot, etc. Also not a rule per se but when a member would bring the same guest multiple times in a season we'd have friendly conversation about expectations for that guest around labor and/or financial contributions.

The worst we had was during dove season. Rich doctor came out with a member and we gave him the best spot in the field. We all shot a lot of birds and he called to ask how many he had.
Three of us had limits and the 4th member had 9 or 10 because he took the worst spot. The doctor told that member "OK, you're done shooting because I have at least 20."

I have two rules:
The guest policy (no guests during deer season, off season guests limited to one per visit)
Don't go in another members area without their permission.

If you need a rule that states don't bring an a--hole as a guest you have the wrong members. Kidding, stuff happens.

Come to think of it I brought a guest one time who had never shot a deer. Loaned him a rifle, put him in a good blind, and told him he was welcome to shoot a doe or pig. Pick him up at dark and he tells me he saw a big buck and had the safety off and ready to shoot it but changed his mind at the last second. He proceeded to complain about how unfair it was because we don't own the deer. He asked me what would have happened if he shot it and I said, I would have deleted the photos from your phone and dropped you at the bus station in town before one of the guys went overboard. Not that a deer is worth throwing hands over but we had some characters and we had put a lot of time and money into the place.

Had someone say almost the exact same thing to me…and I immediately responded with “that’s exactly why you will not be sitting by yourself in a blind”

To have good deer or just a good experience, then it’s important that all involved are likeminded in regard to expectations, goals and how to accomplish that.

If that takes rules to get to that point then have rules. If you can do it without rules then dont have them.

My experience says that if quality deer is the goal then it takes a large place which usually means a lot of hunters. When you have a lot of hunters, normally you’re gonna have to spell it out for some, if not all.

When it comes to the deer on my ranch, I am Supreme Ruler. I only have one guy that trophy hunts with me that sits by himself, and we've hunted together for 35 years. I tell him what he can shoot and he has pictures of the bucks he can shoot. He's never made a mistake. Anyone else that hunts here either he or I sit with them and we tell them what they can shoot. That way I don't need many rules for deer.

++1

Nailed it.


I got to be very familiar with this ranch and when I first read the rules I was baffled, especially by the feral hog part.

In essence, 9, 10, or 11 point deer could not be shot. Very strange rules. They did have big deer though, due to the habitat and location.

low fence also


story goes; poker was a regular thing on the ranch back in the 60's, still is.

a gun was pulled during a high stakes game. no one was hurt but this started the "no alcohol allowed in Frio County" rule

Never heard about the no alcohol rule.

There are two liquor stores and several bars in pearsall now

I bet back in the 60’s that was some rough and tumble country

ha-ha, its rule #1

I just looked at the list of "regulars" on this ranch. The area codes from the San Antonio guys is 210.

Wife and I only hunters left on our lease the last 2 years due to land area being downsized. LO trusts us. We shoot what we want to.

Limits on pigs. I never heard of such a thing.

+2 Good Lord

Seen less text in Declaration of Independence, lol...

210 area code and 78209 zip code are two completely different things. I didn't know "Buzzie" hobbed-knobbed with the REAL country club set.