Shackleford County

What’s going on in this county lately? Texas Buck Registry on Instagram posts absolute monsters every day just about? Why is this such a random hot bed?

That county has always had really good genetics and with the larger ranches, has had great deer. Most never reported or entered those deer in any contest or on social media. I suspect they had really good and timely rainfall this spring into summer. With todays management practices it is understandable why they are killing some great deer.

Highly managed large ranches.

Far from random, large++ ranches, light hunting pressure, intensive range management, supplemental feed, bucks allowed to age, and infused So. Tx genetics. Some high fence places, but not needed in most of the county, especially west of Albany. Most ranches maintain a low profile & cater to a few friends and high profile clients. It would be interesting to discover where those nice bucks reported on TBR were killed.

Those ranches that are LF are all native genetics, not introduced and many do not feed either.

Hey stxranchman, I think you'll enjoy this read. I've been fortunate to hunt on some of the large ranches and have definitely "fallen in love" with that country. Mostly rolling, mesquite covered hills, but there is some wildly rugged terrain, with deep draws as well. There is an incredible amount of wildlife on those enormous places.

https://www.texas-wildlife.org/files/publications/2008_west_texas_deer_study_group.pdf

I've hunted there also. Thanks for the read.

Nothing new for Shack, Several of the deer came from 1 ranch with a great history of producing trophy deer, this is a result of some feeding but letting deer reach maximum potential and age.

I love that area

My dad is Ricky Linex, and my Mentor my first two years with the NRCS was Steve Nelle. Both top notch experts in their fields and I was fortunate to accompany them on some youth hunts on the Nail. Awesome country!

Steve Nelle is an expert and a great guy. I really enjoyed field days or seminars he spoke at, the best ones were field days. Steve even took off a day from work to come down to visit me on a ranch back in the mid 90's. I was managing that ranch and he gave me advice on habitat work I was wanting to implement. I heard all of those gentlemen who are in that publication give talks before at field days or seminars.

I dont think I disagree with anything said so far. Definitely been happening for a long time and its getting better it seems. Ive hunted that country and been on it for other reasons as well as leasing country the next county up. Some of the most fun country to hunt that I know of.

Your dad did a great job editing that publication. Awesome country, words & photos don't do it justice. You have to see it.

Steve is by far the greatest biologist NRCS has had. He is a walking encyclopedia of deer and plant knowledge. Very respectable man and I'm honored to know him. Him and dad are both doing private consulting in their retirements. NRCS is losing a wealth of knowledge with the old school employees retiring and leaving behind massive shoes to fill. I'm trying my best to keep it old school with a focus on management and plant ID but all the NRCS administration cares about now a days is spend that $$$.

The Big country had big rain this year. Shackleford has been cranking them out for 30-40 years.

Jerry Turrentine was pretty good also, but I agree that Nelle was in a league of his own. He worked very closely with a friend who had a ranch in Tom Green County with his forage samples.

So, are you with NRCS?

They are having a great season out there already for sure.

Hunted a couple places in the past that i could see where one that scored in the 190s was killed and where I was hunting shred property lines with the 1200 acres that one came off of. One of the guys got a typical 10 that scored in the upper 150s. That place is right on the southern county line not far from Moran. Some dang good deer out that way and lots of hogs.

Been hunting Shackelford for 20 years and protein feeding since 2007. We've killed lots of 150"+ deer but have yet to break 165". Our lease is only two sections, but Hubbard Creek runs right down the middle so its pretty thick. Hopefully we get one of these 190's to show up on our place someday. Btw, kmon1, if youre referring to the Moran Monster, we are really close.

Shackleford has always had good genetics . This year is also an iconic year in Texas for deer!! We had a ton of rain over the summer, great browse conditions, In alot of areas-Its still green for crying outloud! Lol
I think youre going to see alot better deer this year than what a given area typically may produce. The downside to this(depending on conditions where you hunt)is that an area may have too much browse and the deer arent reponsive to the feeders! If this is the case- eventually with some cold weather, things will change later in the season.

Great area

I looked at leases years ago in Shackleford and Throckmorton - at the time I thought it was the up and coming area in Texas - is Throckmorton as good as Shackleford?

Throckmorton has some good deer but smaller tracts of land. Shackleford has a lot of really big ranches that have been managed intensively for decades — much more like south Texas in that regard

In the 90s I hunted the Lambshead. We had 10k leased along the Brazos. It had some incredible deer.

Quail hunting buddy of mine that leases 20K acres in Shack county sent my these pics tonight.

Excellent buck pics. Does your buddy lease have both quail & deer rights?

They guide dove and deer. From what he’s seen there’s not enough quail to hunt this year in Shack county. They did better on dove this year than anyone else I talked to. Last year he killed 600+ doves himself. This year he said he laid off of them for the hunters and killed 250+. SOB doesn’t miss very often with a shotgun and has a lab most would kill to have, said that’s not good for customer relations when dove are thin to kill out quick. They had a lot of limits from their hunters. They do things right.

With the bucks they have been posting I was wondering if a group of friends was planking Texas buck registry

I was wondering the same. This thread is the first I've heard of TBR.

https://1stlighthuntingjournal.com/texas-buck-registry-whitetail-hunting-management-and-history/

They have been around for a while, just not gained the following. I first looked their website about 7 yrs ago now I think.

Loved hunting this area. Had a few pastures leased on the Casey that bordered a famous big ranch where I literally watched hunters on the porches and fire pit of that famous ranch's guest quarters from my deer blind. They corned their road across the low fence adjoining our lease but deer preferred to visit our feeders. As soon as hunters headed out in mornings and evenings deer just funneled to us. Some really nice deer in that area and of course the Beehive in Albany (5 min from our lease)

Had a lease on the Casey too, for one year. It was the house pasture and has a bad neighbor. One year was all I wanted.

Really enjoyed hunting the Davis-Haynes 15 or so years ago. A lot of deer, good quail, and the Albany beehive is still the best steak I have ever had.

You must have had that pasture that the neighbor drove up and down the fence line from daylight every day to 'harass' hunter across the fence. I seen it many times and thank goodness we did not have that neighbor/fence.

Been on my lease S of Moran for 8 years now. First couple of years were kinda lean because of the drought. Been in a good recovery and we have good numbers now. Hope to stay until I give up the ghost.

I hunt Clear Fork Ranch its amazing.

That's the one.

I heard Clear Fork recently changed how they do their hunts. Is yours a lease?

Great deer in that Co.