Part of hunting a low fence ranch

This deer was shot by a neighbor today - we had him on our do not kill board and age 5 - part of hunting a low fence ranch - we are 9000 acres but deer will travel for sure - beautiful buck for sure and congrats to the hunter

Yep, I would have pulled the trigger too.

This 100 times over

Nice buck!

Congrats to the neighbor.

Nice deer.

You are 9,000 acres. Stop crying.

Or go hunt a HF ranch.

Good Lord.

Not sure he was crying man. Take it easy.

I congratulated the hunter who took him and stated it is part of hunting a LF ranch - sorry you took it differently

That's the breaks, but you realize that and accept it as part of hunting game that is free range and truly wild. Competing against nature and other hunters is part of the challenge that makes the victories all the sweeter. Hats off to you, and congratulations to who ever bagged that great deer.

Shoot yes shoot!

It happens
I didn’t see where he was crying
I don’t have anything against hunting in high fence good luck and have fun but I prefer low fence and that’s the chance you take when hunters let bucks of that caliber walk you just have to hope a few fall through the cracks and make it another year or 2

Not sure why a 5 year old deer like that would be on a no kill list but never less it is the breaks.
We hunt a big ranch and have a nothing under 5 yo rule. Lots of deer we see get killed on neighbors that runs a big commercial operation.
Come rut time those big bucks travel a lot.

Beautiful buck but what did he look like this year. Photos say 2018

Camera date was not set - pics from this year -

we let our deer get to age 6 or older - we know we lose some but the ones we don't lose are worth the wait

When you're low fence about the only thing you can do is feed the hell out of the place in hopes of them not wandering far. Once the rut starts all bets are off!

And even then you never know what a buck will do. In one radio tracking study one buck would make a trip yearly to a place about 30 miles away and back, if done during season that could be a lot of hunters to avoid.

tlk , good job for congratulating the hunter that I am sure is very proud of that buck as just about any of us would be, but your place has its rules and they are working for you. There is a mortality rate that happens be it vehicular, hunters on neighboring laces, fights with other bucks, getting too worn down from the rut, predators..... when we let a buck go we know there is a chance we will never see them alive but is a choice we make knowing that.

Wish I had a place next to you! I’d be happy to work with a fellow landowner who wanted to let deer get to 6-7.

I was wound a bit tight. My apologies to the OP.

No worries -

Absolutely. Ours have to be 7.5 and we don’t stray from that just because a deer is big or a neighbor “might” shoot them. Once you start down that road you start to jeopardize all your hard work. This means this year we have an almost 210” typical 5yr old that is being passed until at least 7 and not one member mad about it

But I thought I had seen fellows on here saying the fence height made no difference whatsoever. Bet the neighbor that shot him is thankful that y'alls is not 8' high. He is a TRUE trophy.

👍👍

Passing deer of that caliber is remarkable. Y’all definitely have one of the best low fence places in the state

Passing deer like that is the definition of hunter discipline. Impressive.

Passing deer like that is the definition of attempting to achieve the near impossible, but a worthy goal indeed.

tlk
Hats off to your groups strict game management and your kind acceptance of knowing you will lose some to neighbors (beautiful buck for sure and congrats to the hunter) or other unforeseen demise but y'all continue to hold the line

Lots of things can and will happen. This practice is just as likely to result in mortality from natural causes as it is from the hunter on a neighboring place.

Well said

I never seen a dead deer add one more inch of horn -

a 200 inch deer was once a 160 or 170 somewhere along the way

That’s part of letting them grow, some simply die and some get shot but you have an outstanding management practice going on and I commend you for that.

THIS xALOT! Never waiver from the course you set for the possibility of actions taken by others


jrg

Shooting a deer because a neighbor might shoot it ensures it won’t get any bigger, period. Great buck and hopefully he bred one more season.

I have a lease 600 acres..with about 30 hunters hunting our fence line within 200 yards of our fence. We couldn't harvest does for years due to the large number of does taken by our neighbors. Our doe numbers continued to drop year after year until our doe numbers got down to the mid 20's . ..which is very low as our target number was 45. So, in slaying this, if you have a nice buck and if you don't take it, your neighbors most likely will. Saving deer to let them get mature, the odds are, it won't happen. I go years not taking a buck waiting on the mature bucks. This is ok for me as it makes for a challenge...which I like as I am successful just not every year. Makes the hunt success the more sweeter. On your smaller size leases waiting for a big old buck to breed is ok just don't expect it to survive through hunting season. However, on larger leases of 1000 acres or more I would buy into letting them walk to get older or to breed. There is not a chance to manage deer relying on your neighbors, not that it can't happen, but generally doesn't work. Hunting large leases must not always work either as hunters hunting on a very large lease hunts our fence lines within 100 yards also. I buy into letting hunters hunt where they want as they pay for that, but don't expect them to manage their side the way you decide to manage..heck, I think on any lease hunters will not agree how to manage deer the same way...lol.
So, hunt for the fun of it and deal with all that creates your problems. Letting a deer walk is your decision at the time...But, I also live by a bird in the hand thing.

That's the breaks. I know the feeling, I've been feeding this guy for three years and was going to give him another year, but a neighbor shot him during bow season this year. Outstanding deer with a bow, I congratulated him, and hope his gene's are still running around in a bunch of my 2-3 years olds.

You need to cut way back on that coffee. LOL

Pretty impressive to let a potential world record buck walk.

No doubt about it fishbait. It is frustrating as heck but if your neighbors are not practicing the same management methods as you, even 2,000 acres is pretty hard to manage consistently.

I think it basically all comes down to your neighbors whenever you are talking about less than 5-6 square miles of land.

This.

That kind of management is mighty impressive.

Here's my question.

How on earth can you be that sure about ages on a property that size? Are you just doing tons of work with cameras?

We've got a couple properties about 1/3 that size, and I can't even begin to monitor the herd that close nor do I believe I can tell a 5 YO buck from a 6 YO buck or 7 YO buck with the kind of consistency needed to be confident I'm executing that kind of program. I can tell young from mature from post mature, but beyond that I think it's damn difficult.

So how do you feel confident they're getting to 6? or 7?

They probably have enough trail cam pics of them through the years.

Fair question. Yes we run around 20 cameras from July to the start of the season. We can have 10-20,000 pictures to go through every 3-4 weeks. It is a job. We pull all cameras at the start of the season. Why? Because we want totally fair chase while hunting during the season.

We have around 25 protein/cottonseed feeders in pens so we rotate the cameras in order to cover all the different areas of the ranch. We then keep track of any 2-4 year old bucks that have potential by cataloging them and I print 8x10 color pictures of those deer. It is not uncommon for us to have pictures of bucks from their age 2 to age 6.

We have a small camp house where we meet and have multiple bulletin boards on the wall - one board will be our DoNotKill board while other boards have past deer we have taken and another will have our kill deer for that season. So it tons of work but is the most foolproof way to age deer. Our rancher also checks the tooth wear on any trophy we take plus we then send off their teeth to the lab for aging (tooth wear and lab are helpful but far from totally accurate - in my experience the accuracy of tooth wear and lab combined is probably 60% range - for that reason we feel having good history on a deer is the overall best method for aging).

We will have deer that we may think are 6 or older but will not take until we get good video of it that year - others that we are certain are 6 or older and we can take on sight.

Here is a shot of one of our boards in camp - we had around over 40 DoNotKill bucks on our board this season. Last thing I will say is that we have to hunt our butts off to find and see some of these deer during the season.

tlk I run 11-13 cameras on my 600 acres and I can say it is a lot work and the cost isn't cheap. The time I spend on a typical survey is many hours a week just to post results. I hope you have lots of help. lol However, cameras, if done correctly, is extremely accurate and I recommend it for heard management.

Well he won’t net that yet but he will net over 200” now. One of the most beautiful deer I have ever see

Man that’s a ton of work

And you’ve got the goods to show for it

Quite impressive

"..we had around over 40 DoNotKill bucks on our board this season."

Obviously a well managed premier place, but there's no way I could keep track of 40 animals on a DNK list. If I had to evaluate the deer and check 40 pics to see if I could shoot....no way. It would take the thrill out of the hunt for me. I love watching deer, and it's especially enjoyable when you can watch mature bucks, but it would be too much like being on a fully guided hunt a the guide having to give the OK.

TLK, it's a great place for sure, but personally I wouldn't enjoy it.

Hey Tim,
Did you get any pics of the deer from the neighbors after they killed him?

I know a little about tlks operation and I was very surprised when he said 40 on DoNotKill. That would truly be hard to identify that many and then just as hard for the members to keep track of which deer was which. Not judging at all, just pointing it out.
On one of my two places we have 25 setups and all with cameras. The same couple guys manage all those cameras and post all the pics on our in house website(tremendous amount of work). Then we all try to chime in on age estimates and which should be on our "NoShoot" list. We have about a HANDFULL on the list. I always want to put more on there but the guys say the ones that are small enough and/or young enough dont really need to be on the list assuming our guys are half way decent. The thinking is, anything more than a handful is just too hard to expect the guys to remember(so many look alot alike) that it clutters the list of NoShoots. We have a bigger place and more hunters than tlk so that makes it harder to hold that many guys accountable and then tlk feeds so much that they must have a whole lot more bucks than we do. Im just offering this as a little aside and I certainly commend tlk for all he and his lease mates and landowner are able to do.

Actually it is not that hard to keep up with - guys keep pics of deer on their phone so they can access at any time in the blind. There is a ton of communication between our members even when in the blind - we all share pics and ask each other about certain deer.

Also out of 40 DNK bucks a number of them are clearly young deer so our hunters are all very experienced at aging and would never just haul off and shoot a 3-4 year old buck. The reason we put our younger bucks on the DNK board is so all our guys get familiar and know the various bucks as they mature. also keep in mind we most likely have a lot more 5 year old deer that need to be on DNK board than most ranches.

I get that it is not for everybody - that is why we are super careful on who we allow to join our lease - these guys pass on beautiful 160-170 inch deer regularly to be patient and hold out for a 180-200 inch deer. I am going into my 14th season on this lease and I have shot a total of 4 trophy bucks. Not the place for someone who needs to pull the trigger every year for sure

Just a couple of the 5 - 6 year olds we had on DNK board this year -

The first picture was 6 years old this year but went backward from 170's to 160's so we decided to let him ride to next year in hopes he bounces back - couple of others were 6 but guys passed on them to see what they do next year

Happy to say we have a new long term lease in place -

Future looks bright.

Hell of a setup. You guys are doing it right. You are right about it not being for everyone, I can't imagine the time, money, and work that goes into all that. I guess I just don't want to kill a deer that bad. The txt chain in the blinds is next level.

We have a low fence and it's only 100 acres. Unfortunately I have killed bucks that were too young in some cases but if I didn't shoot it someone else was going to. We are surrounded by small acreage places and meat hunters. Sometimes you just gotta shoot.

yep, those are tough breaks but it happens. We had a really nice 5 year old killed next door too this year. I was disappointed, but not mad. he was a hard deer to pass.

you can't kill 180's if you shoot all the 160's...

.

Believe me I have been there and done that - every situation is different for sure - we are just blessed to be on a large LF property

Questions. If it is was 170 as a 5 year old and regressed to a 160 as a 6 years old, why would you give it a pass unless there were poor range conditions or some other anomaly that justifies the decline in antler size Did the body mass appear to be the same?

Fair question - we have learned over many years that bucks go up and go down at various ages. No rhyme or reason honestly.

So very few on our lease want to shoot a 160 no matter what the age - so in most all cases we pass in hopes that the deer bounces back the following year. This buck potentially could blow up as a 7 year old and be a 180 - we are willing to take that chance - we know we may never see this deer alive again

I agree with tlk about some bucks at times going up and down from year to year. What I have learned is that the rut and how hard a particular buck ruts has an effect how they do the next year. Some bucks just rut harder than others. Some bucks get injured or fight more than others. There are bucks that no mater what they look like post rut just get bigger each year till they reach post maturity. The weather has a lot to do with it post rut then all the way till end of August....if it is very dry during the rut into the post rut and does not rain in March....no matter how much you supplement them in South Texas they will be off. March(based off of a study/article by Stuart Stedman of the Faith Ranch) is a key rainfall month for South Texas post rut going into antler growing season. That was from a very large ranch with no supplemental feeding at the time.

I have said this before on here and will repeat it again. I was told by a very well known South Texas rancher whose family has managed, aged and culled deer for way longer than anyone else I have every met....they were doing this since the late 60's. What he told me was they learned that the bucks on their ranch did their best at 7 yrs of age. He also told me that almost every buck that was really big at 6 and then if he dropped down at 7....always rebounded and was bigger the next year. Said he never had a really big buck that went down at 7 and never recovered(less serious injury). That year he told me that, he said he had a now 7 yr that was a 180's class 5x5 at 6....then went down to a 160's type 8pt now at 7. He was letting him go hoping he would follow the bucks in the past and be much bigger the next year at 8 yrs of age. Like tlk stated...they were willing to take a chance on a buck like that based off of past history. The key is that genetically, he is not hurting you one bit. IME in South Texas and in the Hill Country bucks on ranches I managed looked the best at age 7...that is when we tried to take trophies if at all possible.

Great examples of nutrition and letting age work in a whitetail population. Still after 40 years I am amazed at how many 'hunters' can't tell me a thing about how old a deer is other than how many points he has on his head. When one of my friends says after a sit he's found a management buck my first question is - describe him to me? If they start with the points I cut them off immediately and politely say -no tell me about the body I don't care about what he has on his head. I already know you wouldn't be telling me about him if you thought it was a trophy......Has he got a belly/sway back? Is he standing flat footed? Does he have kneed pads? Does he walk arthritic? Does he have a saggy brisket? What's his face look like? Long/narrow? Short/fat? Tell me about his eyes? Wrinkles? Jowels? Saggy skin under his jaw? What about half rings in front of his ears? These are just a few clues that can be used to identify mature deer in the hierarchy of the deer world. Again, I don't believe you can have an effective management plan if your lease members can't make educated assumptions on the age of their ranches deer. When they get really good I bet they can age their does like some of the esteemed members of this forum most likely can! Just sayin......

That's what makes all this fun and not just business!

I'm new, so I'll just ask....you really have a clean 210" typical y'all are passing on???

For real......7.5 years old. I would be kicked off that lease after killing that 210 typical. Because I would on a low fence lease.

Anything fun can be ruined if taken too seriously. Most just like to be out in the woods and enjoy nature but some have an obsession with horns. At the end of the day its just a deer, and not that big of a deal.

Not perfectly clean but yes. One kicker and one split brow and he will still green net over 200”

And he would hang at our camp when he was taken from you. I guess you would have some pictures though

HaHa! Truth!

There are places to enjoy shooting whatever you want and places to focus on trophy deer. I have both and to be on the trophy places you sign and acknowledge all of those rules and stipulations including forfeiting deer taken against the rules or you don’t get on.

To be fair 99% of people with a bad mentality wouldn’t make it through a screening process anyway. These places are not open to just anyone with a checkbook

Oh I hear ya. If I signed up for that then that's what I would abide to. I just never could be on someones lease or let anyone lease on to mine.

Yall have fun.

I would think that this is south Texas and 1000's of acres. Else you couldn't let bucks like this grow to 7-8 years. If you hunt the leases I have been on, hunters are so close a buck with a 130 rack would not make it til sun down. The cost of a lease you are on I couldn't afford the feed bill.lol
However, I have a few bucks that have the older type of signs. I couldn't tell a 7 yr. buck from a 6 ....I don't think....as I don't have to. I have a buck now with the look of an old buck as the eyes and skin around the eyes show old age....however he is illegal where I hunt as his antlers have little spread.
I enjoy watching deer of all sizes and I take a buck every 4-5 years..I'm happy with that. I don't take hunting to a point of such pressure to kill what caliber of deer these bucks come from. I can see how serious these hunters are...this kind of hunting takes the fun out of what I enjoy so much. If I had all the money in the world...maybe I could become this type of hunter. But rest assured...I would make sure I would know each large buck by his first name..lol. I would make ""my blind and area" the best place on the lease. Hunting a lease like this would be fun just to watch such bucks. I can just see me when I pulled the trigger how nervous I would be until I got the tape out.
How do you prove the age of a deer? The tooth thing is only about 60% right and that is supposed to be the best tool. Just someones openion couldn't be enough probably...just the total inches is the real fact wheather to shoot a particular buck....I suppose.
Man..what pressure those hunters are under.

"Man..what pressure those hunters are under." meh, pressure? I have tons of fun at our lease. We have a somewhat similar, albeit less successful, set up. Spend tons of time there. The beauty of a large, mature buck ALIVE AND WELL in the pasture is an almost majestic sight which can be enjoyed over and over. No matter how pretty the mount, they are always more attractive when breathing. I'll be down this weekend and it will be blast! I'll go down there three or four weeks after that and it will be another blast.

Life is good if you only allow it to be.

Very well stated Hud...you and I are very much the same I think. I love watching a good buck and hoping he makes it another year
I haven’t shot a trophy buck in 7yrs and I’ve had several opportunities. Guess it’s an FOP thing but much more enjoyable watching my grandson, granddaughter or someone else have the rush that hunting a big buck brings.
I’ve had my days and bragging rights....pass the torch

Yup, learned my lesson the hard way, I passed on younger bucks many times to literally watch it jump the fence and minutes later it get shot.

I killed the biggest buck we've ever killed on our place and I'm sure many would scold me by I honestly couldn't believe he was still walking. I knew if I passed on a good one yet again I'd never see him again. It's all good. Family place and I don't have to pay big bucks to have rules. My family absolutely loves venison and I have way more fun butchering and finding new ways to eat them (I've posted a bunch in the recipes section this year) . As my grandad always says, you can't eat the horns.

Truthfully you can never "prove" the age of a deer unless it is born and raised in a pen or collared - however with the use of trail cameras you can keep track of a buck over the years and get a really good idea of how old he most likely is -

Also guys who sign up for this type of lease know full well up front what the deal is - so they do not feel pressure as you may think - most all I have hunted with enjoy the challenge of growing big deer and understand it takes a lot of patience and self control

That puts him top 10-15 whitetails of all time, and would be the largest typical whitetail deer ever killed in the entire Southern US.

Hope he makes it, would love to see pics of it.

Absolutely. We feel zero pressure. I have years I don’t take a deer and the last one I took wasn’t the biggest I could have taken but was the one I liked the most. Age and feed is all that is require well and plenty of fun in Old Mexico

I also have a place at home that is all about fun and kids and helping other learn and enjoy. Absolutely the rule there is have fun

To be honest he may never get shot. Everyone love the fact that he is spreading his genes and really enjoy watching him. To put into perspective he should be about 220-230lbs here also

Absolute stud, and beautiful rack. I hope he spreads his genes all over! You guys have some serious restraint!

It gets surreal reading these threads. Nothing bad and not knocking anything or anyone, but still surreal to me.

Giant beasts of whitetails that may be among the biggest ever killed on LF places that no one is shooting so that they can: 1)get older and/or 2)spread their genes.

Don’t you sometimes wonder why you are investing all this hard work, money, and passing deer if you are not going to shoot the best results you are getting from all that hard work, money, and passing deer?

Don’t get me wrong - I pass lots of deer on my LF place hoping they will survive and grow. I don’t shoot a buck every year or even every other year even though I could. But I will shoot a buck when he gets to no argument age and trophy status for my area. That’s what I pass them for in the first place.

Not being allowed to shoot a 200+ inch deer would make me wonder what are we sacrificing for in the first place? So he spreads his genes? For what? To make more deer that are smaller but get older that you will someday shoot? Or a deer or two that are as big as him that you won’t shoot - so they can spread their genes and (again) make more deer that are smaller but you let get older so you will shoot them? See my point? Seems like it all becomes circular and many places have become as much zoos as they are hunting leases if the biggest deer produced are not taken. In fact, it seems like often it becomes a big point of pride NOT to shoot the biggest deer on the place even after they reach maturity. Which apparently many believe makes them a better hunter or more appreciative of big deer or more mature/further along on the hunting and conservation spectrum or whatever.... It just seems surreal to me.

Again, y’all’s money and y’all’s rules. I’m not knocking or bashing. It just wouldn’t be for me. I would never hunt a place I can’t shoot a deer that’s at least 5, over 200”, and the biggest deer on the place. I love watching deer as much as the next guy but at the end of the day I am a hunter who hunts for big deer.

I agree to a lot of this. I was excited to shoot the buck I did this year. Other than some corn these deer we hunt are mostly all natural for lack of a better term. They get mostly native pecans and acorns and it wet years lots of grass. It seems to me if you are paying that kind of money to feed them protein and such year round to grow the biggest you can shoot it. Kind of funny, but hunting and fishing used to be what all us poor rednecks did for fun and now they are both starting to become a rich man's sport.

He won’t be off limits once he hits our age rule. That rule is just that though and there are no exceptions no matter the deer. You start down a bad path once you make an exception and it’s easy to jeopardize all your hard work. Many won’t understand but to some the process and results are just as satisfying as the trigger.

I would love to take the deer and actually have mentioned to our group I think this will be his best year but I agreed to the rules and have zero issue with watching him continue on

Yeah, there are lots of things which some don't or refuse to understand.

I’m pretty sure I understand the process behind being uber-selective because the means are as important (possibly moreso) as the ends. Just like I understand the process of shooting every legal deer you see because the ends are as important (possibly moreso) as the means.

I just don’t fall at either end of the spectrum.

IMO your age rule is an unnecessary hindrance in the case of a 200” deer that’s mature. Especially if you think its his best year. I get that the process may be best 98% of the time, but there are exceptions. I liken it to a guy seeing a great bird dog outperforming every other dog he has ever seen in his life but refusing to buy it because his process is to only buy pedigreed dogs and that one isn’t. At that point the process has become self-defeating.

Really, I’m just trying to wrap my mind around not shooting a legit 200” whitetail - whatever the reason.

Well just because I think it doesn’t mean much really haha. I’m sure everyone else disagrees since just about every buck has had his best set at 7+. There are exceptions to that of course but rules don’t get broken. Once you do that everyone is looking for an exception for the next big bucks and where does that stop and at what age and score limits then? Then there is new rules to clarify that. Much better to just leave it as is and enjoy. We all have no issue at all as someone is still taking their best deer ever each year

Beautiful buck with great symmetry. What do you put his typical 10 point frame gross score at?

I can suggest the “exception” parameters though real easily: 5 years and 200 inches.

203-205 and 1-3” in deductions. Bad thing for the big framey deer is they can lose quite bit during the drying time before official scoring. Very unlikely at least right now that he could stay over 200” net for an official score

I could see the 201-205" gross(86" or so of typical tines and 115" or so of down frame) on his 10 pt frame but a few more inches of deducts(3"-5") on his typical frame than you. Which puts him just under 200" on his net typical frame. Then those 8"-9" of NT points drop him down to 190"+ or so net typical...which is huge for a 10pt with those 2 NT deducts. He looks like a 5 yr old in that one pic to me...except for the loose skin under his jaw making him look 6. I would still give him a pass as a 5 this year... no matter where he lived. They only really loose some spread and not much on the rest of the measurements after the drying period.

Oops yea you’re right he will be just over 196”. I didn’t take off 6” of NT for symmetry. He’s been darted and scored already though so not a whole lot of guessing left on him. Before that I shorted his overall gross by about 5”. I’m hoping he cleans up as he no NT until this year but likely he will just add some if past deer are any indication

Not toward bphillips, tlf, or anyone else who follows this routine -- I appreciate the like mindedness that you have going as a group and with your landowner. The issue I have is the "lease" portion of the setup doing this. I will never own 2000-4000 acres unless I hit the lottery, and that is minimum size to try this on for LF. That means I need to lease, and that's where things get dicey. I'd want a 20 year lease agreement with reasonable inflation adjustments to keep the land owner from either 1.) jacking up the price significantly once a dozen 180+ bucks are running around, or 2.) putting it out for bid once a shorter lease agreement comes to the end date.

We run 8 guys and 8000ac. Our landowner is amazing and it’s not his only place but they all require a certain level of improvement and you’re good. He doesn’t want new groups as it’s more headache for him and he wants his ranches to be top producers so last thing he wants to chance is one or two bad groups. The place had 180+ history when we took it over and we pay a premium (for Mexico) to keep from having an increase anytime soon. We still make improvements on our own that don’t just include growing deer also. We are pretty lucky

Tlew, you have a logical and valid point. It takes a special situation to make these situations work in a "lease" setting so it is certainly not realistic to attempt it for most. I think these guys know there is never a guarantee their work will continue to pay off but they likely feel good about their situation or they wouldnt be doing it.

We just reupped our lease for 6 years. Starts March 1.

I dont know why but that just kind of ruins it for me.

+1. I wasn’t going to say anything but since you did......

Only thing it changes are the guesses. Program stays the same

It’s not for everyone. For this reason people are pretty well vetted before being allowed to join and are made well aware of all the place requires.

I couldn’t have it as my only place so I have a family place at home that isn’t so in depth and hardcore about the management. Both tons of fun in their own way

Well if ya darted him I sure hope you pulled some straws off him and bring those genes back to TX

Haha no but not a bad idea

Did yall dart him just to measure him?

Some deer actually go down after their 5th year. powdr

Originally yes. There was discussion of putting him in a dmp pen with native does but not sure what the outcome of that decision was. I’m down for whatever as it’s very unlikely he would come my way anyway.

Well............one thing about it yall got some big arse deer. Giddyup

Straightest back, least paunchy, sleekest faced 7.5 year old deer I've ever seen in my lifetime....congrats

Heck of a buck. Congrats to the hunter. For the record, I would have shot that deer too.

Dang that’s a nice one

That’s a huge nice buck

Where is this ranch located and are you guys taking new members?

gotta love that red dirt

i didnt realize that was a mexico buck i hunted there for at least 30yrs maybe 31 old pard died so i left, hunting mexico is like giong back in time 50 years, great times and memorys, surely they send a cowboy out to find the sheds off that deer, also deer like that are the reason they make biggg gunns