Tuffbroadhead

I'm going to try and explain the management program that is in place on our lease and the surrounding leases as well, this is the same program that is used on many of the Big South Texas ranches that do commercial hunting and guiding.

First off you get the assitance of the state and hire a state biologist to help in getting things going in the right direction. Start off by doing a spotlight sensus and helo servey's to get and idea on just how many doe need to be harvested to get the numbers under control you want your number to be 1 to 1, or 1 buck for every 2 does. Once you get that balance you can concentrate on getting rid of the Trash deer that need to go because of undesired genetic traits , but our biologists tell us not to harvest any cull animal till it's at least 3.5 years old. Target cull animals are any 3.5 year old bucks that are under 8 points, they are considered to be geneneticlly flawed.. does need to be harvested every year starting with doe's that are not breeding and are dry...

Once you get all that done, (it takes a few years) then you will start to see a big difference in your area deer herd, you will see all the fruits of your labor. NOW COMES THE HARD PART!!! you can only harvest trophy animals that are 5.5 or older!! Once they reach that age they will be close to topping out in the headgear dept. it will be normal to see Management deer like slick horned eight points that will score over 130 P/Y if its a 5.5 year old slick eight it need to be harvested and removed from the herd..


Now looking back 5-6 years you will see how it all worked with that big 150 plus P/Y on your wall....

Dang , I almost forgot about foodplot management and range managemnt, thats another story...LOL!! hope this help to explain the trash deer remark...

zak123

Oh, ok thanks. I thought that by ''trash deer'' you meant that it was small!

GSPsnFORDs

Not trying to be nosey or anything but is the lease you're in pricey? Or is more like a membership type of thing?Just curious b/c it seems like you guys are doing it right!

TXhighrack

I dont want to speak for Tuffbroadhead but all the leases in south Texas, are generally a group of guys on a mulitthousand acre ranch. Having 5 guys on a 10,000 acre ranch is common. These leases are not clubs like you would find in the southern states. The only hunting clubs that you will find in Texas are in east Texas, which most of that is owned by lumber companies. Leases in south Texas generally run $2,000-$15,000+ per person and vary greatly from ranch to ranch.

Tuffbroadhead

It's actually not that bad I pay 1250.00 a year, we have have rancher thats not worried about making alot of money from his hunters... I have year round access of the property and come and go when I please, like highrack said you dont find to many hunting clubs in Texas, and he hit the nail on the head with what he said...

datamax

How many does has that "inferior" buck bred by the time you figure out he isn't "trophy" quality ?

jsasker

I would think that by age 2.5 you would be able to tell what a certain buck could be in a couple years--maybe not.

Tuffbroadhead

If your buck to doe numbers are close, you might be suprised to find out that the answer is not that many, when your buck and doe ratios are close the mature dominate bucks do most of the breeding...running off the younger bucks, but In the same instance I have seen 4.5 year old slick eights change drastically in just one more year, at age five that deer might develop stickers, or drops, sometimes it's a hard judgement to make..