gregrn43

David Morris is a very knowledgeable whitetail hunter. I have read his articles from many years back in North American Whitetail. I have one of his books, I believe he is the real deal when it comes to whitetails. South Texas is known for its giant bucks and he has a few thousands acres there to hunt on. Those deer have top quality food and he lets them get the age on them before he shoots one. It would be nice to be in his shoes that much if for sure. I plant 5 acres in food plots every year for the last 5 years. We have noticed a difference in the size of bucks we kill, but it gets expensive to do. Dont blame him for his success, if I could I would do the same.

Father Forkhorn

I enjoy his show--and Dave himself--a lot. I see at the core a man whose utterly serious about deer hunting and willing and able to sink a lot of time, effort, and resources into it. It's not high fence and generally respectful of fair chase, though there might be some specifics that are questionable.

That said, it's completely different than my hunting world. Does that mean it's any better? No--and I think Dave Morris would agree with me. He wrote an excellent book that uses as a guiding principle that a trophy deer is an abnormally big racked deer FROM THE PLACE YOU WERE HUNTING. To paraphrase, it's not fair to say a 160 from Georgia isn't a trophy while a 170 from Kansas (my home state) is a trophy. It's all relative. A 170 here is still excellent, but a 160 from a southern state is a lot better--a whole lot better.

In any case, instead of getting jealous, realize that the 150 you nailed on a piece of unmanaged, pressured land is just as impressive as the monsters that Morris shoots on his masterpiece of deer management. Any hunter can be a trophy hunter if he remembers the principle--and you can and should be just as pumped about your deer as Morris is of his.

texas8point

you can do that on a high fence Deer Farm.

ipscshooter

You can do what on a high fence Deer Farm?

hatracked

Likewise but I have to say I would have rather not been gifted a head of a buck I coulda killed.

I have access to some of the best trophy ground in this state. For the most part all I have to do is grab the bow or rifle and go hunt when I want. I very rarely take advantage of this opportunity. In fact I have never shot a deer on either of the the lands I speak of. Two reasons for this. One I am a guide and I do understand the value in each of these animals to my clients. Two I do not care to hunt under a situation where a buck that may be a trophy to me lands me in hot water with the owner over some rule. The cloud of a management plan steals from enjoyment in hunting. So I hunt public ground 99% of the time where ultimately my hunting satisfaction boils down to me and the woods.

All that said I have a solid respect for people with enough restraint to manage trophy deer. I also have some solid respect for people willing to up the ante on their own hunting to be a part of such grounds. It is easy to become envious of a place that is super successful and the folks that hunt it. But, you really have to go to the show to be able to sit here and give an accurate representation of just how hard the hunt is, just how much goes into it being that good, and how lucky some folks are to be able to manage a whitetail deer herd like David Morris does.

My hats off to them.

PS I also understand cashing in on the commercial opportunity there. There isn't a sport out there that doesnt cash in on its stars endorsements.

John Deer

Why would you single out David Morris and the El Cazador Ranch when almost all the shows that are on TV promote QDMA? If you don't believe in QDMA then you have the right NOT to practice it. But if he has the means and wants to grow big mature whitetails and not shoot them until he determines they are mature he HAS THE RIGHT to do that as well. Just because it's unrealistic to you doesn't mean that it's not hunting. If you had a piece of property and the time, money, and desire to plant food plots, use supplemental feed, and install mineral sites to increase the health of your deer herd and perhaps grow larger whitetail bucks why would you not do it? And have you ever even been to South Texas? If you had you would realize that there are very few if any trees big enough to put a stand in and it is the standard way of hunting down there to use box blinds or tripod stands in the center and cut lanes or senderos like spokes on a wheele so you can see through the mesquite brush. Otherwise you'd never be able to see these deer.

Where I hunt here in Oklahoma I realize that the chance of me shooting a buck like they shoot at the El Cazadore is really slim. But that has to do with the size of property I hunt, the nutrition the deer get on my property or the surrounding properties, the age that the average deer will live to before he's killed, and so on....... Just because he's done his homework and put forth the effort doesn't mean he's not a hunter like the rest of us. He's just able to enjoy the fruits of his labor as you can, maybe not to that level like myself because the factors I just mentioned aren't as favorable in your area as they are on his south Texas ranch. But don't cast stones at a man who's done things right and is now reaping the benefits of it. Sure he's promoting Tecomate seed blends because it's his livelyhood but that doesn't make him any less of a hunter either.

Dbenrud261

it sounds like most of you are mad from a point on the first page... will not have the money to do something like that. Most must not realize how much of a great marketing tool this is for products. So throw out the people who are jealous and want to smite him for using QDM which you all should use. Lets say you see what they are doing, try to start it up in your hunting area, and then you start seeing bigger deer.

idiots out there who use the if it's brown it's down, think about it. If you want meat, there are many many does out there. If you use QDM in your area, shoot that 2 1/2 yr old 6 point, cause hes not helping.

stop hating and get out in the field, put in some time scouting and you should see results.

rheannon2001

There is nothing wrong with having a QMD operation if you have the time and the money, however I'm not terribly impressed with the hunting techniqes used at El Cazador. It's kind of like fishing for trout in a swimming pool. Is it really a trophy when the animals are artifically fed nutrients year round then they remove the feeders right before the Hunter(?) shows up? That's not really hunting any more than shooting pheasants on a game farm. It's a shooting sport, there is little or no skill required to harvest a large deer frrom a year round blind the size of a small barn. Am I jealous of that ... hardly, I don't consider this hunting at all, it's no more of a challenge than hunting for cows on a cattle ranch. I think it diminishes the true nature of our sport when you can essentially buy a buck instead of really going after one in a fair chase hunt. Call it what you want but it is not hunting in my book.

ipscshooter

Based on what you've said, I'm not sure you've ever seen the show.

DOE MASTER

my thoughts exactly these shows do not depict real hunting,they are disgusting to watch and are definetly ruining our sport