Interesting perspective on BIG wt

[CrookedArrow]

I love the podcasts from Steve Rinella aka Meat Eater. The one from last night was with a game biologist on a large low fence South Texas Ranch in Maverick County.

Some of the finds:
A WT best growing potential is at 7.5 yrs old up to 11 yrs of age

Twin fawns come from 2 different baby daddy's, not one.

Teeth aging is the best method of aging deer after the harvest.

Aging a deer in the field, on the hoof has a bunch of factors. The tarsal gland plays a significant part in aging deer. More so how high it sits on the buck.

A one yr old buck can and will grow massive antlers. This ranch had an 11 point one yr old.

Deer density and forage are the key factors in growing big antlers. Culling both does and bucks are important to management.

Interesting. It is working on this low fence ranch. The norm for harvest is low 150 to 170 and quite a few are in the 170 to 200 range.

It did not mention the ranch so it is not that I don't want to tell you. I will google the guys name later and see which ranch he is with.

[WItoTX]

Are you talking about Episode 39 from a year ago?

Generally we operate the same way in WI with several other landowners, and have found the theory discussed in the podcast to work very well for us. Remove the stress of too many competing mouths to feed, increase antler size and health of herd. In the past 10 years, some of the larger deer in the state have come from our area. Two years ago, 4th largest was harvested just down the road by a family friend.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

Link to the podcast? "Large low fence ranch in Maverick Co" makes me think the Comanche Ranch and Donnie Draeger is the biologist.

[James]

I will Check it out, love deer talk podcast. I'm hunting a low fence buck right now that we believe to be 11, his antlers are close to where they were at 6 years old.

[CrookedArrow]

Link to the podcast? "Large low fence ranch in Maverick Co" makes me think the Comanche Ranch and Donnie Draeger is the biologist.

Here you are sir

Maverick County, Texas. Steven Rinella talks with ranch manager and hog trapper Ben Binnion, along with Chris Gill and Janis Putelis from the MeatEater crew. Subjects discussed: the music of Shearwater; why Steve won't plug Janis's t-shirt company anymore; the importance of trail cams; whitetail antler potential; high-fence vs unfenced whitetail properties in Texas; buck identification; how to age a deer; the question of carrying capacity; helicopter surveys; how Texas allocates deer permits; trashy does and fecund bucks; the Founder Effect; why deer are like people; managing vs farming game; and the biodiversity of Texas whitetail country.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

I love the podcasts from Steve Rinella aka Meat Eater. The one from last night was with a game biologist on a large low fence South Texas Ranch in Maverick County.

Some of the finds:
A WT best growing potential is at 7.5 yrs old up to 11 yrs of age

Twin fawns come from 2 different baby daddy's, not one.

Teeth aging is the best method of aging deer after the harvest.

Aging a deer in the field, on the hoof has a bunch of factors. The tarsal gland plays a significant part in aging deer. More so how high it sits on the buck.

A one yr old buck can and will grow massive antlers. This ranch had an 11 point one yr old.

Deer density and forage are the key factors in growing big antlers. Culling both does and bucks are important to management.

Interesting. It is working on this low fence ranch. The norm for harvest is low 150 to 170 and quite a few are in the 170 to 200 range.

It did not mention the ranch so it is not that I don't want to tell you. I will google the guys name later and see which ranch he is with.

Never head of this Ben guy. I do know that the info of twin fawns coming from two different daddies is false. It can happen to have two offspring from two different fathers at the same time, but very rare in the wild. I also really question the whole tarsal gland deal. Never seen or heard this mentioned anywhere in any actual scientific research. Body parts don't really move around that much when you are growing...

[AntlerCollector]

Can y'all elaborate on the tarsal gland being used to age? How?

Interesting about two fawns having different daddy's.

[boh347]

Here you are sir

Maverick County, Texas. Steven Rinella talks with ranch manager and hog trapper Ben Binnion, along with Chris Gill and Janis Putelis from the MeatEater crew. Subjects discussed: the music of Shearwater; why Steve won't plug Janis's t-shirt company anymore; the importance of trail cams; whitetail antler potential; high-fence vs unfenced whitetail properties in Texas; buck identification; how to age a deer; the question of carrying capacity; helicopter surveys; how Texas allocates deer permits; trashy does and fecund bucks; the Founder Effect; why deer are like people; managing vs farming game; and the biodiversity of Texas whitetail country.

Episode 038: Maverick County, Texas. Steven Rinella talks with ranch manager and hog trapper Ben Binnion, along with Chris Gill and Janis Putelis from the MeatEater crew, let's play it! http://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-gh7pd-1962486

[WItoTX]

Never head of this Ben guy. I do know that the info of twin fawns coming from two different daddies is false. It can happen to have two offspring from two different fathers at the same time, but very rare in the wild. I also really question the whole tarsal gland deal. Never seen or heard this mentioned anywhere in any actual scientific research. Body parts don't really move around that much when you are growing...

Take a listen to the podcast. In the show notes, any research is cited with most Meateater podcasts.

[Walker]

Ive been saying this for years. "If all biologist agreed on a whitetail strategy, their ideas would be worthless in monetary value, and they are all trying to sell their ideas.,"

[mmoses]

Ive been saying this for years. "If all biologist agreed on a whitetail strategy, their ideas would be worthless in monetary value, and they are all trying to sell their ideas.,"

Very true! It can't be too simple.

[CrookedArrow]

I will state I really enjoy Steves podcasts. I am not no where close to knowledgable on managing deer, more so Monster wt in South Texas.

We can sit here and split hairs all day long and we might not establish anything. Fact of the matter is it works at lesst for this ranch.

Ben would not touch the HF and LF subject as he knows they are touchy subjects. Take it for what it's worth and listen for yourself. Don't kill the messenger.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

Just listened to a good bit of it. Ben seems like he knows what he's doing, but I still don't get the tarsal gland reference to age....

[CrookedArrow]

Just listened to a good bit of it. Ben seems like he knows what he's doing, but I still don't get the tarsal gland reference to age....

He does not give details on how he uses the gland to age. Ancient Chinese Secret?? Lol

[WItoTX]

I will state I really enjoy Steves podcasts. I am not no where close to knowledgable on managing deer, more so Monster wt in South Texas.

We can sit here and split hairs all day long and we might not establish anything. Fact of the matter is it works at lesst for this ranch.

Ben would not touch the HF and LF subject as he knows they are touchy subjects. Take it for what it's worth and listen for yourself. Don't kill the messenger.

Second that. I just finished up all his podcasts. It's a great source of information for hunting out west. I listened to the podcast the whole way out to our elk hunt two weeks ago. I also listened to his audiobook on Buffalo. While the narrator was bad, the book is awesome. I plan to buy his American Hunter book to listen to that while I get a backlog of podcasts again.

No doubt the guy has hit a part of the hunting market that has been underserved. His show is 10x better than any hunting show out there.