I spoke to some fellas hunting on the other side of the river a few days back. The guy claims they have multiple deer in th 150-160 class and have recently seen deer estimated at 165. He claims they feed some corn and just started feeding protein. He also mentioned deer die of old age since there is not a lot of hunting pressure on the deer. Could it be that just leaving deer to fend for themselves and allowing them to mature would creat bigger deer in val verde county as well??
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We only feed corn, but we have gotten some game cam pics of bruisers in the 150+ ballpark. I can't afford free choice protein so age and rain is what I count on! The genetics are out there from what I've seen.Comment
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We only feed corn, but I put a little Record Rack in my feeder every time out there, which isn't often enough obviously. We've got some 140 inchers to maybe some 150 inchers, but I think we have some deer that die of old age as well. I just don't think they're nutrition is the greatest.Comment
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I am a firm believer that supplemental feeding improves overall health of wild deer. The healthier the deer, the larger his antlers will grow.
I do however believe that with management programs targeting 5.5 yr old bucks we still don't get to see full potential. We target 5.5 yr olds at our place and always have some screw-ups and some 3.5-4.5 yr olds are taken in the 120-135 range. These are the bucks that have the most potential to reach that 150+ mark. It's been proven too many times that some bucks will continue to grow well until their 7th year, some go a lot further than that.
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I agree...
but these guys only want to feed corn. Additionally, the bucks cruise both sides of the fence and we've let a few good ones go only to get whacked on the other side of the fence. One I'm particularly talking about is a 12 point that had split brows that I was after. Oh well.
The neighbors said they had a management plan...never saw them implementing it though. The lease rule for us, set by the family (owner), is 8 point or better is your buck. You get one mature and one cull. Well, you know what that means. Generally any mature 8 has got a serious chance of getting smoked. I screwed up last year and killed a 3.5 year old 11. Mistakes happen. I've tried to use my tag on one particular deer for the last two years and he's gotten the upper hand. He should be 6.5 or 7.5 this year. If I don't get him I let a guest, usually my GF take a mature deer. I kill the culls, freaks, etc.Comment
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Agreed that supplemental feed is good for the herd. But as you mentioned, without age and genetics In place, it's a lot of money for not much gain. Especially if your neighbors aren't on the same page. Now, if you have mature deer, with good sex ratios and have a large enough contiguous tract, then a supplemental feeding program can put you over the edge. Especially with a high fence or very large tract to help control the flow of genetics coupled with careful selective harvest. If all a person does is run a free choice protein feeder and corn feeder but nothing else, they have spent a lot and probably won't notice any gains.Comment
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Disease managemt is another concern with an intense supplemental feeding program. Especially in our area where anthrax is a concern. Rate of disease transmission in wild animals is directly related to herd density. That is, if carrying capacity is exceeded by means of supplemental feeding or otherwise, an outbreak will spread more quickly and be potentially more devastating. Just food for thought. Pun intended.Comment
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Val Verde County
Some pics from this weekend. I got really excited about the width on the first buck. But the more I study him, I'm thinking he needs another year or 2. Then I saw the 10 pointer but I think he is even younger. Honestly (and I know this is a rookie mistake) I never paid any attention to the second one because is just a small (antler) 8. But I'm really think he is my oldest buck so far. Time will tell.
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Nice looking bucks! I hardly ever make my mind up on age until I see them in hard horn, closer to season. Some of them will go from looking like a 3 yr old to looking like a 6 yr old in a few months.Originally posted by brianlg31 View Post
Unless... I can match them up with previous years' photos. I get addicted to trying to put subsequent years together of a single buck. Makes the age guess a lot more definitive.Comment
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Val Verde County
Originally posted by jheflinland View Post
This is only my second year to hunt this place, so I don't have a lot of history with them. I am working on building a file with pictures. I save every picture of every buck I have. Hopefully in another 4-5 years I can say "he's 6.5 I have pictures of him as a 2 yo 7 pointer" I actually think I do have a 2yo 7. May even be younger than 2, his body is tiny.Last edited by brianlg31; 08-15-2017, 04:28 PM.Comment
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Here is one I'm thinking about putting on the chopping block and calling a cull this year. What do y'all say on age? 3 yrs worth of photos. No real good photos of him yet this year but I think I have enough to make the call.
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Hunter are you heading out Thursday after work or friday morning? I will be headed west friday but probably not till around lunch time. It depends on what all I can get done after work, we haven't been getting off till almost 5!Comment
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Looks like we are headed out at 3am on Friday bud!Originally posted by Thegutman View Post
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We're Loma Alta bound Thursday morning. Curious to see what's on the cards and if we got any of the rain in the last few weeks. Our place is funny about missing the rain by half a mile. We hunt 5000 acres of a 14000 acre ranch and it can miss the whole ranch by less than a mile.Comment
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Looks like our place is getting some rain now. I'm really not looking forward to a normal year out there!
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