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ANYONE still trying to grow Huge NATIVE Low Fence Whitetails???

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    ANYONE still trying to grow Huge NATIVE Low Fence Whitetails???

    Or is it a thing of the past? I've noticed more and more huge whitetails that are posted on social media or TBH are high fence introduced genetics. Now before anyone gets their panties wound up I have no issues with high fence deer, heck I've hunted them. But to me personally a low fence giant is the cream of the crop...
    And I realize there's a huge difference in growing native and introduced genetic high fence deer.
    My question is who out there is still trying to grow em the "hard" way.... letting their deer reach full potential before harvest even if it means taking that chance he'll jump the fence and be hammered. What steps are you taking, improvements to your habitat, feed, water, age??
    And I realize the term "huge" is relative to certain areas, my 160 could be someone else's 140 all depending on geographical location...

    I'll give a little insight on one of my low fence places. 3300 acres with 3 trophy hunters, second year on protien and property so just now getting a feel for what are deer are doing... we've added 2 ponds and fixed a broken windmill to help supply more water across the ranch. We now have a protein station every 250 acres to help supplement their diet. All bucks that are caught on trailcams are cataloged and aged as best as we can, and our harvest age for trophies is 6/7.
    I've seen a huge jump in our deer just in the last 2 years. Some growing 15 to 30 inches. Hopefully in 2 more years we'll be on fire.

    #2
    Your goals and plans seem to fall right in line with ours. We have just shy of 3000 acres outside of Freer. My uncle owns 700 acres to our West and a good friend owns a 1400 acre pasture to our North. All low fenced. We all work together and implement the same practices. Share pics, discuss deer and try to make the best decisions we can on taking out inferior deer and keeping our total numbers in check. We all got our places in 2006, and they were shot out pretty hard. We feed cottonseed very heavily from Jan. - Sept. and are going to begin Double Down in January. (Not looking to debate that feed. I’ve done a ton of research and have several ranchers I know that are using it. We are testing the waters this year.) We do not hunt any of our top end deer until they are at least 6. However, many make it to 7+ and continue to add inches. In the last 5 years we have taken 8 deer over 160” between the three ranches. One of which was a 203” my uncle killed this past year that we believe was 9.5+ years old. Feel free to shoot me a message if you ever wanna talk low fence deer/practices etc. I love talking to folks with the same goals as us and learning new tricks of the trade!

    Comment


      #3
      I am!

      My farm in La. is game fenced and we have a couple of game fenced pastures in the brush country. But my largest property is partially game fenced but also has several miles of low fence. Yep, we lose a few bucks including a mid 180's 9 pt last year. But our neighbors are cool, on same page and program as us, and we all compare notes on the better bucks we know cross property lines.

      We use the Vince Lombardi approach....fanatical attention to the basics. Food, water, age, herd, habitat.

      Everything I am involved in is only native genetics with no TTT, DMP, or introduction of any kind.

      It is interesting in that the low fenced pasture is adjacent to my high fenced pasture. I can speak with a lot of experience to the differences.
      Last edited by elgato; 10-07-2018, 03:30 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        We are the same way. 4 Sections with 4 hunters not hunted on 3 sides. The other side is frustrating as it seems 130"+ deer are shot regardless of age. We are able to get the deer on our north end to 6 and we should be in great shape with our age classes going into the next two years if we can escape another drought. Its just frustrating that really the lower 1/3 of our place is almost worthless in our grand scheme of managing other than just being a type of buffer with neighbors. All native genetics for us. Our overall goal is to try and raise 160"+ and 6 year old native bucks (A lofty goal in West Texas). Our ranch size is limiting for us but we do what we can.
        Last edited by txwhitetail; 10-07-2018, 07:07 PM.

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          #5
          Originally posted by freerhunter16 View Post
          Your goals and plans seem to fall right in line with ours. We have just shy of 3000 acres outside of Freer. My uncle owns 700 acres to our West and a good friend owns a 1400 acre pasture to our North. All low fenced. We all work together and implement the same practices. Share pics, discuss deer and try to make the best decisions we can on taking out inferior deer and keeping our total numbers in check. We all got our places in 2006, and they were shot out pretty hard. We feed cottonseed very heavily from Jan. - Sept. and are going to begin Double Down in January. (Not looking to debate that feed. I’ve done a ton of research and have several ranchers I know that are using it. We are testing the waters this year.) We do not hunt any of our top end deer until they are at least 6. However, many make it to 7+ and continue to add inches. In the last 5 years we have taken 8 deer over 160” between the three ranches. One of which was a 203” my uncle killed this past year that we believe was 9.5+ years old. Feel free to shoot me a message if you ever wanna talk low fence deer/practices etc. I love talking to folks with the same goals as us and learning new tricks of the trade!

          Sound like you guys are almost directly in line with us . And your hard work is paying off tremendously to say the least!! We actually have a scenario close to what you guys have, our east and south fence is completely fenced off so in all reality we only have 2 LF neighbors.
          Our west neighbor is a 4k acre ranch with 2 trophy hunters, both young but beyond their years in patience trying to grow young deer, and are on the exact same page we are at letting our good deer roll to 6/7. They dont feed protein but feed the heck out of Cotton Seed.
          Our other neighbor to the NW and North have a 5k acre place with 5 trophy hunters, they feed protein as well but how much total a year I do not know. They are also on the same plan as we are on the killing of mature deer, ( they did make a mistake last year and shot a 5 yr old in the 50s but it happens to the best of us), so the sky should honestly be our limit. So in all we are managing together around 12k acres.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by elgato View Post
            I am!

            My farm in La. is game fenced and we have a couple of game fenced pastures in the brush country. But my largest property is partially game fenced but also has several miles of low fence. Yep, we lose a few bucks including a mid 180's 9 pt last year. But our neighbors are cool, on same page and program as us, and we all compare notes on the better bucks we know cross property lines.

            We use the Vince Lombardi approach....fanatical attention to the basics. Food, water, age, herd, habitat.

            Everything I am involved in is only native genetics with no TTT, DMP, or introduction of any kind.

            It is interesting in that the low fenced pasture is adjacent to my high fenced pasture. I can speak with a lot of experience to the differences.
            Rusty I had no idea you were trying to grow LF deer. Your management practices are second to none, and I would really enjoy if you could enlighten me with some of the differences of your low and high fence pastures. Especially some of the struggles you may have faced on your LF side.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by txwhitetail View Post
              We are the same way. 4 Sections with 4 hunters not hunted on 3 sides. The other side is frustrating as it seems 130"+ deer are shot regardless of age. We are able to get the deer on our north end to 6 and we should be in great shape with our age classes going into the next two years if we can escape another drought. Its just frustrating that really the lower 1/3 of our place is almost worthless in our grand scheme of managing other than just being a type of buffer with neighbors. All native genetics for us. Our overall goal is to try and raise 160"+ and 6 year old native bucks (A lofty goal in West Texas). Our ranch size is limiting for us but we do what we can.
              Very frustrating scenario, and I've hunted a ranch just as you've described. Unfortunately I was hunting one of the buffer pastures ... ugh. What was amazing to me was if you went into the middle of the ranch were all the pastures were protected how much difference it made in the deer.

              Comment


                #8
                We have a place in the hill country where we grow low fence all natural deer. It's 1700 acres with 6 hunters. We have protein feeders in most pastures (about 1 for every 200 acres). A lot of our good deer do get shot across the fence but we wait until they have peaked at 5 or 6. 2 years ago we killed a 176 11 point and several deer in the 160s, this year our best buck is right around 150.

                Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Mexico View Post
                  Rusty I had no idea you were trying to grow LF deer. Your management practices are second to none, and I would really enjoy if you could enlighten me with some of the differences of your low and high fence pastures. Especially some of the struggles you may have faced on your LF side.
                  Actually have far more experience lf vs hf. Decades. Have faced all the typical problems everyone else has struggled with. That said we have grown one of the biggest net typicals [ if not the biggest ] ever in Mexico,one of the widest net typicals in the world as well as a bunch of other B&C bucks lf.

                  Over time though it became apparent we were becoming a feeder program for all the ranches around us and unfortunately broke from our original goals and started building fence.I must say that it has paid off big time and while resistant at first it has proven to be a great decision.

                  For our lf pasture roughly 3 sides of it are fenced with it open to a good friends lf ranch leased by quality hunters. The scale is big enough to be effective for both ranches. Interestingly before some of the fence was built on that pasture we had a 5000 acre 'buffer' pasture . The neighbors hunted our fence line and all the classic problems. We only took one nice buck off it until we finally built fence around 3 sides of it. Now it is outstanding after only 4 yrs though still open to the rest of the lf pasture.

                  Our mgt. practices are identical on all properties now. Quality is consistent across hf and lf. The hf properties do carry a slightly higher density of bucks. The biggest difference I see is that the lf pasture is grazed by cattle with no cattle on hf. Year in year out I think that makes a difference.

                  The issue is really simple. To grow the best bucks all the bucks with potential have to have the opportunity to age on quality nutrition. Has nothing to do with wire. If bucks are being shot prematurely it compromises.

                  I'll also add that there is absolutely no difference in the quality of the hunt ,nor the challenge of chasing a specific buck in our country lf vs hf. None.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by TXhoghunter94 View Post
                    We have a place in the hill country where we grow low fence all natural deer. It's 1700 acres with 6 hunters. We have protein feeders in most pastures (about 1 for every 200 acres). A lot of our good deer do get shot across the fence but we wait until they have peaked at 5 or 6. 2 years ago we killed a 176 11 point and several deer in the 160s, this year our best buck is right around 150.

                    Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
                    Amazing hill country deer to say the least! Wow! I'm wondering why the decline this year though? Drought? Sounds like for several years you guys were killing very top end hill country bucks!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Well I am no where near the level of you fellows. The little Hill Country lease that we are on is somewhat limited in what it can produce. We do feed lots of protein and we also let the young ones walk. We are strictly bow hunting and try to let the bucks get to at least 4 1/2 before releasing an arrow. The oldest bucks that we have taken were somewhere in the 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 range. I know there are a few big deer in the Harper area but for the most part it is more of a target rich environment more than a trophy type of place. Still it is painfully to watch a 3 1/2 year old 10 point that scores 125 jump the fence and then you hear a gun shot shortly after. I have no problem if someone wants to shot a HF deer but I respect a 140 inch LF deer way more than I do a 200 inch HF one.

                      -john

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by elgato View Post
                        Actually have far more experience lf vs hf. Decades. Have faced all the typical problems everyone else has struggled with. That said we have grown one of the biggest net typicals [ if not the biggest ] ever in Mexico,one of the widest net typicals in the world as well as a bunch of other B&C bucks lf.

                        Over time though it became apparent we were becoming a feeder program for all the ranches around us and unfortunately broke from our original goals and started building fence.I must say that it has paid off big time and while resistant at first it has proven to be a great decision.

                        For our lf pasture roughly 3 sides of it are fenced with it open to a good friends lf ranch leased by quality hunters. The scale is big enough to be effective for both ranches. Interestingly before some of the fence was built on that pasture we had a 5000 acre 'buffer' pasture . The neighbors hunted our fence line and all the classic problems. We only took one nice buck off it until we finally built fence around 3 sides of it. Now it is outstanding after only 4 yrs though still open to the rest of the lf pasture.

                        Our mgt. practices are identical on all properties now. Quality is consistent across hf and lf. The hf properties do carry a slightly higher density of bucks. The biggest difference I see is that the lf pasture is grazed by cattle with no cattle on hf. Year in year out I think that makes a difference.

                        The issue is really simple. To grow the best bucks all the bucks with potential have to have the opportunity to age on quality nutrition. Has nothing to do with wire. If bucks are being shot prematurely it compromises.

                        I'll also add that there is absolutely no difference in the quality of the hunt ,nor the challenge of chasing a specific buck in our country lf vs hf. None.
                        Absolutely agree it's all about letting them age and supplementing their nutrition. Doesn't matter if its HF or LF the deer are going to react the same, only disagreement I might add is the level of hunting for me is somewhat elevated in LF. Not each deer is named and you always have that chance a "surprise" buck might show that no one has ever seen.. I realize though this can also be accomplished through a large HF ranch.

                        Also its very eye opening that you had such a large buffer pasture (5k acres) and it didn't seem to help that much. Just goes to show that one bad neighbor can do a ton of harm!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          We actually had a neighbor that high fenced his ranch and left 50 acres outside the fence surrounded by us on 3 sides. He built an irrigated food plot, protein feeder , and heavily corned. Put a pop up blind in the middle and darted the bucks putting them inside his fence .That practice alone had a material impact on a very large area.

                          We get surprise bucks on all the pastures every year. There are also bucks that disappear for a couple years , given up for dead then reappear. I see hunting pressure, hf or lf a choice excepting of course perimeter pressure which can only be encouraged thru cooperatives.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by TX_Hoghunter View Post
                            Well I am no where near the level of you fellows. The little Hill Country lease that we are on is somewhat limited in what it can produce. We do feed lots of protein and we also let the young ones walk. We are strictly bow hunting and try to let the bucks get to at least 4 1/2 before releasing an arrow. The oldest bucks that we have taken were somewhere in the 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 range. I know there are a few big deer in the Harper area but for the most part it is more of a target rich environment more than a trophy type of place. Still it is painfully to watch a 3 1/2 year old 10 point that scores 125 jump the fence and then you hear a gun shot shortly after. I have no problem if someone wants to shot a HF deer but I respect a 140 inch LF deer way more than I do a 200 inch HF one.

                            -john
                            Yea but YOU'RE not the one killing the 3.5 yr old deer. Sounds to me like y'all are doing everything in your power that you can do to grow big hill country bucks, and that's all you can do. Keep up the good work and it'll pay off!

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I'm not wild about the genetics stuff, but we have 930 acres high fenced, and it's that way because the neighbors reneged on the wildlife cooperative from the word go. It also allowed us to protein feed successfully, which, in our area, is absolutely necessary to grow big deer.

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