Well as most of you know I own Krivoman Outdoors and am a Site sponsor here on TBH. The relationship with TBh has been wonderful. With the Visability that TBH gets me, I get alot of PMs and emails and text from all kinds of people asking if I like to trade for this or that for one of my blinds or feeders. One of these PMS Came from Matt Kiker. He is a guide on a North Texas Slice of paradise. By Slice I mean 3000 acres of some really sexy River bottom country and rolling hills. I told him had I known where I was, i would have swore I was on the milk river in Montana. Anyway, Matt had seen a thread where I said I love to Barter. So he Pm'd me and asked if I was interested in trading for a deer. Not knowing what they had I said sure, send me some pictures of what you got and I will let him know if I am interested. About 5 minutes later I was calling him saying I was very interested. The pictures he sent me where unlike any I had ever hunted.
Details were made for me to hunt Oct 22. But I really wanted to hunt the deer out of one of my blinds. So I met Matt in Amarillo on my way to New Mexico on my elk hunt. I took him 2 blinds to go ahead and get set out. Fast forward to Oct 22. I was loaded and headed north with more blinds. DId I mention it was 8 hours away from Georgetown? That is a really long drive for me. Plus pulling full trailer into strong headwind had my Tundra Drinking the fuel. 5 fill ups later and I was pulling into the ranch just north of Allison Texas.
My jaw dropped when I saw the ranch and the accommodations I would be staying in for the week. I had never hunted or stayed on a ranch like this. The owner has put a ton of money and passion into making this ranch a hunters dream. Well I had made it in time to make an evening hunt.
I had kinda narrowed down which deer I would like to hunt. One was a huge framed deer with drops, the other was a massive deer with Some serious tine length.
I really liked the Massive deer. Just loved his color and horn shape. But My son says I have alot of deer shaped like him. None anywhere near the size but still the shape. Here are the two I was going to target.
So Matt had set the blinds and was patterning the massive deer. On my way up I told him I was going to shift gears to the drop deer. No worries as that spot had a Krivoman Blind sitting at it as well. When I get there the wind is not right to hunt the Drop deer so we go to see if we can get a look at the big massive deer. We hunted that evening and the next morning for the Massive deer. We never laid an eye on him and still would love to see him in person. I bet he is Glorious.
On the second evening, we switched to hunt the bid framed deer with the drops. By the way, they call this Deer Fish net. Apparently last year he got tangled up in a a seine net laying near a pond. The fish net had a big pole still attached to it. They had to chase the deer down and wait for him to get tired and tangled. They were able to Cut the net off of him and he made it another year. No way he would have made it had they not rescued him last season. Here are some picture of him from the net incident.
We were sitting in his home range in a Krivo for 2 days waiting for him to show. Alot of other bucks that I could have shot showed, but really needed to see this buck. During our hunt on the second to last morning we get a walkie talking call from the ranch manager. He said that one of the ranch hands had just seen our buck in the middle of a wheat field with a bunch of other deer. This is probably 600-800 yards from where we had been hunting for 2 strait days. So we moved one of the knew Krivo's too the edge of that field where someone had planted huge cottonwoods 60+ years earlier. These trees are huge. So the blind snuggled in them quite well as there was a dead fall as well. That evening we saw my deer for the first time. He made his way to the food plot around 5 pm. There were a bunch of does in the middle of the wheat field. When he saw them, he trotted out to them and started eating. He is about 190 or so yards away. This field is probably 200 wide by 300+ yards long. We watch him for the rest of the evening. Never moved much from where he was feeding. It was too dark to see my pins on my bow, so we were going to bail out of the blind. We stood outside the blind to leave. At the time Matt said you are not going to believe this. My buck along with a bunch of other started walking right at us. We could not see detail, just that they were coming. We jumped back in and radioed ranch Manager to drive in to grab us. The buck was eating hand corn at 15 yards when he pulled up.
The next morning we decided to hunt a tree stand 200 yards off this field. This is the direction that the deer left to bed usually in the mornings. We did not feel it would be good Idea to hit that blind on the food plot in the morning since the field would probably be full of deer. I ahd a 175 plus 6 year old in on us when the walkie talky chirped again. This time he said that Fishnet was eating corn in front of the Krivo in food plot. Figures.
So that evening we got in very early. I really felt strong that this night was the night to kill him. He had eaten in from of blind 2 hunts in a row so he knew the corn was there. About 5 pm we see his rack clear the corner of the field. There were already alot do Does out in the field. Several smaller bucks had already came out in the same spot and they just ran out into the field. Fishnet hit the field and instantly turned and faced the blind. I just knew he was about to be in my lap. Then a smaller buck behind him ran out into the middle of the field and he turned to follow. The next 1hr 45 minutes are spent watching him with his head down eating wheat at 150 plus yards. This was my evening of the hunt. I was not going to be able to return this season either. So they had given me the option to shoot him with a rifle as well. So I had a silenced 243 in the blind with me. People who know me know that I only bow hunt. I have been very fortunate to have killed some really big deer with my bow. I told them that if I felt this deer was not going to come in, I would think about shooting him with a riffle. Well with about 40 minutes of light left it was clear he was not heading my way. He was 190 yards out and feeding away from me. So I decided that the 243 was gonna be used.
I was able to make a clean shot at 190 yards. The buck ran about 15 yards and hit the ground. It honestly felt kind good to use a riffle again. It has been so long that I was kinda nervous when I looked through the scope. After high fives we got out and made our way into the field. When we were about 50 yards out We realized that this deer was bigger than previously thought. A lot bigger. I have never walked up on such a deer. The body size made his horns looked smaller in pictures but there were no where near small. They were Giant.
After taking some pictures we decided the tractor with the front in loader was needed to move this dude.. I can not express how special this ranch is. The deer are first class and people are even better. Blessed to have been able to make this trade happen.
Here is the buck named Fishnet in all his Glory. Scored 232.3/8. He is also missing about 12 inches. Broke a big 9 inch tine of right G2
Now a little bit about the ranch for those that are gonna ask. I put this at the end cause I know some will not read this far and just start judging without knowing what they are talking about.
The Curtis River ranch is the name of the ranch. They have been high fenced for 11 years. There are a ton of native big deer on this ranch. The biggest is in the 250+ range. They had used DMP pens for several years to help with growing giant deer. n For those that are not aware of what these are, these are highfence pens build to hold 20 or so does and 1 buck. they usually fly the ranch and catch the does and the buck out in the wild and put them in pen to insure the best buck breads 20 does. The last time they had DPM deer was 5 years ago. That is where they believe my deer came from. They have since started a breeding operation as well with the intention of just selling breeder deer outside the ranch. Due to the CWD scare and some other regulations they decided to cut a few out in the ranch. They released and handful in every class so you will see some tagged deer running around the 3000 acres.. I told them that I was not interested in shooting a tagged deer. Even some of the ones that were realesed 2 years ago. I have no problems with anyone who wants to shoot them, I just chose not too. I am guessing there is a 70/30 split for Native to released deer. I did not see many tagged deer on my hunts but they are there.
If anyone is interested in going to this place please PM me and I will get you all hooked up. The lodge was something out a a magazine. Fishing lakes, skeet shooting stations. Amazing..
Details were made for me to hunt Oct 22. But I really wanted to hunt the deer out of one of my blinds. So I met Matt in Amarillo on my way to New Mexico on my elk hunt. I took him 2 blinds to go ahead and get set out. Fast forward to Oct 22. I was loaded and headed north with more blinds. DId I mention it was 8 hours away from Georgetown? That is a really long drive for me. Plus pulling full trailer into strong headwind had my Tundra Drinking the fuel. 5 fill ups later and I was pulling into the ranch just north of Allison Texas.
My jaw dropped when I saw the ranch and the accommodations I would be staying in for the week. I had never hunted or stayed on a ranch like this. The owner has put a ton of money and passion into making this ranch a hunters dream. Well I had made it in time to make an evening hunt.
I had kinda narrowed down which deer I would like to hunt. One was a huge framed deer with drops, the other was a massive deer with Some serious tine length.
I really liked the Massive deer. Just loved his color and horn shape. But My son says I have alot of deer shaped like him. None anywhere near the size but still the shape. Here are the two I was going to target.
So Matt had set the blinds and was patterning the massive deer. On my way up I told him I was going to shift gears to the drop deer. No worries as that spot had a Krivoman Blind sitting at it as well. When I get there the wind is not right to hunt the Drop deer so we go to see if we can get a look at the big massive deer. We hunted that evening and the next morning for the Massive deer. We never laid an eye on him and still would love to see him in person. I bet he is Glorious.
On the second evening, we switched to hunt the bid framed deer with the drops. By the way, they call this Deer Fish net. Apparently last year he got tangled up in a a seine net laying near a pond. The fish net had a big pole still attached to it. They had to chase the deer down and wait for him to get tired and tangled. They were able to Cut the net off of him and he made it another year. No way he would have made it had they not rescued him last season. Here are some picture of him from the net incident.
We were sitting in his home range in a Krivo for 2 days waiting for him to show. Alot of other bucks that I could have shot showed, but really needed to see this buck. During our hunt on the second to last morning we get a walkie talking call from the ranch manager. He said that one of the ranch hands had just seen our buck in the middle of a wheat field with a bunch of other deer. This is probably 600-800 yards from where we had been hunting for 2 strait days. So we moved one of the knew Krivo's too the edge of that field where someone had planted huge cottonwoods 60+ years earlier. These trees are huge. So the blind snuggled in them quite well as there was a dead fall as well. That evening we saw my deer for the first time. He made his way to the food plot around 5 pm. There were a bunch of does in the middle of the wheat field. When he saw them, he trotted out to them and started eating. He is about 190 or so yards away. This field is probably 200 wide by 300+ yards long. We watch him for the rest of the evening. Never moved much from where he was feeding. It was too dark to see my pins on my bow, so we were going to bail out of the blind. We stood outside the blind to leave. At the time Matt said you are not going to believe this. My buck along with a bunch of other started walking right at us. We could not see detail, just that they were coming. We jumped back in and radioed ranch Manager to drive in to grab us. The buck was eating hand corn at 15 yards when he pulled up.
The next morning we decided to hunt a tree stand 200 yards off this field. This is the direction that the deer left to bed usually in the mornings. We did not feel it would be good Idea to hit that blind on the food plot in the morning since the field would probably be full of deer. I ahd a 175 plus 6 year old in on us when the walkie talky chirped again. This time he said that Fishnet was eating corn in front of the Krivo in food plot. Figures.
So that evening we got in very early. I really felt strong that this night was the night to kill him. He had eaten in from of blind 2 hunts in a row so he knew the corn was there. About 5 pm we see his rack clear the corner of the field. There were already alot do Does out in the field. Several smaller bucks had already came out in the same spot and they just ran out into the field. Fishnet hit the field and instantly turned and faced the blind. I just knew he was about to be in my lap. Then a smaller buck behind him ran out into the middle of the field and he turned to follow. The next 1hr 45 minutes are spent watching him with his head down eating wheat at 150 plus yards. This was my evening of the hunt. I was not going to be able to return this season either. So they had given me the option to shoot him with a rifle as well. So I had a silenced 243 in the blind with me. People who know me know that I only bow hunt. I have been very fortunate to have killed some really big deer with my bow. I told them that if I felt this deer was not going to come in, I would think about shooting him with a riffle. Well with about 40 minutes of light left it was clear he was not heading my way. He was 190 yards out and feeding away from me. So I decided that the 243 was gonna be used.
I was able to make a clean shot at 190 yards. The buck ran about 15 yards and hit the ground. It honestly felt kind good to use a riffle again. It has been so long that I was kinda nervous when I looked through the scope. After high fives we got out and made our way into the field. When we were about 50 yards out We realized that this deer was bigger than previously thought. A lot bigger. I have never walked up on such a deer. The body size made his horns looked smaller in pictures but there were no where near small. They were Giant.
After taking some pictures we decided the tractor with the front in loader was needed to move this dude.. I can not express how special this ranch is. The deer are first class and people are even better. Blessed to have been able to make this trade happen.
Here is the buck named Fishnet in all his Glory. Scored 232.3/8. He is also missing about 12 inches. Broke a big 9 inch tine of right G2
Now a little bit about the ranch for those that are gonna ask. I put this at the end cause I know some will not read this far and just start judging without knowing what they are talking about.
The Curtis River ranch is the name of the ranch. They have been high fenced for 11 years. There are a ton of native big deer on this ranch. The biggest is in the 250+ range. They had used DMP pens for several years to help with growing giant deer. n For those that are not aware of what these are, these are highfence pens build to hold 20 or so does and 1 buck. they usually fly the ranch and catch the does and the buck out in the wild and put them in pen to insure the best buck breads 20 does. The last time they had DPM deer was 5 years ago. That is where they believe my deer came from. They have since started a breeding operation as well with the intention of just selling breeder deer outside the ranch. Due to the CWD scare and some other regulations they decided to cut a few out in the ranch. They released and handful in every class so you will see some tagged deer running around the 3000 acres.. I told them that I was not interested in shooting a tagged deer. Even some of the ones that were realesed 2 years ago. I have no problems with anyone who wants to shoot them, I just chose not too. I am guessing there is a 70/30 split for Native to released deer. I did not see many tagged deer on my hunts but they are there.
If anyone is interested in going to this place please PM me and I will get you all hooked up. The lodge was something out a a magazine. Fishing lakes, skeet shooting stations. Amazing..
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