Re: Whitetails & Mule Deer
Thank you Steve.
By my measurements, the first four are in the upper 140's. The last one was a post-mature deer, at least 8 1/2, perhaps even older, who did not measure big, but had lots of mass.
As to how we hunt, here is an overview.
Because of the management concepts the ranches follow, we use only stand hunting, or what we call "blinds." Observation and analysis for age, score, and health, are required before pulling the trigger on anything.
This area is the South Texas brush country, near the border with Mexico. As seen in the photos above, the mesquite tree trunks are no more than 2 or 3 feet off the ground, so they are taken from "box" type blinds.
The blinds are slightly elevated a few feet off the ground as we have lots of Texas earthworms, which love to crawl into things, which is not fun in the dark in the mornings.
I do not kill them, unless they are close and not backing away, in which case they catch a 45.
All are low fence ranches following quality deer management concepts, which means shooting lots of culls and does, thus the interest in the precision shooting and quality rifles.
The top rifle was sold to a friend that wanted it. All I use anymore is the AI 308 with 175 SMK's. The combo is very accurate and effective. The AI is very reliable, which is important as this area is very dusty which can be tough on triggers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDlv2ODrVk8
We are very aggressive on controlling the feral pigs. The policy is to shoot on sight. The meat is excellent.
The Quality Deer Management Association has good info for those who are interested.
The key to quality deer management is passing on the nice bucks until they are fully mature, and allowing them the maximum time to reproduce, while minimizing the time the culls can reproduce.
So we do not shoot the nice deer until they are at least 6 1/2 or preferably 7 1/2 years old. This philosophy means I have taken a few nice deer, and lots of culls and does.
http://www.qdma.com/
The book Observing and Evaluating Whitetails is a very good resource, and full of some great deer photos:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Observing-Evaluating-Whitetails-Dave-Richards/dp/0974778001
" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Observing and Evaluating Whitetails</a>
On a bit of a sad note, the main ranch where I hunt is having high fence put up around 12,000 acres as we speak because of poaching problems and a couple of neighbors who shoot the nice deer when they are young, and pass on the culls and does, which is exactly backwards of managing for quality deer.
In general, I am not a fan of high fence, but having witnessed the problems with the neighbors and poachers, it should benefit the deer, which gives me a somewhat different perspective than I had previously - at least in this context.
Congratulations on your beautiful deer, and good luck this season.
