Record Texas Buck

[Art Eatman]

Remington got its rifle name from the Texas sendero. Generally, jeep-trail roadways through the brush so you can get out and check windmills, livestock, and access around the pastures. There is generally a fenceline road so it can be checked halfway regularly--whether high fence or four-strand barbed wire or sheep/goat wire.

I mentioned the screw worm fly, earlier. It lays its eggs in any open wound, even a mere scratch. After hatching, the larva begin eating. Eradication was by sterilization of male flies via radiation. Millions of sterile males were dropped from airplanes all across Texas. This began in the early 1950s.

Prior to then, livestock losses were a problem. All during the war, I helped my grandfather doctor the calves; the umbilical cord...Dehorning and castration also led to screw worm infestations. I lost a registered Hereford calf to the (bleep) things in 1949. (Nowadays, good old Peerless Screw Worm Killer is a "hazardous substance".)

And any deer that even merely got a scratch was a dead deer.

The screw worm fly was the ultimate predator, with no respect for man or any wild or domestic animal...

 

[ZeroJunk]

I'd just rather have the meat from a good younger buck or fat doe.

There is another side to that coin in many parts of the country. In this area I can literally kill a deer of some sort within a half hour after daylight on the opening day. If not for trying to get a good buck there would not be much to hunting.

Beautiful Texas buck BTW.

 

[AKElroy]

Until you drop naked from a tree onto the back of your prey you have absolutely no business commenting on how I hunt.

The tree is cheating.

 

[nmlongbow]

That buck has a huge NT rack!

The most interesting and surprising part of the father and son holding 1st and 2nd place is that they took these animals for themselves instead of letting a paying hunter pay the big $$.

This is just another high fence operation and these bucks likely have a good bit of science behind those racks. What are the odds of the 2 biggest bucks coming off the same small ranch without some help?

 

[FLAvalanche]

Don't take it personally that other people have different hunting ethics than you do, and voice their opinions freely.

Sorry but I'm tired of people telling me what I do is wrong and isn't "sporting". I don't comment on their method of hunting. I don't tell them what they're doing is wrong and isn't sporting. I don't look down my nose at them.

And I'll also voice my opinion accordingly.

 

[Art Eatman]

XD, always remember that the primary purpose of a high fence is to keep other deer out. You improve a pasture via reintroduction of more native vegetation and less introduced vegetation, improve the water supply, and you create a smorgasbord for every other deer in the county to come to dinner. Gotta control the numbers to maintain the habitat. The high fence lets you control the population density. For a given area, regardless of size, control of any sort of herbivorous herd relies on either a fence or predation. Since there's no significant predation...

You don't need genetic modification to have big bucks. Low density, good food supply and a control on which bucks get shot lets big young bucks become Omigawd fully-mature bucks.

Looks to me (to some extent) that genetic modification for deer works sorta the same way as it has for pulpwood pine: Bigger, faster. IOW, "bragging rights" horns on younger deer than natural process would allow. Just guessing, of course.

 

[kyle1974]

it's primarily about the age.... if you don't let the deer get old, you will rarely shoot big deer.

I bet there are places all over the country that have the potential to have huge deer, but the vast majority of the bucks are shot before they are 2 years old. it's a shame.

 

[ZeroJunk]

IMO, there is a lot of genetic variation within the species from one part of the continent to another. Even within a state.

N.C. deer for instance have hundreds of thousands of acres of soybeans and grain to munch on yet they seldom get past 160 inches. They aren't all killed young. I have seen some deer get up toward 160 and then start going backwards here, and I thought I was feeding them pretty good. Saskatchewan deer can go 300 pounds, yet it would be hard to find anything in their diet there to explain it. Some think body temperature explains it with a heavy body in Fl. being a negative and a heavy body in Canada being a positive thing.

Although there is no doubt that food source and age are part of it, I just don't believe it's all of it.

 

[Justin Holder]

I'll believe that's a wild 100% natural deer when my poo turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet!

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

it's primarily about the age.... if you don't let the deer get old, you will rarely shoot big deer.

I bet there are places all over the country that have the potential to have huge deer, but the vast majority of the bucks are shot before they are 2 years old. it's a shame

Kyle, some of the biggest bucks in the country come from right here in Illinois, yet the average buck killed here is 2.5!!! You see a 5 year old buck here, you have seen a RARE animal.

 

[wombat13]

IMO, there is a lot of genetic variation within the species from one part of the continent to another. Even within a state.

N.C. deer for instance have hundreds of thousands of acres of soybeans and grain to munch on yet they seldom get past 160 inches. They aren't all killed young. I have seen some deer get up toward 160 and then start going backwards here, and I thought I was feeding them pretty good. Saskatchewan deer can go 300 pounds, yet it would be hard to find anything in their diet there to explain it. Some think body temperature explains it with a heavy body in Fl. being a negative and a heavy body in Canada being a positive thing.

Although there is no doubt that food source and age are part of it, I just don't believe it's all of it.

Yes, there is considerable genetic variation in U.S. whitetails. Here is a little reading you might find interesting:

http://www.whitetailsunlimited.com/i/p/bk_distribution.pdf

 

[buck460XVR]

it's primarily about the age.... if you don't let the deer get old, you will rarely shoot big deer.

It's also about nutrition. It takes lots of minerals to make a rack like that, minerals that naturally in many places are not available in enough quantity for bucks to make their potential. Also in nature, big bucks like that spend the majority of their time during the season of plenty chasing does and defending their territory instead of eating. Come the season of little, they suffer. Feeders and supplemental feeding help these bruins recover after the breeding season so they start growing next years antlers without being stressed. In nature, racks like that one are rare, because of available food, minerals, breeding activity and weather. Nowadays with supplemental feeding and management these types of deer are becoming more common, thus the reason two monsters came from the same ranch...yes genetics played a part, but so did the feed and management. Without it, the odds of one of those deer, much less two, anywhere, would be virtually nil.

I bet there are places all over the country that have the potential to have huge deer, but the vast majority of the bucks are shot before they are 2 years old. it's a shame.

Very true, especially with supplemental feeding and managing populations and age so bucks with good genetics can reach their potential. This really isn't about feeders or baiting...it's about money. In order to raise deer like this or to have others raise them for you to shoot, high fence or no fence, it takes money. It used to be, when deer weren't fed and predators and hungry humans killed every one they could(the younger, the better eating), only the best of hunters or the luckiest guy in the county got trophy deer. Now, it only takes a fat wallet to shoot a big buck.

 

[kyle1974]

just imagine how big those deer in illinois would be if they lived to be 5 or 6!

yes, it's also about food, nutrition genetics... everything. You can't just put up a fence and expect to have 300 inch deer in a few years. my lease has been high fenced for 30 something years, and we've never killed a 300 inch deer off it. I think the biggest that has been killed is about 215. Of course, there is no breeding, no genetic manipulation other than culling/managing, etc.

There is a video of that deer that shows it from 2 years to 7 years. you can see how the antlers progress according to how much rainfall (i.e. how high the grass is) from year to year.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

Kyle, whenever you need a couple of management doe hunts done gimmi a yell. Be more than happy to assist. I rarely hunt here in Illinois since I've lived here. Too many hoops to jump through getting your tags and such. I miss PA!!!!!!! And Tn!!!!! I love living primarily on wild game and hunt for meat. I have yet to see a rack even make good soup!!! Got plenty hanging on the wall from my youth and could care less about racks. Just always looking for a good meat hunt.

 

[nmlongbow]

Art,

Don't fool yourself. The high fence might be used to keep other animals out (especially predators) but the main reason is to grow big deer and charge people to hunt an area where the animals can't escape.

I'm sure the landowners spend a lot of money feeding and watering these deer. They surely don't want someone else shooting these animals after that investment.

It's not that different than cattle ranching and it usually pays more.

 

[HGUNHNTR]

Sorry but I'm tired of people telling me what I do is wrong and isn't "sporting". I don't comment on their method of hunting. I don't tell them what they're doing is wrong and isn't sporting. I don't look down my nose at them.

And I'll also voice my opinion accordingly.

That blade cuts both ways, the opportuniyt to have civil discourse it what this forum is all about.

 

[Ike R]

Too put it respectfully as I once said to a fellow FFA member from Delaware at National Convention 12 years ago, "The County I hunt in down in Texas is bigger than your whole state, yal come on down and hunt sometimes"

He did my freshman year of college, brought his Dad with him for a week, we went to Bandara, Texas. Didn't see any deer we shot 4 emu, two Javalina, a trophy class black buck and a nice boar hog. Niether could believe the density of the thickets down there, or the fact that the Hunting club I was a member of had over 14 thousand acres, 10 different Lodges, and that all of the water on it was from huge Stock tanks primed by windmills. We didn't hunt on feeders, the year was dry so we hunted the stock tanks and shot them as they came to water, though we where feeding them in other places.