The Other White Meat

The seasons opens here in east Texas Nov 7. Youth weekend was this past weekend but I did not hear of any local kills. Does can be taken Nov 7-29 without a permit. Limit 2 bucks and 2 does. Out in the hill country and west Texas you can kill 3 bucks. This is the first year in east Texas with the new buck rule of a 13" spread plus spikes and 3 points. Our lease, as this was their first year put in a no doe kill rule. Of course they did this without consulting any of the wildlife agents about buck doe ratios in our county.

The season opens here in East Texas Nov 7. Does can be killed without a permit Nov 7-29. Our county and most of east Texas is 2 bucks and 2 does. Our lease did not apply for doe permits but could of gotten some with their acerage, They (the lease) also put in a no doe kill rule for this year. They claim this is their first year and wanted to see what is out there. Most of east Texas has too many does but most of the old timers will not kill them thinking they are preserving the deer herd.

No closed season on hogs.

Of course by the time I retype the other post finally shows uo.

Uncle Doug:

 Of course they did this without consulting any of the wildlife agents about buck doe ratios in our county.

 Uncle Doug,

    MIght want to talk things over with some of the folks in your lease. It's not to late. Been doing the deer management thing even before they called it that . And ya'll need to take them does. I'm telling you that is so important to the herd. You will have bigger deer, better deer, and believe it or not, more deer in the end of a few years.

   For we've delt with folks, who thought like many , that if you kill the does, you are hurting the herds. But that is so much wrong. IF you do it right ....  Management is what it's all about. Keeping the ratio as close to perfect as possible. And many of them now, will tell you that taking the does is the BEST thing they have ever done. Don't mean you've got to kill every one in sight . Just thin them out ......

  Taking the cull bucks is also a plus, got to get them genes out of the herds.  There are several really big bucks, that I will not shoot just so they will pass on the genes that they have. I know there is many places that can not be done. But if you can control your members to really do the right thing, no telling what ya'll will have in years to come.

   Another note, if you have just one person in a club / lease that don't go along with rules of management, it can sure mess things up for the whole battle plan. Everybody has to do their part .....

   There is a whole bunch of information on the web about Quality Deer Management, get a chance, give it reading ..

 ........ two guns >>>>>

When I got on this lease I though this friend of mine was the one that set every thing up. Turns out it is another guy running the lease. Good fellow, just does not know much about deer management. I missed their meeting they had as I was working that night.

My great-uncle now 2 uncles has run the same lease in east Texas for over 50 years. I remember hunting on it as a kid. Part of it is the old family homestead. I was on it for about 10 years when my boys were teens. Got off of it when they moved out. It is about 75 miles from me now.I may have to get back on it next year. Not that they were any better at management but they knew deer being raised on the place.

Got on this new lease this year as it was only 15 miles from the house. I guess it will depend on how the season goes on if I will be back next year. I still hope to draw some deer into the back of my place next to the wildlife refuge. The buck buster food plot looks good. It is 8-10 inches tall now. I fenced it off with a 28" high cattle panel to keep the hogs out of it. Most of it was with the 4 inch square panel and has kept most of the hogs out of it. I did use one piece of regular cattle panel and some of the piglets must be squeezing through to get inside the fenced in area as it is mashed down in a couple of areas. I have not seen any deer tracks inside of the fence area and so many hog tracks outside to tell.

Still very wet with most of last weeks rain still draining off. I wanted to go out to the lease today but decided to get some work done around the place today while the sun was shining. Taking a 5 day weekend starting Friday this week for the opening week.

Here is the Buck buster plot taken about a month ago. Much higher now. I have another plot about the same size by my grandsons stand but has had standing water over it for a couple of days. Hopefully it will do ok.

Jamie, I wanted to let you know that your stand pics were making me look bad. Here is my east Texas redneck stand built 100% otut of scrap. It was still under "development" then but does look a little better now that I closed it in a little more and gave it a paint job.

Here is the oat patch looking the other way from the buck buster patch. It was also taken over a month ago. The wildlife refuge starts about 50 yards past the clearing.

Nothing wrong with that stand. I would hunt in it anyday....  When I got older, One of the most important things I figured out about a stand was the " chair " ....  Butt sitting has to be at it's best .... Butt starts getting knum, deer walks out, barrel will start shaking . Got to be in comfort, man shoots better when his ass is not hurting from a bad hunting chair.  Heck, I still have nightmares about me hunting years ago, sitting on a old, 5 gallon metal Treflan bucket. 

 Your Buck Buster plot looks really good >>>>

..................  two guns

Need to get you a wooden post, but in the middle of the plot. Nail a can, about the size of a coffee can , or , get a plastic container from Wal-mart, screw the lid on the post, cut the bottom of the plastic jar out, fill it full of peanut butter. Watch the deer go crazy over it. OR, just smear some on the post, once they get a taste, they will show up every day for that snack !!!

 ........ jamie  

Got the Cuddeback in late yesterday so we set it up after dark. Looks like I need to re-aim it a little higher. At least we got pictures. Most were of what looks like the same black hog checking out the corn avery couple of hours.

Great picture Uncle Doug,

   All of our cameras are usally set at 42 inches high, and pointed pretty much straight out. That will pick up everything that you want to eat !!!!  Seriously, that covers hogs, deer, bobcats, etc ...,,, just about everything .

 The cameras eye picks up more than you would imagine.

 ( Now that is a nice " pit " size hog. Talking about good eating !!! )

  Just helped our police chief set some out on his home property. He was shocked, there are monster bucks there he never even knew about. He is excited for sure now, knowing what is out there !!!!

   Usually, every few days when we change out the memory cards, we ALWAYS put a little rice bran / rice or kernel corn out all the way up to the camera, just so we can count the eyelashes on 'em >>>>>

 You will have a blast out of them cameras >>>>

       ........ jamie  

We set out at this stand this evening. This is the one at the back of my place. About time everything gets real quiet, 45 minutes or so before sunset, I hear two 4-wheelers heading down the pipeline just across the fence on the Wildlife Refuge side of the fence. This has been off limits for the past 3 years since the refuge started up. Sometimes I see pipeline workers but these were not.

As I was sitting there fuming I remembered I had the digital camera in the RTV. I climb down, get the camera and walk over to my fence line (which is all grown up) just in time to see these 2 yahoo's heading back my way. I get a shot of one with his kerr dog but miss the other. I waited a few minutes and remember this digitial will also get short 1 minutes videos. As luck will have it here they come again. Not real clear but you can see both and the dog. I did not see any guns on the 4 wheelers but I did not want to be seen so I just stayed in the bushes.

Debaiting on weather on not to call the Game Warden. Last year after calling all my stuff got trashed. He said without pictures its my word against theirs. May call anyway.

  Hell yes !!!!

   Call the Game Warden !!!! Don't stop now, break 'em from that crap.

 They better thank their lucky stars they are there and not here. That is one thing I take seriously !!!!  Take care of it now before it gets to deep in your hunting season. And they will never know where the cameras are. I've even got signs on the place warning them of Camera / Video Surveillance .  Trust me, it works. I've even went to pouchers houses up in the night, and bang on the doors, get them out and have a come to Jesus talking. I don't play. 

 I'm not telling you to do what I do, but in your case, yes, get the law enforcement involved. Spank their ass !!!!

 ........... jamie   

Looks like I have a little better angle now only it looks like I got my AM & PM's backwards.

I did find out one thing about the peanut butter............ coons like it too.