Big Buck
Tecomate is the "Big Buck" authority follow along as we hear stories from around the country.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Low Pressure Hunting - Part II
Don’t Break Routine
Deer are accustomed to the normal routine of a tract. If it’s a working farm or ranch, truck and equipment traffic is part of the everyday scene and causes deer little concern. Yet, they are very quick to notice and respond to a sudden increase in vehicle traffic and, certainly, foot traffic. When season opens, don’t suddenly start driving new parts of the place or seldom-used roads. Try to incorporate hunting access and activity into what would seem to deer to be routine ranch/farm traffic. On WHITETAIL’s Fort Perry Plantation, where trucks and tractors were always on the move, we drove our hunters directly to the blind and asked them to stay there, even if they shot a buck, until the vehicle returned to pick them up. If deer were bumped from the field or stand area, we wanted it to be from “routine” farm traffic, not the sudden appearance of people on foot, no matter how stealthy they could be. We didn’t loiter at the blind any longer than necessary. If possible, we even drove to the downed deer, usually at midday or after dark, to minimize foot traffic … and human scent.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Low Pressure Hunting - Part I
As we stood glassing from a hill overlooking several distant deer-dotted alfalfa fields scattered along Montana’s Milk River, one of our party of five pointed to a pod of bucks in an isolated field, his voice cracking with excitement, and said, “I want to be right there, sitting on that field at daybreak tomorrow morning when season opens.”
Among nods of agreement, I knew that what I was going to say next would stir some dissention. “Let’s lay off the fields until the afternoon. If we try to hunt them in the morning, we’ll have to run the deer off to get to the stands. If we wait until midday, the deer we have left the fields and we can sneak into the stands without them being aware we’re there. That way, we’ll be hunting them totally unmolested. The slightest disruption could put the big bucks down. We’ve got to do this right.”
Before the protests could begin, I hastily blurted out the alternate plan, “Let’s set up near the river along the east and west boundaries in the morning and take advantage of any outside pressure that might push deer onto the ranch. Plus, we’ll be able to head off any interlopers who might have seen all those bucks on the fields.”
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Monday, February 13, 2012
El Tecomate Ranch - Part II
In my previous article, I talked about Gary Schwarz
In time, he came up with several options that could answer the call and finally settled on one mix as the staple on his ranch.
Gary calls it Tecomate Dual Deer Mix. The mixture consists of several types of winter grasses, including wheat, triticale, ryegrass and oats, and various legumes, such as Austrian winter peas, clovers, vetches and even alfalfa. With this mix, the grasses address winter carbohydrate needs and the legumes provide a leg-up on early spring protein requirements.
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Posted by
David Morris on 02/13 at 09:44 PM
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Monday, January 30, 2012
El Tecomate Ranch - Part I
Before 1995, I thought I had met the nuttiest of the country’s deer nuts. I couldn’t imagine anyone crazier about the whitetail deer than folks like Bobby Parker Jr., Steve Vaughn, James Kroll, Jackie Brittingham, #### Idol, Scott Taylor, Gordon Whittington, George Cooper, Bill Jordan, Chuck Larsen, Greg Miller, David Foster, to name but a few of the myriad of whitetail junkies with whom I’ve crossed paths. Not withstanding my wife’s opinion of me, I figured these guys were the most smitten of the smitten. Then, I met Dr. Gary Schwarz …
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Posted by
David Morris on 01/30 at 09:43 PM
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
The Huisache Buck – Part I
I first became aware of the “Huisache Buck” back in October 1999. As Chief Wildlife Biologist for the King Ranch, and a Research Scientist with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, I was charged with helping to coordinate a research project on King Ranch that involved live-capturing bucks by helicopter and net gun on the ranch’s Laureles Division.
During the first day of captures, we caught an unusual buck in the Gallito Pasture that scored as a mainframe 6 x 2. He obviously had either severely injured his left antler while in velvet. Or, he suffered a traumatic body injury that caused the abnormal antler growth. If the buck had a body injury, it had since healed because there were no visible signs of injury at the time of capture. The estimated age of the buck by tooth wear was 3-1/2 years old. His gross B&C score was only 90-6/8 inches. We quickly processed the buck and implanted AVID microchips at the base of the right ear and in the right front leg. The microchips, which are each programmed with a unique, nine-digit code, are implanted to allow us to identify each buck when it is later recaptured or harvested. The buck was then released at the capture sight.
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Thursday, September 08, 2011
Modern Muzzleloading for Big Whitetails
Muzzleloading has come a LONG way in the past 20 years. I can remember my very first muzzleloader - an old 45-caliber with a rabbit-ear hammer and iron sights that shot round balls and #11 percussion caps. During those early days you were lucky if your muzzleloader fired let alone hit a target. Therefore, I had little success at harvesting mature bucks with my muzzleloader when I first started muzzleloader hunting. Thanks to recent technology and some very innovative gun manufacturers, like Traditions Firearms, today’s muzzleloaders are serious big buck killing machines.
Due to the inherent unreliability and limitations of muzzleloaders 20 years ago, many hunters did a lot of deer scouting rather than deer killing during those early days of muzzleloader hunting. Today, many hunters, including myself, prefer to hunt with a muzzleloader over a modern rifle for a variety of reasons. First of all, today’s muzzleloaders are far more accurate and reliable than muzzleloaders of the past. In fact, misfires are now the rare exception rather than the rule. In the past, the effective range for muzzleloading whitetail deer was less than 75 yards.
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Posted by
Blaine Burley on 09/08 at 08:00 AM
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Friday, July 15, 2011
Big Bucks on Small Tracts – A Profile Of Success
For years, conventional wisdom had it that you had to have thousands of acres to have an effective management program for quality deer. That all changed with the development of the year-round food-plot strategy. The success now being realized on small tracts is rewriting the books! And, you can take advantage of this revolutionary new strategy where you hunt.
I visited just such a cutting-edge small tract in Middle Georgia owned by my friend Steve Grinnell. His 400-acre farm is loaded with big bucks and boss turkeys…all because of food plots.
What’s his program? About 15 percent, or 60 acres, of his farm is in year-round food plots ranging in size from 1 to 10 acres. Most are 3 to 5 acres. As with any serious quality buck program, he lets his bucks live long enough to get big, meaning he holds off the trigger until they reach at least 3.5 years of age. He works hard to provide year-round nutrition.
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Posted by
David Morris on 07/15 at 12:26 AM
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