re: Hunting Club - Buck restrictions?

quote:

---

I’ve got 600 acres. What should I do?

---

How many acers do you have in food plots do you have summer plots? A lot of places only plant some oats or winter wheat for kill plots but neglect to have summer plots when the bucks are growing horns.
Horns are the last thing to get nutrition it’s all sent to muscle and fat reserves.
There is a pretty interesting study done by Mississippi state university where they relocated some pine tree red dirt deer and after two years of proper nutrition they almost caught up to delta deer in horn growth.

quote:

---

How many acers do you have in food plots do you have summer plots? A lot of places only plant some oats or winter wheat for kill plots but neglect to have summer plots when the bucks are growing horns. Horns are the last thing to get nutrition it’s all sent to muscle and fat reserves. There is a pretty interesting study done by Mississippi state university where they relocated some pine tree red dirt deer and after two years of proper nutrition they almost caught up to delta deer in horn growth.

---

Just started the habitat management under my rule. Got kill plots planted and they are about 2-4 acres each. Have three. Next year we will have six and plant after this season for summer food. Millet and other things. I did notice some younger bucks were hungry but that’s because we haven’t logged much and created much browse. They simply ate it all and we had no rain for 45 days.

I only use one gravity feeder and three timer feeders. But to be honest I’d rather not use corn.

North of Woodville

The best thing you can do on your 600 acres is to get clover going. We planted a couple of small areas in clover and it has spread all over the camp. Our stress period is late winter and clover helps carry them through.

We did a ton of clover

It’s Bow Only for us try to shoot 4 year olds or older, kids shoot can shoot anything (legal state limit of course) as long as it with a bow. We only get 2 weeks of rifle for does harvest management and like many if shoot it you mount if it’s a buck same apply to the youngsters as well.

Look at this fat frick with a small rack we have. Not uncommon for us to have 200 plus pound deer with sub 115” horns



We have 500 plus acres with healthy acorns and pasture plots and almost never see a deer 130” or above. And we don’t shoot small deer

Develop quality native habitat and supplement with food plots.

I purchased 218 aces this year. It was 90 percent clear cut 4 yrs ago. I also leased 150 acres from the same family. The lease property is 20+ yr old pines that were thinned 3-4 yrs ago.

I don’t have a buck older than 2.5 yrs old on camera on the lease portion, while my property has 2 bucks 5.5 or older, 2 bucks 4.5 yrs old, 1 buck 3.5 yrs old, and quite a few younger bucks. These are all daily pictures and most at nighttime just after sunset.

I spent 2-3 weekends per month from April through August brush cutting areas that I felt would be good hunting spots. I’ve let those grow back up into native browse. It’s a total of about 15-16 acres. They are full of deer eating and walking through them daily. I also brush cut trails through the property so I could get through it (there was very little for access roads).

I plan to continue to do more of this next year, and we plan to burn about half of it in February/March. My goal is to let it develop it into native grasslands and prairies where that’s it’s natural habitat. I also hope to develop sections of woodland savanna’s where the habitat is best for it.

I reached out to Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries last year. A biologist came out and road the property with me. He helped in some areas, but it wasn’t quite what I hoped for.

I plan to bring Adam Keith in with Land and Legacy for a consultation. They do a good job and I’ve actually seen there family land. After I found their podcast 3 yrs ago, I realized their family land is 3 miles from my Dads place in southern Missouri. They understand how hard it is to turn bad habitat into really good habitat.

You have to search through there stuff but they have some really good information. I also like to listen to the Mississippi State deer lab podcast and DropTine seed podcast. That guy has some really good information on soil regeneration!

Hope this helps understand my thought process a little.

quote:

---

That’s a problem for me because we have 235lb 12” spread 8 points

---

Then you definitely need the weight rule and not antler rule. You have a problem if thats the case.