Friend of mine has a lease in South Texas. It's complicated the way they manage the deer down there but long story short, they are asked by the Game department to kill 14 does and 14 bucks off the lease this year. Only four days left in the season and they have 7 more bucks to kill so I went down to help. This was Saturday morning. Only one of these is mine but we got five that day and filled the last MLD tag on Sunday morning so we made the quota. Really wanted to stay and shoot some coyotes and javelina, which I have done before when I've gone down there, but this year I had to hurry back.

By the way they had a trapper come in last year after deer season who caught 85 coyotes and 40 bobcats off the lease.

Nice. Crazy how that country holds deer isn’t it? I helped on a spread about 15 years ago on the border and they had 135 cull tags. A lot of meat went to the food bank.

Osky

I’ve never seen coyotes any more willing to come to call when I was doing that. Thought it was going to be tougher with all the deer they could eat. Too bad you didn’t get into javelinas and feral hogs, it’s a hoot as well. Bring more ammo.

Osky

I have shot a lot of javelina down there. These two were lined up so I shot them both with one shot. Their coyotes are about the size of our red fox here in the north so I shoot them with a .17 - loads of fun.

The entire Duvall County Ranch is 138,000 acres I have no idea how many tags there are but there is a lot. The 14 and 14 is just for the pasture my friend leases it's under 6,000 acres. Unreal how many deer there are. I passed up several in the 140-160 class because they were not over 5 years old! Wait till you see the video I'm doing on it, the number of big bucks is remarkable.

Wow.Very nice

Sounds great Bernie. I had guidelines on size when I did that shoot, mostly spikes/forks and does. If I remember correctly they wanted their deer to make 6 point or better at 1.5 years old. I’ve not enjoyed whitetail hunting nearly as much since that shoot.
I wonder if in some of those heavily hunted spreads/leases all the feeders that get put up don’t account somewhat to the explosion in herd size. Then again maybe there were always a bunch of deer in that scrub. Certainly did put my .243 barrels thru their paces.

Osky

All deer shot on this ranch have to be at least 5 years old. Management bucks must be 5 years old and 8 points or less. Under no circumstances do you shoot a young buck. Trophies must be 6 years old and at least 140. The biggest buck in that truck was 165 11-pointer. I go only to shoot management bucks. The guys on the lease all pay $12,000 so I just go to help out. They say it's okay for me to shoot a trophy, but I don't think they really mean it. Since I'm a guest I will just keep shooting management bucks and coyotes for a couple more years so when I do decide to shoot a trophy the other guys will be okay with it.

12,000 dollars apiece to lease, a rich mans sport for sure. Glad I can still hunt on my farm. I couldn't afford venison that expensive. To each his own I suppose. Looks like you have fun down there, and a lot more than deer to shoot. Are the javelins good eating?

Bernie, what's your Ruger #1 chambered?

Me either...You're playing it smart

No we just toss them in the brush, they are a pest.

That's a .17

Believe me the people that are paying the $12,000 for the lease don't notice it. It would be like me pulling a twenty out of my wallet.

Bernie if I remember correctly where I was it was 7500.00 dollars per 5k acres and you had to buy two parcels minimum. Per 5k acres, or parcel, you were allowed 2 hunters.
All amenities were on the parcel holder. Many had incredible camera set ups on their feeders and it was piped back to wherever the leasers office or home was. The ranch did have a service for a fee to fill feeders. Many had pretty incredible mobile units moved on their lease and paid for electric. Buried Septic was not involved or allowed.
Despite them leasing the land only existing ranch roads could be driven on with any type of machinery, even I had to hunt afoot off roads.
I cant imagine what those leases for hunting cost today. For the ranch owner, it was all play money. Under that massive spread was enormous amounts of black gold.

Osky

This might be the first time I've heard somebody not from tx bragging about tx. Usually texans can't help themselves but talk about how great tx is while they're enjoying another states resources. I've been there, I won't be going back anytime soon.

I'd eat the javelina

Apologies Jack, I did not mean to sound braggadocius. I was enlisted to shoot there, I would never pay for such.

Osky