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Campfire 'Bwana
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Awesome specimens. But no one can deny it's a different way to hunt than true free range hunting.. ldholton, concur, 100%. I thought I made it clear that this is NOT a hunting preserve, and we don't "hunt" it. I must have missed it. What do you do with them then?
Camp is where you make it.
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A fella could hunt his whole life and never even see a buck like that, much less take one. Breathtaking buck for sure.
John I have hunted my whole life and never seen a buck like that! Outstanding for sure.
Shew me thy ways, O LORD: teach me thy paths.
"there are few better cartridges on Earth than the 7 x 57mm Mauser"
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Awesome specimens. But no one can deny it's a different way to hunt than true free range hunting.. ldholton, concur, 100%. I thought I made it clear that this is NOT a hunting preserve, and we don't "hunt" it. I must have missed it. What do you do with them then? ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/VsRCx5v6/Screenshot-20221024-153019-Duck-Duck-Go.jpg)
The last time that bear ate a lawyer he had the runs for 33 days!
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Joined: Feb 2004
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Awesome specimens. But no one can deny it's a different way to hunt than true free range hunting.. ldholton, concur, 100%. I thought I made it clear that this is NOT a hunting preserve, and we don't "hunt" it. I must have missed it. What do you do with them then? You need a better highlighter
Camp is where you make it.
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Shortmag, our natural mortality is very low, knock on wood. It has to be lower than in the wild. Deer just aren't dying. Its not uncommon to find dead fawns, but I can count on one hand mature deer that have been found dead in four years. I attribute it to a thick native gene, the lack of stress, and the lack of predators.
The fence is buttoned down tight. We were very particular in the construction of the water crossing as it relates to predator proofing. The standing fence has "predator wire" which is nothing more than a 48" fence laid flat on the ground and wired to the standing fence. Grass grows through it and you dont even know its there, the grass also locks it down tight. A determined coyote will aways find a way in, but there's yet to be any signs of a determined coyote.
We currently are getting one'ish fawn per breeding doe, that survives the first year. Much higher than in the wild.
The most unnatural part of our arrangement is the feeding station and deer's conditioning to it. So far there has been no shy buck that has avoided the feed station. All that is required for a good inventory is holding feed back for several days. That is by design, we could make smaller feeding stations dispersed around the property but as of now we have chosen one central location so that it is easier to keep track of the deer. Thanks for the reply. Fascinating. Tell me more about your feeding station. I currently have 350 acres that’s part of a 1500 acre co-op. On my property I have 7 pretty evenly /strategically placed corn feeders for hunting. I have a couple of large trough feeders not being used and am thinking about starting protein after this season along with my neighbors. How many acres can a ingle feed station support given food plots and browse elsewhere. How much protein will the deer go thru? I’ve heard they will eat you out of house and home. We have pretty high deer density - not unusual for 4-6 deer to be waiting at each corn feeder for them to go off - that translates to something north of 60 deer per square mile
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Awesome specimens. But no one can deny it's a different way to hunt than true free range hunting.. ldholton, concur, 100%. I thought I made it clear that this is NOT a hunting preserve, and we don't "hunt" it. I must have missed it. What do you do with them then? You need a better highlighter I will see about getting one.
The last time that bear ate a lawyer he had the runs for 33 days!
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Shortmag, you will need gravity feeders or else the coons will wipe you out. A high spout is good too. The fawns cant reach ours but there is enough spill for them to clean up. Trophy Feeders is what we use. They have been excellent. The stand can be easily made to your desired height, the body is plastic so no problems with rust or paint, they can be shipped easily (if you build your own stand), and are easy to move around. Most importantly, the design is coon proof, and I can vouch for it. https://www.trophyfeeders.com/design/We buy pellets in one ton supersacks, and have a dedicated lift at the farm for filling the feeders. Lift the supersack, open the spout on the bag, and it pours directly into the feeder. One man operation and no manual labor, but it does require a lift. If the feeder had to be filled manually, I'd reconsider the entire operation.  We have three feeders. They hold about 1000 lbs of pellets each. One supersack can fit into two feeders, but barely, so three is required for times when feeding and the feeder isn't empty. There is a post above where I gave details on feed consumption. Regarding how many acres per station, Auburn's biologist that manages the university's deer research facility told me one station per 200 acres.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Since they're in an enclosure do you need to give them antibiotics at all? Or isn't that concern?
Camp is where you make it.
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tzone, no antibiotics, no medications of any kind. Again, the only thing these deer get are standard feed pellets, which is not unusual for even wild deer, as folks around here do a lot of feeding. Our deer just get more of it most likely.
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Very interesting, I've been thinking about doing the same thing here. I've came to the conclusion you have to fence the deer out to see any kind antler improvement. Why didn't you stick with your local genetics? I'd want to see what our local deer can grow into with the proper nutrition and age.
Life is good live it while you can.
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TrueGrit, a few factors that affected our decision regarding "breeder" bucks. We had so much work going on at the property that most of the deer left. They had previously been hunted hard and would not tolerate the activity. The numbers just were not there. Auburn University's deer research facility is all native. They also provide plenty of nutrition. We had a very good idea what to expect, and wanted more. We had a golden opportunity to purchase the breeders. A friend in the breeder business was selling his property and moving on. His operation was only 25 miles from our property . The closer the better for survival rate. With each mile, the survival rate goes down, not due to transportation (which is also a factor) but immunity to parasites and disease. It was a great situation. Here's a link to info on Auburn's facility. Note that they try to maintain 100 adult deer on 430 acres, which is where we came up with our balance. https://wp.auburn.edu/deerlab/captive-facility/
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Labor of love.
I always enjoy the picts!
WWP53D
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Very interesting and cool. Thanks for sharing it!
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The deer hunter does not notice the mountains
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" - Isoroku Yamamoto
There sure are a lot of America haters that want to live here...
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Bump in light of the current high fence thread.
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started out with native deer and comes to this, you must have a secret, or a fence jumper
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texken, we did NOT start with deer native to the property itself.
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I'd probably do the same thing if I had the means. Hard to tell from pictures but I'd expect some huge bodied deer eating that much protein. What do they weigh?
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Some are heavy some aren't, just depends on genetics and health. Though they are not native to the property, the genetics are highly diverse. The imports were from a local breeder who ran the local native gene thick in his breeding plan, for durability purposes.
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This has been a great thread, kind of forgot about it so thanks for kicking it back up to the top. Just read back through the whole thing, some really interesting info posted.
Oh and I had asked in an earlier post but I realize you got bombed with questions but still curious on the genetics of the bucks you used. It appears you have a strong non-typical gene in the mix with several bucks having forks like a mule deer. They are beautiful bucks but just curious if the younger crop shows the same antler configuration as the older bucks??
And thanks again, been a really fun read.
"Rather hunt Mule deer than anything else"
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