Spent two weeks at Christmas at the ranch in the Texas Hill Country. We had a pretty good deer crop this year even with the drought going on. I guess being by the Blanco river makes a difference and having some decent rain last spring helped a lot. I did notice very few yearlings running around but our bucks are getting a little mass to them. I know some of you live in areas that have twice the mass and body wt. but these are Texas Hill country deer. They are typically smaller frame and you are lucky to bag anything over 18" spread. Anyway we started feeding corn around the end of July and will continue to feed until end of Feb. We are lucky to have two ranches, one on the north side and one on the south side that feed protein most of the year which relates to the horns that we have been seeing over the last few years. Right before we left this morning to come back to Austin I went to the north trap to get my game camera and counted 32 deer. Blanco county is about 60 miles from Llano counnty which is known for being Deer Capital of the World. Last I heard the deer count in that county was 5 deer for every 17 acres. I did bag a nice 9 pt. with a inside spread of 15". Our derr season will end Jan 6th but we have a additional two week doe season after that so maybe I'll poop one to keep the freezer full. I had my eye on a 10 pt that would go 17 to 18"'s for the last two months and saw him several times over Thanksgiving but I think he's on someones wall now. I do want to thank all of you guys for keeping this web site the way it is. There is so much information and honestly I tap into it often. I hope and pray this new year that everybody does well in what ever you do. Thanks to all that keep the technical side up and running. Lets see some deer pictures. Here's a few off my game camera. Cheers, Terry Bearden TB Tractors/Trax and Horns Mini Trucks Austin,Tx 512-217-7456
Seems you celebrated your Christmas wild. op: But really I would like to appreciate your idea of celebrating business. Good going....
Here are my 2 kills for 2012-13.. Both were taken in Central Texas near Eden. The Axis scored 150 1/8 in the Safari Club International scoring system. That ranks it at #26 in free range rifle axis. It's not official yet, because I have to send in the paperwork and photos. On the same hunt, I took this nice 11 pointer.
View attachment 13153 this is a deer taken in the 2013 bow season near rosetown saskatchewan by my son in law!!!
Here is a photo of my 16 year old sons muzzleloader buck. Iowa has been hit hard the last few years with EHD and back to back droughts. Hopefully things turn around for 2013-2014 season as our herd numbers/quality have plummeted. As usual the only pics I have of my bow buck is on my phone! strange how you always seem to get great pics of your kids and very few of yourself.
We took 5 this year. Four small 5 pts and one 8. Deer don't get too big around here. Good looking bucks you guys got.