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Please send us questions or topics for discussion. Be sure to include your name, hometown and county where you hunt, so we can include this information with your question on the website. Email us at questions@loscazadores.com |
Question: I am on a lease in Atascosa county ( 800 ac, 3 men ) 10 miles southeast of Pleasanton. This is our first year on the property. There are no game fence's surrounding our lease or any of the adjacent property's. The lease has very thick cover with plenty of natural food and a three acre pond,our feeder's have been going since March. We do have an abundance of hog's, turkey and bird's with a few predator's.For the most part the deer population is just not there. In two weeks of hard hunting only two small bucks and four does have been seen. Even in the scouting trips prior to deer season very few deer have been seen. Other than being shot out could there be any reason why the population would be so low? Any thought's or suggestion's? -- Rodney
Answer: Thanks, Rodney, for your email. My apologies for being tardy in responding. I've been in Kentucky on our property there doing tv shows.
Regarding your question about the Atascosa County property. Without knowing some history about your lease prior to you taking it over and something about hunting pressure on the perimeter, it's difficult to know for certain what's going on there.
I've spoken to several area ranches and I know deer movement has been minimal thus far this season. There is a good chance however that the property you're hunting has in the past received considerable hunting pressure, and so may have the properties adjoining you.
My suggestion is to continue hunting hard and long...perhaps once the rut starts kicking in there will be considerable movement of bucks, only on your property, but from adjoining properties. That's my best advice. Wish I could be more helpful.
THANKS again for contacting us at Los Cazadores. -- Larry Weishuhn
Question: While hunting in the Fredericksburg, Texas area for the past 5 years, I have witnessed many, many bucks with considerably different shades of brown antlers, from very pale, almost white to very dark brown. What causes antlers to be different colors? I always assumed that the food source was the primary contributor, but these deer all eat from the same areas. We hunt near oat fields. We use corn feeders. And there are plenty of acorns. Just curious, but it might help me in the future when searching for another wall mount. -- Wayne Preston, Katy, Texas
Answer: Thanks, Wayne, for your email to us at Los Cazadores. Appreciate you!<
Antler color is determined by several factors. One is the density of antlers and the amount of blood left in the surface of the antlers when the velvet comes off. The texture of the antlers' surface is also a determining factor, as is what they rub on, the rougher the surface the more stain the antlers accept.
Nutrition is a factor in that a deer on a really good diet tends to produce antlers that are very dense and have almost a glass like surface that does not accept stain when a buck rubs them.
If the surface of the antlers is porous sap from the trees and bushes he rubs on tend to stain them darker. What they rub on also to some extent can make a difference in the color of antlers,some trees and shrubs produce sap that causes darker stains than others.
Also younger bucks, 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old generally tend to have lighter colored antlers,whereas older bucks tend to usually have darker antlers.
Also bucks that do a tremendous amount of rubbing then to be lighter in color because they keep their antlers polished. Thus, as you can see there is no one particular reason. Hope that answers your question.
Again, thanks for your question. -- Larry Weishuhn
Question: Is it possible to manage a deer heard for quality bucks when you only have access to less than 1000.ac all low fence and have no control or even know if the ranches around you are trying to manage the same? And if so what would be considered a cull if any.
Area 10 miles south of Cotulla east of I-35, Thanks -- Jeff Pyeatt
Answer: Jeff, regardless of the size of acreage you can always improve things. You
might not be able to take a management program to the nth degree, but you can certainly improve it.
Things you can do, if you want to feed, use our Los Cazadores Feed (lots of good rations out there, but only one great one, our Los Cazadores Feed. BUT feed in the center of the ranch. That will help keep bucks and does on the property, if there is sufficient food on a daily basis. If you feed and hold does it will also hold bucks.
Some bucks are homebodies, some or roamers and some are a bit of both. Yet food is the key. From a human perspective. If food, water and "company" are provided, people do not tend to wander widely. The same is true with deer. Young buck tend to roam more than old mature bucks.
Do all you can to improve the property in the interior. Then too find out who your neighbors are and see if they're interested in forming a "co-operative" where several ranches and hunting groups work together. These co-ops work well and tend to grow in a little bit of time.
I'm currently on our property in Kentucky, where Gregg Ritz and I lease 12,000 acres right on the Ohio River in the western part of the state. Our season opens Saturday. We've got some really good bucks on the property and I'm hunting one I didn't get last year.
Appreciate you getting in touch with us. Wish you the best -- Larry Weishuhn
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