Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Republican River Deer Lease

Ends up I have a couple positions on a 1360 acre plot south of Red Cloud, NE. This is an archery-only property.

The southern border of this property is the Kansas state line. Only three post-mature management bucks were taken last year and three deer, in the 140-170 range were taken the year before that. Anything lower than 145 was passed on and there were some big deer seen last year.

$1595 gets you one buck 125" or over and two does. Spring turkey also available.

That's some good country right there. I'll be hunting the Colorado side of this area.

Good luck.

Rudy

Colorado isn't really that close to Red Cloud Nebraska

Republican River areas have always seemed to hold big deer. Have 7 Colorado points and was thinking about hunting just east of Bonney reservoir next year.

I'm excited for the possibilities this lease holds. Just need some people to help me share the expense. Headed there in a few weeks to set trail cams and can show people around.

Hunted the Republican on the Kansas side a little east of there a few times. There are some really big whitetails along that river. They were always hard to find during the rifle season, but the bowhunters who did their homework always managed to take some really impressive bucks. You do need to do some serious scouting, though...

That's the beauty of having 1360 acres we can set trail cams on and do feeders. By keeping it archery only, we hope animals are pushed onto the property during the Nov 16-24 rifle season, which is traditionally full rut.

Yes, but Republican does come across the west side of Kansas and east side of CO. Good drainage area for whitetails.

Rudy

I hear ya, I was just commenting that Red Cloud NE is more than 200 miles from where that river flows into Colorado. In fact, the river flows through Kansas before it hits CO. Nebraska doesn't even border CO right there.

I figure you will find it isn't as much rifle shooting that dictates deer movement as much as it is the sound of 4-wheelers and the scent of Homo sapiens on the property.

I bow hunted the Ruplican River in KS in the mid 1980's. I saw some big deer in that area. Great genetics

X2
I'm always amazed at the thought that you can put more Bowhunters on a property or even more Rifles on a heavily wooded area. Once you stink the place up that 5 year old deer is going to know your there and usually go nocturnal or leave.

Can you use a crossbow or is it not legal there?

Crossbows are legal. Draw weight must be 125lbs or more. PM me if you would be interested in additional info.

Whitetails in farm/ranch country don't seem to be bothered much by vehicle or human traffic/scents, 'cause there are farmers/ranchers out in the field tending to their business and not paying much, if any, attention to the resident deer herd for most of the year. The tenant on one of my MIL's farms lives within two hundred yards of a "honey hole" and, since he isn't a hunter, never pays any attention to the deer passing through the farmstead. Without seeing the tracks and trail-cam evidence of big deer in that section of creek-bottom ground, you'd never realize that it has the mix of cover, food, and water that draws and holds deer.

When my FIL was alive, he shot the majority of his whitetails from the driver's seat of his pickup. The deer were used to farm vehicles and didn't pay much attention to them. He would leave an old truck at his favorite hunting spot for a week prior to the opening of deer season so that the deer would be used to it being there. He would even leave a battery powered radio on in the cab 24/7 so that the deer wouldn't be bothered by human voices. It worked, as I never knew him not to fill his deer tags.

Yep there's a lot of truck hunting in Neb. Parked in fields or driving slowly down rural roads. It's a problem.

It's not a problem if the truck is parked in a field, absolutely legal as long as it's not moving. Firing from a public road is illegal, and happens too much across the nation.

I shot quite a few deer out of the window of a silver Ford Ranger back in the 90's. I would pull it into a corn field that I had permission to hunt close to the tree line and wait. Deer just flat ignored it as they walked. Can't see that shooting legally from the cab of a truck is any more unethical than shooting from a blind. Didn't take any big deer but my goal was to fill the freezer and I did get a lot of nice grilling does.

That brings back fond memories of my tenure managing a couple of ranches along the Niobrara River. I probably saw twenty or more illegal road hunters for every trespassing foot hunter that I encountered. During turkey season, I would see guys with shotguns sitting in lawn chairs in the back of pickups, being chauffered along slowly, looking for a turkey close enough to the road to pot shoot. I guess that they must have been successful often enough to encourage them to keep doing it...

No offense if you're a truck hunter. It's just not my style. And I'd say there is a difference between a truck and a blind. A truck rolls on wheels and is self powered you know. Also I'd say road hunting in Neb. is more of a problem than a lot of other states I've hunted and lived. Small wood lots concentrate the animals and there more easily spotted and shot from a pickup either parked legally or driving around. Try that $hit in a more heavily wooded state and you'd never see a deer. Hunting Neb. is easy enough with the deer all concentrated in thin wood lots. Seems very lazy to hunt out of the truck to me.

Road hunting in Nebraska probably isn't any worse than Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Dakota's, Minnesota, etc, etc. And what seems lazy to me is all the freaking ATV's that folks seem to need to drive up to within 15 feet of their blind and are 20 times as loud as any truck. Apparently to a lot of folks it's not lazy to drive an ATV 150 yards and sit in a pop up blind that goes up in 10 seconds, but it's lazy to sit in a truck? Give me a break..

I do prefer to sit in a nice blind and have the quail, turkeys and the rest of nature walk or fly by 5' away. Much more relaxing, and to me that's the best part of deer season. Best thing that ever happened to me was getting my 30 acres up in the Sandhills that doesn't border any road and so I haven't had to deal with trespassers in years.

That's the way to do it. Find a piece away from roads.