Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wilson County

Same question. How many Texas hunts have you been on. The original buck posted is a great deer. Poster said it was low fence. That makes it special. Hasbeen

Sorry, when it became apparent 40 years ago to ranchers their deer herds were in serious need of management, TP&W started helicopter fly-overs to estimate and photograph herd sizes. The ranchers were shown pictures of monster bucks on their property the ranches had never laid eyes on. That buck didn't get to be that size by being dumb and letting anyone see him. I've hunted south Texas since 1969 and have seen only one buck that was in this deer's class.

Since you know how well they think then where's your 210" buck at? It's just a dumb old deer right? You should have plenty on your wall. To the op congrats on a buck of a lifetime.

Sure I ve lived in Texas twice in my life. Probably a dozen or so deer and pig hunts. Fished Texas quite a bit too. Last time I deer hunted I just shot a 140 inch deer and a does and did not want to fork out 8k for a 180 deer that walked near my stand.


Im heading out to the Selkirks now for last day of wt season. Shouldn't have passed on that small 3x3 yesterday. meat hunting today

Its a big deer for a Texas deer, but its like the pay hunt for fenced in trophy elk. To each its own. carry on

I didn't shoot it, one of the guys on a FB hunting group I'm part of did.

You can have a buck like that in 20 acres of thicket, have 2 guys hunt it for a month and never see that ghostly mofo

They are sly as hell.

Now we do not get to feed them here during the hunting season, so if we get them on camera one day, they may be miles away in 24 hours. And....youre hunting a buck that might never make it back.
Me and Ren50 talking bout this on the phone this morn. Trail cams used fouck my mind up, I had to quit using them. Get hung on one photogenic buck make yourself crazy.

I never said it was not special. I never said he can not be proud he shot it.

Let's see, could it be you've never seen one that size because there are mythical ghost bucks hiding in Texas or perhaps because the VAST majority of bucks get shot long before reaching that size.

If it's a buck of a lifetime then they are rare. So the question is why are they rare? They are rare because they get shot long before they have a chance to reach that size unless they are protected ... at least this is true in a large part of the country.

I suppose if the only method of hunting used was to set in the exact same stand every day for ever, then true.

If you think there is a ghost buck in a 20 acre thicket here is how you get him ...

Wait for very windy rainy day. Little snow would help but not required. Then you still hunt that thicket. I don't mean stomp around and call it still hunting. I mean the old fashion still hunt. Like where it takes you 2 hours to travel a half mile.

Good eye site is required especially if the snow part is not in the mix.

Two more giant low fenced bucks from Maverick County taken recently.

giant mainframe 8 point sports 29” main beams, 6” bases, and 21” inside spread and grosses 176 3/8” as an 8.5 year old eight point!
The non-typical buck was 7.5 years old and grosses a whopping 196 4/8”.

A straight 8 that goes 140 is a helluva deer. The one in the picture is a flat-out brute.

Those ghost bucks are hiding in the mesquite bushes.

Fantastic deer. Good genetics. Good feed. Incredibly lucky lives.

shows that good management will work on a low fence ranch.

That photo in the OP looks luke a guy I used to work with. He has property near Floresville. He told me one of the nearby ranches (Connally I believe) brought in some monster bucks to improve the herd and they spread the genes around.

QDM - Only shoot the bucks allowed.

No. No. No.

They were obviously protected...

you need to realize some of these ranches are thousands of acres, when I was working in the oilfield I worked on ranches that were over 100,000 acres, hell the king ranch is over 800,000 and all low fence. most bucks spent their lives within one square mile except for the rut.

Indeed they are. QDM. Only shoot the bucks allowed.