Welcome to Realtree global hunting.
This week I'm helping out with deer management in Texas.
As you may have already seen, I've been doing a lot of hunting in Texas over the past few months with my good friends Terry Tate and Scott Maddox.
As well as Team Wild's extreme hoggers, Joshua and Krystal White.
I've taken plenty of game in these parts.
And recently helped Scott with his deer management program, taking out a malformed whitetail on his farm.
If you haven't seen the video, click on this link.
If you remember Scott mentioned he had two young whitetail bucks that he needed taking out.
And we have a couple of Longhorn spikes out here, they are two and a half year old deer, still no bifurcation on their horns so we want them out of the herd.
There are some beautiful whitetail deer on this farm, and Scott needs to take out as many unhealthy or malform bucks as possible.
In doing so he can make sure the others grow strong, healthy and more importantly, keeps the gene pool strong for future generations.
Good management is key for good trophy deer.
I'm up and out before sunrise so I can get into the blind undetected before the whitetail begin to move around.
Now this a beautiful estate, and has plenty of good trophy whitetail bucks.
We are seeing lots of pictures on trail cams, lots of pictures on the TVs, so we know they are here.
However the owner of the estate isn't looking for us to take a trophy buck at this time.
He wants some help with managing the deer. Now there are two young spikers in particular that need taking off this plot.
One of them has a slightly forward facing horn, and slightly funky one on the left hand side.
Now we've already taken him. But there is another one with two spikes pointing forward.
And he tends to feed around this sort of area.
So we've come up here to wait in the blind, just to see if he comes out.
And if he does, we are going to take him and hopefully put another 60-70 pounds of meat into the freezer.
Fingers crossed.
As the sun comes up, I'm ready and waiting for when the whitetail begin to hit the feeders.
As always patience is key.
It's not long after sunrise and the whitetail are on the move.
This is our first visitor this morning, he feeds quietly on the corn dropped by the feeder from the night before, and all is peaceful.
That is until the feeder goes off and he heads for the hills. He's only a few feet away when it begins firing out corn.
And it frightens the life out of him.
Luckily he's not the buck we're looking for.
A few minutes later and we have another visitor.
This beautiful young buck feed away surrounded by rabbits.
Everyone is taking advantage of the plentiful food supply from the feeders in this otherwise arran part of Texas.
Then a little distance down the path another whitetail buck starts to feed towards us.
This is our Buck.
As he moves closer, I wait and bide my time. As long as nothing spooks him he should come closer so we can get a better look at him.
and then pick the perfect shot.
As the sun gets higher in the sky and the day gets into full flow, our buck slowly makes his way towards us.
Right now patience is the name of the game, it's far too tempting to take a quartering on shot
I'm feeling quite excited right now. Y'know we are shooting him for meat so I need to make sure we don't.....
...right he's coming along broadside.
Ok like I said patience is key.
Looks like he's turning. Soon as I get a shot at that shoulder, I'm taking it.
But we don't want to spoil the back straps.
My patience has paid off and he's now close enough I'm able to confirm he's the one we're after.
I pick my spot.
And squeeze the trigger.
He drops on the spot. A perfect high shoulder shot and his legs instantly fold as he's taken down.
Yeah, perfect.
That's the benefit of using that high shoulder shot.
I'm really excited, my hearts going. It's almost as exciting or equally as exciting as shooting a big trophy buck or a 360 class bull.
Now he's not a particularly impressive buck by any stretch of the imagination he's just a year old.
But these are the ones that these guys want taken off, they are very very serious about their management here.
Leave the big bucks in.
In fact there are a couple still at the feeders elsewhere. The bucks that have been left from this year will grow bigger,
They'll keep the strength in the herd, the strength in the gene pool.
And with these little ones take them out, they make for good eating.
Management here in the US is no different than anywhere else be it in Europe, Australia, South Africa.
Keeping good healthy bloodlines and making sure you take out the weak or young, if you are going to be taking them for meat,
and leave the big dominant bulls and bucks in the herd to procreate.
A great shot and now it's time to claim our buck.
A quick look here.
Yeah he's gone.
So...put that down there.
What a beautiful young buck.
Now, as you can see, that high shoulder shot it really does the business.
He's only a yearling from last year, a little spiker.
But this is the sweetest tasting meat.
Now Scott asked us to do him a favour, and take out the younger bucks for him.
Of which, this is one.
Leave the big ones in the herd. As you've seen there is quite a few, that aren't quite ready to take yet.
But have got some fantastic potential.
Now they have a great management program here.
Plenty of feeders out there. They understand how many bucks and does are in each area, they are very very careful on their count.
They do an awful lot of work with game cams just keeping an eye on the numbers.
And that's why they have such a healthy population here.
Like everywhere else in the world it is really easy to pull the trigger as soon as you see a half decent buck,
But being dedicated enough and patient enough to let that buck grow to it's full potential,
proliferate his genes, make sure there is good strength in the herd, will make sure in future years you have big bucks on your property.
But for now this fella didn't make the grade. His card was marked, and actually he is going to make some great sausage and great steak.
Good size in the body, nice and healthy, they feed extremely well here.
As I say all the particular bucks, at this particular farm, I've seen are in pretty good shape.
Now this isn't a high fenced ranch, this is just a farm.
But like I say, the guys here are passionate about there deer hunting.
And they want to make sure that future generations that come and hunt here also have a great opportunity.
So I'm going to take back now get him dressed out and hopefully make some burgers.
Another important management job dealt with. And I'm helping Scott keep the whitetail gene pool healthy and strong.
Plus I've had a great time.
Tune into next weeks Realtree Global Hunting when I'll be in Hungary on the trail of another monster wild boar.