Fantastic. Been a fun project to watch. Congrats on your program.
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McMullen Ranch Thread
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Originally posted by texashunter56 View PostBucks look really great for their age. DMP is a great way to go. I would look at using my best 3 yr olds. Ranch I used to manage in La Salle started DMP in 2004 and they have continued now. They use a lot of pens on a larger ranch. It has done amazing things with the over all herd quality and upper end buck numbers. They will only re-use a buck the next year if his antler growth improves after using him as a DMP buck. If he falls off they do not use him again.
Originally posted by elgato View PostFantastic. Been a fun project to watch. Congrats on your program.
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Originally posted by Kaicreekranch View PostHunter your deer are looking fantastic and your plan is definetly working! Congrats sir!
Originally posted by Quackerbox View PostY'all defineatly have some great deer. Your dad sent me some of those same pics yesterday. He showed me a little cactus type buck as well
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Originally posted by Fishndude View PostWow!
Can you define "fluff up?"
I guess I'm asking If these are still native deer.
We tried to take out all of the does. But obviously that was impossible. We did take out the vast majority of them. We started with 24 bred does back in 2013. We left the best of the best of the native bucks. Some of them have bred the superior genetic does. We do not have any deer in our pens or anything so I have no idea what is native and what is not. Some of these deer I know are from our original bred does and some I have no idea on.
With the exception of the does we purchased, everything else was born on the ranch. We won't be utilizing the pens in the future with the exception of trying to utilize the DMP pen program. Overall we have had a great success rate with introducing the non native bred does into our ranch. They are all Texas bloodlines. We are not scientific at all and didn't look at pedigree or any of that. We just said "We want 5 does bred to that buck". In hindsight we probably should of been a little more selective but it still has been an improvement. We are seeing better young deer then we ever have. We killed 5 deer between 180-190 from 2004-2015. Our mature trophy bucks were generally in the 150s with the occasional buck scoring up to 180-190 with a few 160, 170" deer sprinkled in.
Our goal is to make those 180"+ deer a reality every year once we have a good age structure. I think we will bust the 200" mark soon if all goes as planned. Our goal is not to have 250" deer with crazy points going everywhere. If it happens, fine. Our goal is to jump that 150" trophy up to around 175" and get the odd buck here and there to be 200" plus. By bringing in does that were supposedly superior to our native herd, we hope we have begun the process of accomplishing that. It is getting very hard to tell who was already on the ranch and who came from the superior does though. Pretty soon it is just going to be an educated guess.
At this time we have only killed 1 deer that was from an introduced doe. Everything else I have ever posted was on the ranch when we bought the place in 2004.Last edited by TildenHunter; 07-14-2017, 03:21 PM.
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Originally posted by TildenHunter View Post. Our goal is not to have 250" deer with crazy points going everywhere. If it happens, fine. Our goal is to jump that 150" trophy up to around 175" and get the odd buck here and there to be 200" plus.
Call me crazy but I'd rather have a clean 175 than a youpon 250
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Originally posted by TildenHunter View PostOur 4 yr olds tend to be our strongest age since they are from our original bred does that were sired by really good bucks. I would like to try and get a deer that has had double drops in the past. We likely won't know who the real candidates are until mid August. We had a typical 12 last year that was a 3 yr old that was right at 170''. We have 3-4 that I think would make good bucks for the pen but as long as we can get a good one, I will be happy.
The first buck with the tag is the buck that was a 5x5 at 4 when we first used him. He was 6 in this pic and had been released. They caught him again to use for 4 or 5 yrs in a row IIRC. He scored in the 180's at 8 or 9 yrs old. The second buck is a buck that was caught and used last years after 12 yrs of DMP. The ranch has always tried to select the biggest framed typical 10's or 12's with spread since DMP was used. This buck was first used at 4 2 yrs ago the released and caught last year again at 5. Here is his score totals for 225+ gross at 5:
11 5/8 inches of abnormals
IS 25 5/8
Beams 28 6/8, 29 1/8
G1 4 2/8,3 4/8
G2 12 7/8, 11 4/8
G3 13 7/8, 12 7/8
G4 11 3/8, 11
G5 4 4/8, 5 7/8
mass 36” +
They caught several more bucks of this caliber to use as DMP bucks. It is really impressive to how far along the bucks have progressed in the 10 yrs since I have left. It is mind blowing to see the amount of impressive bucks of all ages.Last edited by texashunter56; 01-10-2018, 09:01 PM.
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