Turkeys are back........

Turkeys are back at C4!

Dr. Kroll always says that "good deer habitat management is also good turkey habitat management". Well, we agree because ever since we have been following his recommendations we have seen ever increasing numbers of turkeys. I just got these pictures off the scout cams last night and Chase and I saw a small flock of them just before dark yesterday.

We hope to be able to conduct some turkey hunts during the spring in a few years. If we keep working the "plan" I have no doubt it will happen.

April and I plan to do some hunting this weekend. There is a particular buck on the hit list she is after and we finally have a chance to get in the woods and see if we can find him. We call him Casper because he is like a ghost - hard to see and only comes out at night! But she is determined to get him, and the rut is starting to heat up here in East Texas so you never know when he might decide to show himself - a pretty girl (or a doe in this case) will make a guy do lots of crazy things! I will report next week on how it goes - wish us luck!

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And the Season Begins!

FINALLY! Deer season is here!

You may think it is all fun from here on out but fall is still a lot of work here at the C4. The main focus is getting the food plots prepared and planted. We plant oats that will grow throughout the winter but few people realize that the success of a good food plot in the SPRING depends on what we do in the fall. Fertilization and seeding of clover and chicory must be done properly in the FALL in order to have a thriving food plot in the SPRING.

Chase planting oats in one of the plots

Unfortunately, here in East Texas the best time to plant coincides with the opening of bow season so we spend a whole lot more time working than we do hunting but it is a long season and we have to pace ourselves.......so we spend a lot of time checking cameras and trying to pattern some of the bucks to be hunted once the rut heats up. Check out some of these bruisers:

We hope your season is going to be as good as ours!

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We Hunt Too!

Its been a while since my last post because....WE HUNT TOO!

I have spent the last 8 days in Alberta, Canada bow hunting mule deer - glassing the countryside for a good mule deer buck and then executing a perfect stalk to move in close enough to release an arrow for a quick and humane kill is about as much fun as you can have on the planet earth!

Me with my mule deer buck and my long time hunting partner Ronnie Walton

Two weeks prior to that I was getting packed and prepared for the hunt and shooting everyday to make sure I was ready. Most shots are from 40 to 60 yards on spot and stalk mule deer so plenty of practice is a requirement. So, needless to say, I have been a bit pre-occupied as of late but I am back now and we are focused on getting the ranch ready for the upcoming deer season.

Now that I am back it is time to fertilize and lime to get the food plots ready for fall planting so we will be busy with that for a few weeks and we are also finishing the new day camp at the barn. We are making good progress on that and just have a few things left to get it finished for the season. I'll post some pictures soon - it is looking really awesome!

A quick reminder - we have a last minute all inclusive special price of $4995 for a hunt for a buck here on the C4 that will score between 150" and 160". All you have to have is your license - we will take care of the rest. And to make it even better - if you don't take the deer you are after then you can come back later in the season and try again at no extra charge! Go to our website and call or email for more details!

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It's Going to be a Good Year!

We have had plenty of rain and an abundance of food on the C4 so the bucks are looking great! We just completed our camera census to get our game counts for the MLD Permit and boy were we excited! I won't bore you with a bunch of verbiage - just take a look...................

Management Buck

He has SEVEN Brow tines!

Incredible Mass

This one is probably only 3 Yrs Old

9x7!

1.5 yr old 8 point - gonna be good one day

Double drops - BOTH SIDES

Impressive Frame

26" wide!

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Summer Life on the C4

I have mentioned before that there is more to life at the C4 than JUST deer hunting - I know - hard to believe but there are a lot of cool things to do in the summer time when it is too hot to be in the woods or sitting on a tractor. Check out these pictures I shot this past weekend of some family time we spent down at the river that is less than 2 miles for the C4 lodge. Most people think you have to go out west to see scenery like this but it DOES exist right here in East Texas - one of our best kept secrets!

Carlee navigating the rapids

The water is cold and crystal clear and you can see multiple species of fish. We run spear fishing trips in the deeper pools on a regular basis for "rough fish" which is any non-game fish (it is not legal to use a spear gun on any freshwater game fish in Texas). We regularly shoot Gaspergoo, Buffalo, and Gar that go as big as 25 to 30 pounds - you are talking about a fight and a lot of fun!

Give us a call and come join us!

By the way - we still have some of the best whitetail hunting around!


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New Day Camp is Taking Shape

The day camp at the C4 is taking shape and we are making good headway for folks who know absolutely nothing about construction! They should put us on one of those DIY reality shows - it is quite comical at times.

New wall coverings

Wall coverings - Mini-Split A/C to the left

The A/C has been installed and the wall coverings are going up (the picture doesn't do them justice due to the poor lighting) - they look awesome! The wood panels are simply rustic fencing boards and the stone is real slate stone. All the doors have been installed and we are prepping the ceiling panels which will be old, rusted corrugated tin roofing.

We also are working on setting up the patio outside where hunters can sit around the fire pit and relax. We also have moved in a cedar picnic table to allow for eating outside when the weather permits.

Remeber, this is just a "day camp" on the northeast part of the property where hunters can relax during the middle of the day and have lunch before heading back out for the afternoon hunt without going back to the main lodge. We still have a lot of work to do but we are making progress and plan to have it finished by hunting season. I will post more pictures later as the work continues.......

By the way - I HAVE to show this picture of a one of the bucks we are getting scout cam pics of - he is going to be a BRUISER!

Come see us!

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You will NEVER be Bored at the C4

If you book a hunt at the C4 I guarantee you will never be bored - after you take your buck of a lifetime there is still plenty to do and experience. One of the favorite activities of practically everyone who visits is the awesome bass fishing here on Toledo Bend.

A great evening of fishing at the C4

I have hunted all over the world and one thing I dislike is not having something to do after I have taken my target animal. I have had a couple of experiences where I sat in camp for up to five long, boring days while my hunting partners continued to hunt - it can truly get mind numbing. Well, that wont happen here at the C4!

Fall and winter are great times to fish in Texas - the weather is usually nice and the fish really bite! I have had 40 fish outings in January and 20 fish outings are common - and these outings are rarely longer than 2 to 3 hours! After you take your buck you can sleep in the next day and we can go fishing after breakfast. The middle of the day is a great time to fish in the fall and winter - it has warmed up to a comfortable temperature and the fish are usually deeper so they bite better in the middle of the day.

Come see us at the C4 - there is no doubt you will take a great buck.....but you may take home a great fish too!


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Antlers and Fawns are Growing.......

It is only the end of June and the bucks on the C4 are looking AWESOME! We have had good, consistent rain all spring and early summer and that is the key to good bucks here in Texas. It keeps the food plots green and the natural browse growing. The bucks don't have to travel far at all to find a bite to eat and they are showing it. It looks like there are going to be some good ones this year!

We are seeing more and more fawns on the cams and occasionally see one in person. We have to continuously battle the predators to keep them from knocking a hole in our crop of fawns. Some of these will be our super bucks that some lucky hunter will be able to go after in about 5 years.

If you are interested in going after one of these bucks then go to www.c4whitetails.com for more information on booking a hunt.

Restoring Chestnuts to East Texas

Did you know that the greatest ecological disaster that has ever occurred in North America happened right here in East Texas? That's right - the extinction of the American Chestnut in the South (which includes East Texas) is the worst ecological disaster science has ever seen on this continent. In 1909 the US started importing chestnuts from China to satisfy the insatiable american appetite for "roasted chestnuts". What they didn't realize was that those imported Chinese chestnuts brought along a blight that our great American Chestnut could not fight off and within a few short years it had killed over 4 billion chestnut trees - yes, you read that correctly - BILLION with a 'B'.

Well, fortunately, there were a few really smart individuals that managed to save a few up north and start a process of developing a chestnut that was immune to the Chinese chestnut blight and today you can buy those chestnuts trees from a few select nurseries that  have spent decades growing enough to develop a market for selling them. Here at the C4 we feel it is our duty to help restore some of those great trees so we have started a process of planting a few every year and the first actual chestnuts are starting to bloom!

Chestnut Blooms

We plant them along the edges of food plots to give them plenty of sun and to make it easy to care for them. We have developed an easy and inexpensive way to water them and we have built exclusion cages around them to keep the deer from killing them (bucks love to rub them). We are looking forward to "roasting chestnuts over an open fire" this year and eventually they will produce enough of a crop to be a real benefit to the deer herd. Chestnuts are high in protein and digestible energy, they produce every year as opposed to every other year for oak trees, and some recent studies done by Dr. James Kroll have shown deer prefer chestnuts to acorns 100 to 1.

Chestnut trees in a food plot

If you would like to know where you can get some Chestnut trees of your own and help to restore this magnificent tree to your area then contact us through our website at www.c4whitetails.com and we will tell you all you need to know.

New Day Camp Making Progress

Chase installing the new door onto the patio

A couple of weeks ago I posted that we are building a new "Day Camp" in the barn out at the ranch to give us another place for hunters to take a break and relax and have some lunch in the middle of the day. We are making good progress for people who are NOT carpenters! The electrical and plumbing are in, the insulation is installed and the backing boards are on the walls. We spent this last weekend installing doors and windows. Next will be cabinets for the kitchen and then the wall coverings which will be old weathers fencing boards and stone - it is going to look awesome!

New patio door - love the Texas Star!

Summertime on the C4 is a time to complete these type projects because we certainly won't have time once deer season starts. We spend the balance of the time fighting the "war against vegetation", hunting and killing predators, and monitoring the deer herd. The does are starting to drop the fawns this time of year and bucks are busy growing antlers. I will post some updated scout cam pics of bucks showing their progress soon.

The Newest Member of the C4 Team

Mahlon Butler

We would like to give a big welcome to Mahlon Butler, the newest member of the C4 Whitetails team. Mahlon is a member of the Corp, and soon to be graduate, of Texas A&M University and is fulfilling his internship requirements for his degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences as the charter member of the C4 Whitetails Internship Program. He is a hard working young man and loves whitetail deer and the outdoors. He works at the ranch every day - weather permitting - doing whatever is necessary to improve the the habitat for our wildlife, including clearing roads and fence lines,and even fixing broken down equipment and trapping predators. We share everything we know about what we have learned from our experiences here at the C4 implementing the wildlife and habitat management program created for us by Dr. James Kroll - the undisputed leading authority on whitetail deer management.

If you are a ranch owner and will be looking for a wildlife manager who is hard working, well educated, and very enthusiastic then give Mahlon a call. He will be graduating in December and will be ready to go to work! You can contact him here at the C4 - go to our website at www.c4whitetails.com for contact information.

If you are an aspiring Wildlife Manager and would like more information on the C4 Whitetails Internship Program then go to our website and give us call - we would love to have you.

New Day Camp

Even though the ranch is only a few miles from the main waterfront lodge on beautiful Toledo Bend Reservoir we decided  we wanted a "day camp" right on the property. It would be a great place to have BBQs, lunches, and gatherings right on the property and an awesome place for our hunters to relax and "warm your bones" after a morning of deer hunting. It will be complete with a full bathroom, full kitchen, a large den, and a full covered patio with fire pit and sitting area!

A few weeks ago we framed up the main structure (okay, okay......CHASE framed up the main structure....but it was MY idea)! We then brought in a plumber to stub out the plumbing and an electrician to wire the electrical - we feel these two crafts are best left up to the professionals.

The framed out bathroom

In the meantime, April has been doing her thing with the interior design picking out fixtures and doors, flooring, and wall coverings. We want it to have that "rustic, warm, classy Texas" look and that isn't as easy as it sounds. Most of the materials you buy off the shelf just give it a cheap look and we want it to be much more than that so we are having to basically make everything ourselves from old re-purposed items that we have found all over the place. Take the bathroom lavatory for instance:

Whiskey Barrel Lavatory

April found this real whiskey barrel (it even smells like whiskey inside - way cool!) She then added the copper basin on top and we found a high rise sink fixture to finish it off. A door was cut in front to access the inside for storage and there you have it - a one of a kind rustic bathroom sink lavatory.

We have items from as far away as northern Oklahoma  and central Arkansas that we found while traveling (April is incapable of driving past an antique store or re-purposed materials shop!)

There is A LOT more to do and it will take time because you can't just buy this stuff at Home Depot but when it is finished it will be awesome! Stay tuned for updates - I will post pictures as we make progress. If you want to experience the C4 then give us a call or visit the website at www.c4whitetails.com for more information.

More than just Deer......

Since the C4 is primarily a whitetail deer hunting operation I talk mostly about the deer - but there is more to the C4 than just deer so I thought I would share some pictures of some of the awesome sunrises and sunsets that we get here at the C4 lodge on beautiful Toledo Bend Reservoir.

God's Glory

Beautiful Sunset

Rainbow Reflecting off the Water

Wow - what a Sunset!

A Purple Sunrise

Part of the "experience" of the C4 is this amazing lake and never-ending beauty of nature it provides. Come experience it for yourself - you won't regret it....(and we still have some AWESOMELY BIG DEER!)