I Hate Hogs, Too!

A few posts back I talked about how much I hate coyotes....well my second most hated critter is a feral hog. They can completely wipe out a food plot in one night - rooting it up so badly you have to completely start over and re-plant the plot from scratch.

Spring Shed Hunting - Found the First One!

One of the great things about owning quality deer hunting property with good deer habitat and REALLY big bucks is that you not only get to deer hunt in the fall but you get to shed hunt in the spring!

Making New Food Plots

As the landscape changes sometimes you find great new places for food plots. A properly made plot in the right location will provide abundant nutrition for the deer AND provide a great place to hunt. We just cleared a new plot inside a stand of timber that previously could only be hunted by locating stands on roads. Once we are finished we will have a nice plot where deer that were bedded nearby can stop on their way out of heavy cover to their primary feeding areas. A plot like this will give you an opportunity to catch a good buck moving while good shooting light is still available.

 

Even though we don't plant the food plots on the C4 until early fall, we like to clear new plots in early spring if ground conditions permit. This allows us to prepare the ground, kill the weeds, take soil samples, lime, and fertilize throughout the summer so that the new plot is primed and ready for planting come September. It has been our experience that it takes a couple of years here in East Texas to get the deer to utilize a new plot so that gives us plenty of time to get it well established.

 

This particular plot will have several trees inside the plot so it will look a bit different that your typical plot. The disadvantages to this is that it makes it more difficult to work the ground and plant it because the trees get in the way but the advantages of having several trees available for tree stands far outweigh the disadvantages. The deer really seem to like the trees in the plot as well.

 

As you can tell by the picture below, it is still in very rough condition. as we make progress turning it into a finished plot I will post more pictures.

 

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I HATE coyotes!

Here at the C4 predator control is part of our daily management regimen. This primarily means coyotes. They can decimate a fawn crop and even pull down an occasional adult deer if not kept in check. We spend a great deal of time trapping and hunting them to make sure they do not have an impact on the herd. We know we lose a certain number of fawns each year to these thieves and we want to do all we can to keep it to a minimum. We recently had some success taking a few out and boy did it feel good!

We are always looking for new ways to get rid of these pesky devils so if any one has any suggestions feel free to comment or contact us.


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Springtime Plot Work

It is finally drying out from the never ending rainfall we have been getting over the last few months and it looks like we will be able to get into the plots for some much needed work. In March we try to to spray the plots with a grass specific herbicide to kill the oats.

Why kill the oats when we have been working so hard to get them to grow all winter?? Because it is time for the clover and chicory to take over and letting the oats continue to grow just keeps the clover and chicory from thriving. We will spray all the plots with Arrow using a boom sprayer and in a couple of weeks the oats will be gone and clover will be lush.....and the deer love the clover!

Its shed hunting time at the C4! I will post some pics when we start finding them...it's almost as much fun as the actual hunting.....almost.....

Promising Young Buck Found Dead on the C4

Why is it always the good ones that die??? A promising young buck on our ranch that we had named He-Dog (only the good ones get names....) was found dead earlier this week by Chase.

Post Rut Supplemental Feeding



Here is a before and after picture of a buck on the C4 - first one was taken late October (ignore the date on the picture - didn't have the camera properly set...) the second one was taken mid-January. Notice the unbelievable weight lose from the rut! He is also a bit busted up from fighting.



Bucks run themselves in the ground "chasing tail" during the rut and it is not uncommon to lose a few during late winter that have run themselves down so much they just can't recover. It is important to make supplemental feed available to them during this time if you expect them to make it to spring in good shape and ready to start growing the next set of antlers. Many people feel this needs to be a high protein pellet but that can actually be harmful during this time of year. What is far more important to the deer nutritionally this time of year is digestible energy. Dr. James Kroll, who helps us manage the property and created our habitat plan and wildlife management plan has us start supplemental feeding of corn starting early January until the first part of March. This allows the bucks unlimited access to a high energy feed anytime they want it. We switch back to a balanced pellet ration that we have specially blended under Dr. Kroll's direction from March through the early part of the deer season to make sure the bucks attain optimal antler growth. Of course we keep the food plots in top condition to give them access the a palatable browse that is good for them as well. We plant Buck Forage Oats, Buck Forage Chicory, and a Red Clover from Kenland Seed that seems to grow much better here in East Texas than white Clover. All or very nutritious and the deer love all three. They always seem to prefer the food plots and the natural browse first but certainly hit the supplemental feed as well.

 

By the way - this buck is only about 3.5 years old so our feeding plan must be working!

 

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Pre-rut pic of a buck on the C4



Post rut pic of the same buck on the C4

New C4 Staff Member

I want to extend a special welcome to Buck - the newest member of the C4 team! He will head up the Shed Hunting Department and will chair the Committee on Bloodtrailing. He has a lot to learn but has much potential!

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Let's talk about East Texas deer

In order to understand why and how we do some of the things we do at the C4 is important to understand the history of the whitetail deer in East Texas - at least in Newton County where the ranch is located.

This part of East Texas was virtually devoid of whitetail deer by the late 1940s due to market hunting  and a lack of management in the early part of the 20th century. In the 1950s the TPWD (it was actually called the Texas Game and Fish Commission back then - didn't become the TPWD until 1963) implemented a re-stocking program in northern Newton County with deer captured from the King Ranch and the Chaparral WMA in South Texas. So if you are familiar with the deer in Newton  County and wondered why so many huge deer are taken out of that county it is because they are of South Texas origin with very influence of the typical Gulf Coast Whitetail genetics that are considerably smaller in body size and in antler size that inhabit the counties to the south and west.

This type of genetics can produce some GIGANTIC bucks if allowed to get to a mature age and if they get the appropriate nutrition - unfortunately, the browse in the East Texas Pineywoods, though abundant, is not up to par on what a deer needs to reach its full potential. Our mission is to make sure the deer on the C4 reach maturity and get optimum nutrition so many of the things we do is focused on that goal.

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The Beginning.......

All of my life I have had a dream to own my own "piece of dirt" - not just an acre or two - but a tract large enough to feel like you could get lost. Large enough to feel somewhat "wild". The main purpose of this tract would be, of course, to hunt whitetails! After all this is TEXAS - what else is land for?

Well a few years ago I got the opportunity to acquire a sizeable tract of prime East Texas property right in the heart of some of the best whitetail country in this part of the state! It was almost emotionally overwhelming the first time I set foot on the property after signing the papers. I couldn't believe it was really mine!

We (by "we" I mean me and my family with extra effort and time coming from my son Chase who manages the property full-time) immediately set out to create the finest deer hunting property in the state. We know it would be a lot of work and it would take time but it is a true "labor of love". We built roads, ponds, fences and food plots. We put up a barn, cut timber, trapped predators, and setup deer stands and blinds. We planted good trees and killed the bad ones. We cleared and we burned...........and that was just in the first year and we are only getting started!

I decided to start this blog because I felt it was important to document what we doing for future reference. Not that it is all that important or significant to most people but IT IS important and significant to us - if for nothing more than the benefit of nostalgia - so we can look back at it one day and remember the good times, learn from the bad ones and just enjoy it all over again.

What I plan to do is document the happenings on the C4 on a fairly regular basis. We experience something new almost everyday and it is a continual learning experience that we never tire of. I hope you find it interesting and maybe learn something too....it should at least be entertaining.

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