Hunter Management on Your Ranch
In our four-part series we’ve discussed habitat management, herd management and now we find ourselves diving into one of the most challenging aspects of wildlife management, HUNTER MANAGEMENT, managing the people in and around your ranch. The human component is one of the key ingredients to achieving the goals you’ve set for your property, but it’s one that few have mastered.
As we all know too well, people are hard to control, especially when it comes to land and big bucks. The selfish nature of humans is one of the tallest hurdles to get over when it comes to deer management. We all want those bucks to stay on our side of the fence, we want those fawns to be born on our property and stay there, we want, we want, we want… But what if we took a step back and looked at managing deer from a regional standpoint and not just within our property lines? Whether we want to admit it or not, most of us are managing our neighbor’s deer throughout the year. On the flip side, they are managing ours too! So, it just makes sense to make that phone call or knock on the neighbor’s door, share a cup of coffee with him and join forces in deer management. Right? https://www.qdma.com/guy-next-door/
That’s obviously much easier said than done. I even find myself having a hard time with it due to the trust factor. In 2016 I took my largest buck to date on the land we lease in East Texas. I finally had physical proof that I could share with my neighbors that allowing a buck to grow to 5 ½ years old was worth the wait. That extra year did wonders! But my excitement was also met with hesitation. I began to wonder if my transparency would bring cooperation or issues with poaching. See, I grew up in a hunting culture of “if you don’t shoot that buck, your neighbor will” mentality. Even I have been guilty of allowing that to influence my decision on taking certain bucks over the years. I hate to admit that, but it was the world we grew up in. As antler restrictions changed and education became more accessible, the hunting public began to transition their mentality into more of a “let them go so they can grow” frame of mind. It has taken some years, but we are much farther along than we were 10-15 years ago. Most of the larger land owners and deer managers have been there for decades, but the general public and smaller land owners are dragging behind.
A young up and comer
So, what’s the answer? I believe it purely comes down to trust. If you don’t trust your neighbor and trust the system of sound deer management, you’ll always have that hole in your plan. The Quality Deer Management Association has what they call QDMA Cooperatives that are formed by landowners coming together and collectively adopting a general management plan for their properties. https://www.qdma.com/qdm-practiced-benefits-boundary-signs/ Once we have that mutual understanding, your neighbors (typically) feel more comfortable about letting that 3 ½ year old buck walk next season, because they know that you are going to do the same thing. It just takes a leap of faith to initiate that conversation. In many cases several adjoining landowners can group up, establish a game plan and essentially manage their collective properties together and have much more control of their herd dynamics. You don’t have to manage the exact same way, but the take away is that everyone is on the same page with their end goals. https://www.qdma.com/buck-brought-neighbors-together/
Another aspect of hunter management is managing the hunters on our own property. Many of us share a property with other tenants, hunting club members, or the actual land owner and his family. Either way, we still have to maintain a collective effort each season to achieve above average goals. Communication is the key. In most situations someone has to step up and take the lead, otherwise, you’re all doing different things throughout the year that could very well be working against each other. Food plots, supplemental feeding programs, stand placement, and most importantly harvest goals all need to be planned amongst the crowd. Getting everyone on the same page can literally make or break your long-term management goals. This is where education is important. You likely have some younger or less experienced hunters sharing your property, which is great, we need to embrace these individuals and teach them. There’s a lot of information at our fingertips these days but being focused in your approach to education can bring them in much quicker. Don’t overwhelm new hunters with the details of managing deer. Bring them in slowly and show them by example what being a deer manager means. Take them with you when you’re assessing habitat quality in late spring and physically show them native plants preferred by deer. Invite them out when you coordinate a controlled burn, put them in a position to learn and be successful. We all have responsibilities to share information and pass the torch. Being open-minded and willing to learn ourselves is equally important. There’s always something new to learn.
So, take a chance, spend some quality time with your kids, neighbors, and friends and expand your deer hunting community. Be patient and remember to take it one step at a time. We all had to start somewhere.
Our next generation
To learn more, be sure to read Stephen’s first two articles of the series: Intensive Deer Management on Your Ranch and Managing the Deer Herd on Your Ranch.
About the Author: Stephen Schwartz is a Texas licensed farm and ranch real estate agent with Hortenstine Ranch Company and a graduate of Texas A&M with a BS in Agricultural Engineering. Mr. Schwartz has now earned his Level 2 Deer Steward, QDMA . Stephen is also a gifted photographer and captured the beautiful images in this article. Learn more about Stephen Schwartz at https://hrcranch.com/stephen-schwartz/
First, we’ll discuss predator management and fawn recruitment. Simply put, if fawn recruitment is low, the natural reaction is to back off of your doe harvest. That’s the quick fix, but don’t stop there. The source of your fawns is certainly a key resource, but once they hit the ground the story isn’t over. There’s no question that in any region in the country, particularly the south/southeast coyotes and bobcats take a large toll on our fawn population. With this, comes balance, it certainly isn’t necessary to totally eradicate all predators, but you cannot manage your deer herd, without managing your predators. Many land owners often minimize the effects that bobcats can have, but they are just as fierce and in some cases more challenging to manage due to their nature. In this case trapping is certainly the way to go, especially in late winter and early spring just before the fawns drop. However, becoming an effective trapper in one season is very difficult. It takes a lot of time and effort to become successful at trapping these wily animals. Hiring a professional may be the way to go for most land owners unless you have the time and resources, then learning the craft will benefit you for years to come. 
Second, managing your herd is also managing their habitat like we mentioned in the previous article, and remember, it’s not just about the growing season. This is a year-round chore. It also means getting out and monitoring the availability of food in late winter and early spring. That is the most critical time for deer as they are approaching spring and fawning season and food sources are low. There are several practical ways to go out and assist them during this stressful time. The first way is to manage your native vegetation. Here in the south there actually is some food available, but it’s sparse. Green briar and honeysuckle for instance will be green during this time of the year and pulling it down into a deer’s reach can help them. On the property we lease we have areas where either an old brush pile has been over taken with honeysuckle or something similar along a tree line; we will hinge cut small saplings where these vines cling to and actually bring down the vegetation lower to the ground where the deer will be able to reach it. This seems trivial, but a few hours’ worth of work could help tremendously. 
Trophy Rock mineral
This is one of those traps I fell into. I grew up with the notion that if your property wasn’t just ‘over-run’ with deer, then shooting several does each season was hurting fawn production. I just couldn’t wrap my head around shooting multiple does in a season, knowing they were potentially carrying next year’s fawn(s). There was no scientific data to back up my assumptions, just too many years of being uninformed led me to be hesitant to shooting does. Then once I was aware that does needed to be taken each year, I only wanted to take the ‘old dry doe’ and preserve a potential producing doe for next year. The main problem with this is neither I, or the other hunters on our lease could single handedly alter the population that drastically. Second, I was forgetting about the carrying capacity of the property. Too many does equals an unhealthy deer herd, thus taking does out each season will immediately equate to more food available for the remaining deer. It really is that easy. It just took time, and me getting out of my uninformed comfort zone to actually learn this. Also, shooting the right doe was also revealed to me.
For several seasons, I was thrilled with a 3 ½ year old buck, but over time that motivated me to try and target a 4 ½ year old or better. The next two seasons I was yet again rewarded with a buck from this age class. However, during those years, we only managed to take few bucks off the entire ranch, allowing our age structure to climb. See, when we began leasing this particular ranch, we didn’t punch a buck tag for 4 years due to over hunting by the previous tenants. So, we invested those first few years and went into full rehab mode. As the seasons passed, and we learned the property and herd dynamics, our age structure climbed. Last year I was finally able to take a buck that was 5 ½ years old. We’d never seen him on camera in daylight, but had an idea of where he lived. This was purely one of those moments where opportunity meets patience and hard work. I happened to hit the rut perfectly and my setup was just the ticket for that moment in time. Those days don’t happen very often, and I understand that. Will I ever go back and shoot a 4 ½ year old buck again? Probably. Hunting the area in East Texas where we are, it’s not common for a 5 ½ year old to slip up, so again, I have to be realistic with my approach.
We have to remember to have fun and in doing that we recruit new hunters and the next generation of land managers. It’s incredibly important to teach them the correct way from the beginning so we can minimize that learning curve we’ve all had to overcome. With that being said, we also have to be willing to relax the grip on our management techniques at times to allow these young hunters to participate. It won’t kill our management plan to allow your child/grandchild to take a young doe or buck. It gets them involved at an early age and provides an incredible teaching tool to understanding and respecting this magnificent animal we have the opportunity to enjoy. 
With 7 generations of fond memories and gratitude, the descendants of Toddie Lee Wynne are offering their historic ranch to the marketplace for the first time in 160 years, and they are excited to see the next owners write their own history there and add new chapters to the long legacy of an exceptional and beloved place—Star Brand Ranch.
Free advice
1. Grubbing or the top-removal method
Restoration after Pricklypear Removal
In North Texas, the Wynne name needs no introduction, but, even for such a storied family, Toddie Lee Wynne Sr. left indelible marks on Texas history—AMLICO, the Dallas Cowboys, Six Flags Over Texas, Wynnewood, and the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, to name a few. Yet, for all the prestige and influence he and his wife Imogen may have enjoyed, their hearts remained tied to the rolling woods and still pastures they knew as children in East Texas, and, while their retreat on 
