I've heard the numbers have really declined in the past few years. I know our tract of land 7 miles down the road away from SRS has 5x's the deer the SRS tract hasDon't know about inches but SRS has the numbers!!!!!! But I'm sure u know that View attachment 955171
Yall pretty much make me wanna shoot every buck I see, sell my land and buy something smack in the middle Georgia so maybe I can have a booner???lol I'm kidding but thanks for the comments gon?
I guess really my goals should be to raise to best deer I can with what I'm working with and be content with what I haveIf that ws the ultimate goal, I wouldn't buy in Georgia either. There aren't that many B&C deer that come from Georgia either, relative to the number killed. I had a buddy that had a place in middle Georgia for years and killed some pretty good deer on it. Several years ago he went bowhunting with a friend of his that had bought a place in Missouri. On that first trip he killed one with the bow that grossed over 160" and saw "several others" bigger than anything he had ever grown on his place in Georgia. He sold his place in Georgia and hunts almost exclusively in the mid-west now. I guess it ultimately depends on what you goals are.
We consider a 150 a booner now where I'm hunting and I still haven't killed one? we lower it to 130 and I'll be the freaking man?
Ain't that the truthThe bucks will only grow as big as your neighbors let them.
I think your estimates are spot on. Minerals/salt/protein will only go so far in Ga.I have contacts at local plantations that 1) intensively manage for trophy bucks and have the genetic potential to justify the efforts and 2) heavily feed protein feed to assist in that effort. In almost every case they are experiencing an estimated 10" of antler growth over the "Norm" for each age class of bucks they have.
This is not a casual endeavor for them....this is serious business involving several thousand acres managed....not just the 150-200 acre spot most of us hunt on.
You also have to add in the serious amount of money it takes to do this as well. Your average working man with average land will not achieve this. I will not take that away from those that do..please make that known. It is a hard labor to do and a very costly one. Anyone that says different is not telling the whole story. Constant food is key..constant food will naturally hold more deer(in theory) and I will rank age above everything. Deer are like people though. Not all of them will be a monster. That's fine too. A mature buck (4.5+) is very good, no matter rack sizeI have contacts at local plantations that 1) intensively manage for trophy bucks and have the genetic potential to justify the efforts and 2) heavily feed protein feed to assist in that effort. In almost every case they are experiencing an estimated 10" of antler growth over the "Norm" for each age class of bucks they have.
This is not a casual endeavor for them....this is serious business involving several thousand acres managed, not to mention being blessed with Wisconsin stock genetics....not just the 150-200 acre spot most of us hunt on. Ask Nick...he'll tell you about it.