Warning… dissertation ahead…
I’m not on here much anymore, but I lived on this forum in the old days… I just couldn’t help myself after the day I’ve had… maybe some of the old guys are still on here to see this.
I’ve been hunting my whole life, but the only piece of family ground we have hasn’t been much for deer hunting. And by “hasn’t been much” for deer hunting, I mean I didn’t even see a track on it for the first 30 years of my life… and that property was my playground growing up.
The property has been in the family for right at 100 years. My great grandfather bought it in the early 1920’s and worked it with 2 mules and a plow until they could finally afford a tractor in the mid 1940’s.
This is him… Joseph Tucker “Tuck” Sudderth.
My great grandfather never got to see a deer on the place, as the prairie in this area had all been shot out by the time he bought the place. And, my grandmother doesn’t know of a single deer taken on the farm in her lifetime either… so I believe that this makes the buck i took this morning the first on this place in +/- 100 years!!!
My mom bought 42.75 acres of the original 75+/- from my great grandmother and it essentially sat as hay or grazing pasture since 1987. My aunt owns the remaining property. I have a few pics from the 80’s, but they aren’t as relevant as the one of great gramps.
I started restoring the land to native habitat about 5 years ago. It has been VERY slow, and all on the cheap. I removed the grazing in 2020, and have only allowed it (or haying) sparingly since. Always timed to work towards a specific reaction I want from the land and vegetation. We burned 13 acres 2 years ago, and the wildflowers and forbs EXPLODED. I plan to burn 25 acres in the next few months and hope for the same outcome.
I hunt mostly public land, and have gathered native grass seeds by the pocket or Walmart sack full each fall on the public land pieces that still have intact prairie. Just pinching and pulling the seeds from the head. Slow, but free. The place has slowly gone from being grazed as short as pool table felt, to about belt buckle high at the lowest, and chest high in many places.
Aside from that, mostly failed food plots is about all I have done to draw in deer. My timing has been perfect, though. The area is pretty close to the DFW metroplex in texas, and properties are transitioning out of cattle production and into smaller “ranchettes”. This brings along brush and old field habitat that has allowed the deer population to finally grow. This area still has very low deer numbers, perhaps as high as 7 DPSM. BUT… the deer numbers this year are probably double from last year, and at least 10 times higher than 5 years ago.
This county has antler restrictions, and here in Texas that means a 13” inside spread. (Aka “outside the ears”) I have ran cameras for 5 years, and never got a legal buck… but this year, I have had 4 pass through. They don’t stay, they definitely don’t live on the place… but they pass through. I also consistently have 1-3 does per week using the place.
This morning, I connected with the newest of those legal shooters… (the only picture I have of him is 5 days ago) and WHAT A DANDY!!! He isn’t my biggest buck, he definitely isn’t my oldest buck (probably 3.5 based on teeth and shoulder/neck size), but he will forever be my favorite buck I will EVER get to shoot in my life.
I truly can’t believe I actually got such a nice deer off this place, after all these years of feeling like there would never be a chance. I couldn’t be more happy, and I couldn’t feel more blessed.
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