TX mule deer

muleymaddness

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Received this in an email. Don't know anymore details than what the email says and it came as a forward from several forwards and was supposedly taken here in Texas:

"A friend of mine shot this last week...they opened up Gaines County over here on the NM/TX line for the first time ever to deer hunting...36 1/2" wide..."

Anyone heard or seen this pic yet?

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A friend from Oklahoma sent me this photo of a Gaines county buck. Seems to be some nice bucks in the area. This buck was taken on Nov. 24, 2008.
 
So I take it this area in Gaines county, or this newley opened areas is mostly Private land or is there any public land to be hunted?
 
Gaines county is nearly all private. Oil country in TX and NM is producing some great bucks. There is one more picture that I have seen with both of the other bucks that I have seen and they are hard copy pictures. I know a few guys that work the oil fields in that country.
 
I just talked to a buddy of mine, he says he knows three people who have seen that buck. Supposed to be around 35" wide, and scores between 237 and 241 non-typ. They killed a number of studs in Gaines county this year.
 
Gaines County produced some studs this year - my wife and I both hunted out there as well as a couple of friends. I took a 201" 11 point (texas count), my buddy took a 197", and my wife took a masssive 11 point (never scored). It's all private land and 80-90% of the county was pretty much shot out this year. We fortunately found some landowners who were more interested in the long-term quality of the deer herd and kept the # of hunters down. Alot of ranchers/farmers had way too many hunters and over harvested the herd. The dollar signs were too high to turn down. We have been scouting this area for several years and had pretty much talked and met with every landowner in the whole county - burned alot of time, gas, and money but we have long-term leases now on some ranches that should be good for several years if we can keep the poachers away. A big buck was poached last week in a wheat field across from one of our ranches - the poachers shot the deer,drove off and never returned (lucky they didn't because they would have been in for a huge surprise.) I have pics of several other 200"+ bucks that were harvested and some that were not (took pics this weekend of a giant 8x5 - well over 200") but don't have permission to post alot of them. If any of you guys read Muley Crazy you might remember the article of the "forbidden fruit" - 47" muley poached with a 45" inside spread (supposedly the widest inside the beams ever documented) - that was poached in Gaines County.
 
LAST EDITED ON Jan-20-09 AT 01:48PM (MST)[p]We hunted the area this past year also, taking 2 bucks that each grossed 190".

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hey Fortis, nice buck! Looks like Brandon's ranch from the rocky hills in the background - if so, have you seen the 200" taken there 2 years ago? I never saw it but I heard it was a toad - some guy from New Mexico shot it. On the south side of the highway there was a 210" killed about 6 yrs ago with 8" bases - it was actually taken on the neighbors, but real close. I've been hunting south of there about 10-15 miles for about 8-10 yrs until this year - did you shoot that buck in the sand or in the hard country where the pic was taken?
 
I was thinking the same thing about feeding them, can you imagine if we here in Utah and other surrounding states can use feeders or HGH ( jk) We would be producing monsters on a yearly basis. I personally don't like high fence hunts. I am a DIY type of hunter. Nice bucks no matter where they came from.
 
would be kinda hard to high-fence shifting sand dunes, the first sand storm and the fence would be buried 10 feet deep. High-fencing 30,000-100,000 acres (most ranches in this area) would cost more than this land is worth to begin with. Pretty obvious from the remarks on this forum (high-fences, feeders,etc...) that they've never been thru West Texas or thru southeast New Mexico - oh well, that just leaves more 200" for us to keep shootin'!
 
hey cory, I grew up in Merkel and went to undergrad @ McMurry, and am there most weekends - we need to get in touch. These muleys are not panhandle deer, there are a few outfitters in this area but their prices are outrageous. We don't sell hunts, we just lease up land for friends and family to hunt. Rich Larocca is advertising on his website a hunt in this area - not Gaines Co. but real close. If the price is right for you, that ranch has alot of potential. I saw live pics of a 200"+ buck that didn't get shot this year very close to that ranch.
 

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