I have seen some large bucks in Duster. My son & I let a few nice young 8 points go this year at the Duster property.

I am new to BOW HUNTING but, I plan to start the new season BOW HUNTING. I have set up a few tree blinds so that I can have a chance to get closer during what most certainly seems to be our peak rut - in late October early November. I will try to even bow hunt during the Spring Turkey Season.

I have already started to practice! Good Luck to you next year GFARLEY!

i'm headed out to comanche county tomorrow afternoon for the special late doe/spike season. wish i could've gone out there during the snowy, freezing weather, but this is the only chance i'll get. any late reports?

i'll post my results when i get back on tuesday evening.

I just got back. Got skunked again. 1st and last season in Commanche. Not impressed with the place I hunted (on 2247, 1/2 way between DeLeon and Commanche).

I am very familiar with the area you hunt, and the deer are very very spotty around there. I would suggest trying to get a place south of comanche, or in the Sidney area. The deer population gets pretty thin North of town.

We are going out this weekend. Give us all the update

We hunt in Biettie north of Comanche, spotty is an understatement for the deer population in this area.

I can say this, that for us, this has been the best year we have had since we have been on the property however, it is still nothing to write home about. We have been letting them go for about 5 years now, taking very few deer mainly cull deer. We hope this year is an indication that we will have much better numbers next year.

We will begin culling once we feel we have numbers to support the cull or balance the doe population. I actually saw more bucks than does. We will take inferior bucks however but will let young spikes walk.

It has been tough for us because once you don't see deer for a long time people tend to get an an itchy trigger finger and kill anything they see.

My deer hunts this year produced seeing at least one deer but as many as 3 deer each time I hunted. Laugh if you want but I spent many hunts over the years out here not seeing any deer at all and yes when I did see one, my fingers were awfully itchy. Thankfully, I was able to scratch them at a friends properties.

I am still concerned that locals - not the owners of our property but locals that live near and around our property take deer off season.

In addition, not to far from us, a farmer was caught using corn laced with temic to kill off hogs - it also killed deer, turkey and a number of other wildlife that ate this stuff.

I can't believe he just thought of that on his own and other farmers and ranchers are not doing the same thing without being caught.

If you have too many hogs it is not fun. I know farmers want to get rid of them but for me - they are fun to hunt and it is disappointing not to see hogs at all. I still beleive that some folks are using temic to kill them off and that means it will kill virtually everything. I hope I am wrong, but when you don't see anything moving including squirrels, raccoons or rabbits, something is wiping them out.

Anyway I am going to meet with my neighbors sometime this year and see if we can all get on a program to manage the heard we develop.

Good luck to you this next year.

hunted yesterday evening and again this morning. nothing. didn't see any deer or any signs of deer, no new tracks or anything. but the place we hunted hasn't been fed in a couple of years, plus there seems to be a big population of coyotes in this particular area which may have scared most of the wildlife out of there.

Bigtexnick - where do you hunt?

I got two coyotes this year from my stand and have heard them howeling. I want to get more them. I am going to do a coyote hunt in February - I got a pretty cool caller to try out. Should be fun!

I didn't tell you earlier but this year (November) while hunting in Duster, I swear I saw about 10-12 bobcats at one sitting from my tree stand. I could not beleive it. One with kittens.

At this time, I did see a doe next to one bobcat, beating her hoof down to scare off the bobcat but she really did not seem to be bothered by it to bolt off.

For me, I got to see the most activity this year from all my blinds, even though I did not pull trigger that day.

The next week the farmer cut all the coastal down so that he could bale it - that was the end of most of the activity there.

Never saw anymore bobcats after that. Did see a coyote however and took him from that tree stand. I am sure those bobcats are still around but moved off to better cover.

Guys, James Edwards is our wildlife biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife for Comanche County. It's a free service for him to come out to your place (set up a wildlife plan) or if you have any questions concerning wildlife/habitat management. He is scheduling now for March.

Contact:

James Edwards Wildlife Biologist
2201 CR 156DeLeon, TX 76444
(254) 893-4870

Link:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/land/habitats/county/?county=Comanche

it's kinda close to Rising Star, but it's in comanche county. i guess far north comanche county?? i'm not sure, i'm not too familiar with the area.

it's a 50 acre lot, i think. not very big, but it does hold deer. although it hasn't been hunted or fed in a year or so, there have been several 6 to 8 point bucks and a few doe taken from it in recent years..

Hopefully you will have a better next season.

Anyone hunting Chuck Green's place these days a few miles SE of Comanche? Used to be pretty good hunting.

Glad to see the extended doe season this year. Reduced the population by two! Still lots of young bucks around, and a couple of wall hangers made it thru .....AGAIN!

And...tons of turkeys!

Now the spring food plot fun starts!

I am already planning for next year's season.

We want to try a food plot this spring. Anybody know what might grow well in the Comanche sand?

I picked this up from another post - the person who wrote it hunt fairly close to us.

James Edwards is our wildlife biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife for Comanche County. It's a free service for him to come out to your place (set up a wildlife plan) or if you have any questions concerning wildlife/habitat management. He is scheduling now for March.

Contact:

James Edwards Wildlife Biologist
2201 CR 156DeLeon, TX 76444
(254) 893-4870

Respose from Cave Creek at QDM Forums from Texas Food Plots for the Spring Plant:

Most of my annual clover type forages have made into june or july most years. Crimson clover is a good early season plant, but if you don't get good early fall rains in your location, or mine... you just about get absolutely nothing out of it.

This past fall, present winter - is the first time I've had decent fall rains in the hill country in probably 4 years. For this reason my clover production is typically zilch until late winter, early spring. Often my clovers will not have even germinated until late jan. This year is an exception. But because of the late winter rains, seeds have a late start (germination) and therefore a late finish into the summer, especially with fair summer rains.

Good rains from late spring through summer can do some really funny things with clovers.
Something like crimson should typically be drying down late april into may though.

Hard seeded annual clovers and the biennial or perennial clovers or fall seeded legumes (like alfalfa) will often keep their seed quality while laying in or on top of the soil, just waiting for those rains. I have seen chicory do so as well. On my own place I had a small plot of chicory and alfalfa growing into June 2009. Would have made it longer despite the lack of rains, but our local axis herd finally found my test plot.

For a good example though, one of the ranches I have helped consult and plant on, west of kerrville, had chicory, madrid yellow sweet clover, and hubam white sweet clover growing up until the time the plots got disked for fall preparation mid august. The few spots that didn't get disturbed have grown into and some through this past fall. All with very very disappointing rainfall.

The sweetclovers are very drought tolerant clovers. Madrid can actually last up to two full years with adequate moisture. The Hubam is larger seeded, an annual, and will therefore put growth on faster, but can sometimes grow into the following fall as well. Somewhat dependent on if deer keep it grazed while it tries to make seed. I have been very impresed with drought tolerance of chicory as well. Has persisted on dry caliche soils with little rain.

For the record, sweetclovers are not always highly preferred, due to a chemical compound that makes the forage taste funny, coumarin. But they do eat it, and it is high in protein. The fact that they may not hammer it right away is actually a benefit, allowing it to establish its root system.

I have not yet tried Durana white clover. It would be great for length of growing season and grazing tolerance, but is more shallow rooted and takes rather long to establish. If you are on a high pH soil, it will probably not work.

I have not messed much with red clover, but did hear that one gentlemennear me has had a stand for the past three years. Worth a shot if you find good priced seed.

I have planted LabLab one year unsucessfully and this past season successfully (only in some cages). Our spring and summer was nearly impossible to grow annual summer forages. 2008 never gave enough rain to get a stand. 2009 didn't either, but I do have one small plot where I run well water to. With absolutely no moisture in the top two feet, the only thing I dared try was planting in some cages so that I could observe the plants and get some photos.

If you want to go the annual spring summer route I would personally recommend cowpeas. But watch their prices. They have been a bit high the last two seasons. If you can get a 50# bag for around $40, I think its worthwhile. You can plant at @25# ac, making your cost $20 per ac. In good years prices will be lower. Mixing with some cheap hay grazer, milo/sorghum, or even millet, can help hide the peas for a while, shade them from extreme sun, and possibly provide structure for which they can climb. I saw one stand of cowpea/millet this past season that worked fairly well, but millet has smaller seed, so you will need a little more mositure initially.

Pay careful attention to the clovers you have planted currently. Analyze them for next year. If the crimson or arrowleaf look yellow and sickly, then you probably have a higher pH. If your madrid doesn't work, then the soil may be too sandy or too acid. Proper innoculation of clover is also a very important aspect to their performance and appearance.

Always watch prices. If madrid and arrowleaf did well for you, they are pretty darn cheap.

Both under $2.00 per lb where I shop. Actually more like 1.50 and 1.75. At a full seeding rate, either 10# arrowleaf per acre or 12# madrid per acre, you can add to your fall mix and possibly have early to late summer forage for an additional $17-18 bucks. Having the advantage of establishing root systems by late winter, and plowing only once.

Peanuts used to do pretty darn well around the area. lol.

Actually - there is a peanut mill as you may know in Beattie, within a mile as the crow flies from our lease. Our rancher said he may start growing again soon and a number of farmers in the area have already done so.

After a number of years of growing peanuts, the land must rest to be able to produce good quality peanuts. He has not grown them there for the past 5 years.

The farmers that were growing peanuts in the area seemed to be doing well until that peanut scare happened a few years ago. So I think that is why the owners of our property have delayed planting. There were quite a few of the trailer bins full of harvested peanuts.

Hopefully he will plant again soon.

Get ready to kill a some pigs, they love peanuts too.

I'm south of Beattie off of 2247. This used to be peanut heaven, but they all moved out west, so now it's coastal country. Man, I'm glad I don't have to hoe anymore damn peanuts.

I know they love peanuts too. Are you the land owner or leasor? You don't think they will plant peanuts again? - I have been seeing them being planted more and more around us. You are right about the coastal, he has planted coastal everywhere.

We planted buck forage oats near duster that worked great early. During bow season, the deer would run across 60 acres of wheat to get to the 6 acre oat patch.

Went to the farm (Beattie) this past weekend - filled feeders, fixed electric fence and checked cameras. All is looking good - next trip in April we hope to establish food plots.

In addition to deer, bobcats and cattle, our cameras had several pictures/videos of hogs which we have never had on this property for whatever reason. Another property we hunt neat Duster as the crow flies is only a mile or so away and it has hogs all the time.

What are we planting this spring Koolhandthehuntingman?