I've been on a low fence, 1800 acre MLD III place for 13 years now. It's located in Navarro county, east of Corsicana.

It's alot of work, but we've got a stable group of hunters (12), and our we've really seen good management practices produce nice deer.

We're in the middle of our counts/surveys right now. The night counts using spotlights are my favorite. We're seeing some REALLY good bucks right now, and in big bachelor groups. Hopefully this means our doe to buck ratio is coming down.

Last year we were issued 21 buck tags, and 46 doe tags. We turned back in 11 buck tags, and if memory serves, 28 doe tags. When comparing to other MLD III ranches, our tag to harvest % was slightly better than average.

Here's a nice 4 1/2 year old mainframe 8 that was taken last year. The picture doesn't do it justice. He was just over 17" wide. His mainbeams were over 5" in diameter at his G2's. The rack was really tall. He tipped the scale at 168lbs in January, so he was bigger pre-rut.




A very above average buck for this area. Plus, we've got neighbors that seem to live by the "if it's brown, it's down" rule. (We found a dead 2.5 year old 8 pt. last year that wasn't even 12" wide. He had been shot and ran onto our place. Sad.)

So, if you're on an MLD property, share your story!

not seeing 5 inches in circumference at the G2, much less diameter. I've never seen a deer with a 15 inch mass measurement at a single point on any any whitetail frame. Sorry for bustin you on what was most likely an honest mistake.

I don't think the biologist in our area would be too thrilled if we turned back in that many tags. I'm betting he'd question our dedication to the program.

Cool buck.

Is 168 a live or dressed weight?

Im sure you meant 5 inch circumference, not diameter.

Correct....circumference.

168 was pre-dressed weight.

JMalin.....regarding tags, we have a solid relationship with our biologist. And if you will re-read my post...our tag-to-harvest ratio was ABOVE average for all MLD'S in the area last year.

Regarding the 5" circumference, I have no reason to lie.

I always thought not filling the provided tags would lead to getting the boot from the program?

In the beginning (late 90's) we thought that as well. But that's not the case.

Today, we conduct our annual census and turn that over to the biologist. He comes back with the tag counts.

We all know that you cannot force deer to show themselves. We had an OVER abundant acorn crop last year, and the deer stayed in cover. We had weekends where I'd hunt almost all day, and see little deer traffic. In fact, we log the hours in the blinds. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but during our five month season, there was a hunter(s) in a blind somewhere on the ranch 33% of the time.

We hunted hard last year. But, you cannot make the animals walk out in front of you.

This year our cameras are capturing more deer eating corn at the feeders than I've seen in years. Why? Yup.....no acorns....so I'm betting our harvest numbers will be way up.

How the biologist explained it to me is that the tags he gave us was the maximum amount of deer he wanted to be shot, not necessarily the exact number. I was low on our doe harvest this year due to back surgery and the biologist didn't care. Interesting enough, he explained that in TPWDs eyes, they are getting landowners to be better stewards of the land (through herd and land management) by using extra deer tags and extended seasons as a "carrot".

Nice buck CB. The coloration of the antlers on that buck look strikingly similar to the ones on our ranch in northern Houston County. Most of the bucks we kill have antlers that have that mottled look with very dark bases.

Are yall doing any protein or food plots out there?

Along with having you take jaw bones, harvest reports and incidental sightings ,they should quote you a maximum and a minimum harvest number...which you will find out all biologist have their different approaches to their job... the one I use to work expressed how important meeting our minimum was which was 25 bucks and 40 doe... if not within reason we could be dropped down to level 2. I had no problem with how strict they were being about that also because I lived on this ranch and saw how many deer were really there...and if it wasn't for that the owner prolly wouldn't have approved shooting that many animals..

Oh and nice buck by the way!

Nav, is there a minimum property size to apply? We do most of this anyways.

I think it's 300 acres but they may have changed it

Just call your biologist in your local area. Its probably almost too late for this season (most are doing their counts right now) but you never know. You can get in with less than 300 in ETX, but I don't know about down south

When we entered the program they told us 1000 acres.

We hunt MLDIII property
Can't wait for season to start

The old ranch manager didn't allow us to shoot probably 1/2 the tags he was given.

New manager is working much better (actually working!) with TPWD

It depends on were your at and the deer population along with carry capacity your area can hold. iv seen places as small as 250 acres on it. You can also join neighboring properties to reach a larger requirement

JMalin, here's a little 'ol buck that my camera captured a week or so ago.....



Not bad for an East Texas buck....

here's some MLD 3 east texas deer.

By body weight, I think this is the biggest one I have on cam this year:



Group pics make for a better comparison:

That's a nice buck. It all depends on the acreage and density. We turn back in tags every year and no big deal.

Nice deer. Better than anything I have to work with. Hopefully we'll have a couple like that in the coming years.

Hunt MLD III in Polk county!!

These were all MLD East Tx Lf

Nice bucks Nav

I hunted several MLD leases up until about 5 yrs ago.