The problem in Wise Co as far as leasing land is that in the last 15-20 years the county has grown so much that there aren't a lot of sizable tracs of lands left anymore.

Anybody with a 100-200 acres around here is considered to have a decent sized piece of land. There are a few out there and by a few I would guess just a handful that I've know of anymore. I lived here just shy of 30 years.

Makes sense and smart as well...

Yes pro craft 30 years ago when I was a kid I could hunt anywhere I wanted but now they are broken up or developed and I have to ask now.

How's the hunting directionally towards Springtown from Boyd, is that Wise county too? Drove through there about 9 months ago and it looked pretty good too. Some roll to the terrain.

The county line is just before springtown city limit. You must have been around keeter. There are some decent bucks in that area but you have to hunt on creeks here

Wise has improved a great deal in recent years, both in population and quality. I'll admit, that this is the first year I've stsrted to believe that AR's are working, though around me I believe they are working for a completely different reason than I had anticipated.

AR's frustrated a lot of our smaller acreage neighbors to the point they've stopped hunting. The first couple of years, they shot every buck even close to legal, but even those became harder to find. Poachers were a bigger issue as well, but great work by the GW's combined with neighbors who alerted them and the sheriff to any strange activity helped too. I take pictures or any odd vehicle I see multiple times and they see me do it. Now, that same pale-gray Dodge isn't showing up so much anymore. Funny how that works (chasing him once probably helped too).

Mainly it takes getting all your neighbors on board. When we took our place back from leasers several years ago our deer herd was almost wiped out. They had over-shot the place badly and the numbers showed. I can remember once going 16 straight hunts without seeing a deer. A bit over a decade later, I can't remember the last time I got skunked (I know it's happened, but it's rare).

It takes time and dedication, plus some patience and money. We created an environment where we'd hold more deer than our neighbors. Then they created similar areas and now we all have more deer. With numbers you get quality and with discipline, you get trophies. We don't have south Texas monsters, but we do have quality bucks.

Being iced in all weekend and not getting to hunt, I started going through old game cam pics. I went back to 2005 up to the present and the difference is somewhat remarkable.

The neighbor part is key. We had a couple of very bad ones, but they finally moved on and the replacements don't seem to even hunt.

I also stopped being shy or secretive. For example, we have some new neighbors this year that bought a pretty large piece of land for the area. I tracked them down, introduced myself, then started sharing my experiences and even showing them pics of different bucks. I even sent 2-3 years worth of pics of the same bucks to show how they have progressed and the potential they have if we let them walk.

Will they follow? I don't know that, but they seemed interested and if they happen to take them, well it's their land to do with as they please. I just put out the effort and can hope it works.

Not sure why I'm so long-winded, but it excites me to see great bucks from Wise County. While I've never lived there, my family settled that County and I hunt on land where my great-great-great Grandfather once lived and hunted. Something really special about that to me. Wish we still had our place in Balsora as I could then say great-great-great-great-great-Grandfather. We've been there a long time.

Good luck guys. It killed me to not be able to hunt this weekend, but I'll get up there in the next day or two. Looking like a great year and I'd sure like a trophy from it. Then again, I've shot three "trophies" in 10+ years so if I have to wait another, that's fine too. The trophy for me is seeing them improve.