A while back some of us were talking about Portland Landing and Mossy Oak's management and massive planting, managing soil pH, etc... I found some pictures of a field that MO planted its brassicas on. Talk about a good-looking brassicas field and it got hammered that Jan-Feb. I guess that was a 5 plus acre field.

The picture of the guy below (is NOT me) with the very nice buck is from LA and he came for 5 days and left with two bow-killed P&Y bucks.

The picture of the three kids are my sons on the outside and my buddy's son (he was involved with MO) in the middle. I am thinking these pictures were taken around 2005 or 06.

Anyway, I forget how big this field was... big... but it was all brassicas and it was green, high and thick and it got hammered towards the middle of Jan - March which put many deer entering the green-up in pretty healthy condition which provides a head-start in antler development for the upcoming fall or so believed by me to be the case! I can't quote a study though!!

That place was amazing and I guess it all starts with the foundation of quality dirt!

Very cool! I burned that stand of pines in the background last month!

I have sat on that field once or twice... Sure hate to see a gold mine run in to the dirt like that, sure miss that place...

Gobbler, I would not think that the present landowner (just from what I have heard) would foot the bill for any timber mgmt that would cost money. Somebody other than the guy from, where, Eufaula (?), must own that piece of property that you burned.

I know the piece of land that I hunted the most was raped and every tree worth hauling out was cut!!! From what I could tell when I saw it a few years ago, "responsible" timber harvest was thrown out the window. Even wetland areas, because they were dry when the chainsaws were present, were taken advantage of and scalped! It was truly very sad! But the AMOUNT OF BROWSE was incredible!!!!! Sunlight hit the ground!

It was a very special place at one time. Great pics!

Exactly what I was thinking... Lanier isn't gonna pay for burning, he's in the money business not the managing business...

I entertained clients, for the company that I worked for, there several times back in the '80s and early '90s. We always saw a lot of game, both deer and turkeys, there were no hogs there then. We killed some good deer. Heres one I killed. those G2s are +13inches.

Lanier sold a lot of it to a pair of brothers, one from Birmingham and one from Mobile. The several thousand acres he sold were not cut much.

Big Jack, wow! Nice buck!!! Congrats. Those type bucks were certainly down there when I was hunting there. I don't know about now but they were down there when it was managed. That place has potential!!! Big time!!

So I guess Elm Bluff hunting club doesn't have much, if any, land up there to hunt... Sure hate that...

I hunted Portland the first year Elm Bluff got the hunting rights. The place was awesome. It was covered with big bucks, turkeys, and hogs. I did not shoot a buck that season just because I didn’t get a chance at one of those old swamp donkeys. I did see lots of bucks and several nice 3.5 year olds.

I scored over 20 bucks that season that were taken by club members. These 20+ bucks I scored ranged from 120 to 153 gross. The largest two were a 153 in 11 point and an unreal 146 in 8 point. The 8 was massive and it had almost a 22 in inside spread.

It was truly a place of dreams for a deer hunter. Key word there is WAS.

I do believe it could be great again though. It would require a great amount of control and folks that really wanted to improve it.

I think there are a lot of places in the black belt that "could" be something special, but until pines turn back into row crops it will remain to be just pretty good, IMO.

I was in Jackson, Mississippi yesterday and was looking at a MS Game and Fish Mag. while I was waiting on my meeting to start. I realize a small portion of Ms. has soil like the MW, but from what I was reading their efforts, statewide, are really paying off big. Also read where LA. was #3 or #5 (can't remember) in the country in regards to killing older bucks. 60% of bucks killed in LA. in 2011 were 3.5 or older. That's amazing!

Why "WAS" it then and not now. Is it just because Mossy Oak doesn't lease it?? Still some large landowners, still managed land, still folks planting deer crops, still burning.... Not sure I understand

It doesn't have anything to do with MO. MO didn't do anything magical. With the exception of unlimited resources to plant, plant, plant tons of acres! And, I guess that's kinda magical if you can afford to plant that much! MO did nothing outside of normal QDM with the exception of maximizing QDM in "every" respect. Anyone or any hunting club can do what MO did. (Do what MO did in respect to buck harvest rules; not the acres planted as most all clubs can't afford to plant #'s of acres that MO planted. Spoiler is right in his post below!)

Before some QDM naysayers blast QDM and MO... I feel I have to qualify QDM and MO by saying that MO always did the right thing and certainly allowed first time hunters, special needs kids, kids in general, etc... to shoot immature bucks or whatever they wanted. If you were an experienced mature hunter, then you were expected to shoot mature bucks and if a mistake was made, the hunter wasn't given 50 lashes. That's QDM.

Anyway, anyone can QDM and grow big mature bucks but doing it at PL, seemed very productive. I don't think the comments by Spoiler and Elkhunter pertained to all the landowners around PL.

I have to disagree with you Rich... Mossy Oak had almost unlimited resources and money. I've never seen a hunting club with the expendable $$$$ or equipment that Mossy Oak had. MO planted a little over 170 acres of food plots according to the logs I read in the old lodge and that was some of the best forage money can buy. They also didn't have to worry about filling a lease and getting enough members so Cuz and Toxey set the rules to THEIR standards and didn't care who didn't like it because they paid all the bills.

So yeah, MO had the ability to run it a LOT better than it will probably ever be run and it will never be as good as it was when they had it because no one that will ever own the whole piece they had and managing for QDMA will not be their livelihood like MO...

Excellent post Spoiler. You're right, they controlled the whole thing and managed it intensively. The more property you have under your control, and the more $$$ you can expend on your management program, the more you can accomplish. It's just plain facts and math. If you've got tight regs, 1000 acres good land and you plant 50 acres in high quality year round forage, you're gonna be successful and see some good hunting. But if you've got 10,000 acres of good land and plant 500 acres in high quality year round forage on it under the same rules, your gonna be way more successful. They controlled enough land and had enough money to do it right. That situation was ideal, unique and will be very hard to ever duplicate again.

The perfect example is Dr. Woods' place in southwest MO, featured on his website. I was there when he bought the place, and it was sure enough CRAP! Yet a huge amount of effort, and a huge amount of $$$ spent, has turned that place into a showpiece for the region.

It went from a private/commercial operation to a hunting club situation. Pre club, the place was managed for big mature bucks. The big difference now is that the club has severely changed the age class of the deer. As I said in a thread here a year or so ago, the club came in and set a 4 pt on one side rule. The first year they killed about 25 deer that went 125+ gross plus another 40 bucks that met "club rules". Year two came around and Spoiler killed the highest scoring buck on the place at 120. Of course they killed another 50+ club rule bucks. I have no problem with the rule. The deer were legal per the club and that was fine. The problem came in when the memeber starting blaming me and a few others for not allowing them to kill the big bucks. Both years there were more bucks killed than does. And yet some members were fussing about the number of does killed.

It is plain and simple. If you want to kill big mature bucks, you have to let the deer reach at least 3.5 years of age. If you want to shoot rack bucks only, then the 4 pt rule is fine. You just can't have it both ways. And you dang sure can't kill 70 bucks and 40 does each year and blame the guys killing the does for the lack of big bucks.

It was simple ego and greed. That place was good for about 25 mature bucks per season if the members could control their fingers. They couldn't.

If that pic was of you in the 80's... you must be old as dirt now.

Maybe a little older, 76 in two weeks.
And I am still that good looking.