Spoiler, big grin and I highly yield to your post! YOU ARE 100% right!!! I should have been more specific. No doubt that MO planted every available piece of land they could and they habitat managed it as much as they could. They did it right for BIG mature bucks AND a healthy deer herd.

But the part I was talking about (anyone can do it too) were the "buck harvest rules". MO was serious about mature hunters shooting mature bucks only! Way too many people paint QDM into a corner and say that QDM means you can't kill ANY immature bucks and that even means kids, first-time-hunters and that is NOT the case.

When MO had PL, the majority of bucks killed at PL were "mature". Being greedy and being trigger happy and shooting 2.5 yr old bucks or "4 pts on one side", was not tolerated. They also preached, which I agree, that you don't have to "kill" a buck for a hunt to be successful!

So yes, no doubt, MO had the resources to plant, plant, plant but the BUCK HARVEST or KILLIN' rules MO instituted when they had it, can be duplicated by any hunting club!!! So that was my point.

As Elkhunter pointed out, 4 pts on one side or better will not produce near the same results as "mature bucks only" rule. When you have several members killing two or three basket-racked 2.5 yr old 12" inside spread bucks every year, you're not going to have a great number of mature bucks.

Abolt300, you're right too. I am just glad that I got to watch the transformation MO did. However, even without the massive planting, quality bucks can still be produced there but the bucks will have to make it past 2.5 yrs old first!

Dang Rebelman!!! LOL!! I'm going to remind you in 30 years how dang old your @$$ is!!!! LOL!!!!!

Big Jack, I think you can still take him!!!!

Just kidding Rebelman!

So, (I don't know the history that well), while International Paper owned it (paper company managed), MO leased it and set the rules and planted food plots. After they left, it was leased and overharvested. Now some of has been cut hard and subdivided to private landowners (still multi-thousand acre landowners). Is that correct?

If so, I would think it would be easy to re-manage to excellent hunting through "mature buck standards", and better habitat management, which of the landowners I know there and neighbors, IS the standard. In addition, while 170 acres of foodplots sounds good, it still is a small proportion of the total land base (less than 2%) when the remainder is in mature woods and planted pines (again ownership dictated timber management for maximum wood production). I've got neighbors to them that plant a SIGNIFICANTLY larger proportion to quality summer and winter foodplots. Foodplots don't make quality deer - habitat management does and some of the new owners (and neighbors) are doing that with burning (something that, I assume, MO did not do since IP owned it). You can accomplish a LOT more quality animal production with a logger and a match than a tractor!

A lot of assumptions and I could be wrong on any or all



Most of it is not a club situation any more!

About 1,200 acres sold about 4 years ago. It was along Rum Creek. Has more sold now? If so, what part? A friend of mine made an offer a few years ago for about 600 acres on the south side where the big hay field is. The hay field is planted in pines now.

One guy I am doing some work for bought about 5,000 acres south and east of the hayfield. He's pretty serious about habitat management and deer harvest. Another guy bought a couple thousand on what was the North West side of IP's old ownership. He's putting up a high fence on a portion of it. The hayfield, at least, is planted in longleaf pine

An additional 2,000 or so bordering it is owned by a friend/client and he also does an exceptional job of deer/turkey management, both plantings, harvest, and "real" management on burning/thinning woods. Less than 5 miles away, another friend is growing deer (and wild quail incidentally) on about 3,000 acres of managed woodlands that, last year of their killed bucks, averaged over 200 lbs and over 140".

I wonder why MO didn't just buy the place. Or another question. Why did they ever let it go?

Preach on brother!

Until the chemical prep is sprayed on a lusciously green cutover in August killing all the browse so that the Feb replanting can occur without competition.

There have been several incidents where I was excited about the amount of browse in a clearcut during the summer and then, late summer, the clearcut gets nuked. That's always disappointing but I understand the business of growing trees.

Regarding PL, Mark Thomas treated a lot of thinned planted pines areas with Arsenal and wow did it make a difference when the sweetgums and other hardwoods yielded to the sunlight.

gobbler,

I was really surprised to see several coveys of wild quail on PL while I was hunting there. I killed alot of hogs in that long hayfield. I have no doubt I pushed some hogs onto some of those properties! LOL

If you are talking about the hay field North of the iron bridge I killed my first gobbler just west of there many years ago.

Amen! Plus the logger and fire is MUCH more economical....

Not only "economical" but often profitable. I'm making very good money from even the small timber cuts I'm having done.

I am pretty sure that is the land that went with the old Hit-n-Miss lodge... It doesn't sound like Lanier has sold any of the lease we were in Barry...

That's it... My daughter killed her first rack buck in the field that parallel's that road a couple of years ago...

You guys have to quit, you are killing me. Dang I miss that place.

Barry, as you know, I hunted the Bow Only land with my buddy Darrell for years. Oh heavens!!! I miss it too. Just think what it would be like today if the present hunting club let those 2.5 yr old bucks walk! You saw PL at its peak. The stories I have of that place! Hey Barry, remember when you saw that huge buck when he...? Oh, and when that big 10 pt gave you the slip when you were about to shoot him? And all those bucks you rattled up?

Sorry, you're going to have nightmares tonight!!!

That place just has some quality dirt.

When the Hit n Miss Hunting Club formed in the early ‘70s the agricultural land was primarily soybeans. In fact, the property was a quail hunting plantation previously and had not been a deer hunting club. My Grandfather primarily joined due to quail prospects and not deer and turkey believe it or not as he had never even harvested a deer prior to joining. As a side note, and ironically, my Grandfather harvested the first and last buck on the property as the Hit n Miss Huntinh Club. Anyway, there had been relatively very little to no deer hunting pressure on the property prior to the Hit n Miss forming. The combination of soybeans, hardwood bottoms, Black Belt soil, desirable genetics, and very little to no hunting pressure resulted in producing tremendous deer prior to any official, or institutional, “deer management” on the property. In hindsight, the worst management practice implemented during the Hit n Miss Hunting Club era is when bounty hunters were hired by the state to reduce the deer population during the off season. This occurred one year during the late ‘70s, or early ‘80s. Not only were deer killed, or culled, without been properly identified, the Club smelled for months due to all the deer crippled deer that were not retrieved during the process.

Wow. What a joke.

At the time, 40 years ago, it must have been considered a productive practice. I know in hindsight Club members regretted agreeing to the program.

Just a short 8 year break in the discussion.........