The voice on the answering machine was matter of fact. "Lee, this is Scott Hohensee at Terra Rosa Ranch over here in McLean. We got a couple of pretty nice bucks this week you might want to see."
I filed away the number, but in the rush of work (and pheasant season) it was a week before I tracked down Scott and another week before we got face-to-face over a plate of barbecue.
To say that the ranch produced a couple of big whitetail bucks is quite an understatement.
Ronnie Brown of McLean stalked and shot the first buck, a 13-point monster with a 26-inch outside spread that grosses 175 4/8 B&C points as a non-typical. This buck tipped the scales at 200 pounds, yet was only 3 1/2 years old!
Not bad for a free-ranging whitetail anywhere, and more proof that the eastern Texas Panhandle can compete with any place in the world for big whitetail deer.
That same week, the TV camera team from Drury Outdoors, which produces hunting programs for TNN Outdoors, was hunting the 60,000-acre ranch to try for some good Texas whitetail footage. Mark Drury, who turkey hunters will recognize from his call-making and turkey hunting fame, shot a good management buck on the ranch.
But it was Missourian Steve Stoltz, also of Drury Outdoors, who was hunting with Scott when he rattled up a 14-point brute of a buck. Steve's buck, which the TV guys say is the largest buck taken on camera for The Nashville Network this year, has a 21 7/8-inch spread and grosses 169 2/8 as a non-typical.
Equally impressive, this buck, which Scott aged at 6 1/2 years, weighed a massive 225 pounds field-dressed!
"The TNN guys could't get over the body size of these deer, and they hunt all over the country." Scott said.
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No surprise, these bucks came near the Donnelly County-Collingsworth County line. Donnelly County produced the giant 31-inch buck taken by 13-year-old Barton Thorne in October. And it was Gray County, just outside McLean, which produced the giant buck last season which scored 212 B&C and was the biggest buck taken in Texas in 1998.
Hohensee moved to the Panhandle this summer to take over wildlife management duties on the 60,000-acre ranch, after getting a master's degree in wildlife science from Texas Tech.
He says the Terra Rosa, which is owned by Royal Oil & Gas Corp., has been under a deer management program for just three years, but is obviosly already seeing the fruits of that work. The ranch has not been commercially hunted, but plans are in the works to begin offering hunts there in 2000, for trophy whitetails, quail and turkey.
For more information on the ranch, you can reach Scott at (806)779-8985.
There are a variety of theories on why we're suddenly seeing such huge whitetails from the Panhandle between Amarillo and the Oklahoma border.
One theory is that the deer have just moved into this country during the past decade or so, as more brush has invaded the hills and creek bottoms.
Another theory gives credit to the Conservation Reserve Program, which has put hundreds of thousands of acres out of production, again offering more cover and forage for deer.
Certainly some landowners, such as the Terra Rosa, are also giving more attention to wildlife management and beginning to see the economic value of deer hunting, where quail and pheasants have gotten most of the attention before.
But the old-timers say we've always had whopper deer here ~ it's just that the secret is starting to leak out. And most of 'em would just as soon see that it stayed a secret.
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