Raising Monster White-Tailed Bucks with Hurricane Creek’s Todd Ouellette
Day 3: Trophy Bucks Breed More Trophy Bucks with Todd Ouellette of Hurricane Creek
Editor’s Note: The number of deer in enclosures and under high fence is growing across the country as more of today’s hunters want to take trophy bucks but have less time in which to do it. In recent years, the solution to this problem has been enclosure hunting. Like most hunters, initially I wasn’t in favor of enclosure hunting, until I learned more about it. I’ve learned that the people in the high-fence business know how to raise big bucks quickly. Too, these business people have the entrepreneurial spirit of risk taking and problem solving. To learn more about how to raise big bucks quickly, I’ve talked with Todd Ouellette, president of Hurricane Creek Lodge in Red Bay, Alabama. Ouellete has been successful in raising big bucks in a short time for the hunters who want to take trophy bucks but don’t have the time or the money to buy land and invest 6 to 10 years in quality deer management.
To grow monster bucks quickly, you need a monster-size breeding buck. Finding a 300- or a 400-inch deer in the woods you hunt and then letting that deer survive long enough to breed for 3, 5 or up to 10 years isn’t feasible. Most hunters who see a 150-inch-plus buck will release the arrow or pull the trigger as soon as that deer steps into an opening. So, the first problem we have in raising big deer in the wild is producing a super buck and then keeping hunters from harvesting that buck throughout the buck’s entire life. We’ve also learned that the older and the bigger a buck becomes, the more fights he’ll get in to during the rut. Therefore, if you have a trophy buck that’s 4-, 5- or 6-years old, more than likely every year, he’ll not only have to fight younger, stronger bucks for the right to breed, he’ll also have to fight them for the right to survive.
Just like a heavyweight-boxing champ, a super buck may be able to beat a contender on any given day but still can’t beat all the contenders every day. So, the likelihood of having a trophy buck live long enough to pass-on his genetics to a large group of does isn’t a certainty. However, the men and the women in the deer-breeding industry have solved this problem through artificial insemination. And you’ll be able to see some of the best trophy bucks in the nation and learn about the size of the offspring they’re producing. Pay attention, because there’s one very-important fact not to overlook: to produce a trophy buck, not only do you have to have a trophy buck to breed to a doe, but that doe also needs to carry trophy-buck genes from her sire. Deer breeders have learned how to solve this problem as well. Watch the video, and listen to the results one deer breeder has had with a phenomenal breeding program that consistently produces trophy bucks.
If you’d like to learn more about Hurricane Creek Lodge’s deer, visit www.hurricanecreeklodge.com, or call 256-366-7910 or 256-710-8811.
