How the Quinn Ranch Manages Its Deerherd

EDITOR'S NOTE: John Quinn has managed deer for more than 20 years on the Quinn Ranch in Brady, Texas. The average deer on his ranch will score 120 points B&C and one hunter took a 150+ B&C buck there.

"Every time a hunter goes to a stand at our ranch, he can expect to see four to six bucks -- about three 8 points, a 6 point and a 9 or a 10 point," Quinn said. "Hunters come in to our ranch on Thursday afternoons, and we hunt Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a cost of $3000 per hunter. You stay in the lodge, and all you have to bring is your hunting equipment, your gun and your personal items. We only book 20 hunters on 5,000 acres. I expect everyone to take a buck that will score 120 B&C or better. We have better antlered bucks around Brady, Texas, than you'll see in many other areas of the country because we let them grow to older-age classes. We want the bucks to be at least 3 1/2-years old before we take them. Historically, our section of the country grows bucks with really long tines but rather narrow antlers. The average shot out here will be 75 to 100 yards, and we don't get into bowhunting that much. However, gun hunters and black-powder hunters get excellent opportunities to take nice bucks at our ranch.

"We have plenty of flowing water on our property, which was certainly an advantage during last season's drought. The San Saba River flows through our property, and this river always has water in it. We also have several naturally-occurring springs on the ranch and windmills that pump water for the livestock and the deer. Because of the terrible drought we had in the South last year, we believe that our year-round water source gave us a definite advantage on our ranch to keeping deer on the property.

"Every year we do an aerial survey of the deer on our property. We believe that we see 75 percent of the deer on the ranch from the air. Using formulas worked out by wildlife biologists, we can determine from an aerial survey how many bucks we need to take off the property each season. These aerial surveys show us that we have many more trophy bucks on the ranch than we harvest each season. Most of these bucks are 5- and 6-years old and are almost completely nocturnal. They stay in the oak brush and mesquite, rarely coming out where hunters can see them.

"Besides having quality deer you can hunt, our stands are big enough so that a man can bring his son, daughter or wife and hunt with them while he takes the buck of a lifetime. We only take 20 bucks a season because we always want to have mature bucks on our ranch and have plenty of bucks for our hunters to see every year. If we took all the trophy bucks we had in a single year, then our hunters wouldn't see as many bucks each day they hunted and wouldn't have the opportunity to bag a nice buck. We can sustain a good and healthy buck population by not over-hunting our lands each season. Many of our hunters will bring video cameras with them on the hunt. After they have harvested their bucks, they'll go to the stands and video the deer that will come in to show their friends how many deer they saw each time they went to their stands.

"We believe that a hunter's opportunity to see and video bucks is almost as important as his chances of bagging a really nice buck. Besides the bucks, we encourage our hunters to take at least three does while they hunt with us, which allows us to keep our buck population at the ratio that we want. We also have many feral hogs on the property and want our hunters to take any hogs they see since these hogs will spook deer. We have a very target-rich environment for our hunters."

To know more about hunting the Quinn Ranch, write to John Quinn at HC 69 Box 440, Brady, Texas, 76825, or call him at (915) 597-2647. You can also visit their webpage at http://www.jquinnranch.com or e-mail them at info@jquinnranch.com.

Tomorrow: Another Biggest Buck of a Hunter's Life