"The price is a steal for the kind of deer we're killing," the outfitter said. "I can take hunters any time from the first weekend in November until the first weekend in January. The rut is usually heaviest about a week before Thanksgiving. Our average kill is a buck that would score 135 to 140, but the more selective hunters has a good chance of taking a bigger buck. The biggest we've killed so far was 164. We've had a 157 and 155 and 152, and several in the 140s. We've found some big shed antlers on the place. ONe had 11-inch brow tines, and another had 14-inch back tines. We've averaged 85 percent hunter success, but we've had 100% shooting opportunity."

In March 2005 a biologist surveyed the ranch to help the outfitter set harvest levels to promote trophy antler growth. The biologist used to work for the Texas game department and gained a reputation for helping set up some of the best trophy ranches in South Texas. I met him about 20 years ago when I was checking out a ranch near Freer.

"He was thoroughly impressed with the ranch," the outfitter said. "He said that one buck could be taken per 1,000 acres, and we have 12,000 acres, but we decided to take one buck per 1,500 acres. That means we will take eight total peopl."

The out-of-state hunting license is extra. The ranch holds a good population of bucks. Hunts.Net customer Jeff Foutz saw 21 bucks the first evening from 125 B&C on up. He shot a 135-class buck whose rack was 18 to 19 inches wide with decent mass.