Traildust I hunted there about 9 years. I love the ranch, but there's a good news bad news aspect.
The good news is that it has the finest facilities of about any day lease I've ever hunted. A walk in cooler, an ice machine that was free to use, good kitchen facilities in a hundred year old four foot thick wall building and a club room if the weather was bad. Rooms were good too with one bath for each of four people.
I stopped going when they made the minimum 130 on their deer. There were only five or six deer taken that year and I believe two or three were taken by the ranch manager, his wife and one of his helpers. I don't mind a 120 class minimum (which they had in force the previous year) or even a 130 which they put in on my last year if I am seeing deer of that category, but I wasn't. Seems like I saw fewer deer every year. Only two or three bucks harvested by paying guests on a 5,000 acre ranch is not good enough odds for me.
Now they may have turned things around. I think they had a coyote and bobcat problem and I think they have tried to thin out the coyotes. They also stopped taking doe in at least one year and that might have helped them increase the number of deer on the place. Maybe they limited the number of hunters as well. If so the ranch has potential.
I'd be curious as to how your hunt goes. I don't have to shoot something to have a good time, but need to feel like I have a chance. It's about the dream not the meat so if you see a bunch of big boys let me know. I might want to go back
|