Recent content by TheMadCatter

I have about 30 that have started roots after stratification. Exciting! I just got them planted and am waiting impatiently for them to sprout. Planning to grow a couple along our river bottom next to our house on the ranch. We're planning to harvest as many chestnuts as we can in Iowa this fall.

FYI I'm a licensed, bonded, and insured outfitter in Colorado now and have Merriam's turkey hunts. I'll be booking some cow elk hunts before April's draw too.

We have one shed buck on the ranch so far, but, he had a compound fracture on his back leg last year that healed and he rebroke it during rut (didn't puncture skin). I won't expect most of the bucks to shed until the end of January. I check one buck daily though ;)

CWD does kill deer, but it is far from the only threat they face. Contrary to what some government agencies suggest, CWD is not the catastrophic killer they make it out to be. When a deer does become clinically affected by CWD, it typically occurs later in life—not at 2.5 to 3.5 years old. I...

Thank you for the kind words, everybody! Unfortunately, I didn't harvest a deer either this year. But, when the family dog went missing, we figured a lion had gotten him. Some of our awesome neighbors came out with their hounds, and we found one 200 yards from the house in the rocks with a...

2024 made me a Dad, and a Colorado Resident. It was a slow season, I didn't draw any tags and had to rely on OTC or Leftover + Private Land licenses in Colorado. Oregon didn't treat us all that great while we were there Elk hunting. However, I killed a bull elk and pronghorn on the ranch I now...

We've had one of our collared bucks total two vehicles, a Tesla and a Nissan Xterra. Most of our deer have leg injuries from getting hit by cars but only 4 deer total have been killed out of around 175 captures from vehicles. Tough critters for sure!

Just ignore that every spot I've walked on opening day for the last couple of years already had boot tracks everywhere in the snow or mud. It's impossible to enforce, shed seasons along with permits only hurts the people who do things the right way and follow the rules. I didn't even bother shed...

No, we need to stop with more stamps and licenses. Ruining our freedoms with more permits isn't a good idea I've been saying this for years.

They're wild free-range deer, no deer farms here. Doing a disease testing program, my job is to catch them using a dart gun that shoots at a maximum of 30 yards, put GPS collars on them, gather biological samples, and reverse the drug which puts them back on their feet right where they went down.

The first pic is 2024, the second is 2023, and the third is 2019. The trees would be 8 years old this year. The others are all over 12' now and producing. We got them all from Skip @Sligh1 as 8-12"

If only catch-and-release bucks and other species counted, we'd be on a roll, team 2! I had to cancel my Maryland trip due to having to take an unforeseen trip back home to Iowa and work.

Chestnuts shot up HUGE this year and we were able to harvest over 10lbs and we're starting them as seedlings for the ranch. We brought the kiddo to see the Iowa farms for the first time.

Does catch and release count? If it does I have some good ones already this year! 22. Count me in