Dean Parisian
Well-Known Member
We got a couple of bucks killed at my ranch in Montana, the Ghost Ranch..........thought I would share the fun!
The Yellowstone River Valley is a hot-bed for the disease called, EHD/Blue Tongue.
Every year. You read that correctly. Every year. In the last decade we have found hundreds of dead bucks and unfortunately, Blue Tongue hits the bigger bucks very hard.
Thankfully, these respectable bucks were harvested this weekend.
Young deer, needed a couple of years to hit BEAST MODE. Can't shoot huge bucks if you shoot small bucks. One thing I have learned in killing deer for 50 years plus now. It was their hunt, not mine; they are respectfully asked to shoot respectable bucks, please let the guppies walk. It's their call. Good eating, respectable bucks. It's what hunting is often all about. Happy friends are the best friends! My job is fairly easy for my friends. Make sure they have a good time, eat well, and continue to work at being an expert at being grateful!
Since 2014, when the Parisian family purchased the Ghost Ranch our hunter success rate has been extremely high. We hunt for mature bucks. Mature bucks are awesome; consistently killing them requires knowledge, skill, and time. Growing them is more difficult and requires great nutrition, genetics, age, and excellent year-round cover. A mature buck is generally at least 4.5 years old. We want guests to harvest bucks that might be heavy horned, high, wide, and maybe have a drop tine or two!
Our management practices are geared in conjunction with neighboring ranches to ensure an extremely high-quality hunting experience and the best way to maintain herd quality is to stay focused on hunting older bucks. At the Ghost Ranch, we do not encourage the "last day deer" concept where someone shoots a small buck to fill their tag. If you want venison on the last day, you will have plenty of opportunity to shoot a doe. We ask guests to shoot big bucks! In nearly 50 years of hunting whitetails, one thing I know for sure is that we cannot kill big bucks next year if we shoot small bucks this year.
You may have an opportunity at a big buck at long range and we simply ask that you be prepared to make the shot. We encourage all our guests to practice shooting at distance before they get to Montana. Shooting a couple of boxes of ammo through your rifle should be a minimum. Think about making that weapon an extension of yourself, before it counts. We assume you will practice like we hunt on the Ghost Ranch and will work to make that shot count. Know your rifle and know your ammo to make that shot at last light under windy or snowy conditions! You should have a range finder, bring shooting sticks, and have practiced with them in kneeling and standing shooting stances and be ready to use them! Being prepared physically and emotionally to kill a big buck is what we ask!
We are in the camp of fixed blades when it comes to Ghost Ranch archery. We ask archery hunters to use fixed blade broadheads and leave mechanicals at home. It comes down to this: Why take a risk with something that "scissors open," when one can send a fixed package—it leaves the bow the same way it arrives on target—for the ultimate killing guarantee? We owe everything to the animals we hunt. We want a quick kill and nothing determines that more than the business end of the arrow. There are no exceptions.
GHOST RANCH APPROACH
At the Ghost Ranch we don't put emphasis on "score". The feeling one gets when killing a big buck is incredible and we do not care about mass, gross, net, drying periods, or points. We want friends to kill a mature buck! Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young may as well be fairy tales because to our way of thinking, "trash" and "kickers" are always an extra, not a deduction. Our respect and admiration for a magnificent buck far transcends numbers. Every buck we killed and there have been many, I do not know the score in Boone & Crockett terms nor do I care. The competitive quest for size, credit, and fame can obscure the reasons we hunt. The bucks we took were for the right reason; it was the right animal at the right time. If you are after a Boone & Crockett buck you should know that two bucks that were raised on the Ghost Ranch scored 196 and 204 B & C points respectively.
The Yellowstone River Valley is a hot-bed for the disease called, EHD/Blue Tongue.
Every year. You read that correctly. Every year. In the last decade we have found hundreds of dead bucks and unfortunately, Blue Tongue hits the bigger bucks very hard.
Thankfully, these respectable bucks were harvested this weekend.
Young deer, needed a couple of years to hit BEAST MODE. Can't shoot huge bucks if you shoot small bucks. One thing I have learned in killing deer for 50 years plus now. It was their hunt, not mine; they are respectfully asked to shoot respectable bucks, please let the guppies walk. It's their call. Good eating, respectable bucks. It's what hunting is often all about. Happy friends are the best friends! My job is fairly easy for my friends. Make sure they have a good time, eat well, and continue to work at being an expert at being grateful!
Since 2014, when the Parisian family purchased the Ghost Ranch our hunter success rate has been extremely high. We hunt for mature bucks. Mature bucks are awesome; consistently killing them requires knowledge, skill, and time. Growing them is more difficult and requires great nutrition, genetics, age, and excellent year-round cover. A mature buck is generally at least 4.5 years old. We want guests to harvest bucks that might be heavy horned, high, wide, and maybe have a drop tine or two!
Our management practices are geared in conjunction with neighboring ranches to ensure an extremely high-quality hunting experience and the best way to maintain herd quality is to stay focused on hunting older bucks. At the Ghost Ranch, we do not encourage the "last day deer" concept where someone shoots a small buck to fill their tag. If you want venison on the last day, you will have plenty of opportunity to shoot a doe. We ask guests to shoot big bucks! In nearly 50 years of hunting whitetails, one thing I know for sure is that we cannot kill big bucks next year if we shoot small bucks this year.
You may have an opportunity at a big buck at long range and we simply ask that you be prepared to make the shot. We encourage all our guests to practice shooting at distance before they get to Montana. Shooting a couple of boxes of ammo through your rifle should be a minimum. Think about making that weapon an extension of yourself, before it counts. We assume you will practice like we hunt on the Ghost Ranch and will work to make that shot count. Know your rifle and know your ammo to make that shot at last light under windy or snowy conditions! You should have a range finder, bring shooting sticks, and have practiced with them in kneeling and standing shooting stances and be ready to use them! Being prepared physically and emotionally to kill a big buck is what we ask!
We are in the camp of fixed blades when it comes to Ghost Ranch archery. We ask archery hunters to use fixed blade broadheads and leave mechanicals at home. It comes down to this: Why take a risk with something that "scissors open," when one can send a fixed package—it leaves the bow the same way it arrives on target—for the ultimate killing guarantee? We owe everything to the animals we hunt. We want a quick kill and nothing determines that more than the business end of the arrow. There are no exceptions.
GHOST RANCH APPROACH
At the Ghost Ranch we don't put emphasis on "score". The feeling one gets when killing a big buck is incredible and we do not care about mass, gross, net, drying periods, or points. We want friends to kill a mature buck! Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young may as well be fairy tales because to our way of thinking, "trash" and "kickers" are always an extra, not a deduction. Our respect and admiration for a magnificent buck far transcends numbers. Every buck we killed and there have been many, I do not know the score in Boone & Crockett terms nor do I care. The competitive quest for size, credit, and fame can obscure the reasons we hunt. The bucks we took were for the right reason; it was the right animal at the right time. If you are after a Boone & Crockett buck you should know that two bucks that were raised on the Ghost Ranch scored 196 and 204 B & C points respectively.
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