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News for Southside Club Members

By June 23, 2014June 24th, 2014No Comments

TO: ROBERTS RANCH HUNT CLUB MEMBERS

Starting with this email, we are going to begin sending out periodic updates concerning your hunt club.

This first update will be a little longer than usual because we want to cover everything for our newer members and give them a little bit of our recent history.

We are proud of what we have been able to accomplish over the last few years. We feel confident we can continue to improve.

Our 8’ game fence running 16 miles around the outside of the property has been up for 10 years now. It has allowed us to keep the deer inside our preserve and the poachers out. Since installing the fence, we have had very few instances of poaching and have apprehended every one of them. We just had an instance of trespassing this past year, but Joseph’s friends in the sheriff’s department caught them. We appreciate their great work.

The 8’ game fence enclosing approximately 7000 acres is also what allows us to build our genetic program inside the preserve. We began introducing super genetics into the preserve in 2007 and since 2008 have released a minimum of 12 bred does per year with a high of 26 bred does released in 2012 (not including all the doe fawns born).

We started introducing mature breeder/shooter bucks into the preserve in 2008 and since 2009 have put an average of 12 mature breeder/shooter bucks per year into the preserve (not including all the buck fawns born from the bred does released over the years.) We will again release 12 mature shooter bucks in September and will continue to do so going forward.

We feel confident that given the number of deer we have released into the preserve since 2007 that more than 90% of our current deer now have these super genetics in them.

The genetics going into the preserve come from our breeding program here on the ranch. Our emphasis has been on producing wide, high scoring antlers at an early age. We started with only the very best does and bucks on a national level and have bred them together to produce the best genetics in the southeastern United States. Roberts Ranch is the home of the only 400” bucks born and raised in the Southeastern US and we have had 4 of them in the last 5 years along with 27 – 300” or greater bucks. These are the genetics that have been released into the preserve. Our breeder buck, Sonic, is a good example. He scored 424” last year at age 3 with a 34” inside spread and 34” main beams. He’s a good looking buck. You can see him in our pens this year growing his 4 year old rack. He has bred many of the does that have been released into the preserve over the last 2 years. Sudden Change is another example. He was a perfectly typical 5 x 5 that scored 211” at 1 year old and 275” at 2. His genetics are everywhere in the preserve. The daddies of the does in the preserve are these 300” – 400” bucks including Sonic, Sudden Change, XRay (403” at 3 years old), FastTrac (406” @ 3 years old), Rocky Roller (357” at 4 years old) and Mojo (401” at 2 year old).

Roberts Ranch is well known for producing the largest bucks in the Southeastern US. Our breeding program is held in such a high level of respect nationally that deer farms from all over the U.S. bought semen from us out of our breeder bucks to artificially inseminate their breeder stock. We say all this not to brag but to show that these are the exact same super genetics going into your hunt preserve. With such a large fenced and protected acreage and the best genetic program in the Southeastern U.S., Roberts Ranch takes great pride in being able to say that your hunt club is the best in the Southeastern U.S.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding. Past harvest results the last 3 years have shown bucks killed scoring 182”, 178”, 177”, 168”, 157”, 154”, 148”, 144”, 143”, 142”, 140”, 137”, 131”, 130”, and others. These are results that no other hunt club in the Southeastern U.S. can match.

Game cameras and daily patrolling are showing that this year looks to be more of the same. We are happy to report that we are seeing a very large crop of big, wide antlered bucks growing out right now.
Of course it is still hunting, so we hope you will all have some good luck and bag some of these nice bucks this year.

Supplemental feed for deer is provided year round thru 4 gravity feeders and 30 spin feeders plus some individual member feeders.

In the past, fields have been mowed before spring turkey season but at the request of members the fields will be mowed this year before archery season.

Our ranch is proud to say that we are home to the very rare Osceola turkey and that we have had an incredible crop for years and had a great hatch again this year.

Every one of our 30 club stands are checked and repaired each year before the beginning of archery season and if members know of any problems with stands or feeders, we ask you to report them to Karen.

Joseph, Karen and I are available thru our emails and cell phones for you to report problems of any kind.
Contact Karen if you need help with your mobile home while away from the property such as plumbing, air conditioning, cleaning, etc. As always, Nita is available for cleaning your mobile home for a small fee before you arrive.

The camp house was renovated in 2011 with two bedrooms and living area with DirecTV and full kitchen with commercial gas stove. It is available for reservation for parties or for sleeping arrangements for your extra guests at a small fee. Call Karen to make reservations. There is a separate room at the camp for pinning the hunt map before hunting. Walk in cooler with hanging racks for game attached to a renovated cleaning station with new winches, stainless steel top and sink. The camp area is mowed and cleaned before the opening of archery season. We provide a 500 lb commercial ice maker for member use.

100 – 200 – 300 – 400 – 500 – 600 yard rifle range for siting in your rifles or just having fun.
Separate 1000 yard rifle range for those who need a bigger challenge.
We also provide 2 skeet throwers for practice and entertainment including a very high skeet shots from the top of the pheasant tower.

A new pheasant tower was constructed last year and pheasant shoots held during pheasant hunt season for member entertainment. Call Joseph for dates and to make reservations.

Predator control program in effect year round to control coyotes, etc. A big thank you goes out to David Lively who has caught an unbelievable number of predators this year. If any other members think it would be fun to help thin out our predator population, give Joseph a call. He would be glad to talk to you about it, and we would appreciate the help.

Our exotic program consists of black buck antelope and axis deer. Members will be notified each year as to what may be harvested.

Security – entire property is kept fenced with locked gates and patrolled year round along with management living on the property.

Roads are maintained year round. This year, we have spent more than $16,000 on bulldozer work, road grader work, road upgrades, maintenance, and stabilization, including adding and replacing culverts; grading and seeding roads; crossings, washouts and ditches repaired, graveled and seeded.

We currently provide two ponds for bream fishing and they will be restocked this year. We are also in the process of digging out a third fish pond which we will be stocking with bream, perch, and bass in the future for the members fishing enjoyment.

This year it was necessary for us to fence out a small area on the southeastern corner of the property to use for our Day Hunts. Access will be through an outside gate and not through the preserve. There are only 2 club stands in the area (8 & 9) and we are going to move these stands to different locations so that they will not be lost to the club. We appreciate your understanding in this.

Last year for the first time, we released trophy bucks that had not been tagged into the preserve and allowed members to harvest them immediately. This year, we will go back to releasing tagged trophy bucks into the preserve and will not allow them to be harvested until after December 1. This will allow them to breed some does. Each membership can only shoot one tagged buck per season.

We wanted to clarify a few rules:

No one under 10 years old may be in possession of a firearm while on the property (except for bb guns with parental supervision.) Anyone 10-16 years old must have passed the hunters safety course, have a valid hunting license and be accompanied and supervised by an adult while hunting or having a firearm in their possession. Anyone hunting must have passed the Hunters Safety course (unless they are exempted) and have a valid Florida hunting license. If some of your family members have not passed the Hunters Safety Course, please be sure they accomplish this before hunting season begins.

Only one deer may be harvested per half day hunt

We have had a number of complaints from members about 4 wheelers being driven too fast and recklessly and in one instance it resulted in one of our members being seriously hurt. The most important thing to Roberts Ranch management is that none of our members get injured in any way. Please remember that no one under 11 years old may drive an ATV, that anyone between 11 and 16 driving an ATV must be under the direct supervision and accompaniment of their parents, and that anyone driving an ATV must be wearing a helmet and must operate the ATV in a safe manner and at speeds less than 20 mph

Finally, and most importantly, we would like to introduce and welcome our two new members, Bob Smith and Jeff Sevor. We look forward to having them in the club.

Within a few weeks we will be emailing the Rules and Indemnity agreements to all members for your review at your leisure, signature, and return by email.

We want to express to all of our members how much we appreciate all of you. We are proud of what we have accomplished so far and look forward to improving in the future.

 

 

Anthony Goodwin

Author Anthony Goodwin

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