Wallahachie

Ranch Description

The Wallahachie ranch is a perfectly placed property located in Kansas and Oklahoma. For this reason its been featured repeatedly on trophy deer hunting TV programs like Buck Ventures Outdoors and Major League Bowhunter with Jeff Danker and Chipper Jones. For the past 14 years every decision made about this ranch has had trophy whitetails in mind. The ranch provides the 3 keys to extraordinary deer which are genetics, nutrition and food, and cover or protection to allow for mature growth. Many places lack one of these key components and the quality of deer suffers, but not at the Wallahachie. Now, after many seasons observing deer patterns and movements everything is in place from the tower blind locations to tree stands and enormous grain bin feeders. Again this is not your average weekend getaway or place to hang out with the guys and drive 4 wheelers. On the contrary the Wallahachie is home to some of the nations yes I said the nations largest trophy whitetails. In fact the sheds from the legendary Kansas King, that have been estimated at 217 net were found in the early 90's only 2 miles north of the ranch. Monster deer have been in the area for quite a while and continue to thrive. Jeff Danker told me in the spring around Easter one of his favorite things to do is take his family up to the Wallahachie and look for sheds. He said sheds will be lying all over the ground near the large bin feeders and the kids hurry around picking them up like Easter eggs. Jeff also said its not unheard of to find 25-30 sets, not individual antlers but sets of sheds on one of those outings. As management practices have been followed the average score of cull and trophy bucks has continued to increase. The average score of both cull and trophy bucks over the past 10 years pencils out to around 170' gross. Deer like that don't just show up on accident. By looking across the vast hills that surround the ranch it becomes apparent that browse in the area is limited so having the best groceries in town and plenty of water seals the deal. In an area that sees 21-24 inches of rainfall annually it makes the presence of a year round water source in conjunction with the groceries the factors that hold the deer. According to the ranch manager the creek that crosses the property didn't go dry during the drought of 2011 or 2012. Even if it had there is still plenty of water being provided at 3 different windmills plus a well with a solar pump. Depending on the year different crops such as Milo, wheat, cow peas and alfalfa have been farmed. Alfalfa was planted under the pivot irrigation system in September of 2012 and is doing great. Approximately 60 acres of land benefit from the current pivot and according to the ranch manager, plumbing is also in place to the 60-70 ac field currently farmed without irrigation. The addition of another irrigation system on the dry land farm ground would double the amount of irrigated acres currently being farmed. One of the greatest features of this ranch is that it straddles the Kansas and Oklahoma state line. In fact 1/2 of the irrigated pivot is in each state. This means longer seasons than just hunting one state. Oklahoma tags can easily be purchased over the counter or online without any kind of draw system and Kansas is by draw. Typically Kansas holds it muzzle loader season the latter part of September which is perfect for catching those bucks still hanging in bachelor groups coming to the alfalfa. Archery in Kansas also opens in September the same time as muzzle loader. Archery in Oklahoma opens October 1st and runs through January 15th. Oklahoma also has a separate 9 day muzzle loader season the end of October and into the first part of November. In fact one of the largest whitetails ever taken on the Wallahachie was Ali scoring 202 4/8' gross and he was taken in Oklahoma during the muzzle loader season. The rifle seasons overlap just a few days giving a total of 23 days in 2012 between both states, 16 days in OK and 12 days in KS. If you've been looking for a place where you can consistently have the opportunity to harvest mature trophy class whitetails every year then the Wallahachie should definitely be considered. More trophy free range whitetails have been regularly taken on the Wallahachie than 95% of hunters even see out in the wild during a lifetime of hunting. There is a very legitimate chance that the next state record whitetail could come from these sage covered hills in SW Kansas and your name could be the one in the record book.