I don't know the guy and not trying to criticize........I think I'd want to spend much more than a single day looking things over and thinking about what to recommend.......but there would be a lot of real value in someone like him developing a management plan for a landowner. Most of these landowners are doctors, lawyers, large business owners, etc......they have the means to buy these properties but they don't have the background knowledge needed to take care of them and to set them up in many instances. They haven't spent their entire life devoted to nothing but deer and wildlife management......they've been studying other things. For someone who just dropped a million dollars or more on a piece of property.....paying someone $1500 to create a.management plan for the place would be a good investment

That's debatable. It would depend on your own knowledge, the baseline. For instance, I wasn't raised hunting because my dad worked all the time and none of the men in my family hunted, they were all broke farmers that had no time to do anything but work. I took up hunting after I got out of the Army so if I would have had the money back then it probably would have been worth every penny to save me the almost 20 years its taken for me to learn what little I have. Now, i'll be honest its been fun learning and I understand that's all part of it but boy if I could have been putting big bucks on the wall for the last 20 years versus having to fight for every little piece of knowledge I've gotten it would have been a lot more fun.

I agree

That’s why I don’t follow him anymore either. I’ve never questioned his methods but I’ve chimed in to back what he was saying when others questioned or disagreed with him and got the same response. He definitely can not handle being questioned or any negative feedback.

I've never met the guy, but he used to manage a plantation in SC near my house. I think he left about 15 years ago. Oakland Club. Roughly 26,000 acres on the Santee River in Berkeley county. It was and still is a quail club for the wealthy. The quail membership is around $60,000 a year.

A friend of mine is the head manager now and took over when Buxton left. The quality and number of deer on the place is pretty damn strong. The little bit I've heard about the Buxton man was not real positive.

I have never read any of what he's said so take this with a grain of salt.......But I can understand why he might seem weird about shutting down conversations and such......These internet type discussions can go so many different ways and are easily manipulated without you ever even knowing it. They also tend to quickly escalate and degrade. He's probably trying to keep his opinion as the only one being heard and the "message" being the one he wants to be put out.....without any background noise to distract from his gig nd how he does things

Now I've heard of people having more money than sense but paying $60k a year to shoot a damn quail takes the cake.

About 4 years ago Mark did some consultation work for us. Like most of y'all I followed his facebook and was impressed with his results. I contacted Mark for some consultation work and he came out and spent a day with us on the property. There is no doubt the guy know his stuff and his insight and direction has helped us a great deal with our deer herd and the quality of bucks we have taken over the years. However..... while he was working with us and in his prepared management plan we discussed some specific work that needed to be done on the property and discussed some ideas of how to accomplish what needed to be done. Mark gave us some names of people he knew who could handle the work and we had also had previously used a guy who did similar type work in the past. Once Mark left and completed the management plan we made several calls to the people he referred and also the guy we had used previously. Long story short we ended up using the guy we had worked with in the past because we were familiar with his work and he was going to be cheaper. He also had a different way of completing the work than the other guys mentioned and we chose to use him. Fast forward a few weeks later and I randomly get a call from Mark late one evening and he asked if we decided to use the guys he recommended to do the work. When I told him that we had decided to use the guy we used in the past and go a different route he became irate and stated that had he known we were going to use the other guy he would have never given us the idea in the first place. To be honest I was kind of taken back at first and I calmly told him that I appreciated his opinion but that we paid him good money for his services and just decided to go a different route. He then proceeded to go on and on about how his ideas were proprietary and that we had stolen his idea. I tried explaining to him again that we appreciated his consultation services and were very grateful for his work. I then let him know we just decided to go a different route and that I was unaware he was involved in this other type of work (at this point I assumed he was getting a kickback if we used his guys and that's why he was so upset). As he became angrier and angrier I just decided to end the conversation and that's the last time we've spoken.

After that conversation it all started to make sense, while I was riding around with him that day there was story after story of landowners he had worked for in the past (some of which are very well known in the outdoor industry) and there was always a common theme, pretty much that they were idiots and that he couldn't get along with them and he would either quit or would be let go after a period of time. He was just always very condescending of anyone who didn't agree with him and openly bashed anyone who didn't see it his way. All this to say that there is no doubt that the guy knows his stuff especially when it comes to managing habitat for big whitetails but he has a serious issue with getting along with people. We would have literally hired him every year to do consulting work for us bc we liked his advice so much had he not acted the way he did on the phone. This is just my two cents and I'm sure he nothing good to say about me but just wanted to share my personal experience with the guy and maybe save someone else the headache.

What type of work was it to be done? Seems sorta crazy to get that irate over using someone else to do work

This is what I figured we would hear. He cant come on here and delete threads. I think he is a expert at whitetail mgt. but has a screw loose or two.

Fence Work

I will reiterate that there is no doubt that Mark is an expert when it comes to managing habitat for growing big native deer. If you choose to use his services he will no doubt give you good information and direction. I just wanted to share my personal experience with him so hopefully someone isn't caught off guard in the same situation I was in.

He blocked me a few years ago on FB. I don’t remember the exact details, but had to do with culling bucks. Couldn’t even have a conversation with him about it. He said something about “wouldn’t you listen to your medical doctor that knows his stuff?” My response was I would hope to be able to ask my MD questions. Got the boot.

I was referring to you in a post earlier on this thread but I had heard the story from your brother in law several years ago and that was about the story that I recall him telling me. It's a shame the guy acts that way because he is certainly a wealth of knowledge in growing big deer.

I'm not saying this to bash on him.....I'm just talking nothing but pychology here......It sounds to me as if he has his self-worth cometely wrapped around being the greatest deer manager....all of it....his ideas....his image......that is the thing in life that fills up that pychological need that is within all of us. It's technically called "the need to feel important" .....but to me it's more like the need to feel like your life has value.... We're talking about some evolutionary stuff engrained min our brain...not some choice we make...It manifests itself differently in each one of us and people also have different ways in how they respond both early in life and later when more wisdom had been aquired. If you look around at the people you know we'll....you'll likely be able to pick out that "thing" that fulfills that desire fornself worth in each person. You'll start to notice it here on the forum and in you everyday dealings with folks as well....Just keep in mind it can be a lot of things.....My wife's "thing" is being a good mother

Now, that being said....if you take that "thing" that's .giving them the feeling of worth and tear it down in any way..... especially in front of others....then you're actually triggering some pretty deep internal struggle for that person. Like I said before.....all people handle it in different ways but it shatters the world for some. One of my closest family will nut up at the drop of hat if you mess with his "thing" of being a big buck killer. Most all of us let that feeling of worth about the "thing" hinge on other people's opinion of it. We need them to give its value. That can shape someone's world if they always derive it from others. Im not even sure exactly when it happened or what events changed it for me.....but I feel like a dump truck was lifted off my mind and emotions when I moved past all of that mentally. For awhile inguess you could say I derived it from my own opinion of my worth.....but now I don't even care anymore.....being somebody or nobody.....how much I know or don't know you know lol lol!......somebody else can decide and burden themselves with that struggle...I'll be a happy weirdo that more than happy to be just CnC

Now I'm not saying it is or isn't ...but it sounds a lot like the answer the questions y'all are wondering about why he acts like this or that.


Edit:.....Just how you can tear that thing down and shatter someone's world.....you can recognize it and build it up.... praise it in front of others and have that person be vulnerable to manipulation of it's done sincerely and not seen as a ploy..... but don't be messing with peoplez minds....it's not nice.....Try just recognizing it and then then ask them a question related to it when see them....Ask my wife how the kids are doing?

CNC and Mark chillin'

Ha! ......Like I said that may or may not....it has the characteristics so I used it to help explain a few pychological priciples that I hope others might benefit from. I guess it was probably learning about it that made me recognize in my own self. It's something we all deal with in some way. Learning that it's your brain messing with you and how it works helps you come to grips internally and realize that it's only holding you back from being able to truly enjoy life..... Your digging for fools gold anyways. Just take this guy's situation and let's hypothetically say I'm correct....So if thats what drives his desire for self worth then let's go ahead and say that it's just been announced that MB was just named best deer manager in the world at the deer convention!!!...Boy he'll feel like he's on top of the world....He'll head home and by the next morning his emotions are back to normal and he grabs his keys to the same truck....walks out the same door....down the same driveway.....to another property no different than before....There no tour bus full of strippers and blow waiting on you to rock out with your rooster out for the rest of your days......


What I'm getting at is .....the whole idea and attempt to "be somebody" is overrated and burdenous journey full of mental anguish and virtually no real phycological reward. So this guy thinks I'm great and that one thinks I suck....neither one is doing me good to anguish over or lust over....Your no different either way and if you feel good about your self worth then go enjoy just being a deer manager or whatever. Teeny years from now every will probably be planting their plots using no till methods and my name will not even be a foot note.....and I think that's actually how I'd rather it be now.

One last thing.....this is also deeply rooted in why so many guys want to kill a big buck.....It's not the hunt or the deer itself really....It's showing it to their buddies and getting the reward of self worth that they're really after. Yeahhhh....."I'm a big buck killer now!!".........What does that get you? In reality nothing but came at a high cost on your ability to just go and enjoy hunting.

The crowd that hunts there isn't worried about it. It is the equivalent to $600.00 to normal people. I think they get 12 hunts a year. I have actually hunted it a few times when some of the members cancelled. I didn't pay a dime. Hunt off horseback and only shoot covey rises. They have a full time chef that feeds you throughout the day. It was rough times I tell ya.

The quality of the deer is outstanding and the turkey hunting is pretty strong as well. Hunted deer and turkey there a good bit years ago.

Anyway, Buxton was the head man there for years.

Sounds like a greedy sunofabitch to me no matter how much knowledge he "thinks" he has. That fence ordeal is the deciding factor. I would have told him to kiss the snotty end of my phuckstick of he talked to me that way after spending an ass of money for his opinions.

TTT Mark B. Few years back