The power of ratchet and redoy ben

Ratchet and Redoy Ben where born on Mickey Goodman’s farm at a time when a 220 inch deer were few and far between. At that time nobody dreamed that these womb brothers would be the start to one of the biggest frame bloodlines in the country. One buck was sold to Roy Yoder and was name Redoy Ben and Ratchet was sold to Andy Foor. Ratchet was later borrowed by Andy’s cousin Mark Price and used for breeding on his farm.



At that time Barkley Young was looking to get in the deer business. Barkley went to Penn State and bought a couple of good does out of J44. Now with a handful of does to breed Barkley needed a buck and Mark Price was a close neighbor so he went to talk to Mark. After buying a couple does off Mark, Barkley returned home with the does and a borrowed yearling ratchet son to cover his breeding pen. The following year this ratchet son was looking good and sported 170-180 inch typical rack. Barkley was happy with him and decided to put him back into the breeding pen that fall. The following summer this ratchet son grew an impressive set of antlers. He was now well over 220 with a huge frame. Mark decided that the buck was too big not to bring back home to breed his does. On the trip to bring the buck back home, Mark brought Andy Foor along to help. As they loaded him into the trailer Andy couldn’t help it anymore. He was very impressed with the buck we all know as Freedom and made Mark an offer. Freedom was headed to Andy’s house to add to an already awesome lineup of Ratchet blood. Many haven’t seen some of the bucks Andy Foor has grown but he also has some big framed deer running around down there. With two good years out of Freedom, Barkley had some nice yearlings showing up. He then decided to pick his best yearling buck to breed which was later to be named Elijah. Elijah bred his half-sisters that year along with the J44 and Mark Price does. Elijah bred to blue 83(Freedom/O454) made Texas Teas mother Hannah. Elijah is also the sire to Wildman and dozens of bucks over 25 inside sold as shooter bucks @3. Most of these crosses were half-brother, half-sister crosses with Freedom top and bottom. While Freedom was putting it on the ground in Pennsylvania, Redoy Ben was doing well on Roy’s farm as well. Redoy Ben produced a beautiful buck called Redoy Weatherby and other nice sons before he was sold to Texas and started his legacy. He produced some great sons in Texas, but one stuck out above the rest. His name was Stickers and he was soon to be the biggest, most sought out buck in Texas. Stickers quickly showed that he could put big sons on the ground as well, with the biggest being Texas Tea!



Texas Tea was a product of putting these power lines back together. He is a sticker’s son out of an Elijah doe, and the product was one of the best looking bucks ever produced! Texas Tea has everything that breeders are looking for. Long tines, long beams, mass, big brows, and a 30 inch spread! He is an outcross for 99% of the deer out there and with his line bred pedigree should have a tremendous amount of genetic vigor. The Big Question is, will he produce? His first group of yearlings grew antlers summer 2012. As the summer progressed big yearlings were popping up everywhere, but the talk was about a certain one that was growing in Pennsylvania. The yearling was possibly going to break the record as the biggest yearling in the world! He was later scored and was recognized as the largest yearling in the world. This bloodline is way under rated. When you look at what it has produced you will soon realize this bloodline is possibly the most powerful bloodline in the country.

Nice!! Thanks Kurt

Excellant piece of history Kurt. I'm glad I bought Redoy Weatherby back in 2008. Now that I have had Hoss [Barkley Young] on the farm for 2 years, it will be interesting to see what happens. Oh Kurt, I forgot to tell you I bought Exxon last fall from Dale Hegeland. Exxons father, 417 is a womb brother to Jumbo's maternal grandmother. If no one knows this, Jumbo's mother was born on Dales farm, just as Danger's Redemption, King Kong, Bone Collector XL,[etc. etc.] were. It should be interesting to see how mixing all these lines work.

I wish i knew more of some of these older lines. I have a Tea buck fawn with Out of bounds over Y14. She is Green 28(Hoss Sire) over Blue 83( Teas Gram) with Freedom Behind both of them. Sure hope he turns out as good as the rest of Tea's yearlings.

Kurt, thanks for the education on this story. I have learned a little more from your story. However I wish you hadn't let the secret out. I have been using Ratchet bloodline does for the past couple of years crossing them with my Bomax son, Playboy. I can't wait to see what the fawns grow into.

Four Seasons Whitetails said:

I wish i knew more of some of these older lines. I have a Tea buck fawn with Out of bounds over Y14. She is Green 28(Hoss Sire) over Blue 83( Teas Gram) with Freedom Behind both of them. Sure hope he turns out as good as the rest of Tea's yearlings.

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Mike that is a dandy buck fawn! Green 28 is out of freedom and a yellow 11 daughter. Yellow 11 is a doe from mark price. Yellow 11 is also the mother to wildmans mother.She is a power doe. Blue 83 mother is O454 which is also the mother to little orange 23. You don't have a sister to your buck fawn do ya?

kurthumphrey said:

Mike that is a dandy buck fawn! Green 28 is out of freedom and a yellow 11 daughter. Yellow 11 is a doe from mark price. Yellow 11 is also the mother to wildmans mother.She is a power doe. Blue 83 mother is O454 which is also the mother to little orange 23. You don't have a sister to your buck fawn do ya?

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We did have a sister but she got sick at the farm that was bottle feeding her. But still have the mom! I have a straw of Wildman and i would like to find a straw of Freedom and also talk to Gary about a straw of Hoss. Maybe if this guy turns out well he would be interested in aa trade. I have no problem breeding with the winners of the past. If they made them big back then a guy should be able to do it today!

Hoss is a stud. My buck Bossman would be another good choice. He is WildMan son and little orange 23. Same mother as hoss. O455 would be his grandmother. We had to cut his antlers in July but still scored 339. Over 50 inches of mass, 32 inch beams and over 26 inside. Either hoss or Bossman would be great buck to put back on blue 83.

Kurt, I know Hoss weighed over 400 lbs. last fall. I had a brand new stretcher we used on him, and he ripped it right in half.

Gary, Bossman was also a big bodied boy but not as big as hoss. He is the biggest bodied bucks i have ever seen on the hoof. He looks like a 4x8 sheet of plywood standing out in the pen with the does. They measured his neck behind the ears when they had him down collecting semen several years ago and he was right at 40 inches. A big neck at the taxidermist is 26.

If we are going to raise 400 inch deer, we need to raise larger bodied deer to carry these racks. I have seen to many on deer farm visits, that can't carry their heads straight. If we as an industry don't become aware that we have to responsibly manage the welfare of our deer, we will become a lightening rod for groups like PETA, HSUS, QDMA, or just people that don't like us raising deer. We already see groups calling our deer freaks , or genetically modified. Just food for thought.

Gary

We are selling choice jumbo fawn out of stickers/elijah doe at nadefa or for 2 times the money buyer can take all

G O Whitetails said:

Kurt, I know Hoss weighed over 400 lbs. last fall. I had a brand new stretcher we used on him, and he ripped it right in half.

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Thanks for writing this up Kurt!!!



I was there when Cole measured Hoss' neck... it was early October and he was only 3 years old at the time. He was an absolute beast! Cole and I went to pick him up and the stretcher bowed. We called for 2 more hands to help carry!

I love this post, I like to read the history of this line. I have several Freedom girls I got a few years back, They have some yearling bucks on my farm and I will say that these girls have given me some nice framed yearlings, I cannot wait until this simmer when they are growing their 2 year old racks. Also, not bad body size either, I would guess the bucks were close to 200 lbs this fall as yearlings.

I agree its COOL seeing the history of a line and the way it has worked for folks!

This line has worked for ...many.....many...many of folks........just never been pushed....I won't get into the details as of why..... BUt I will say...Andy Was in the group that was part of the discovery of Goliath..........for some reason he was shunned from this .......first.... the group.........and then the industry.......the amazing part of it all is he is doing just fine........ He has deer I couldn't even dream of raising!! The legend /freedom line is awesome....that's why I purchased half interest in Extra Gold.......He has a Huge body and. Huge, wide frame!! His tines are Talll.....and he has such an awesome look.....I owe it all to the Freedom/legend lines!!