There are many bucks showing up on the trail cameras this year. Hunting pressure the past few years is down so expect seeing more larger bucks is a result of them getting to grow older.
This flat 8pt showed on a trail camera (have only seen it once) that has short tines.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10180/Flat_rack_8pt.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668369836)
Son was successful getting a wide 8pt on his first night in a stand. Field dressed at 190lbs
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10180/Buck_wide_8.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668370010)
Have three in the freezer so far this fall.
The one your son got has a nice looking rack.
Nice score. Haven't seen a buck this fall, just 4 does up towards the woodlot. But there are 5 moose around, one a bull. Hasn't been any activity around the licking stick this fall.
So far I am seeing more bucks, mostly young but several pretty decent ones than does and fawns (Our fawns have all lost their spots and are legal antlerless deer during the appropriate seasons.) I bet I am seeing 5:1 bucks to does where normally it would be 10:1 does to bucks. Now if I could just kill one with my bow. ::)
Just a little guy looking for a selfie
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/FF016972-B3F0-418F-A79E-D0D0C0AA9D61.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1668388999)
Great picture!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3377.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671294517)
Grandson had this buck on camera several times and had also seen him but could not get a shot. This morning everything worked out.
Congrats. Very nice buck.
Gun season over here, with as best as I can tell, no deer taken within a mile (according to neighbors, lack of gun shots, and no deer moving on the trail cams during the daytime).
This buck caught on cam and expect will grow more for next year.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10180/Buck_8pt_snow.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671296445)
Nice one, Lynn!
I see your grandson hunts with an Encore. thumbs-up
Quote from: Magicman on December 17, 2022, 11:37:43 AM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3377.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671294517)
Grandson had this buck on camera several times and had also seen him but could not get a shot. This morning everything worked out.
Congratulations to your grandson! That's got to be a pretty good sized buck for MS, yes?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3384~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671313005)
He sent me another picture.
JD Guy, we are selective about what we shoot. The little guys walk.
That is a beautiful buck!
Quote from: Magicman on December 17, 2022, 04:39:32 PM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3384~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671313005)
He sent me another picture.
JD Guy, we are selective about what we shoot. The little guys walk.
Yes, We are too on our property. Problem is with those who are around us :rifle:
What would a buck like that weigh field dressed in your area?
Beautiful animal for sure, congratulations to your grandson.
Quote from: JD Guy on December 18, 2022, 11:43:49 AMProblem is with those who are around u
No matter about the surrounding landowners/hunters around me. If I shoot him he is dead whereas if I don't shoot him he just might live. Gotta take the chance.
In my area the antler restrictions are: The Inside spread must be at least 10 inches, and the main beam must be at least 13 inches.
Bucks here generally field dress about 120-125 lbs. The heaviest that we have ever weighed field dressed was 180 lbs, which was huge.
Very nice!
Quote from: Magicman on December 18, 2022, 02:19:09 PM
Quote from: JD Guy on December 18, 2022, 11:43:49 AMProblem is with those who are around u
No matter about the surrounding landowners/hunters around me. If I shoot him he is dead whereas if I don't shoot him he just might live. Gotta take the chance.
In my area the antler restrictions are: The Inside spread must be at least 10 inches, and the main beam must be at least 13 inches.
Bucks here generally field dress about 120-125 lbs. The heaviest that we have ever weighed field dressed was 180 lbs, which was huge.
JD guy I feel for you! It makes a guy furious!! Here is a example of a resident buck I had posted that I didn't get real excited about because of his one side. So I didn't get out and bow hunt before rifle season. This resident buck had 700+ acres around of no hunting. But when they have the rifle season during the rut sometimes the bucks travel! And that was the risk! He went by my camera opening morning during rifle season and the neighbor had him on camera in the middle of the week but he must have traveled into the next section. But on a high note! Magicman is right!! Managing does pay off from the beautiful picture he posted!! I can verify that!! I've got 30+ mounts all from my place to prove management works and could have had 5 more monsters if I would have been rifle hunting. Next year he would have been a good one!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/0D894890-7468-4E93-BDFC-45F9F5C0BF03.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671422125)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/A33339F9-FEBB-43A4-8F19-9D7DE999FEFD.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671422106)
WB if you don't get real excited about a buck like that, you've been spoiled😊
Quote from: Walnut Beast on December 18, 2022, 10:58:15 PM
Quote from: Magicman on December 18, 2022, 02:19:09 PM
Quote from: JD Guy on December 18, 2022, 11:43:49 AMProblem is with those who are around u
No matter about the surrounding landowners/hunters around me. If I shoot him he is dead whereas if I don't shoot him he just might live. Gotta take the chance.
In my area the antler restrictions are: The Inside spread must be at least 10 inches, and the main beam must be at least 13 inches.
Bucks here generally field dress about 120-125 lbs. The heaviest that we have ever weighed field dressed was 180 lbs, which was huge.
JD guy I feel for you! It makes a guy furious!! Here is a example of a resident buck I had posted that I didn't get real excited about because of his one side. So I didn't get out and bow hunt before rifle season. This resident buck had 700+ acres around of no hunting. But when they have the rifle season during the rut sometimes the bucks travel! And that was the risk! He went by my camera opening morning during rifle season and the neighbor had him on camera in the middle of the week but he must have traveled into the next section. But on a high note! Magicman is right!! Managing does pay off from the beautiful picture he posted!! I can verify that!! I've got 30+ mounts all from my place to prove management works and could have had 5 more monsters if I would have been rifle hunting. Next year he would have been a good one!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/0D894890-7468-4E93-BDFC-45F9F5C0BF03.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671422125)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/A33339F9-FEBB-43A4-8F19-9D7DE999FEFD.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671422106)
Yes, it's very frustrating! I didn't mean to imply that we take small bucks, because we don't. The adjoining landowners and those that they allow to hunt however are not very discriminating and with that mentality we don't see near the number of larger bucks that we are used to. Personally, I am more of a meat hunter now in my more advanced years, so killing bucks no longer interests me. I do like for my sons and grandkids to have the opportunity to take the occasional buck however and that's why we significantly limit by size and quantity the last several years.
We have a lot of deer in our state and in recent years they have now allowed baiting in our counties in the upper part of the state. We don't bait but do put in food plots (merely semantics? maybe). With the legal ability to pour out piles of corn the lazy and those unwilling to put in any efforts to pattern or learn the land can just climb up in a stand, blast away and go to their cocktail parties and brag on their prowess as a hunter. Really chaps me but I'm older and old fashioned ::) ::)
I understand. The last buck that I shot was in 2018, but I still love to go and watch/see them.
There is a hunting club/camp 3 miles from us that has several Louisiana members. They pay club dues plus non-resident license so they feel justified in filling all of their tags with whatever is legal. No argument from me, I'm just glad that they are 3 miles away.
I have ~180 acres that I consider a sanctuary meaning that no one is allowed to enter or hunt there. Whether the deer know the difference, I have no idea. ::)
Just do everything you can to keep them in your sanctuary! But when people know you only hunt big bucks everybody hunts the perimeters and always know where the big ones are. Like the neighbors brother said to him. If it wasn't for me letting them get big and also bow hunting he wouldn't have the big ones that he has. I told him if we want some 200 inch deer stop rifle hunting!! That kinda stuff gets me really heated. Ready to brawl!!! If someone tries sneaking on. He knows better than to play with me and tells others you better not!!
Wild deer are not "our" deer, the way I look at it.
They most certainly are when you harvest one 😂
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_5098.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671583908)
T
The winter storm is coming the deer are eating hard. Only the brave ones come into the backyard, but the second form the right is a nice buck. We had 14 deer out at this time, 4 were bucks.
Here are a few more out of our other window.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_5102.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671584047)
The deer are safe here, unless they are 10 point or better. The neighbors shoot everything that moves and complain they never see any deer. The deer have patterned them.
Very nice! They know where they are safe. They will love all the trail openings you are making! No different than a person the paths of least resistance they will be more than happy to use
Yard deer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10007/12160012.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671631434)
Mississippi Buck number 140
He caught the attention of researchers the following spring when he traveled 18 miles into Louisiana and swam roughly a mile across the Mississippi River along the way.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/outdoors/2022/12/20/hunter-bags-buck-no-140-deer-crosses-mississippi-river/69740059007/ (https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/outdoors/2022/12/20/hunter-bags-buck-no-140-deer-crosses-mississippi-river/69740059007/)
Thank You for sharing that, it's a great story and also to know that the wildlife $ that are spent are giving back some valuable data!
I had read that and was amazed that the deer would swim the Mississippi River especially multiple times. I have seen our local deer, including a spotted fawn, swim our COE lake where it is at least 1/4 mile wide but it is a calm lake and no current and I am sure the river was much wider than that where this buck crossed.
My kind of hunting thread. We let them grow and it sure is frustrating letting that almost there buck or even multiple 1.5 year old bucks walk only to be taken by the neighbors down the road.
We have the young kids shoot some does so they have some success and will catch the hunting bug for a lifetime. But even then only does with no fawns with them.
As I get older I enjoy watching them just as much as harvesting them.
Yes, while I have have harvested many deer in my lifetime I now build the food plots and such for the grandkids to hunt. I don't have a problem taking deer but enjoy their success much more than my own these days. Plus I get some venison so it's a win win!
This morning we wake up to find that a doe has decided it's safer to hop the fence and eat and sleep in our backyard than be chased by the "guys" prowling outside the yard. You can see her bedded down in the back corner inside the fence and two decent bucks trying to convince her to come out and be sociable. Nope, she was not interested. The bucks were pacing up and down the fence and were nice ones, an 8 and a 10. However, they just couldn't bring themselves to hop the fence so she stayed for a couple hours and had a peaceful breakfast.
Remember our property is bordered by lots of hunters who have told me their deer have gone nocturnal. No, the deer just have patterned them, left their shooting gallery and come to our backyard, literally.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_5155.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672258370)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_5158.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672258314)
Robert,
Can I borrow your pet doe as a decoy? :D
Quote from: JD Guy on December 28, 2022, 10:16:28 AMYes, while I have have harvested many deer in my lifetime I now build the food plots and such for the grandkids to hunt.
I understand. I have 3 grandsons hunting at the Cabin now and they will probably be there until the rain this weekend.
Hopefully PatD and I can go next week and I can get some chores and wood splitting done. Sawmilling is coming soon. ::)
You know that fenced deer isn't considered fair chase hunting. :D
Sure sounds a lot easier than dragging one out of the woods especially in terrain like we have here. :D
Quote from: Magicman on December 28, 2022, 05:22:25 PM
Quote from: JD Guy on December 28, 2022, 10:16:28 AMYes, while I have have harvested many deer in my lifetime I now build the food plots and such for the grandkids to hunt.
I understand. I have 3 grandsons hunting at the Cabin now and they will probably be there until the rain this weekend.
Hopefully PatD and I can go next week and I can get some chores and wood splitting done. Sawmilling is coming soon. ::)
Well, as luck would have it oldest grandson took a nice 8pt at his dad's place this afternoon. He's done with deer uniting now and going to chase ducks for a while yet :D. Magicman, getting older has its benefits too, doesn't it? :new_year:
The other day I saw a young buck open the gate for an old doe to let her in. What was even more amazing is that he shut the gate when they left. Very polite.
It won't be long and they will be drinking from the dog bowl.
Sure YH rub it in 😂. We are all out there chasing deer around and you basically have them invited for breakfast! Really!! Very nice!
!
They know when they're safe, I have them around the mill all the time.
This is one of the reasons you can tell our property line for all the neighbors deer stands put on it.
Make no mistake, I am a trophy deer hunter and manage the farm for it, but I'm not shooting one from my Laz-e-boy.
Used to be I planted green fields on the edges of our property and I got tired of the fence hunters, so I moved all the green fields into the interior of the property. We have several natural springs, lots of super thick bedding areas, and lots of food. If the deer step across the property line, they get whacked by all the neighbors. If they stay in our property line, they are safe, except for the occasional 10 pointer or 12 pointer I'll take. The second largest Alabama deer on record was taken by a logging buddy of mine, only a few miles away, on the grounds of the Huntsville Executive Airport. 22 point monster, it made all the magazines. However, if the deer come to the house and watch TV with me, then even the 10 pointers are safe, like the one in the picture.
If you didn't see the pics of these deer you wouldn't believe it, but years ago we had a massive 10 or 12 pointer that had gotten so educated he would purposely come out of the woods near me or my neighbors house. I remember once when I saw him eating the grass by the neighbors garbage can. We all talked about it and nobody would shoot him or they would get ridiculed by the rest of us. One day I was going to work and right amongst my neighbors highly decorated yard ornaments, there he was, bedded down, right in the front yard. Guess which lawn ornaments he was with? Santa and the reindeer, of course. That buck survived the season because I saw him after hunting season was over, before he shed his horns.
yellowhammer, nice pictures and stories!!
I don't hunt, nothing against it. The kids and grandkids hunt on my land.
No big atlered bucks here. Maybe a good size buck or two. Grandson and kids enjoy setting cameras up and seeing what is on The Farm.
I feed the deer in the winter months and they enjoy the sheds to match up with the bucks on camera.
Last view from the stand for the year. Empty handed and the arrow never left the tree. That's part of the game going after big bucks. Could have shot several does and a few good bucks. Glad I could help conservation by buying two permits and not filling them. One is still good for late season doe though. The bonuses of not shooting a good buck or big one is that they have a chance of turning into monsters!!! The guy down the road miles away will maybe get or have a chance at a monster or a buck of a lifetime to them! The Social structure of the mature deer and genetics thrive!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/8E2B6837-F36F-444A-AACA-036A36342E28.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672533285)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/14FDE9E2-7D8B-4F25-BE03-DFB137E9064E.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672877363)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/2173F589-65F3-4D67-BD40-1D4E6E3CC916.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672877365)
Management management. My buddy that said he's never seen as many big deer over the years than from my place. But now since he has moved to Iowa he is getting a taste of his management and a state that makes the right moves to have smaller bucks turn into monsters. His buck earlier this year and the monster 5x6 tonight he arrowed tonight! The buck his 80 year old uncle missed with a arrow. I'm looking forward to finding some big buck land in Iowa!
He will be a good one come next season
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/480AF786-DC34-4900-B40A-0DB5BC4137BA.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1673013558)
Some monster bucks!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_3447.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1673965513)
Another Grandson got his buck this past weekend. This was his last opportunity because there is a baby coming within the next couple of weeks.
I was hopeful that we would be able to go the the Cabin this week but there are too many conflicts. Actually killing a deer was not on our bucket list, but we do like to go.
Congrats on the nice deer and the upcoming great grandbaby.
Our poorest year here ever.
Fewest deer sightings during gun season.
5 of us that hunt the property, only deer taken were 2 small bucks, 2 does and a button horn.
I saw 4 does opening day and 7 does and fawns the second day of late muzzle loader season.
I shot and missed opening day on one of the does.
had plenty of deer with some nice bucks on camera from September thru til season, then the ground swallowed em up.
Also far less shooting on the surrounding properties one of which is state land.