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Post by Foggy on Oct 30, 2021 21:04:52 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden.
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Post by smsmith on Oct 30, 2021 21:22:21 GMT -6
^^^that is a mature buck and whomever is lucky enough to shoot him should be proud. Minimum 4.5 I'd guess. QDMA tried to fool us into thinking it was as simple as passing a buck until they were "mature" so they'd have huge sets of antlers. The truth is that a whole bunch (over 50%?) of bucks will never grow enough antlers to get headhunters excited. FWIW...there's lots of gals who are "mature" and who don't have huge knockers. They all taste good to me though
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Post by Freeborn on Oct 30, 2021 21:37:30 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden. Have you aged the deer you have harvested? If the neighbors see the same thing and racks are always the same most likely its the dominate genetic trait in your area.
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Post by Sandbur on Oct 31, 2021 3:15:55 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden. . Light soil and bad winters usually don’t allow for those longer tined and higher scoring bucks. An occasional one still comes along. I think the people who feed a bit of corn in the winter make a big difference. I know several retired people who do that. Either way, you need to enjoy your hunt. As the landowner, you can set the standards. The definition of a nice buck in that country is different than of a nice buck in farm country. Going by rack size, deer in that light soil country are one year behind farm country bucks. They often still do not make the antler growth due to bad winters.
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Post by Sandbur on Oct 31, 2021 3:17:27 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden. . Light soil and bad winters usually don’t allow for those longer tined and higher scoring bucks. An occasional one still comes along. I think the people who feed a bit of corn in the winter make a big difference. I know several retired people who do that. Either way, you need to enjoy your hunt. As the landowner, you can set the standards. The definition of a nice buck in that country is different than of a nice buck in farm country. Going by rack size, deer in that light soil country are one year behind farm country bucks. They often still do not make the antler growth due to bad winters. . I would need a better picture, but I would guess a 3.5.
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Post by Reagan on Oct 31, 2021 4:23:29 GMT -6
I agree with Art on age and needing a better pic. If a 3.5 gets my heart racing, I’m shooting. I only have so many days to hunt so killing something older is possible but far from likely. And I live in a state with no center fire rifles and a late gun season.
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Post by caveman on Oct 31, 2021 4:26:49 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT..... WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden.
Not where you currently hunt, those big bucks know to stay in the swamps until dark to stay alive. Get off the food plots and high dry ground and go hunt the nasty to find the nasty.
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Post by Foggy on Oct 31, 2021 6:58:02 GMT -6
^ My point is that they NEVER show up on cameras....even in the dark. If they never show up on my land.....or if they dont exist.....how can I shoot 'em? May as well hunt Sasquatch. On another note....just had the first Bobby come through this morning.
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Post by gsquared23 on Oct 31, 2021 7:43:06 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden. From what I’m reading and hearing, passing 3 year olds is only about half the job. If you have a few inferior 3 year olds make it to maturity, they’re never going to make much of themselves. If you kill the worst 3 year olds and leave the top ones, whatever makes it to maturity has better odds of becoming something big. You are not affecting the genetics, you are simply making more room at your hotel for the best bucks of each age class. So blast away at the 3 year olds with 8 or fewer points, and save only the top ones for later. Give that part 3 years and see what happens. And if it doesn’t work and you’re still in the same spot, well you didn’t lose anything, and you were able to enjoy hunting and shooting some deer. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deer-university/id1234304336?i=1000386047046podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deer-university/id1234304336?i=1000386047045Bronson wrote a book on the topic too www.amazon.com/Strategic-Harvest-System-Through-Management/dp/1973235609
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Post by Foggy on Oct 31, 2021 8:51:05 GMT -6
The issue for me and my family becomes......the pic below is the best I got going into the rifle season. Might see a few pics better....but this is about the norm of a good buck for my land. Now.....we all say....let them grow each year....so we pass on this kinda bucks for several years now.....and we dont know of many in the area that are better than these. BUT.....WHERE IN THE HELL ARE THE LARGER BUCKS THAN THOSE THAT WE HAVW LET WALK??? Dont make any sense. The bucks simply do not get larger than that on camera here for the most part. (OK....tere is an example every two or three years.....but WTF?). I dont know that it pays to hod off on these bucks. I wish it worked differently. F'n Biden. From what I’m reading and hearing, passing 3 year olds is only about half the job. If you have a few inferior 3 year olds make it to maturity, they’re never going to make much of themselves. If you kill the worst 3 year olds and leave the top ones, whatever makes it to maturity has better odds of becoming something big. You are not affecting the genetics, you are simply making more room at your hotel for the best bucks of each age class. So blast away at the 3 year olds with 8 or fewer points, and save only the top ones for later. Give that part 3 years and see what happens. And if it doesn’t work and you’re still in the same spot, well you didn’t lose anything, and you were able to enjoy hunting and shooting some deer. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deer-university/id1234304336?i=1000386047046podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deer-university/id1234304336?i=1000386047045Bronson wrote a book on the topic too www.amazon.com/Strategic-Harvest-System-Through-Management/dp/1973235609^. Pretty much what we have done since buying this property a dozen years ago.
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Post by smsmith on Nov 1, 2021 6:18:48 GMT -6
Shoot what makes you happy. I will add that mature bucks here seem to learn pretty quickly where their pictures get taken. Most don't like that, so they don't get their pictures taken very often.
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Post by Foggy on Nov 1, 2021 6:46:35 GMT -6
Buck of the day....
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Post by wklman on Nov 1, 2021 7:50:28 GMT -6
Buck of the day.... Looks like a typical North country 3.5 year old.
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 1, 2021 8:12:40 GMT -6
Shoot what makes you happy. I will add that mature bucks here seem to learn pretty quickly where their pictures get taken. Most don't like that, so they don't get their pictures taken very often. I agree completely. That is one of the reasons I don’t run cameras. I don’t want to be in the woods messing around with them. Those old bucks know which areas have human activity and which areas don’t. Eve an old doe that has been pressured knows it. I feel they sense the presence of cameras. The recent youth and antlerless hunts have changed Deer activity where the deer were hunted and even effected adjacent properties. As it should always be, shoot a deer that makes your season a success. I hate the story of shooting a buck to cull for genetics. Plain BS for all of us here.
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Post by smsmith on Nov 1, 2021 8:17:09 GMT -6
I'd say once you're north and east of Ripley, your odds of seeing huge antlered bucks go down substantially. Huge bodied bucks would be a different story.
If your goal is to shoot large antlered bucks, buying land in an area that has produced them reliably for many years is the "best" place to start.
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