Couple of Nice Bucks

[Spikebuck]

A ways to go until I can get the flintlock in the field, but it appears I'll have at least a couple pretty good bucks to hunt at The Land this year:

This guy will be a 12 point...a basic 10 with split G2's on each side.

072214 Pallet Split G2 12 point by fillmorelease

Here was an unusual and pretty cool pic. Clearly I'm not the only hunter in the woods.

071314 911 Owl with Mouse by fillmorelease

This 8 has 1 1/2 months of antler growth yet to go...good start.

071214 Hourglass Nice 8 Point by fillmorelease

This guy looks to be a pretty nice 10. Velvet does make them look bigger, but he also has a month more of growth.

080214 Pallet Nice 10 2 by fillmorelease

Another nice 10. With almost 1 1/2 months of antler growth left, he will be a real dandy!

072014 911 Nice 10 Point by fillmorelease

This is a young buck that already is sporting 12 points. Split tines are in our herd's genetics. This guy should be passed for at least one more, if not two more years.

071314 Hourglass 12 pointer and two other bucks by fillmorelease

This smallish 9 point couldn't get enough of the camera!

072214 Hourglass 9 point cannnot get enough of the camera by fillmorelease

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

 

[sidelock]

I have 2 just like that in my front yard ----- but I ain't goin to shoot em. I got mine years ago. good luck to you.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Cool pictures :v

 

[longcruise]

You might have to drop that "spikebuck" screen name! :haha:

Those are nice pics. Wish my hunt area was close enough to play with trail cams but it's not practical.

 

[stuartg]

Looks promising! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Spikebuck]

Wish my hunt area was close enough to play with trail cams but it's not practical.

"Play" is the right word. I've never killed a buck just because it was on a trail cam for as soon as they go hard antlered the bigger bucks seem to change patterns and go nocturnal. The pics only provide me with a view of what might be hanging on the property come hunting season which makes it a LOT easier to pass immature bucks when there is a good chance mature bucks can come by. More of a psychological "advantage" than anything. Plus, one gets bonus pictures like the owl with that big, fat mouse that are really cool.

 

[longcruise]

Yeah, for me the nongame animals would be as much fun as seeing the deer.

 

[Tracy A. Potter]

Great picks and nice bucks! Are cams have been really busy and we have a bunch of nice big bucks we are watching in the fields too. I love posting picks of them I just don't do it much on here or I would, guys seem to always think are deer are pets or tame or something and get on me. They just can't believe you can get big buck pictures in broad daylight or something. We work our buts off year round on free range deer, no food plots surrounded by outfitters just to have a few Big ones to hunt.

Nothing like it though watching them grow year after year and finding the same buck year after year. Won't be long most of our bucks will start shedding in the first 10 days of September, some a little earlier some later but most in those 10 days. Can't wait and like you said it can really change there patterns.

Good luck this year!

Tracy

 

[Spikebuck]

Are cams have been really busy and we have a bunch of nice big bucks we are watching in the fields too. I love posting picks of them I just don't do it much on here

Well I, for one, would never pass up an opportunity to see some big Kansas buck pics! :thumbsup:

Ours aren't "monster bucks" but are good for the area. During rut we usually see one or two really big boys cruising we had no pictures of...no doubt from another property and rut drew them out. Last year our neighbor, who literally has a stand in a tree split in half by our common fenceline, shot a very large 12 point that was not on any of our pics (over 30,000).

 

[Tracy A. Potter]

Here's a few were chasing don't want to hyjack the thread!

Good luck this year hope you get a shot at a good one!

Tracy

 

[Eric Krewson]

I understand trail cams can be quite addictive for the user.

I guess I am a bit of an odd ball, I don't want to know what is roaming around on the property I hunt. I like to be surprised and thrilled when my hunting skills puts me in touch with a deer I didn't know exists.

I don't want to sit back and say " here comes old three toes, I have a dozen pictures of him at my corn pile."

 

[Spikebuck]

Those are some real dandy bucks...and is why Kansas is so famous for giant Whitetail bucks. You really have to have very large blocks of land under "management" by the land owners to have such bucks, I suspect. In our case, we have come to learn that the surrounding land owners do not subscribe to this...which is fine...I have no problem with other hunters shooting what they want. But I also have no illusions as to what impact that has, even where our lease is over 800 acres.

 

[Spikebuck]

I guess I am a bit of an odd ball, I don't want to know what is roaming around on the property I hunt. I like to be surprised and thrilled when my hunting skills puts me in touch with a deer I didn't know exists.

I don't find that desire "odd" at all. Sometimes I debate with myself over knowing what is on the property in advance vs not knowing. If I recall, you have described yourself in other posts as a "meat hunter." If I were not being highly selective, I would not go through the expense of buying and managing a string of cameras because I'd simply shoot the first deer that walked by. Cameras are unnecessary for those that have a goal of filling the freezer only. And I'm sure there are many "trophy" hunters (I hate those terms "meat" or "trophy", BTW) that have lots of time and still do it the old-fashioned way by sitting at a distance and watching with high-powered optics.

All of this is perfectly fine. Each hunter needs to determine for themselves what they choose to do to make the experience the most for them.

One thing I can make perfectly clear in my case is that there are no corn or other food piles. If someone else uses food piles, that's their choice and even if it were legal in Minnesota, I would not use them. Some cameras are set over mineral licks, which are worthless during actual hunting seasons as the deer completely quit using them and they just fill in with leaves. It does, however, provide them with minerals they need during the growing season and may make them stop at a certain spot they already travel through for pictures. Hunting skills are actually used to determine the best locations for licks and cameras. You just don't walk out into the woods and dump some minerals and set a camera. You scout first, find the best areas, and set up there...just like placing a tree stand or ground blind.

The benefit of pictures to one that chooses to chase mature bucks is that when a snap decision has to be made whether to shoot or not shoot a particular buck, those pictures provide a memory for a quick reference and you've already made a conscious decision in advance whether "old three toes" is the one you want to pull the trigger on. Again, completely meaningless to a "meat" hunter. Paramount to one focused on only taking certain deer. As an example, the one "small" twelve point is certainly not on my list even though many hunters will never ever see a 12 point, much less get a chance to harvest one. I choose to let him live to grow bigger and knowing he isn't fully mature yet helps me ensure I let him trot on by when he's chasing a doe during the rut. If and when I do get a chance to harvest him later in his life, he may sport nicer headgear (sometimes not...mature doesn't always mean big headgear) and a much bigger body full of a larger quantity of good meat. :hmm: Maybe "trophy" hunters are "meat" hunters as well! :v

BTW...if my neighbor shoots the small 12 pointer, I'll extend my hand in a sincere congratulations that he fulfilled his dreams for the season.

 

[Patocazador]

We don't have Irish elk in Florida. I've been deer hunting since 1967 and have never laid eyes on deer like that. :shocked2:

 

[longcruise]

Them Florida deer look more like German shepherds !!

 

[wattlebuster]

Great pics. Darn good bucks. Good luck to ya :thumbsup:

 

[Patocazador]

Them Florida deer look more like German shepherds !!

They aren't that big. :grin:

I shot 7 Fla. deer last year. The bucks were 90-130 lbs each. Does averaged 85-90 lbs. That is live weight, not gutted.

 

[Alden]

Wow.

Those are some good pics by the way.

I have two trail cams. They were used for surveilance on a property I co-owned. They were just the right color grey camouflage and I'll be damned but people looking almost right at them and never "saw" them hidden in the corners (until the bright variant infrared flash glowed red and then people in the dark only saw a glow in the corner of their eye and took off). But these deer...

They seem to know the cameras are there. How?

 

[Eric Krewson]

I think we all seek a different level of difficulty as we mature as hunters. It might be to focus on big bucks only, easier in some areas of the country than others. In Minnesota big body bucks abound, not so in mid southern Tn.

My degree of difficulty is achieved by making everything I hunt with myself, from scratch, flintlocks, osage bows and wood arrows.

I hunt 350 acres surrounded by a thousand acres of corn and soybeans, sounds like hunter paradise until you factor in the 90 deer the farmers killed in the fields around our hunting land on crop depredation permits last year.

They shot everything they saw with their bull barrel, tripod mounted 300 win mag, huge bucks, does, fawns, they didn't discriminate. They bragged that anything that stepped out within a thousand yards of their rifle was toast. This culling is a yearly event for the farmers, considering the incredible damage the deer do to their crops it is completely justified.

I suspect killing a mature doe with an osage selfbow on our land has the same degree of difficulty as killing a 250lb 10 point in the Midwest with a black powder rifle and could actually be more difficult.

 

[Spikebuck]

I suspect killing a mature doe with an osage selfbow on our land has the same degree of difficulty as killing a 250lb 10 point in the Midwest with a black powder rifle and could actually be more difficult.

Eric, I suspect that's very nearly always the case anywhere! Truly mature does are always keenly aware of their surroundings...mature bucks can act downright stupid! I cannot count the number of times that a mature doe saved the life of their bumbling boyfriend during the rut. :grin:

Anyone taking anything from the ground with primitive bow and arrow should be very, very proud of their accomplishment. :hatsoff: