I've hunted with my brothers and father for 27 years now. The story is no different then a million other families..........dad and the boys grabbing their 870's and heading out the door in the dark carrying lunch and a thermos mom left right in front of the door so we wouldn't forget them As the years past on the battlefields of NY state land we always did very well as we had an area that few people hunted and we managed to fill the freezer for many years and even pulled a good buck or two out on occasion............but it was what it was and you didn't dare let a buck walk by as you would likely never see another one and almost certainly hear a shot within minutes as a buck on his feet out there was simply toast. We did more then our share of brown and down and never thought much about bigger bucks other then daydreaming while on stand that a miracle may stroll our way someday..........but as I said it was what it was. As we got older and advanced in life to careers of our own and dad advanced to a serious distaste of NY winters we decided to prolong dad's time in the woods as that was more important to us then anything else...........but why not go all the way right?? We grabbed 350 acres in PRIME whitetail country (as good as it gets in NY anyways) and now we have multiple elevated heated blinds, almost 30 ladder and hang on stands with acres of food plots in an area that is heavily managed by most neighbors and we couldn't be in a more night and day scenario. So a couple years of killing better bucks then we were used to 120-130" range we all (dad kicking and screaming) made a choice to hold out for something bigger...........we thought this was the right choice and it seemed like a good idea and/or a natural progression we were already on. It turned out to be a flop..............and a season we all feel now was lost so to speak. We passed on a few bucks that would have been toast any other year and ended up taking NOTHING off our land but a freezer full of does (10 total). When it was all said and done we sat around the fire and not a single one of us was pleased with the way things unfolded. We still had a blast as always but it just had a different feel to it as we set out for our stands in the dark it was almost as if we KNEW we weren't going to score unless we agreed to a whack a doe day. Maybe we set our standards too high??.......I will post a pic of a buck as I passed him (trail cam on tree next to me) very early in the season that 99.9% of guys in NY would wet themselves to get a shot at. I don't really regret not shooting him so to speak but it's more of a feeling like "What the heck am I doing out here if I'm not killing that??" I'm just not sure I see the point as I/we don't feel any better about our season or our land and in fact we feel like we wasted tons of hours and thousands of dollars to watch a bunch of deer walk by. Maybe that's it..........our "evolution" in hunting has lead us to a place where it's almost a year round job and to do all that stuff all year long and get the same in return as we would have had we done nothing is frustrating. Honestly I'm still confused about what to do..............none of us feels "bad" or anything like that and it's certainly about as low on the list of life priorities as you can get but it's more of a feeling that we wasted our time. Like we didn't even really hunt this year ya know?? We may as well have gone out with cameras instead of bows and guns. I guess if we just had a place that was no maintenance and just showed up every year opening day and sat it might be different but it seems like we have "evolved" into working 10 times harder yet made a conscious decision to get nothing in return. I don't know.............I guess maybe we thought shooting a 150-160" buck once in a while would be better then shooting a few 120-130" bucks regularly. Who knows??.......had we tagged one of those boys would we feel any different?? We posed that question to each other and all answered no. I guess we just don't see the value in putting in THAT much effort only to drag a buck out every couple years or so. We have close friends out there that hunt that way and maybe they peer pressured us or just influenced our decision but it sounded a lot better then it was. We discussed it at length and the guys I spoke of have killed a grand total of 2 bucks in the last 6 years out of hundreds of acres of prime land and diligent management. They were nice bucks both over 150" but we are talking 2 guys scoring out of probably 15-20 guys hunting those camps for 6 years.............no thanks. Am I wrong??..........tell me what we are missing out on. What is the draw of spending an entire year of money and hard work only to watch everything walk by?? We have no need to flop back to brown and down but I think we may have set the bar too high in an attempt to do something that is constantly preached as the way to IMPROVE your hunting. Here is the buck walking by my tree in early October. I don't know...........just struggling for answers.......trying to figure out a plan before spring drops.
I've learned one thing over the past 10 years of doing the same thing that you are right now. 350 acres isn't enough unless all the neighbors are doing it too. It works in states like IL because not many would shoot a buck like that out here. In NY, you don't own enough ground to keep him safe and the neighbors are going to smoke him the first chance they get.
To be honest, I'm a trophy hunter. I let a lot of deer walk. I'm not saying I'm holding out for 180+ buck because that's unrealistic, but I'll let a 120 or 130" buck walk these days. We eat the meat, but if my tag goes unfilled we are not going to starve. I love watching deer in their natural environment, so just letting them slip by without knowing I'm there is good enough for me most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I want to kill a deer, but I enjoy the challenge as much as the kill. I have already killed several smaller bucks, so I have moved on to challenge myself even further by only taking more mature bucks. I put hours and hours and plenty of dollars into land management and food plots. Sometimes it's frustrating when it seems like your work didn't pay off(like this year), but when you do make it happen on your target buck, it seems to make it all worth it. At least for me.
That's the idea behind it... But if you're managing 350 acres, chances are that buck will not be getting shot by you next season. You killed a total of 10 does - To me that is a successful season. For me it's not all about putting antler on the wall... It's the ultimate goal, but if that doesn't work out so be it. I hunt on a 60 acre piece of private land that is surrounded by people who's motto is if it's brown it's down. No way in hell am I passing up a 120" deer. It all depends on the scenario in regards to the hunter.
Like the story you posted, good read. I live in NY and 120 inch deer to me is a giant! We probably have more people hunting in a single day in NY than most states have total people! Take a deer that makes YOU happy, thats just my opinion.
Great topic, one I've been pondering alot lately. On my property, I've let several decent bucks (100-120 round here) walk by in the past few years. a few i wanted to shoot cause my gut was telling me too, but I let them walk to eat tag soup this year. I'm surrounded by a few thousand acres of non buildable wetlands, and a meat hunter/if its brown its down hunter. It was a great feeling letting the bucks walk, but I'm starting to question the reason I let them walk. from this point forward, if he gets my heart rate going, I'm shooting, regardless of size, and public opinion. I've let at least a dozen shooter bucks go by that would look nice on my nearly empty wall.
You will have the opportunity to hunt the deer you passed up this year next year and yes he will be bigger in antler and body.. That is assuming no one else tagged him after you passed him or he doesn't get hit by a car die from a battle wound get EHD etc etc mortality among whitetail bucks is very high some of the highest of all north American big game because of where they live and the lives they lead.. That being said I have passed many with the hopes of encountering him next year. I would put the cams out the next August and hope to start getting pics of him again that is the risk you take when you play the game.
its about as seriously managed as you could hope for..........few stragglers but not enough to wipe out all the big bucks. I agree totally that even saying that anything you pass has a decent chance of getting smacked, or just plain never returning. Lots of options for bucks by us with so much food and tons of does it's hard to plan on multiple encounters in one year let alone year to year.
Can I ask how long you let smaller bucks go for? What are the surrounding hunters like? There is a book called Quality Deer Management and the author is from NY and has less land than you. I would suggest to try and get your neighbors on board. Even if that means convincing them to just pass spike or forks it will help.
We can kill as many does as we have tags for............it's not uncommon for us to see 15-20 does in a sit. We could do that all year every year without putting in a single hour of work or planting any food plots. There is no shortage of deer............it's just the BIG bucks are of course few and far between. But they are there for sure so the opportunity is real and not just a pipe dream.
I used manage a trophy managed club in Middle GA with 5000 ac and 10 member on avg we killed four 150+ class bucks a year those that did not kill bucks helped thin the doe herd
I understand your thinking on the subject, but for me, letting a legal buck walk gives me a certain amount of self satisfaction. I guess knowing I could have killed it, but didn't is why. Perhaps because I'm on Public land and I know MOST guys would shoot a given buck that I just let walk. I realize there's no real future in doing this on Public, but I'll continue. Another thing is, if I had killed the 5pt that I had at 12yrds during early season I wouldn't have been in the woods during the rut to see the 130" 8pt (real big for my woods) that I also had at about 12yrds. (that I spooked lol) At 59, I've killed enough deer that I really don't care if I kill another. Just watching them is good enough for me any more. The woods = escape.
that is called a CO-OP and if you can get your neighbors on board it is awesome, but it is not easy..
I let 3 six pointers and 1 massive four point walk this year. Checking my trail cam showed they're still alive. I'm hoping the 4 point next year will be massive. I passed on those deer because I knew there was a nice 8 point walking around, and it paid off big time. It might not have, but that was a risk I was willing to take.
