Mn Is a one buck state and It don't save them. A higher percentage of 1.5 year old bucks are killed here more then any other state.
Could you imagine if it was a multiple buck state though? My experience has shown me that most guys who kill 1.5 year old bucks would do it again in a heartbeat. One of the best bow shooters i know, who has killed over 25 whitetails with a bow has NEVER passed a shot at a deer in range in his life. He actually gets upset when i tell him how many bucks ive let walk...says im nothing but a hornhunter and just as bad as those guys one TV. Some people you just cant change.
I don't think I spend enough time on here to quite understand that 1st part. Are you saying people come up with different ages for the same buck? Could someone explain ?? thanks.
I remember the 1st time I told my dad I had a buck in front of me & didn't shoot it. He looked at me like a grew a 2nd head. Cound not understand it. It took him about 3-4 years to catch on.
Some people have no desire to change. Does anyone get that? Maybe it's not your thing, but some guys are just dang proud to get a buck, period! Hell the Cleveland Browns still have fans..why is that? They suck and under achieve every year. Why should we impose our morals on them and expect them to change, what if they are trying to change you? Live and let live.
No issues here either but I've got to add my .02 cents and disagree. Germ put it very good in a post a while back. PRESSURE has a lot to do with one's success along with the DPSM argument as well. I saw this first hand last year when I was invited for a hunt in the heart of South Texas deer country. It was a large acreage, low fence ranch but was managed for big bucks. I was allowed to shoot a 4 1/2yo plus 8 pointer (dare I say cull buck) but nothing else other than hogs. I saw three different 10 pt 150" class bucks that were estimated to be over 4 1/2 yo and certainly 3 1/2yo and they were dumber than a box of rocks that were closer to my 1 /12-2 1/2 yo deer in their behavior. Why? Pressure or lack there of. And keep in mind my local area or "standard" that I was comparing to is not anything near to being a high pressure area to begin with, has a DPSM quota, and are agricultural based deer that are easier to hunt than other situations. I really don't think there is a "great equalizer" when comparing one specific area to another much less comparing areas over 1000 miles apart. When Gri22ly points out that his mature buck is a tougher animal to kill than one I kill, I can't disagree. But if age is the great equalizer????.......Oh well, I am being rendundant.
Our Game Biologist currently has our area at 60-70DPSM which concerns him very much and thinks the quality of the deer will suffer (quality defined by him as skeletal and body size) if we don't get our numbers down. On 37 sits this year I have seen 209 doe and 165 bucks. This does not take into account fawns. The doe:buck ratio is 1.27 and I have averaged seeing a little more than 10 deer per sit. Of the 165 buck sightings (some if not many are multiple sightings of the same deer) roughly 13% have been estimated as 3.5's and 5.5% have been estimated as 4.5's. Maybe I am a poor estimator of age, and therefore have skewed the numbers upward, but I don't think so. What I do know, is I have killed two 130" mature deer this year. Could anyone else hunting my area(s) with "average" deer knowldege and hunting skills that are willing to hunt the hours that I do? Absolutely. I have no problem admitting/recognizing this. Does my success here mean I could go and hunt in Gri22ly or Shed's backyard and kill mature deer? I have no idea for sure, but my guess is probably not. I have said this before. We are a "three buck" State but most counties are only 1 buck counties. If they were all 2 buck counties, I am sure my local demographics would change dramatically and I might be singing a different tune.
No disrespect. I am sorry you took it the wrong way. I am agreeing that my way/area of hunting is much easier than most. So where's the rub?
