I have only ever "heard" of one hunter in MS that has killed 7+ P&Y deer.... That's pretty high standards to live up to ANYWHERE! To answer the question, no, in fact I have very little figured out when it comes to mature deer.
I've taken my game to the next level of TRYING to kill a mature buck on a consistant basis. I'm nowhere close to being there. I'm having a lot of fun and learning more now than I ever have doing it though. I don't see myself ever having it all figured out (which is fine with me).
No I don't have it all figured out and hope I never do. If it becomes that easy I'd likely quit. Saying deer only eat sleep and mate is like saying all it takes to play baseball (the current comparison) is to hit run and catch. Sure the basics are easy to understand. But what did he eat last night? Why did he ignore the (pick a foodsource) yesterday evening and why did he opt for (pick another food source)? How do we explain the rogue bucks that enter "our" woods during the chasing phase. Only to be seen once and never to be heard of again. If we truly understood every facet of deer existance we'd know from whence they came and they wouldn't be a happenstance encounter. We wouldn't have to "hunt the doe" at this time of year, we'd hunt the buck prior to that point. Another sport that was brought into the comparison is Golf. One of the greatest Golfers of all time summed it up as: "Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated." - Arnold Palmer I think you can easily interchange Golf for Hunting.
Matter in what capacity? To me, joining a forum and trying to learn from more experienced hunters... yeah, it matters.
Never have it all figured out, every buck I hunt is a little different even the same bucks as they age. Thats what makes it so much fun; there is always new set of variables to deal with every season.
It's cool you have come here to learn But with all the bickering & nit picking already going on, another chest thumping thread isn't going to generate much info to use in the deer woods. Yea it may be nice to know the experience level on the boards, but due to the varyign conditions people hunt in, you don't need to be a consistent big buck killer to offer up a useful bit of knowledge.
I guess my thread came across wrong to you. I apologize for that. No chest thumping here. I was just trying to get know some people out there. My bad.
Best answer of all, no matter how much experience one has. The question seems simple enough, not really a "chest thumping" thread.
