Went shed hunting today, checked one of my cameras, this is the buck I call "A-Frame" due to his antler tilt. I hunted for this buck quite a bit this season and never once saw him while on stand. but did while walking out one evening. If you look in the background of these trail cam pix from today ( I grabbed my camera only 30 minutes after these pix were taken, he probably heard me drive in) U can see my rapid rails going up that pine tree. 8 yards from this deer. He looks better to me in hard horn than what I thought, hes gonna be a beast next year if he can make the winter, I am a little worried he's aweful skinny now. Here are the pix from today and two I got of him in the velvet this past summer. Man I am glad he made it, hes a stud old mountain buck. Probably a 4.5 right now.. hes run down, hope I find these sheds. oh, I found my first shed today, a 1 year old, still good color though... 5x elk side. ! I'll post pix of it over in the shed section. p.s. sorry about the "2005" date on the tc.. must not have set it ... time is correct though.. he was there at noon today! I grabbed my camera off the tree at 12:32 ... I did jump a deer about 30 yards from the trail camera while walking in too.. have no idea if it was him..
That's a real nice buck right there. He does look awefully worn down compared to the summer pics though. That boy needs to eat!
Thats awesome shed!!Im already gettin excited about the bucks on my property that have made it so far only 4 more days to go and there safe.Cant wait to see what thet are next year even if they are lil NC deer
Nice rack! I hope he can make it through the Winter for you so we can see you beside him next year :D
Glad to see him make it since you didn't get a crack at him. Hopefully with your milder winter so far he will have a chance to put some weight back on before the snows hit. Wow is he thin !! Tim
I spent about 5 hours walking this ground and doing a ton of post season scouting, I couldnt ask for better conditions, 1 inch of snow so the deer are still doing their normal routines. The forest and mountain read like a book with trails, tracks etc running off of ridges into thick bedding mountains sides and up and over through saddles.. Its a huge area this buck lives in, steep mountain about a mile long with big finger ridges running down both sides of the mountain in all directions.. I didnt have a game camera on this stand site during the season though, worried about it getting stolen, i would love to know how many times this buck walked by this stand.. I hunted this stand a total of 3 times all season. I hunted him more on the north where I had seen him one evening during season. The summer pix of him are on the North side of the mountain, the t/c pix now are on the south side.. makes sense.. colder on the north now and not much feed over there now.. when I did see him one evening while hunting just before leaving a clearcut bottom stand (late Oct).. I watched him in my binocs come down off the top of the mountain on the north side worked his way down it really slow and careful before dark.... if I connect the dots to these three spots that I now have visuals of him, this buck has a big range/area he moves around in ( and I really missed his hvy rutting routes, while in iowa so who knows where he was then)...at least 300 acres just connecting these three spots.. again I hope he makes this winter, think I will take him some food tomorrow.
Great buck Troy. It is always a relief to see they made it through the season. I too would be a little worried about him this winter, he sure looks worn. However, they are tough critters. Good luck with his sheds and best of luck on him next season!
Like everyone else Troy, glad he made It. These bucks really get wore down from all the rutting they do. I still can't believe how skinny by buck looked compared to the 1st pics I got of him In Mid October. These big guys/older bucks do more chasing then a guy thinks I believe.
Man, he is gonna be a stud next year. Hopefully he's got enough gas in the tank to make it through the winter.
He's a good one already Troy. Next year he should be a really great buck. Good luck with finding his sheds and tagging him next season.
He's a great buck, Troy. What about that stud you had in cam in the preseason?. .. I think he was 7x7. Any sign of him?
I saw him face to face... 1 time all season in mid Nov, walked right too him as I had a set up pretty deep in his bedding area, just past where I found his sheds and felt he was hanging out...I was 20 yards from my set up and he was bedded with a doe right there, I bumped him up with her, got a great look at him, hes a real stud, gonna be a monster next year at 6 years old! ... I pray he made it/ makes the winter! and am very confident he did make the hunting season, he lives and holds up tight on a steep mountain side, thick timber, brush and huge area to roam around in and feed anywhere..lots of browse/brush several ridges run off the main one...etc.. I have put out trail cams for him in a couple spots.. No dice.. yet.. still trying, found his sheds last year.. gonna go look in the same general area this winter.. giving him some time though..
Troy, He does look awfully skinny, but my guess is he will make it. Good Luck with him! That's the Great thing about Trail Cams. It allows us to get an idea what is still out there. I have had mine out since I returned from NE. I'll be heading out this weekend to swap memory cards and batteries. I may even move a couple ;-) Dan
