What’s up Dan! We’ve got a good bunch of peeps on this team for sure. Nice to have some rep from the Northeast.
We have a crazy Groupie... Cool. Now all we need is a sexy stalker and we will be all set. Maybe dnoodles can serve as both. Hey dnoodles... please submit an application photo for that. We can’t have just any old scrub stalking us.
So what is everyone's expectations for this year? How did you do last year? post up some pics of past success... For me, 2018 will be a unique year. I have 3 buck tags in Iowa, and 3 in MO, BUT I am really only hunting 2 deer. Both are under my skin pretty bad. One is a 7-8 year old deer that I have multiple years of history with, pictures, sheds, etc. The second is only a 4 year old, but is very special. The only other buck I may shoot (and only with my landowner tag if I kill one of the other two bucks 1st) is a 5 year old 170" clean 10 point I call Mr Clean. A doe will not be an issue...SO either I will be contributing 220+ points, or I may not kill anything if I don't kill either of my top two deer. So fair warning if I don't kill anything...that's why. It may kill me, but I will likely pass deer bigger than anything I have killed to try to get these two bucks. I passed my top deer twice last year when he was 170-175"...this year he is a lot bigger. I try to post updates on my semi-live thread I have had for the last 2 years. Last year was pretty good for me. I killed a 165" on Opening Day (October 1st), then a 158" on November 8th, and finished my season on a 150" on opening day of muzzleloader season (December 19).
Last year, I killed a doe and a 113” 2 1/2yo 8pt. I didn’t have a lot of time to get a good look at him, and from 25’ up looking down, I thought he was just a little shy of 130”. It’s hard to tell tine length when they’re 7 yards out from the bottom of the tree. He ended a two year dry spell and was my first bow buck, so I was pretty happy. A doe won’t be a problem. I need two for the freezer, but I’ll take them from my parents property. I’m hunting some public land this year for two reasons 1) so I don’t burn the areas up where I know I have a chance at decent bucks, but will still be able to hunt when conditions aren’t ideal for those areas 2) I’m trying to learn to look at a map, pick a spot, go find buck bedding, then see bucks. When I learn how to do that, then I can justify going out of state, since Indiana is only a one buck state. For the public land, I have no expectations, no cameras, just some areas picked out that I’ve found some beds good rub lines from last year. The pics I posted at the beginning of the thread are my goals for this year. After shed hunting for the first time last year, it really put a lot of puzzle pieces together for me and I feel like I have a pretty solid plan going into this year. I won’t start hunting those spots until late October. I’m not taking a shot unless I’m for sure it’s 130” or better.
alright, you got me. I'm really Germ's wife. Please PM him for any further communications as he gets jealous. Alright; I'll leave you all alone to drool over B-ville's pics. But I still hate Brad Kauffman. Carry on, boys.
As I stated before I’m trying to kill mature deer (4.5 and older). Between all of the farms that I may set foot on I’ll usually have 15-25 such deer to hunt. I ate tag soup last season. I didn’t bother shooting a doe as the season wound down. I had plenty of meat and our team was well out of contention by late December. To kill a doe however is absolutely no problem. I have one farm where you see 20+ on every sit. As of now I am out of backstrip so there will be a doe going down pretty early in the season. My last 3 bucks have all been killed in September. I killed a 163” deer in 2016 which is my best buck to date. I don’t hunt with any other weapon. I’ll post some pics of the bucks I’m after this year. Some of them I don’t have pics of this Summer but I haven’t really tried too hard due to the layout of the crops. I have pics of them from January and February so I know they made it. Below is my last buck from 2016.
This buck is a Mgmt deer that I’ll probably shoot if he stands in front of me. He was obviously a mature deer last year but he just won’t score. I don’t think he’s grown any this year either but I only have this one pic from 3 weeks ago. Here he is last Fall.
This 9 pt is a beast of a deer. Huge body. I think he’s a 6 yr old. I think he’ll go high 50s or low 60s when he’s done. Again these pics are from 3 weeks ago.
Nice Booner! My situation just flat out doesn’t allow me the time to put into getting results like yours. But I’m ok with that and understand you get out what you put in. I’ve killed some nice deer over the years but never gave it too much effort when I was younger and had time. Now I’m more interested than ever and I work 60-70 hrs /wk. The good thing is I won’t always have to work this much and I do have access to very good places to hunt with a lot of potential. With that all being said I’ve passed a ton of decent bucks since 2012 (last nice buck) to kill my best buck yet with my bow.my standards dropped a little last year lol. I’ve had some close calls but nothing bigger than my last had come along. Let an arrow fly last year on a nice mature 8 but it all happened so fast idk it was a clean miss though so I’m good with that.... Here are a few pics anyways. 1. First real nice buck with bow. (1999)( 146”) 2. Last nice one (2012) (132”) 3.bowkill (2005-ish)? 4. Nicest buck to date with bow this is same deer from above. I never did score this thing. Thinking mid 150’s. The skull plate on the left is my cousins on right is mine. 5. Oldest buck to date (8.5-9.5 years old, shotgun) 6. Biggest beast to ever go after (can’t hunt this farm till after second shotgun season it’s an uncles bow lease) probably the best chance to kill him anyway if he makes it... he was seen by the farmer who said looks like he lost quite a bit of mass this year. 7. 8. JR....Last seasons airball
We passed this deer last year as an exceptional 3 yr old. He made it through the season. No pics of him yet but didn’t get him last year till almost October. He should be a phenomenal 4 yr old.
I aim to shoot 4.5 year+ bucks and one or two does. First doe to blow goes. Oklahoma is a two buck four doe state. I take two good bucks a year off my main place only because of urban encroachment. I am getting quite a few deer pushed onto me yearly. Anyway, last year I shot a 141" 6.5 year old, a 118" piebald that I watched for over 4 years but due to some turd smuggler neighbor on 5 acres that was shooting his fat mouth off, I would have liked to have let him grow and two does. Anyway, I think my shooter buck may gross 160" this year and that is target # 1 "Tenderloin Squirts". I have another buck that may go 140" "whodatdeer". Last but not least a huge buck down in Kiowa County Oklahoma on a huge wheat farm at the base of the Quartz Mountains. He is more myth than fact but I like to sit on the old homestead a couple of evening's a year. I am trying to plant a 1, 2 and .75 acre food plots Saturday the 18th. This year in my larger central plot I am planting cereal rye, barley, sugarbeets, winter peas, clovers, chicory and kale. Sunn hemp, clover and oats in another and clover, chicory in the last. I have worked on this place for 10 years planting persimmons, sandplums, cutting out red cedars and improving the native little bluestem. It is a dedicated 70 acre hunting ground. So one more thing, this is the first time I am posting this piebald online. Some jacka$$ posted it last year on Facebook and I was waiting for some kinda backlash but it never happened so I guess folks finally figured out that it's not some hokus pokus spirit or curse of bad luck. 141" The piebald "Tenderloin Squirts" "Tenderloin Squirts" "Whodatdeer"
This deer would be my #1 at this point. Have 4 yrs of history with this deer. I believe he is 7. He’s never had an inch of NT before this year. Not sure why he got the antler squirts this year but it’s cool. Again pics are from 3 week ago.
Here he is last year. Can you believe he did that at such an advanced age? He even got wider. Interestingly two years ago he was about the same width as this year.
