I’m a newbie to bow hunting (this is my 4th year). First year for me to have a target buck - he’s the biggest buck we’ve seen on the 1200 acre farm all year. He disappeared for 5 weeks and just showed up last night. But he now has a broken main beam. What do I do now? Pass and hope another strange big buck shows up? Silly to say, I’m attached to him and worried he’ll get shot by our neighbors during rifle. I’ve been told, “if you don’t shoot him now, someone else will during rifle”. Do I just pass and hope he survives the winter?
If you want him "whole" then it's all you can do and hope he stays low during rifle. You can only control your end of it, he's survived the neighbors to this point maybe he knows a little something about staying out of harms way.
I think you would need to make the call. Lots of people talk about just wanting a mature deer and not caring about the antlers ( I think it's self posturing). I don't think I could honestly tell you until I had him in range what I would do. Do you want mount him and if so do you want him looking his best? Do you wanna wait until next year and add to the story. Do you wanna invite a dumb guy from NY to shoot him? You have lots of options. Good luck and let us know what you decide In Venatione Veritas
Sounds like the kind of buck that would come in and stand broadside for 15 minutes just to taunt you.
I once sat in my tree and watched a 10 pointer parade around taunting does for 15 minutes. I was going to pass on him but 15 minutes was all I could take. He did end up scoring 138.
1200 acres? Got elk? Are you single? I guess if any of my farms were that big I would be a lot less likley to worry about the neighbors shooting the deer I was after!
