I've only been walking this path for the last 3 years. I'm 1 for 3 right now. In 2013 I killed the largest buck I had on my trail cameras for the entire season. He scored 148 5/8. This year, outside influences changed all the patterns of my deer. The neighbor started running cattle a couple months before archery season started, then part way through 3 chucks of land that were adjacent to mine started logging timber out. It was all jacked up and I actually only saw a couple small bucks on my place all season. Had some decent ones on trail camera, but all at night. I had to adjust my expectations and plan mid season and ended up taking a quality public land buck. Most seasons, this one not withstanding, I usually have around half a dozen bucks that are using my property that I would consider shooters. Some years a few more, others less. I'll be glad to take any of those bucks that I determine to be shooters. I do have the advantage of having very low pressure on the land around me, especially until rifle season starts.
How long have you been managing the property? Sorry if I missed it in the OP. It sounds like you have all the right things to let the bucks grow... It just comes down to doing what makes you and your family happy. With the amount of deer you have I believe if you take a 120" one year, there will be other 120" deer that will live for next season.
I hear ya brother........it's funny how being in a situation can cloud your opinions. We KNOW how good we have it and realistically we are hunting land in NY that is as good as it gets. Even with all that we still find ourselves bumming out from time to time. Sometimes I think we need a reality check because we will go out and see a dozen does and 4 small to medium sized bucks and come back for dinner and when asked what we saw the answer is "nothing". We have a great place to hunt..........just not sure if we are being greedy and should just be happy with what it is instead of always wanting more.
For me....I want to shoot the biggest buck of my life. I have shot a lot of bucks so far but only 1 is the biggest. So if I shoot something that isn't the biggest of my life and go home, the chance of me getting a bigger buck is very slim.
See that's the problem..........none of us got a great feeling from letting good bucks walk. We aren't crying ourselves to sleep or anything but we just feel like we wasted a whole season. We did what we needed to do to harvest some good bucks and then we just let them walk by. It's like we just gave the deer a year off. We also don't do anything for or care about what other people think. We did what we did on our own thinking it was a progressive step or the next way to "evolve" our hunting. It turned out to be a big let down.
I could be very wrong (it has happened), but it sounds like maybe you've got TOO MANY deer? Seeing 15-20 does per hunt is a LOT of does. Sounds like you might need to get the buck to doe ratio closer?
We've never shot small bucks out there.........really no one does. I would say the smallest buck that would get shot is about 100" buck and no less then an 8 pt unless it's a kids first year or something. The thing is the level of management by all the neighbors is something we consider a hindrance to bucks traveling.........they simply don't have to. They can walk 50 yards and eat from food plots all day and night and drop the hammer on more does then they can handle.
Right..........so we would be LUCKY to kill a single one every other year or so. No thanks. I don't think any of us wants to sign up for killing 1-2 bucks a decade if we're lucky. Too much work and money for that little in return.
I can appreciate that..........it's a legit and admirable philosophy. I wish one of us had wasted a tag on a smaller buck and been heart broken by a beast in range later on but that's not what inspired us.......if it had it maybe that would be a tangible motivator. We're also not talking night and day like 5pts to 130"................we are passing the 130's. I think our logic is similar........we just found it provided no rewards.
Very interesting read. My family in NC owns roughly 150 acres, our neighbors all around are in the brown it's down club. I'm the only one that hunts my land and I am not in that club. Clearly, most would say, there is no need in me passing up any bucks because, well, they'll be dead as soon as a neighbor sees him... Here's my thing. My goal is to shoot bucks that I will mount. I love a good trophy wall. I have 2 - 125" bucks on the wall, which i'm more than proud of! What I consider a beautiful buck to mount is around 120+. So that's the goal I hold for shooting bucks, no matter what the neighbors kill. If a 110" buck comes in and I pass him, then I watch him cross the neighbors line and I hear a BOOM...well, I guess, it wasn't that bucks lucky day... Someone else's goals do NOT effect my goals. I don't regret passing bucks, nor think twice. I do have to remind myself sometime through mid-late season that I'm sitting in the trees for hours on end not only to see deer but also to just plain get away from EVERYTHING. To lose myself in the nature that I love and respect. Because honestly, we can get caught up in the desire to kill a deer and in return that desire ruins the REAL reason and root of why I hunt. So, in respect to your season. Maybe you did set goals to high for what you thought you would like. Hindsight is 20/20. Fix it this season, enjoy your 300+ acres and the hard work you put into the property. Remember why you bought your land (to increase your dad's years in the great outdoors). This is where you'll find your satisfaction in hunting, else it will become a burden.
YES!!!!........see, that is the thing we are bothered by. We don't think what we did this year will have ANY effect on what we see or kill in the years to come. Bucks just don't hang out on our land exclusively and we can't depend on seeing them year after year. The way we consider this year is 3 bucks lost over 120" for no good reason.. Next year we aren't going to see a couple 150's because of what we did. I think we just need to take what our land offers (within reason). I am willing to bet that we will tag as many BIG bucks over a decade if we target them or not. I don't think anything we do can make them appear. We just have to seal the deal when they show up.
Totally respectable.............do you think you will ever reach a point of diminishing returns where your chances of success outweigh the amount of time and effort spent trying to achieve your goal??
I've hunted my area enough to know that I can't pass bucks with expectations of what they will look like next year. Chances are the neighbors or one of the other 6 hunters who have permission to hunt on us will kill them. That said, I'm still not shooting them. I have only killed 3 bucks since'06. I can kill a doe if I want to for the freezer, but aside from that I'm trying to kill something for the wall. I think it's only the natural progression of a hunter, and only you can answer what you think is the right thing to do. I can certainly see where to some it is hard to wake up at 3am for the 10th day in a row when you know you likely won't see the buck you want to.
We don't get enough tags to do that.........it's impossible. There are 4 of us which means 12 does at most and that's IF we all burn our either sex archery/ML tag on a doe and IF we all get rifle tags which is rare. We have probably killed over 75 does in the last 6 years with signed over tags from neighbors. I don't think its possible with does dropping multiple fawns for the limited number of hunters in the area to make a dent. It's a VERY secluded area hunting wise and in any given direction there could be only 1-2 hunters per 500 acres. LOTS of land owned and hunted by very FEW people.
I don't get the "progression" as a hunter part.............as you are implying that 3 slightly larger bucks over a decade is "better" then say 7 smaller but still quality bucks over that same period. It's a choice or preference for sure but progression??? It seems to me there are a lot of people under the impression that the more work they do and the less deer they kill is somehow "evolving" or advancing as a hunter. Maybe it is but I can't seem to connect the dots as to how.
I think you might be underestimating the impact you have just made to the future hunting on your property. That is a nice sized piece of ground and will definitely hold several bucks. I have killed a lot of bucks that I passed up in prior years. Some were passed for three years or more and it was on a similar sized piece of ground with quite a bit of brown-its-down pressure around it. The one I killed late season this year is probably 7 1/2 and was a regular there his entire life. Believe me, neighbors don't have any special abilities to kill every buck that you let walk. There is always a good chance that you will see it again. If you have some nice young 10's, maybe you decide to kill an 8 pointer or two to put the fun back in it. Maybe you pick out a few bucks that don't appear to have as much potential as others and challenge yourselves to shoot those bucks. If it was me, I would let my Dad shoot any buck he wanted. It would bring everyone a lot of joy in my opinion. My guess is, you are likely to see the fruits of your labor and kill some very top end bucks for your state. It definitely does not happen without a LOT of work and some serious patience. But for me, the work is part of the feeling of success and enjoyment in owning property. Probably just as much as the hunting itself. Give it some time and relax. Just enjoy the opportunity you have given yourself.
