Northerner

And what about when it turns white?

What an awesome hunting machine Dave, always enjoy your posts at OTB! Your lab works hand in hand with his feathered friend.

Good luck on your hunt!

Excellent idea!

Forgot to mention to fan out and pin it down on a piece of cardboard during the drying process.

Try to use a wire brush and get as much meat as you can off. Then have another go at it for a little more. Borax is bought in the grocery store. Lay it down and sprinkle a good amount on both sides. Then let sit for a good week. Check it then flip it over and apply more borax to both sides and let sit again until it is good and dried out.

Lots of good ones here guys and I agree with a bunch of them! The one thing I hate seeing is the hootin and hollerin right after the animal is shot. The last thing you want to do is start yelling and screamin as you may end up bumping the animal even further. Once again a little respect for the animal you just downed, to me, is the most important.

Turned out great!

Looking good! Good luck with your season!

Beauty buck! Good luck with your season!

Getting some activity at a couple of spots. A few does with fawns, spike and two decent bucks. Hope they stick around for the season.

I am using a BlackBerry tablet and it works pretty good. Great for just surfing but it gets a bit frustrating when you are typing and auto correct kicks in etc. I find having a mouse to click for things like cut and paste are more user friendly. Same can be said for dropping pics into Photobucket etc. Just so much faster using a standard pc and mouse Imo.

Very cool! That's a lot of horn!

If you have it, set up a cam on the edge of a soybean field. Deer are usually hitting them pretty good this time of year as the plant is very high in protein. Although I agree with the other comments about deer not necessarily being there in the fall. Imo they tend to have a summer area and then a fall staging area. But it is doesn't necessarily mean they will leave the place entirely. The other thing is it's a great way to get a general idea of what size bucks are roaming in the area as well. Just be careful that you are not checking the cams too frequently as you might end up bumping that big buck to the next County.

Looks good and sturdy. Nice job!

Looks like triplets don't see that too often either. Great pic's!

Congrats on a unique trophy bird!

Great to hear you didn't lose a camera. Too much of that stuff going around these days. So far I have been lucky. You may want to back track and try to get an idea where they came from. Maybe post a bigger no trespassing sign? They look like harmless people though but yeah who wants scent tracked around on your spot. Good way to bump the deer forsure.

Multi beards are measure all together I believe. There are several multi beards entered in the NWTF records and some amazing birds have been taken in the Untied States. The NWTF does the final calculations but you can get an idea with their score sheet on their website etc. There is not a ton of records in Canada and not everyone enters their birds in both countries. It's more for fun than anything as it is purely luck to shoot one.

Awesome bucks, congrats!

Last fall I had a total of 6 of these birds in an area but I had already taken my fall bird so I was anxiously waiting for this spring in hopes of getting a crack at one. Unfortunately they were gone... Don't know if the coyotes got to them as they were easier prey or maybe they didn't make the winter? Or maybe just moved? I am hoping their genes might come into play with this years poults and see if I get an opportunity. I had actually seen the birds earlier and still with a tag, but while on my moose hunt I jammed a stick in my eye on my UTV. My vision was poor and I didn't have my bino's. I could see a flash of white but it never occured to me what I was looking at. Only to realize in the early deer season there were these birds!!! Note the bearded hen behind it.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. He is actually the #1 ranked bird in Canada through the NWTF and somewhere around 450 North America. The bird weighed a whopping 27.4lbs and 2 beards were over 9" and 1 beard over 8". Spurs were only 3/4" so I suspect just a 2 year old.

LOL!!!! Crazy buggers!!!

Here is a triple beard I was fortunate to harvest last year.

Thanks guys, I made the peak at about 6'5" and then just notched the top to make a 2x4 as a main beam running parallel, it also gave it strength and I am able to walk in and stretch etc. John you do realize that once you get in to one of these you never want to move spots ever again even if the deer are nowhere to be found!!! Great job on your stand btw. I built mine using those 4x4 fence stakes and it is very sturdy. The platform is 4x8 and the blind is 4x6. Something you may want to consider - I built the platform bigger so when I get on top I can put my gear on the platform to get in etc. makes it safer in my opinion and not a pain in the a$$ trying to crawl in banging stuff around etc. The other thing I would recommend is get some paint on there asap. The reason is 10 you want the wood to last a long time and 2) the smell of paint will eventually go away not spooking the animals. I have a bench seat built in mine, carpet on the floor and the shooting rail to keep things quiet. And I also screwed a camera arm on the inside so I can film etc. Not the greatest but does the job. Oh and a small heater for the cold weather and maybe the odd time my portable dvd player. LMAO!!! Yes it is sad but true!! Like I said once you have one you don't want to move around!! Lastly, you never have to worry about the weather - wind, snow whatever mother nature has to throw at you...just perfect. Good luck and throw a pop up blind on it this year if you don't get done in time. Just make sure you have a railing!