wooly

WOW- you sir have balls of steel! Get them suckers bronzed,lol! Great job putting that maneater down!

Some trespassers are smarter than that....that's why they drive FORDS!

LMAO- perfect analogy!!! I'll never look at an antler the same way again! I wanna touch them all!

Could be looking for some beaver. Got a few spots like that along my creekbottom where the beavers enter the crick.

Approach them doing your best Jim Carey impersonation,lol!. Betcha they don't come back next week!

Four Seasons- I'm curious what was wrong with some of your bucks that dropped early. Did they recover and drop at normal times the following year or drop early again?

Looks different to me too.

HOLY CRAP, that looks fresh! Congrats! Any blood on the base of that sucka?

Great buck stretch, congrats on your best! Interesting shot of that sucker hanging,lol! I like it!

You could have it turned into a nice hunting jacket!

Hehe- yup! Years ago fishing from the hot water outlet in Dunkirk harbor one summer. Me, my bud, and a bunch of Mexicans that "speek-ed no english". Two CO's come down to do a licence check. I had mine back at the boat across the harbor but not on me. They approached our Mexican friends, but they only had back tags from who knows when. Pretty obvious they had no licence just by looking at their beer can fishing poles and my poor broken spanish translations. The CO gave me a wink and a smile and says "why don't you go get yours while I straighten out this mess". My dumb azz runs a 1/2 mile around the harbor and all the way back with my licence. He rolled his eyes and says "now I gotta give ya a ticket for trespassin". ......ahhhhh crap! Next season the DEC built the fishing platform above the outlet and opened what used to be Niagara Mowhak access to the public. Cost me $25. He said I was supposed to "get the point" not a ticket,lol. I can't blame them for that!

Not trying to be a smarty pants, but just because he was a "huge 8pt" doesn't mean he was heathy. The OP stated the deer he saw taken down was foaming from the mouth. That aint healthy,lol I'm sure there are instances where it has happened, but I'd bet the farm that the majority of the time there is some other influence on mature deer falling to yotes. Deep snows, bumb legs, internal injuries from collisions just a few examples. Sometimes what we see is just the end result of a compilation of events that led up to a deer falling to predation.

I took home 15 buck skulls this past off season with no problems.

If you wanted to keep the deer or rack after reporting it, a CO may require you to put any un-used tags you may have on it. He/she could issue you a carcass tag for a found deer.... OR they may not issue you anything and confiscate the deer if anything looks suspisious. I pick up a lot of dead deer skulls post season while shed hunting and never had a problem. I doubt I'd be hauling any out of the woods while it's still season though. I'd be afraid just looking guilty of foul play would get me in unecessary trouble. Good chance he'll still be there post season. Critters will have him cleaned up real nice by then if you still want the skull.

I don't think a yote is gonna be much of a threat to a healthy adult deer. Good possabilty she may have been shot/wounded and that's why they caught up to her. No sence in them wasting precious time and energy chasing healthy game with so many easy meals (gut piles) out there this time of year.

NOT funny but haha! I haven't been at this treestand stuff very long, but it didn't take me more than a few hang-ups to learn to raise my bow by the top limb and lower it by the bottom just so my arrows didn't get caught on everything or fall outta my quiver. I use a carribeaner clipped on the cam now with 14 knots in it. Obviously none of that would have prevented your fall, but it might have saved ya $50 so ya didn't have to sell your TV,lol

I've had, what I will call "better than average" results by rattling. I'm not shy about a few series every sit though, so maybe the sucess I've had averages out. If I see a buck outta range I'll hit the horns. More often than not, the buck will ignore or commit before running off like his tail's on fire. IMO- you're not always trying to challenge/coax the biggest baddest buck to the horns. A lot of times lesser bucks will come in not for the fight, but rather to steal a doe away from the two distracted bucks doing battle.

They even nabbed a father and son team for the same violation. There's something to talk about over Thanksgiving dinner,lol! Those guys used to live right around the corner from me. I'm surprised the list wasn't longer.

Welcome to the other brotherhood Noodle! Ever since I picked up my camera a few years ago, I've found myself pondering this same dillema! I really think this season I've turned a corner and finally made up my mind to at least take a break from hunting for a few seasons, and pursue the outdoors experience I truely enjoy most in nature photography. I take more away from my experiences this way than I do solely from a hunt alone. Great thing about chasing critters with a camera is there is no "closed season". You'll learn and experience so much more about the other wildlife and creatures in your area you never payed much attention to. It's a whole different world once you take the time to slow down and take it all in. Wishing you the best in your new outdoors adventure! sure to post plenty of pics when you get started!

Smoked 'em! Real nice 6'er!

I'd of kicked 'em in the nuts,lol Sorry to hear you had such a chitty experience out there Paula.

I think at that point you call it a pipe bomb........then someone else calls a doctor.

Ok, I'm glad you guys are seeing it too. I was afraid I was gonna have to take up drinking again,lol

What kind of mutation is this,lol I thought my Moultrie was playing tricks on me over exposing parts of the pic. Then I thought it was odd he had his pink tonunge sticking out in every pic but that's his nose. Two back feet are white and it looks like his muzzle is overly white as well. I blow up the closeup shot and find 3 little nubbin points on his spike horn as well

Thanks gang! I got a doe tag left to fill but I think I will call it quits at this point I got all the meat I can eat in a year now with 2 in the freezer. I'll probably get another early start on shed season now and see how many oldies I missed last year. Probably start doing a lot of photography stuff again to keep me occupied in the great outdoors! Thanks again for the comments! (edit- reached my max "like" quota for the day- Didn't know we had one- I'll catch up with the rest of you tomorrow,lol)