dbHunterNY

don't default to thinking an antler restriction has to be so simple as just X number of points on one side. spread and point restrictions are both used. you have to look at what the deer grow in your area and know what you want to protect and why. you can put together restrictions that aren't even close to as complicated as gross B&C score to protect all your yearling bucks without too much trickle effect protection into the next age classes.

same as anywhere. people who use them correctly love them. those who don't or really don't understand them hate them. to do a deer herd some good, you need to allow it to have an age structure most importantly and a reasonable buck to doe ratio too. nature would assume have it this way. it's unfair to expect your average hunter to know what a young buck is when it presents an opportunity in the field. antler restrictions are a very common and quantitative tool to keep your average and lesser educated hunters ahead of that learning curve. if you care about antlers then antler restrictions can realistically get you to 3.5 years old which can be up to around 80% of max potential antler growth. you have to base restrictions on the deer in your area though and only expect realistic results. otherwise you can get high grading, sparse opportunity, lack luster results, etc. all that stuff isn't common place if antler restrictions are applied correctly. if applied correctly they can work anywhere in the country, but the restrictions aren't cook book and can't just be pulled out of a hat. there's some on here that hate them and will say they're dumb or don't work. that's fine they don't work but done right they work damn well and beyond contestation. I'm far passed the point of arguing with people over them. if anyone has questions about them then ask me.

great buck congrats!

some at the club had a kit that made the magazine fixed unless you opened up the upper at which is can be released. seemed slick and legitimately legal but I don't know if any entity has actually weighed in on it that matters.

deer don't go home when it's windy. that is their home. anything over 20 miles per hour I've found changes the way they move and makes them more alert. depending on how cold it is i'll hunt pockets and leeward faces if the winds steady enough to be consistent. when switching stands during gun i'll still hunt ridge tops when it's windy. going slow and have had deer holed up and chasing below while staying out of the wind.

I don't like leaving stuff in the tree. treestands even come down right after each season. I use a rope style tree strap and carry it in each time and it can fit in my pocket. this isn't the same as a lifeline. I don't have life lines in every stand. just ones I know I will be using the most or if they're a little harder to get into. not many people replace their new looking harness after 5 yrs or belt style tree straps after only a couple if they stay out. supposed to but rarely people do.

deer rarely have ears fully forward unless they're looking at something bad / having an oh sh*t moment.

I'm not a taxidermist and even if I was your work would probably be better. lol that said I've seen them where ears both aren't equally fully forward with a slight head turn and it looks a little better I think. kind of like when the deer turns his head and cocks the outside ear back a little or their both moving independently as if he's keeping tabs on any little sound that could turn bad.

I don't have a picture it's at camp. it's an old mount in full sneak but looking straight ahead. 120" 8 pointer so nothing big. If I remember right my great grandfather shot it. ears in forward alert position. had no opinion of it and didn't think it looked that amazing. it was an older beat mount though. it did have the classic look off stretching his nose straight out to the point of strain while tending doe. I think so many full sneak mounts don't warm people over as they're in that position but still look relaxed. those too don't happen naturally together to often.

good job.

yup smart way to do it right there. my last buck I had to prop the antlers onto the tail gate and use it's heavy wide beams to squat it up into the truck bed. I'm young and truck was pointing down hill but I still could've used this setup. got a little bloody from practically falling into the truck bed with him. always known about the type of setup you use but I guess I've never got around to doing it. I had that single pulley to hang him and still had to tie the end of the rope to the hitch to lift him off the garage floor. maybe it's time to throw that pulley in the truck and get one with more pulleys for less work hanging.

30 yards isn't real close and lungs honestly aren't that big when you factor in angled shots. I back off the shoulder a little when it's further away. more room for error with lungs to the rear of the heart than in in front. not as important when quartering away as the leg bone is out of the way more. just what I do. bone is pretty rugged even more so on a 4.5+ yr old doe or buck that at or close to full skeletal growth. the leg and shoulder bone can take a hard hit, even more so if the deer were moving away or had less weight on the leg so it gave when hit too I'd imagine. you're not the only one it's happened to. with longer shots allow some room for error by changing shot placement but not too far back. that'd be my input.

the last picture is something that happens from deer getting hung up on a fence. I've never seen it but I guess it's not as rare as someone might think. it wasn't that some hunter(s) happened to shoot off both feet by accident.

I can't believe the head is completely gone from the insert. using with threads it stays with insert or other way around or breaks off leaving a portion in the insert. arrow breaks because the deer has a set path and the head is solidly in it, so the arrow breaks from being bent on by vegetation or trees. probably a tree it got close too. I believe same as some others that you hit elbow or shoulder bone just above it and long before it blades out. heads apparently still lodged in deer to rip it from the insert like that. not much for veins on the elbow. did it look hit running away? unless you had enough energy to break the bone or get into the joint it might not look hit at all. where you aiming that tight to the elbow aka low heart shot? if that's the case no broadhead will be any different.

well I'm mixed about this because of the group I'm around. no gun is a good brush gun and ALL calibers can get deflected. Field & Stream's "Gun Nut" David Petzal shot some monster calibers through brush to find that even stout 250+ grain bullets can deflect significantly at close range. i know of many including myself that have had small sapplings and branches get in the way. I blew through a sapling with a 150gr 30-06 rem cor-lokt bullet at less than 100 yards. deer was 10 yards beyond that and it deflected and probably fragmented so much it didn't even hit him. i followed up quick and got only because there was an opening. part of my group has had the same or similar thing happen. some have stepped up to shooting something with a flatter nose and heft behind it like a 45-70 or 338-06 after a couple of them had the same thing happen but when the bullet hit the heavy branch or tree it retained enough weight and energy to kill the deer behind it. ALL bullets deflect but going with experience heavy sturdy bullets with flat noses with some push behind them are better. That said you can only be saved that way in rare circumstances. I still hunt with my 30-06 pointed nose bullets and we're hunting deer not alaskan brown bear.

not that I'd like to carry either but I know what you mean kinda.... I've got a 223 chambered savage model 110 with a heavy barrel and big scope. altogether it's pushing 14 lbs. I can talk on the phone and shoot it off the bipod with one hand and still spot my shots.

I picked up the Wheeler Engineering scope lapping kit a while back. Either it came with their FAT torque/screw driver or I bought that separate. I'd get something like that though and mount it yourself. easy enough to do just mock up the scope mounting first to make sure it's all what you want. blue loc-tite is a must have too. I don't put in a screw without it.

3.5 yrs old .... only moderately confident but better pictures would help. head up so the neck doesn't look so full. broadsided versus quartering hard or walking at the camera. also a sharper clear image to better judge development from front to back.

I always thought it's great to know that if you had to you could row to across one of the great lakes in a dingy, but I'd prefer to do it in a bigger boat. Private .... Browning stainless (for Pygmy) walnut stocked Abolt chambered in 30-06.

I'm with ya. I'd bet most people just climb with nothing and then tie in once at the top. sometimes a longer tree strap or actual life line to the base of the tree gets hung up in the cable portion of the stand or in the teeth, wherever it makes contact with the tree. I've figured out if you move it so it hangs off center a little it'd hang just off to the side in the triangle between the platform and the portion that grips the tree. everyone truly does have their own steps to getting step up in the stand with their own equipment.

happened just the other day I had a mind puzzle the other day. grabbed a new tree strap (rope style with prussic knot). got to the stand location and discovered I was missing the carabiner. I got it to work as I looped prussic knot end to my harness tether first and then I wrapped the loops of the knot over the knotted end of the tree strap one at a time to get the prussic rope onto the tree strap portion. to me a little while to figure it out.

some of mine didn't when I first put them together. slip up and down almost too easy. if you gave them a quick tug you could say the loops set better and worked great.

I'm really not a dick. being an engineer I over think and analyze everything. guy in the video doesn't have a tether from top section to bottom section. I use climbers a lot. probably 85+% of my hunting is from them. a tether to the bottom section has saved me a couple times from being in a pickle where you lose the bottom section that falls or slides down the tree out of reach.

not many from around the capitol region.

they do have teeth on the bottom but i think it's more for look. the intent I'm pretty sure is to have the flat surface on the top to reduce the likely hood your foot would slip while climbing. you can climb how you want, but i would have them flat side up. even with a lifeline it sucks to slip. it hurt like a mother when i got it to the shin and side both. never lost grip with my hands either.