dbHunterNY

Darien lake state park I've hunted. Not a bad place if you get in deep.

was the fourth tooth from the back flattened out with no crowns? definitely makes sense looking at the deer and its rack... that thing is a beast! congrats and glad to hear the buckless seasons payed off. tough not taking a buck year after year.

and then it would've had to come from FourSeason's farm. lol

I had a 3.5 year old I was patterning die opening morning just up the road on a neighboring property. not that caliber of buck, obviously being only 3.5, but I feel your pain. good you know though and aren't trying to hunt that deer. awesome buck. spread must be all of 27" inside!

be cautious when harvesting a lone doe. it very well could be a button buck. make sure it's got a long looking nose, mature looking longish body with short legs, or close enough view you can see it's not. a hot doe can act nervous always looking where it's been, tail at half mast, and/or a buck dogging it.

an acre of corn won't last long at all. brassicas would be hit if it did ok and came up. I assume they're strips of each and not mixed together? maybe the camera isn't picking up everything but it's still getting some activity. also you can't probably see deer in the corn if you're hunting it.

tough picture. seems old than 2.5 I'm thinking 3 or 4. even doesn't have a sway in the back or gut for 5.5 yrs old. seems fuller bodied than a 2.5 yr old. also despite his head is down, his neck connects lower into his chest at the point of the shoulder or lower.

I have maybe 16 hours in! Lol No bucks for me ....yet. Only doe to do my part managing the population. I'm done as I'm working today. May go out with bow during gun season.

Good luck. Haven't dived into the crossbow deal yet.

On a separate note that's a huge bear for anywhere with anything. Congrats!!

Hey any broad head will work and they've been downing game the longest. Must have to weigh each? Then practice with same weight 2 blade? Definitely a different endeavor. I'd still like to get out my recurve and stuff. It's like throwing a ball you've got to keep practicing or you get rusty

Keep your head up. Got to stay positive! Those shots are tough. I know a lot of people who claim it's beyond them and let the deer walk out to 20 or so before taking a shot. Good luck. He might not go far at all. We had a bow buck hit high. My cousin who shot had his dad take the buck weeks later during rifle in an adjacent section of woods.

The deer is at or beyond full skeletal and overall body growth. His frame and belly is starting to sag around his shoulders. At 5.5 he'd still have some growth coming and that deer is done growing. He looks like cattle. That's way I say 6.5+.

That's crazy you have a deer that old btw.

6.5-7.5

2.5

I'm thinking 2.5

Nice looking rifle. Guns always are subject to the quick accuracy fix of a lighter trigger. With cold weather gloves and everything else it's good for most to have a 2.5 to 3 lb trigger. Needing anything lighter is just a bandaid fix for a bad squeeze. I've got light triggers and heavier ones. As long as it's crisp and breaks well it will work. Most rifles are around 3-4 lbs I think these days. Just shot my abolt 30-06 with Sunday to check it for this weekend. It has factory trigger adjusted down to 3lb. I managed to make one ragged hole well under an inch. When I shoot my 22lr Ruger target pistol for bullseye league it's the same thing. Stock 4.5 lb trigger opposed to aftermarket at half that weight. Just the other night I shot a ragged hole group on slow fire target. Light triggers help hide a crappy flinch filled pull of the trigger. What I'm saying is average trigger weight is plenty good enough for any hunting situation.

It should serve you well.

...I should add that after 6.5 or 7.5 years old they go backwards and top out around 12 years old. free range deer that old are extremely rare though. only places I know they exist is estates in Adirondacks where no hunting is allowed.

so culvercreek is right it's a very bad angle to judge. you want broadsided shots. however, his neck looks much thicker than a 2.5 year old. at 3.5 years old they will be heavy in the front and lean/light in the rear. this deer looks that way. at 4.5 they will thicken up in the rear and after that they just simply get bigger until after 6.5 or 7.5. also another thing to look at is length of legs. at 2.5 they'll look overly long compared to the body depth and rear end will be overly jacked up compared to the front many times. at 3.5 they look just right. after 3.5 they look short. I'd say they look just right for length. .... all that said I think he's 3.5 years old. horrible picture to judge age though.

within it's ears but definitely got some tine length going for it to make it a nice buck. congrats on the trophy! definitely should do a euro mount yourself as it's cheap and then you could always have it shoulder mounted later. might need a different cape if it wasn't saved but yea.

much of the corn cut near me except the field behind my house that my creek bottom runs into. ears have been dropped but some wait longer for less time in the dryers. they could cut it any day now.

around 110" gross and 2.5 years old. if you check out the other pics in your photobucket it'll help too. his legs are still long looking for his body when looking at all the pictures. if he was 3.5 they'd look boarder line short but actually just right. also at 3.5 he'd appear quite a bit heavier in the front compared to the back, where as a 2.5 seems more even. (head up and alert pic is tricky because his hind legs are back.) also if you look at the other picture you can see the base of his neck meets his chest above the point that his shoulder and leg bones make.

I grew up with commercial freezer paper and plastic wrap as well as equipment because my dad had a store. I was taught the right way how to pack stuff with it. I still am sold on vacuum sealers and bags ever since I've used them. also commercial shops I know have moved to vac-packing stuff. I use a food saver 8" sealer and get bulk rolls of sealer bags from Cabelas. you save more money too as you cut the bags to the exact length you need so there's no waste. I would recommend going with a wider model though. to do stuff like roasts and larger steaks. I've preseasoned stuff and marinated some other stuff before bagging it with good results. I use it for everything from left overs to garden stuff to any meat I've got.