BUCKANDAQUARTER

that about sums up the way I feel. after I got my first good 2.5yr old buck about 5 years ago I figured i'd try to keep on that route, 2.5yrs and up, more breeding chances for the deer, more meat for me, and a trophy to boot. He was small but had a lot of tines, if he was a four I would have let him walk thinking just maybe someone would give him up in rifle. but being an eight and my first buck in range with my bow he had to go! should get the meat back tomorrow. mmmm

congrats! awesome buck

I agree they are about the toughest critter out there. But don't rule out infection. I have shot bow for over 20 years off and on. I bought a good bow when I was 18 and had every intention of bow hunting. I never got confident enough with that bow to hunt with it. Last year I bought a BowTech and I am back on and confident. I missed a coyote the other day and then harvested a buck. Sometimes things just don't go as planned regardless of how prepared you are.

i just got done talking to my brother and he said taking any deer with a bow is an accomplishment. thought of what you said when he said that.

nice work!

i think finding the food source would be key. in the swamps i have hunted the plateaus of hard ground jetting in are key, especially if there is some sort of mast. find some scrapes on one and set up. but watch scent and mix it up with stand location.

Drop you touched on coyotes, some say they aren't as bad as what we make them out to be, I say horse****. I read a study on a place in Canada where there were virtually no deer and inundated with coyote. They slaughtered the coyotes and the deer came back like 750% within so a few years or something crazy like that. Wouldn't doubt it if the same thing was going on in 3A.

Personally I would pass up the does and skippers, as you stated you could potentially eliminate 3 deer from next years equation. Maybe two bucks. I am no biologist though! What is the reason for the low population, lack of forage, winter kill?

thanks fellas, just after seeing all these beautiful western NY bucks and LI monsters I just wanted to let people know it isn't like that in my neck of the woods! I am thrilled! I gotta say I am a little bummed that I have to pass up bucks on my big doe quest. of course I have gone years without seeing bucks on that land.

sorry to anyone if the second pic is too gory, but that pic made it look bigger!

thanks guys! He was a small 8, guessing only a 1.5 years old, I let them go to 2.5 but, and 8 is an 8, and around here there have been guys who have hunted 20 years and haven't gotten one... because guys don't hesitate to shoot spikes (to each there own, meat is meat), I was on the fence but he fit my criteria. He could have easily fit inside the monster out in the field. Still excited for my first bow kill, would have been sweet with that coyote I missed draped across it!!

So on Saturday evening I headed out with my new summit to try it out. i went where i haven't gone in years due to the wind blowing my scent from the truck to the woods. On the walk out coming to a long hay field I met up with a neighbor who has hunted there for years, i met him 13 years ago in the exact spot. Anyway we got done talking and I took 10 steps and saw a bruiser coming out of a thicket with another hayfield to the left of it and dense pines on the other side with manicured walking roads throughout. The thicket is about the size of a football field at best. I let him pass, never seeing horns, just probably the biggest chest and neck i have ever seen on a in the wild, bigger than my monster 8 i had gotten up there. I went back and checked a day or to later and there was 4 or 5 scrapes in that thicket. i didn't place my stand there and i let it cool of until Monday morning, saw nothing. tonight i almost didn't go out because my back was killing me but made it out anyway at 3:30. the wind was perfect and i found a nice tree with several trunks and went up in my climber. an hour later i saw the biggest coyote i had ever seen 30 yards to my right in the field. i "maaah'd" him and drew back of course i hit a branch missed him. half our later i hear a distant grunt sounded like it came from towards the long field. i figured it was a hunter... fast forward an hour and i see a tail in the bushes, then i see horn, i thought he was a 6 (which where i hunt people shoot spikes and 4's any day, i personally have a 3 on one side minimum). watched him come into 35 yards then after holding back on him for 2 minutes he cleared a bush and i corked him good. 40 yards later crash, he was down. got down the tree stand and first went into the field where i shot at the coyote, no blood, hair, arrow. I looked down 200yards to the field where my buck came from and there was a brute out with 4 does walking the other way. i think he challenged that 8 pointer i got and he had no part of it and came to me instead. Anyway I got a buddy and we went and found him down 40 yards from where i shot him and to my surprise he was an 8. No monster but my first archery deer. fantastic hunt. my ramble is over.

do it, I set up on 4 or 5 fresh scrapes and bagged an 8 tonight... AND there was a bigger one out in the field. first i heard a grunt 1 hour before the 8 he rolled in, after i shot him i got out the stand i looked 200 yards down the field and a smasher was out with the does. so i guess they aren't roaming a hell of a lot, yet. I am going to make a separate post about it... good luck!

I called a lady up last year to ask if I could hunt her land (which borders the property I already hunt) in exchange for updating posted signs or other odd jobs. she was very rude and said she already had two people on her 150 acres. I started to say "thank you for your time" and she had already hung up on me. her signs were updated last weekend and say her last name and town name along with 2013-14-15-16. I think I might try a letter and what exactly I could help her with (I am a carpenter). it is only about two acres on the deepest portion of her land where nobody goes. if I can get that across to her that it is a very small area with not much impact and potentially a lot for her to gain just maybe she'd have the letter to review in case she needed a small job done... Another parcel I wanted to hunt I wrote a nice letter and placed it in their mailbox. it stated I had hunted their land through the previous owner and that I would post it or help out with odd jobs in exchange for hunting. he called me back and was blown away by my letter but reluctantly declined my offer as they wanted privacy... but that land is now up for sale! a tactful letter along with a face to face with a good handshake may be the best way.

That's exactly what I said about that doe I saw last night, had a good healthy coat but I saw some ribs and her hind quarters were thin. She had a nice long snout on her and long bodied, at least 2.5yr maybe 3.5, but just too thin, especially a mile in, I don't want to call for back up for a bony doe.

depends which spot hunt. on my main piece of hunting land I have never taken one in 13 years. I don't see a lot of deer there. if I go to the swamp where my buddy goes then yes I will take a mature one, seems like it is a free for all there anyway. never seems to bother the population though.

now this is true. I have to hunt hard all season to get a good mature buck, that is if I am lucky enough to see one. some years I don't get anything at all, whether it is because I passed up small ones or just plain didn't see anything within range. I have put in 15 hours this year and had one doe, a mature one, within range and that was last night. people hunt and give up on the property I go on, I am a stubborn and put in the time and have been rewarded for going farther in and playing the wind to my advantage.

I guess for some reason some of use were thinking waayyyy to deep on this one... lol. well I have found my greatest ticket for bagging the big one is cheating the wind at all costs even if means having to walk way out the way to get there.

three misses... it is bowhunting but after three in a row I wouldn't even consider heading back out until the you get it resolved. pick random lengths and elevations on your target and try to practice judging distances and what not.

success to me is whatever I can get out of a hunt that keeps me coming back. sometimes I can have what I consider a successful hunt and not even see a deer. sounds crazy but I am sure others understand. its all in what you get out of it.

I had this happen to me last year... If I hunted in the morning with my climber i'd leave it under brush and sprinkle some leaves on it. at night if I knew I was coming back in the AM i'd leave it on the tree. so towards the last day of muzzleloading I left for my lunch break and stashed it under some pine branches and sprinkled the leaves on it. well on my one mile trek out of the woods I took a digger and wrenched my back something fierce. I couldn't get back up to retrieve my stand for over a month. when I did it was gone. i just got a summit and it comes out with me.. 1 mile in with a nasty hill i have to climb up. i'd padlock it but that makes me too nervous.

congrats, great story and great buck

I really don't think he is in the area, just from the lay of the land i don't think he'd be comfortable getting to that spot in broad daylight. I don't know if I jumped him this morning or what. Decisions, decisions.

HAHAAA... lucky you didn't get hit in the head. that must have scared the hell out of you seeing a shadow come down like that... about ten years ago I was hunting in some oaks and there were two squirrels brawling 30-40 feet up and they both fell down... thud... thud... they actually bounced about a foot, got up and went separate ways. I laughed out loud I couldn't help it.

Early I didn't know you could get dialup for a typewriter