Csk21

So you're telling me that you can tell the difference between a 1.5 year old deer and 2.5 year old deer by taste? Talk about "non-breathing tones"...

Ah. There it is...I was wondering when a venison connoisseur would come along and use the " I shoot young deer because they taste better" argument...I'd suggests a good cookbook. http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/blogs/the-ethical-hunter/food-friday-what-should-venison-taste-like

Kind of a "free deer" mentality

Yes, they aren't typically going in to sit on watch. They gather up a bunch of buddies, put on some deer drives and shoot whatever.

There is also the safety aspect. We've all heard stories about people getting shot and killed because they were mistaken for deer. ARs, such as three or better on one side, would force hunters to not be so quick on the trigger and positively identify what they are shooting at

I hunt on a family dairy farm. We don't shoot anything less that 8's. Problem is a lot of our land borders state land and you get guys going in that will shoot small bucks that they wouldn't on their own property. I've let a lot of small ones walk just to see them in the back of a pickup on the way out. My opinion is If you want meat take a nice doe and let the little guys walk

We'll see. I guess I just wanted to post to organize my thoughts and get a plan more than anything, maybe get a little reassurance from some other guys. Kind of ties into the other post about confidence. I think I'm way to cautious about spooking deer, but how's the saying go "You can't kill em' if you ain't out there"? Thanks for the help. Good Luck with your buck. I'd like to see some pictures with a tag on him.

Funny you say that. I went this morning and picked up some Wildlife Research Golden Scrape. Every time I have checked it so far this year it has been cleaned out. I'm going to go out In a few minutes and freshen it up. Still debating on sitting the scrape tonight because of the wind. I'm no biologist but I think we've got a pretty low buck to doe ratio around here. I'll watch the fields pre-season and see 20 or so does and maybe 1 buck. I know this can't be the actual ratio, its just the Ag fields drawing a lot of does from different areas. But that, and the fact that in any given year there is never an abundance of buck sign leads me to believe that the bucks that ARE there don't have a lot of competition and don't feel the need to become very territorial. Here's a picture of the exact same scrape from 2011. My uncle ended up killing this deer about a week after and a half mile from where the picture was taken.

Any guesses on age? I'm saying 2 1/2 because he doesn't look too filled out. Never have been good at judging age though.

That was kind of what I was thinking as well. They turned off the clover quite a while back but he was still coming by the stand. Don't really like to poke around to much to early looking for sign because like I said the adjacent properties get hunted pretty hard and I don't want to risk kicking deer next door. They pressure usually lets up when southern tier opens and a lot of the guys migrate south. There is one scrape that I saw a few weeks back that's on an abandoned ATV trail. This scrape in particular is in the same spot every year, under a little beech tree. I gave the stand a rest this morning, mostly because of a bad west wind. Looks like I might not be able to get back to it till the end of the week or so. Might hunt that scrape tonight if the cooperates. Anyone ever try or have any luck with a scrape dripper?

I like Time2Hunt. Not so much for the rating system but the Solar and Lunar info. Also like actInnature hunting. Shows you maps with wind directions and lets you tag spots on the map and take notes or add pictures.

No takers? Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

Hey Guys, Found the site searching the net for ways to improve hunting whitetails. Live and hunt in the CNY area (Northern Tier). Mostly hunt on the family dairy farm. Started hunting with my Old man and Uncle around age 10 and have killed some decent bucks since then. In my opinion once you stop actively trying to improve you've already lost, hence the reason I'm here. Anyways, this past summer I was watching a nice buck feed in the clover lot out back a couple times a week up until about the beginning of Sept. when he up and vanished. Long story short is that I've got him on trail cam a few times coming by one of my muzzle loader / rifle stands Between 8:15am and 9:15am. The first picture I have is on Sept 6th at 8:40 PM coming out of a stand of hemlocks on a hill they use to bed. I've got him again the very next day at 8:15 AM and 8:50 PM, the first one coming into the bedding area and the next leaving. Then I have nothing again till Sept. 18th when I caught him heading back into the bedding area at 9:15 AM. The last time I've got him (I think its him) is October 8th at 8:50AM once again heading into the bedding area. I checked these dates and they coincide with the New Moon and A full Moon. I thought I had him pretty well patterned coming in and out of his bedding area even though I wasn't getting him every day I figured he might be using a different trail out of view of the camera. I left the site alone all through bow season because I didn't have a stand in range of the trail he seemed to be using and I didn't want to spook him out of his routine by going in and hanging one. I've been out to a stand that overlooks the area in the pictures every morning since muzzle loading opened and have seen a few does but not the buck I'm after or any of the smaller ones he was running with in Sept. I have not hunted the stand in the afternoon, The wind was good Opening Day (Saturday) and Today but kept changing directions on me Sunday (Yesterday) but the adjacent parcels get hunted pretty heavily during the week of muzzle and the first week or so of rifle. Anyone have any opinions on the subject? Could that not be his primary bedding area and I just got him on camera just by chance checking on different groups of does? I'm kind of worried about over hunting the stand and busting him out of the area for good. Sorry for the long winded post. Just wanted to give as much info as possible. Thanks for listening guys, here are some pictures (Bedding area to the right) Thanks Again, C