WNY Bowhunter

The only thing more impressive than the quality of the deer up there is the sheer quantity of ticks they possess!

I'm in the same boat with a 1 and 3 year old plus a wife that wants to hunt more this season. I'd be happy to take the first decent 3.5 year old buck that presents an opportunity...

That's true except in 8H ;).

Hmmm...I've been keeping tabs on a buck in 8P all summer that may be the biggest I've ever had at my 8P spot. Maybe we're neighbors...lol?

Heck of a deer. Region 8 buck?

Love watching these guys grow. Buck from the original post...getting a little trashy.

Wasn't prying...just wondering. Trust me, I'm plenty happy with the area that I hunt here in Steuben. No shortage of deer...big bucks or poachers for that matter.

What town?

And that map is nearly 15 yrs old with a ton of monsters being killed in WNY since then...

I won't necessarily be targeting him but would definitely put an arrow in him if given the chance. It will be neat to see what he turns into...

Thanks man, I'm pretty much done posting mounts until the new crop comes in this fall...

My summer scouting started as soon as Turkey season ended...liking what I see so far!

I'm just WAY too picky. It's a curse really...lol.

Sounds like a deal...you shoot him and I'll mount him!

Yeah, started out in 2015 with 6 deer and around 25 a year over the past 3 yrs...so, 80-85 mounts total. Approximately 1/20th have been yours...lol

Had no history with him as it was much first time ever hunting this spot...but I'd say at least 3.5 but more likely 4.5 due to his big body size.

Thanks. If I can kill one worthy of the wall...might go with a wall ped next time.

Thanks!

I shot this buck on 10/2/15. At the time, I had no experience in taxidermy but was interested in learning so a friend of mine offered to walk me through the process at cost. In the end, I basically learned nothing as I more or less just sat back and watched as he rushed through mounting my deer. Needless to say, the final product showed the lack of time spent on it. The following year I started doing a little taxidermy on the side so I decided to remount this buck for a shop display as I didn't want anyone thinking that the original mount was my work. I did notice that the spread had shrunk some but thought it was the natural drying of the skull plate. The inside spread ended up shrinking a full two inches...not cool on a very narrow rack to begin with!!! Long story short...I couldn't stand looking it and I vowed to redo it again if I was able to find a nice, early season cape to use. Plus, my mounts have improved ALOT over the past three years. After season I was able to get my hands on a beautiful Sept 30th cape from Wisconsin on a taxidermy forum that I'm a member of. A few weeks ago I tore the mount apart and found that the skull plate had cracked from where my friend had drilled it and the bondo filler had come loose. I repaired the fracture and set out to bring my best bowkill back to life AGAIN... Before: The first remount that I did. Wish I'd kept pics of my friend's mount with the original cape... After: Believe it or not, it is VERY difficult to take good pics of a mount where everything is in proportion. The phone camera doesn't seem to pick up the colors in a true to life tone either...in person the colors in the mount looks better than expressed through these pics. Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out and don't plan on ever mounting this guy again...lol.

I know plenty of people who think that little basket yearling 8pts are scrubby old deer going downhill...lol

Believe me...our age structure out here is on par with the rest of rural NYS. It's not all widespread QDM with big bucks everywhere. The local processors look like little buck nurseries during gun season. We just have enough cover to allow a few bucks to make it to maturity.

Here's another 7.5 yr old hometown bruiser that I mounted this past season. He added about 10" or so from 2017...

The sheds were chewed on a little but they grossed right around 150 as a mainframe 4×4. The beams and G3s were alot nicer on the sheds. He grossed like 153 nontyp...when killed.

Another friend of mine found his previous years sheds back in March several miles from where he was killed...

Age from lab testing cam back at 7.5