Keeping records.....

[G-Man]

My nephew was going thru our log book and informed me  i killed. 173 deer in my 34 years of hunting. 54 of which were antlered  bucks..  of which i have 5 head mounts, 4 "european" the rest are skull caps. .

We have a possibility of killing the 500th deer of my property since 93 season this year if we take 22 deer this year..

If you figure 35 lbs of meat on average  that 8 ton of meat from the land

..  he said ive taken about a 1/3 of them myself.. this is what i get for having a nephew taking accounting/ buisness at St. Bonaventure .. 

Any one else keep records out there..

[escpen]

We've been keeping records of all deer shot on our property since at least 1992, but it may go back a couple of years before that (I'll need to check the records ).  We track the following items:

1. Date shot
2. Implement used (bow, gun, crossbow, muzzleloader)
3. Day of season (e.g. October 1st is day 1 of bow season)
4. Time when shot
5. Who shot by
6. Location where killed (typically based on landmark or stand site reference)
7. Sex (buck, doe, button buck)
8. If buck, number of scorable points (total and per antler)
9. Field-dressed weight
10. Live weight (typically divide field dressed weight by 0.80 to get the estimated live weight; when close enough, will take a live weight and then weigh gain after field dressing - have only done this handful of times)

My dad uses a very old Microsoft Access database for capturing all of this information; I've been saying for years that I need to transfer all of this data over to Excel so I can analyze the data and trends a bit more easily.  I'll get around to it one of these days.

[First-light]

You guys are good. I used to keep my own records but that didn't last. I'm impressed keep it up!

[crappyice]

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[Nomad]

1 hour ago, G-Man said:

or having a nephew taking accounting/ buisness at St. Bonaventure .. 

ya my daughter is a CPA, 70 hour weeks, 4-5 months a year . Forbidden to take anytime off during those months , which start right after deer season, if he’s lucky . Not a job for a Hunter . 

[G-Man]

1 hour ago, escpen said:

We've been keeping records of all deer shot on our property since at least 1992, but it may go back a couple of years before that (I'll need to check the records ).  We track the following items:

1. Date shot
2. Implement used (bow, gun, crossbow, muzzleloader)
3. Day of season (e.g. October 1st is day 1 of bow season)
4. Time when shot
5. Who shot by
6. Location where killed (typically based on landmark or stand site reference)
7. Sex (buck, doe, button buck)
8. If buck, number of scorable points (total and per antler)
9. Field-dressed weight
10. Live weight (typically divide field dressed weight by 0.80 to get the estimated live weight; when close enough, will take a live weight and then weigh gain after field dressing - have only done this handful of times)

My dad uses a very old Microsoft Access database for capturing all of this information; I've been saying for years that I need to transfer all of this data over to Excel so I can analyze the data and trends a bit more easily.  I'll get around to it one of these days.

We do dressed weight and raised yearling bucks from average 101 lbs to 117 lbs after habitat and food plots.  Even the neighbor says well there are less deer but they are bigger since you bought here...

[BizCT]

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You’re right. My Dad always writes/types a one pager about each kill. He made me do it As a kid and I hated it. But now I’m happy because i kept it going and it’s really cool to see the story and few pics of each kill in a binder type book.


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[sbuff]

Our camp logbook goes back to the 40s,sadly some have passed . Its cool to look at locations of harvest over the years . There are definitely some hot spots ... We actually log how far the shot ,weight and weapon used . 

If you shoot a buck below 99lbs you may just see cotton balls on it by morning.  Think we got a couple 199lb brutes but average is 130lbs 

Edited July 22, 2022 by sbuff

[wolc123]

I have not kept many records, but I do keep most of the racks from the adult bucks.  I can remember the details of most of the kills, when I look at them.  
 

I started a journal on this site this year, which makes record keeping easier.  I have one gun deer kill on the books already for 22,  and I aim for (7) more, before December 31.  Hopefully this site keeps going a lot longer.

Before getting married and starting a family, I went through a brief “trophy” stage.  Meat volume and quality have been my primary concerns for the last 20 seasons.

I thank the op for a tip that gives me a good estimate of meat volume - the PA chest girth chart.  Way more accurate than the “indirect” weight measurement, since most of a deer’s weight is made up of water, which has zero nutritional value.   

Our family will be be eating pretty good, if I can use my buck tag(s) on those with 42” or larger chest girth.   What they have growing out of their foreheads don’t mean all that much to me, other than nice grab handles for dragging and reminders, up on the wall, of past hunts. 
 

If I killed an 11 pointer, I would likely do a shoulder mount.  That would complete my 6-pointer thru 12-pointer shoulder mount collection (the 12 was a vehicle kill).  I narrowly missed the 11 last year, killing a post-rut 9-point, that went into the rut with 11 points. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by wolc123

[Doc]

I had a massive bowhunting data base that tracked deer sightings (from stands and anywhere on the way to and from the stands). I logged the areas of the sightings, weather, deer gender with a notation about those that I could not identify, hunting style (standing, still hunting, or just walking to and from the stand), time of day, date, results of the sighting even if I didn't even shoot, direction the deer were traveling. Every stand had a complete history when I used them.

I could sort the results by almost any feature that I wanted that gave a pretty good picture of deer movements throughout the season. It also told me what stands were the most productive given the date and wind direction and other weather related data. It was a lot of fun and very useful.......... in the short-term.

I stopped when I realized that all that data eroded with the passage of time. Over the nearly three decades, there was a huge ice storm that buried traditional heavy deer trails and significantly changed patterns. A mountain bike club established a thick network of bike trails that also were used by hiking groups and individuals. Hunting pressure had some impact as bowhunting became more popular. Some areas were developed for residences, open fields turned into impenetrable thickets which also impacted deer movements. It seemed that the data collected was only valid for a few years at a time.

That realization made me end the log. It still has value as a kind of memoir thing as the data collected was so complete it was like a story about each deer hunt and sighting. It brings back a lot of great memories. But as a predictive tool, it just doesn't remain current. It was all fun, but in the end did not live up to what I was trying to do with it. It's too bad because you would think that 30 years of deer patterns and history of a particular hunting area would be a valuable thing. In this case it did not turn out to be true.

[wolc123]

13 minutes ago, Doc said:

I had a massive bowhunting data base that tracked deer sightings (from stands and anywhere on the way to and from the stands). I logged the areas of the sightings, weather, deer gender with a notation about those that I could not identify, hunting style (standing, still hunting, or just walking to and from the stand), time of day, date, results of the sighting even if I didn't even shoot, direction the deer were traveling. Every stand had a complete history when I used them.

I could sort the results by almost any feature that I wanted that gave a pretty good picture of deer movements throughout the season. It also told me what stands were the most productive given the date and wind direction and other weather related data. It was a lot of fun and very useful.......... in the short-term.

I stopped when I realized that all that data eroded with the passage of time. Over the nearly three decades, there was a huge ice storm that buried traditional heavy deer trails and significantly changed patterns. A mountain bike club established a thick network of bike trails that also were used by hiking groups and individuals. Hunting pressure had some impact as bowhunting became more popular. Some areas were developed for residences, open fields turned into impenetrable thickets which also impacted deer movements. It seemed that the data collected was only valid for a few years at a time.

That realization made me end the log. It still has value as a kind of memoir thing as the data collected was so complete it was like a story about each deer hunt and sighting. It brings back a lot of great memories. But as a predictive tool, it just doesn't remain current. It was all fun, but in the end did not live up to what I was trying to do with it. It's too bad because you would think that 30 years of deer patterns and history of a particular hunting area would be a valuable thing. In this case it did not turn out to be true.

I noticed the same thing.  Constant change quickly invalidates historical records. 

[G-Man]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

I had a massive bowhunting data base that tracked deer sightings (from stands and anywhere on the way to and from the stands). I logged the areas of the sightings, weather, deer gender with a notation about those that I could not identify, hunting style (standing, still hunting, or just walking to and from the stand), time of day, date, results of the sighting even if I didn't even shoot, direction the deer were traveling. Every stand had a complete history when I used them.

I could sort the results by almost any feature that I wanted that gave a pretty good picture of deer movements throughout the season. It also told me what stands were the most productive given the date and wind direction and other weather related data. It was a lot of fun and very useful.......... in the short-term.

I stopped when I realized that all that data eroded with the passage of time. Over the nearly three decades, there was a huge ice storm that buried traditional heavy deer trails and significantly changed patterns. A mountain bike club established a thick network of bike trails that also were used by hiking groups and individuals. Hunting pressure had some impact as bowhunting became more popular. Some areas were developed for residences, open fields turned into impenetrable thickets which also impacted deer movements. It seemed that the data collected was only valid for a few years at a time.

That realization made me end the log. It still has value as a kind of memoir thing as the data collected was so complete it was like a story about each deer hunt and sighting. It brings back a lot of great memories. But as a predictive tool, it just doesn't remain current. It was all fun, but in the end did not live up to what I was trying to do with it. It's too bad because you would think that 30 years of deer patterns and history of a particular hunting area would be a valuable thing. In this case it did not turn out to be true.

That happens a lot . The there are no deer anymore argument falls into that quite a bit... ive hunted the same stand for 30 years!!   The woods evolve and change  growing constantly.  The brushy draw you hunted 30 years is now mature woods the deer moved to better cover...  always have to explain why habitat work is so important.  

[ridgerunner88]

This is a great idea that I am gonna start doing

My brother bought a camp this year in PA, Ive already decided that I am gonna name the big 12 point I shoot this year “Genesis” and place him over the fire place. Lol big fat dream on my part!


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[wolc123]

5 hours ago, ridgerunner88 said:

This is a great idea that I am gonna start doing

My brother bought a camp this year in PA, Ive already decided that I am gonna name the big 12 point I shoot this year “Genesis” and place him over the fire place. Lol big fat dream on my part!


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12-pointers are cool.  Around 30 years ago, one got killed by a car around the corner from our place.  The driver didn’t want the carcass, so I took it for the meat.  That thing made about 100 pounds of grind.

That was back when I was in my “trophy stage”, and I knew of a guy who would do shoulder mounts for $ 125.  It took over a year to get them back, so that was the only time that I used him.  

The 7-point behind it, is my first antlered bow-kill.   That was from a year or two prior.  I killed a 10-point the same season, with my shotgun, from the same stand.  I got a price break from a faster guy, to mount both of those.  
 

I ended up with the 6-12 collection of shoulder mounts ( currently lacking just an 11) by pure coincidence.  A wide 9-pointer might be my highest “scoring” rack.  My uncle mounted that one for me. 
 

My buddy had a big buck that his grandad had killed redone into a larger cape and he gave me the old one.  His grandad’s buck’s rack looked silly in the small cape.  My dad made a walnut board for the back and I attached my first antlered buck’s little 6-point rack into it. That little cape is just the right size for the smaller rack.  

The only one I have had mounted, since getting past the “trophy-stage”, was my first Adirondack buck.   It just happened to be an 8-point.  I only did that for my father in law.  He wanted it for a wall decoration, in his house up there.  

 

My hunt continues for the elusive 11-pointer.  I was a week late and two broken off points short last year.  Hopefully, I can top off the freezer this year, during the early antlerless gun season.  That will allow me to be more selective later with my buck tags.  

[ridgerunner88]

12-pointers are cool.  Around 30 years ago, one got killed by a car around the corner from our place.  The driver didn’t want the carcass, so I took it for the meat.  That thing made about 100 pounds of grind.
That was back when I was in my “trophy stage”, and I knew of a guy who would do shoulder mounts for $ 125.  It took over a year to get them back, so that was the only time that I used him.  

The 7-point behind it, is my first antlered bow-kill.   That was from a year or two prior.  I killed a 10-point the same season, with my shotgun, from the same stand.  I got a price break from a faster guy, to mount both of those.  
 
I ended up with the 6-12 collection of shoulder mounts ( currently lacking just an 11) by pure coincidence.  A wide 9-pointer might be my highest “scoring” rack.  My uncle mounted that one for me. 
 
My buddy had a big buck that his grandad had killed redone into a larger cape and he gave me the old one.  His grandad’s buck’s rack looked silly in the small cape.  My dad made a walnut board for the back and I attached my first antlered buck’s little 6-point rack into it. That little cape is just the right size for the smaller rack.  

The only one I have had mounted, since getting past the “trophy-stage”, was my first Adirondack buck.   It just happened to be an 8-point.  I only did that for my father in law.  He wanted it for a wall decoration, in his house up there.  

 
My hunt continues for the elusive 11-pointer.  I was a week late and two broken off points short last year.  Hopefully, I can top off the freezer this year, during the early antlerless gun season.  That will allow me to be more selective later with my buck tags.  

Thanks for sharing, great memories!


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[wolc123]

11 minutes ago, ridgerunner88 said:

Thanks for sharing, great memories!


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No problem.  That’s the best thing about saving antlers.  You can’t eat them, but a quick look at them still brings back many details of the hunt.  I usually roll up the carcass tags, and stick them in the brain cavity of euro mounts (or staple them to the back of the shoulder mounts), to help me remember the dates.   That’s pretty much the extent of my written “record keeping”.  
 

 

[ridgerunner88]

No problem.  That’s the best thing about saving antlers.  You can’t eat them, but a quick look at them still brings back many details of the hunt.  I usually roll up the carcass tags, and stick them in the brain cavity of euro mounts (or staple them to the back of the shoulder mounts), to help me remember the dates.   That’s pretty much the extent of my written “record keeping”.  
 
 

Exactly, holding on to that story is my motivation. Therefore along with a “log book” that tracks the hard stats, I started a blog where I can write down the stories of my favorite hunts. So that years from now I can go back and read about my favorite adventures.

Shameless plug, the site is not monetized, its just a hobby page but if you want to read my first entry about my turkey hunt this year… https://bighuntstories.wordpress.com/


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