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Top Bucks from Past few Years

Whitetail93

By Whitetail93,
in Trail Camera Pictures

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Whitetail93 Newbie

Whitetail93

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i dont care who you are or what state you live in. There is always good genetics around its how us, as hunters, manage the herd. Meaning let a 2 year old buck walk and wait on a mature deer. even if it means not filling a tag for the year! if you want meat in the freezer, Shoot a doe! theres always plenty of them to go around.

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Culvercreek hunt club Enthusiast

Culvercreek hunt club

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i dont care who you are or what state you live in. There is always good genetics around its how us, as hunters, manage the herd. Meaning let a 2 year old buck walk and wait on a mature deer. even if it means not filling a tag for the year! if you want meat in the freezer, Shoot a doe! theres always plenty of them to go around.

Assuming you can shoot a doe

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phade Mentor

phade

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i dont care who you are or what state you live in. There is always good genetics around its how us, as hunters, manage the herd. Meaning let a 2 year old buck walk and wait on a mature deer. even if it means not filling a tag for the year! if you want meat in the freezer, Shoot a doe! theres always plenty of them to go around.

 

Is 3.5 mature to you? Tough call in my book. While I reference 3.5s as being the line in the sand for NY, I wouldn't consider a 3.5 fully mature.

 

One thing that I am not a fan of, is the term "manage the herd," Quite simply, in a free range scenario, you are not managing the herd.

 

You can manage the land, you can manage the trigger pullers, but you can never "manage the herd."

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Whitetail93 Newbie

Whitetail93

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Is 3.5 mature to you? Tough call in my book. While I reference 3.5s as being the line in the sand for NY, I wouldn't consider a 3.5 fully mature.

 

One thing that I am not a fan of, is the term "manage the herd," Quite simply, in a free range scenario, you are not managing the herd.

 

You can manage the land, you can manage the trigger pullers, but you can never "manage the herd."

Never said 3.5 was a fully mature buck by any means. I said to let a 2 year old walk so he can grow up to a mature buck. Guys go out and shoot the first buck they see. You know how that goes it takes a long time to see a good buck, sure some get lucky but its usually a young buck that hasnt grown up. I hear what your saying about the herd part. Sure a deer can run any where. but deer have a home range which they feel comfortable with so if everybody and their brother would stop blasting the first movement of brown in the woods then we could alot more big bucks around. But when you shoot a good buck or a buck that is old on the downside your affecting the future breeding of the following year.so either way you look at it your affecting the herd whether you think so or not.

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phade Mentor

phade

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Never said 3.5 was a fully mature buck by any means. I said to let a 2 year old walk so he can grow up to a mature buck. Guys go out and shoot the first buck they see. You know how that goes it takes a long time to see a good buck, sure some get lucky but its usually a young buck that hasnt grown up. I hear what your saying about the herd part. Sure a deer can run any where. but deer have a home range which they feel comfortable with so if everybody and their brother would stop blasting the first movement of brown in the woods then we could alot more big bucks around. But when you shoot a good buck or a buck that is old on the downside your affecting the future breeding of the following year.so either way you look at it your affecting the herd whether you think so or not.

 

Affect and manage are two different things, completely.

 

I believe you are pretty young. While, I'm not THAT old, I have a few years of cutting my teeth. The best piece of advice I can offer is to stop focusing on other hunters and learn how to find and hunt mature bucks and make that your top priority. So many people go astray in that aspect of hunting. While NY may not be IL, IA, KS, etc., there are good bucks to be had. I offer that advice as that seems to be your desire in hunting. Spending time and effort worrying about others before you can honestly hunt mature bucks just puts you behind the 8-ball. I did that when I was younger to a degree and I have no doubt my walls would be more full than they are now had I known better.

 

BTW, those are some nice deer. I like the night image of the one with the leafs getting IR bounceback. Just a cool framed photo. Only major issue I see is the time of all but the daylight one. Seeing deer at 11 at night doesn't make me all that excited unless you own a sq. mile of land.

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Whitetail93 Newbie

Whitetail93

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Affect and manage are two different things, completely.

 

I believe you are pretty young. While, I'm not THAT old, I have a few years of cutting my teeth. The best piece of advice I can offer is to stop focusing on other hunters and learn how to find and hunt mature bucks and make that your top priority. So many people go astray in that aspect of hunting. While NY may not be IL, IA, KS, etc., there are good bucks to be had. I offer that advice as that seems to be your desire in hunting. Spending time and effort worrying about others before you can honestly hunt mature bucks just puts you behind the 8-ball. I did that when I was younger to a degree and I have no doubt my walls would be more full than they are now had I known better.

 

BTW, those are some nice deer. I like the night image of the one with the leafs getting IR bounceback. Just a cool framed photo. Only major issue I see is the time of all but the daylight one. Seeing deer at 11 at night doesn't make me all that excited unless you own a sq. mile of land.

Thanks for the advice phade. Although id love to say other people dont worry because they do, your right ive gotta worry less about them and more on my own tactics. Like you said its tough when you dont own a huge chunk of property and you have 3 neighbors with an itchy trigger finger

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Whitetail93 Newbie

Whitetail93

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Take a hard look. If the bucks are not there in daylight with regularity on your ground, you cannot kill them. I spent years on ground in such a situation, banging my head against the wall.

i wouldnt say you "cant" kill them but the odds are defiantly low of killing a buck that regularly shows up at nights. Your best opportunity is going to be last light at a food source or sitting all day at the peak of the rut. anything can happen at anytime is what ive learned especially last year 

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phade Mentor

phade

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i wouldnt say you "cant" kill them but the odds are defiantly low of killing a buck that regularly shows up at nights. Your best opportunity is going to be last light at a food source or sitting all day at the peak of the rut. anything can happen at anytime is what ive learned especially last year 

Sure, but it's much more likely when you have mature bucks moving on your ground with regularity in daylight outside of the rut. What's that take? Bedding and cover. Seems to me pics like that indicate you don't have the bedding. Should you be getting daylight pics and pics right at the cusp of light and darkness...that should make you excited.

 

Getting pics of bucks in the middle of the night no longer get me as excited as I once thought. I can't recount the number of bucks I have pics of in the middle of the night that I never laid eyes on while in the stand or with cams in daylight. They're not ghosts that can't be killed...just that they can't be killed on your ground.

 

If the buck isn't there until midnight...he ain't showing up at the food source at last light. He's on someone else's ground at last light.

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Five Seasons Grand Master

Five Seasons

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Take a hard look. If the bucks are not there in daylight with regularity on your ground, you cannot kill them. I spent years on ground in such a situation, banging my head against the wall.

 

amen to that. the biggest and baddest only come out at night. but once in a while you win the lotto.

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NFA-ADK Rookie

NFA-ADK

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Nice pics, even better deer!  Agreed with the night shots, another reason I could care less about night time shots is just that fact that they will not be in the area during the day.  In deep woods it is nice to see where they are headed but on private land night time shots do not help.  Bedding and cover, your insight is hitting the nail on the head IMO Phade.

Wow less than 12 weeks until opening day!!!  Closer to scratching the deep woods itch!!!

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