I need to move out west, check out this stud!!!!

[NYBowhunter]

My buddy sends me this pic. of a pig of a buck that his cousin shot back on thier family farm in Illinois, what a huge buck all around.

[wolc123]

Nice rack, but looks kind of thin in the hind quarters.  Not a whole lot of meat there.   
 

Since no one ever figured out a good recipe for antlers, I’d rather stay in WNY where the bucks have heavy hind ends: 

Edited October 18, 2022 by wolc123

[BizCT]

My buddy sends me this pic. of a pig of a buck that his cousin shot back on thier family farm in Illinois, what a huge buck all around.

Nice buck. Check out the bucks each year on bowsite from midwestern states and Canada. Bonkers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[phantom]

1 hour ago, wolc123 said:

Nice rack, but looks kind of thin in the hind quarters.  Not a whole lot of meat there.   
 

Since no one ever figured out a good recipe for antlers, I’d rather stay in WNY where the bucks have heavy hind ends: 

Is that one you shot wolc ?

[wolc123]

6 hours ago, phantom said:

Is that one you shot wolc ?

Yes,  that was a decent 2fur (deer that makes about 2 times the average amount of meat) that I shot over at my parent’s place last year during opening week of gun season.   The 3.5 year olds over there, where they are almost surrounded by corn fields, average 80-100 pounds of boneless meat.  

I am surprised to see such a thin-butted deer out of Illinois as that posted up above.  Especially pre-rut like right now, when they should be at their maximum body weights.    That’s a major corn-growing state.  

It looks like there’s a good neck roast on him anyhow, and he sure looks bloated in the mid-section.  He looks extremely light on the steaks and rump roasts though.  
 

That back right leg looks atrophied, like it maybe got hit by car or something and withered away.  I killed a buck at home like that once.  It had broke the main tendon on the back leg the year before.  An odd thing about it, was that it made the opposite side antler messed up, and formed a drop tine.  Actually, it was the end of the beam that pointed down. 
 

Maybe it’s just the camera angle that makes that Illinois buck’s butt look tiny in the pictures.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with his rack.  

[phantom]

4 hours ago, wolc123 said:

Yes,  that was a decent 2fur (deer that makes about 2 times the average amount of meat) that I shot over at my parent’s place last year during opening week of gun season.   The 3.5 year olds over there, where they are almost surrounded by corn fields, average 80-100 pounds of boneless meat.  

I am surprised to see such a thin-butted deer out of Illinois as that posted up above.  Especially pre-rut like right now, when they should be at their maximum body weights.    That’s a major corn-growing state.  

It looks like there’s a good neck roast on him anyhow, and he sure looks bloated in the mid-section.  He looks extremely light on the steaks and rump roasts though.  
 

That back right leg looks atrophied, like it maybe got hit by car or something and withered away.  I killed a buck at home like that once.  It had broke the main tendon on the back leg the year before.  An odd thing about it, was that it made the opposite side antler messed up, and formed a drop tine.  Actually, it was the end of the beam that pointed down. 
 

Maybe it’s just the camera angle that makes that Illinois buck’s butt look tiny in the pictures.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with his rack.  

Nice!! What weapon caliber and distance you shoot that big guy with ?

 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, phantom said:

Nice!! What weapon caliber and distance you shoot that big guy with ?

 

Ithaca 16 ga model 37 featherlight, about 40 yards, 4/5 oz Remington slugger.  It passed almost all the way thru his rib cage but did not exit.  It fell out intact, while I was skinning it.  I pressed it back into the spent case and used as as an antler ornament, along with the lower jaw:

 

[LET EM GROW]

Theres plenty in this state like that if you find good soil areas.. You just have to beat the hunting pressure lol 

[phantom]

7 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

Ithaca 16 ga model 37 featherlight, about 40 yards, 4/5 oz Remington slugger.  It passed almost all the way thru his rib cage but did not exit.  It fell out intact, while I was skinning it.  I pressed it back into the spent case and used as as an antler ornament, along with the lower jaw:

 

Oh nice   I was gonna say that looked like a big wound cavity in that deer rifled or smooth bore barrel ? Im guessing smooth since you used rem  sluggers .

Edited October 18, 2022 by phantom

[Taylormike]

43 minutes ago, LET EM GROW said:

Theres plenty in this state like that if you find good soil areas.. You just have to beat the hunting pressure lol 

My brother literally says this every weekend we are at camp.  He's like,  "look around, nothing for miles, imagine the smart ones that are nocturnal and avoid all evidence they even exist.". 

[wolc123]

34 minutes ago, phantom said:

Oh nice   I was gonna say that looked like a big wound cavity in that deer rifled or smooth bore barrel ? Im guessing smooth since you used rem  sluggers .

Yep, smoothbore.  I am in a “shotgun only” zone (wmu 9F).  I was running low on 12 ga sabots last season, so I had to press grandpa’s old smoothbore 16 ga back into service.  

I picked up a shit ton of those 16 ga Remington sluggers at a sporting goods store, up in Brewerton for $ 1 a box, at a going out of business sale about 23 years ago.  
 

Back in the day, that old Ithaca always shot Winchesters and Federals a little better, but it still has an effective range of about 100 yards with the Remingtons.  

I use it on real cold days also, when the firing pin on my rifled 12 ga Marlin 512 bolt action has a tendency to freeze up.  It was very cold the day after Thanksgiving last year.  That buck might have lived to be a 4.5 year old this year, if I had my Marlin 12 ga bolt action that day.

I also prefer the old full diameter 16 ga foster slugs for short range work, because they give much better blood trails, than the Hornady 12 ga SST sabots.  Even though that slug didn’t punch all the way thru, it knocked enough chunks of rib thru that there was good red spray on both sides on top of the dusting of snow.  
 

That was fortunate,  because it was pitch black dark by time I got after him and he made it about 50 yards into some jungle like brush after taking the slug, before he crashed down.