|
Post by wilmsmeyer on Nov 9, 2014 16:59:54 GMT -5
After 6 weekends this is it. I am done. Next weekend it's gun. Passed several 120-125" bucks this year...there are so many. Came close to getting a shot at a 140" 8 pt last week. Saw other bucks in this caliber but out of range. The rut is funny here...too many does...no chase and seek. Like being a guy with lot's of money in a strip bar. Find your lady and hunker down. When you are done there are others waiting for your service. Got to pound the does again this year...but we always do and it doesn't seem to matter. Like trying to drain a lake....not enough tags.
Been since 2010 since I drew the bow but that's OK. Hard to grow the big deer here. One deer we were after got whacked in the road 3 nights ago. Still he was only a 130 class 9 pt witch a kicker. Super heavy but only 14" wide. We lopped his head off and put the tape to him. Sucked to do it that way. Cars, poachers and wounders skim the cream of the crop it seems. Sucks.
Both my friend and I have not drew the bow for 4 yrs...5 for him. Lot's of time in the woods every year. Time to get the guns out. Frustrating!
Let's see who can control themselves this year....lot's of tempting horns out there but not the ones we really want. With the exception of me and one other guy, the rest are gun hunters who are chomping at the bit for Saturaday....11/15.
A vicious cycle of taking what's there. Maybe one year a true giant will slip through and emerge.
Good luck all you New Yorker's.
|
|
|
Post by lakeplainshunter on Nov 9, 2014 20:02:57 GMT -5
Hunting in NYS is definitely not like the hunting they show on TV from Iowa or Illinois. If I was seeing 125" Bucks, I would be very very happy. There are definitely lots of Does around here also.
|
|
|
Post by Dave W on Nov 9, 2014 21:00:19 GMT -5
Know the feeling oh so well. Playing this game can be very frustrating!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2014 9:25:43 GMT -5
Bust a big one with a gun Wilms! and take out some frustration with a pocket full of doe tags! Same song and dance for us where we hunt, nothing but frustration and not seeing nearly the numbers of deer as we should or used to.. pass, pass, pass = tag soup, it's getting all too familiar. I hope firearms season goes your way.
|
|
|
Post by wilmsmeyer on Nov 10, 2014 18:14:55 GMT -5
I still see a lot of very cool stuff and I am not the type that gets all disappointed about not getting a deer. Owls swooping at mice and rabbits as it's getting light. Chickadees landing on me or my bow. Bucks chasing does, deer interacting. Bucks responding to a grunt and others ignoring it. All good and all educational. In the 90's and early 2000's I made it a point to kill a buck every year with a bow. And I did for 10 yrs in a row with 11 arrows fired. A string jumper had me sail an arrow 6" over his back.
In the beginning it was cool and it also let me get very comfortable knowing I could do it. Each year I set a self imposed range limit based on my practice that year and will not deviate from it for ANY reason...no matter how good a buck is. Then I set some limits size and started getting picky. Since 2004 I have only killed 3 bucks with a bow. 08,09 an 10. The last two were 135 and 142. Not true hogs but my best two. I just wouldn't feel anything special anymore with a smaller buck. If I wanted the meat, a doe would be the way to go. It's SO hard to grow them here. So hard. BUT...they do exist and at times one shows up and people do get some great bucks out here. Many time it's some dude from a city that never hunter before. Very weird how it always seems to be someone who never put their time in. But I guess 90% of the hunters don't put the amount of time some of us do...so it makes sense that they come across the big ones due to saturating the woods in numbers.
Yeah...not everyone can hunt on 10,000 acres and manage to their hearts content. OR book a trip to Saskachewan or Alberta. Got take what you can get. I guarentee that if I ever lay into a 150 class 10 pt here where I hunt it will be WAY sweeter than nailing a 200 class 12 point on a guided hunt. Nothing like homegrown success. One day....one day
And to the guys that are super happy with a 120 class 8 point? Good for you...I was there once. Everyone can make their own way and I can't fault ANYONE for making their own decision and being very happy about it.
It's all good!
|
|
|
Post by artjr338wm on Nov 13, 2014 17:10:16 GMT -5
Sounds like your experiences mirror mine since moving to Indiana 11 years ago and now that you mention it Illinois public land same time period. Here in Indiana my friend who gets to hunt private ground near his home has been saying for over a decade, how he has been passing on dozens and dozens of "nice bucks" that would be "great bucks" if they are allowed to live till next season, but because he rarely ever sees great bucks while hunting near his home, OBVIOUSLY very, very, VERY few of those "nice bucks" he has seen are being allowed to live to next year AKA 3.5 years of age let alone older to become the "Great Bucks" we hunters all so badly want.
Case in point: In more than 15 years of hunting private land near his home he has only seen one buck while hunting larger than 140" while on stand on the land he was hunting and as luck would have it he took it with his bow. I asked him once besides the only one he killed how many bucks in the 130-140" class he has seen while on stand hunting, he replied exactly 4 bucks in the 130-140" class in 15 gun and bow seasons seen on the land he had permission to hunt, counting the one he shot, that's a total of 4 in 15 seasons. He has seen a good number of great bucks while driving around looking for big bucks or while simply traveling the area. He simply has never been lucky enough to see them when he could kill them.
Bottom line a buck has to live to at least 3.5 years of age to have some decent head gear, 2.5 years just ain't enough, and a 2.5 year old buck hasn't learned enough lessons to survive. I've heard it said by quite a few deer biologists that once a buck reaches 4.5 years of age or older they behave so radically different from younger bucks they that they should almost be re-categorized as a sub species, I do not exaggerate.
|
|