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Post by ozark on May 23, 2009 18:22:22 GMT -5
Like most, I like to take a monster buck wiht awesome antlers but the playing field isn't the same. First of all we have the pen raised deer that have been selected from a large gentic pool and a special diet. Also, the little deer in the south isn't going to compare well with the large corn fee monsters in Illinois, Iowa and placs in Canada. Mule deer and Blacktail are a different class than the whitetail. Some feel that the largeer deer are somehow smarter than the smaller deer. I doubt that size has a lot to do with intelligence. A full grown healthy deer with 8 or ten points perfectly matched is a trophy to me. The tines doesn't have to be long but the spread has to be naturally curved to suit me. I don't care for antlers that resemble motorcycle handle bars with tines sticking up. Aside from the antlers I look at the deers face, ears and head shape to add or deduct from the quality. The scoring system means little to me but I understand that there has to be a standard to determine the top animal. The whitetail deer is a beautiful animal as a group. The bucks, the does, the fawns and the yearlings rates high in my opinion. Just musing, Ben
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Post by davewolf on May 23, 2009 20:21:02 GMT -5
Ben: I judge a trophy by where I hunt them, what conditions and the length of the hunt...and unlike you I like "ugly racks" non-typicals. My best buck to-date is an 11-pointer that was on the downside and he has points and tines sticking out all over the place. I like this buck because my friend called me in archery season and said he had a 17-point running around his property--open to the public. He said, " I want you to come out in rifle season and get this guy! Well what are the chances of that happening? I hunted his property opening day, and it was filled with hunters and they took 4-good bucks off of his property. I was skeptical but he felt certain that buck was held up out there somewhere.
I hunted 5-days from dawn to dusk in all kinds of weather, and low and behold on Friday saw the buck coming my way. He said it has three main antlers, but I wasn't counting and didn't know this was thebuck.
But I took him with my .308 and my friend was so excited he came out to where the deer was, took photos and as promised. "If you get him, I'll kiss him on the lips." And he did!
I hunted another buck 10-point by still-hunting him for a solid week, in sub-zero weather, I finally caught him on the last day of the hunt. The first buck is a dandy and the 10, is a younger buck, but both are very special to me. Have a great day! Dave
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Post by ozark on May 23, 2009 20:34:57 GMT -5
Like the animals we hunt we differ. That is good because it makes the beautiful and the ugly both desirable. Good post Dave.
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Post by raf on May 23, 2009 22:46:48 GMT -5
Around here we have some big deer. The current world record typical white tail came from about 70 miles from where I live. I don't hunt that area but where I hunt there are big deer and I was lucky enough to get one a few years back. I've also taken some deer that wouldn't even make the books but the racks were perfectly symetrical but weren't big enough to interest many. To me they were great and they are on the wall in my garage with may others. A trophy is something different to each hunter. Interesting side note. Today my wife ran a garage sale while I went to the Cabin to do some work. She had a couple of offers for some antlers that were on the wall. Of course they're not for sale but I was flattered.
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Post by chuck41 on Jun 4, 2009 14:42:01 GMT -5
I have an 8 point on my wall that beats any of the 10 and 12 pointers I have seen in a couple years. Shot him 20 years ago in my "back yard". Haven't seen anything quite like him since either around here or at the deer camp. Trophys are great, but those antlers take a whole heap of cookin' to tenderize. I'll take a good fat doe over an old tough buck anytime.
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Post by rossman40 on Jun 5, 2009 10:18:04 GMT -5
Sometimes the trophy isn't about the size but a remembrance of the hunt. A neighbor of mine is a big pronghorn hunter, while the few he has mounted are not big, to hear the story behind each one is like out of the old Field & Stream magazines.
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Post by chuck41 on Jun 6, 2009 9:58:08 GMT -5
I do a bit of the same with pictures. I shot three deer last year, but took pictures of a hundred or more. Sure is fun to go back and revisit. Especially so since I can wonder how big a rack he is developing this year after the spike/fork/button he was last year.
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Post by broomebuck on Jun 6, 2009 10:35:40 GMT -5
i set my goal for buck that is even with his ears and a mature doe which there are plenty around
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Post by ET on Jun 6, 2009 11:16:57 GMT -5
Sometimes the trophy isn't about the size but a remembrance of the hunt. A neighbor of mine is a big pronghorn hunter, while the few he has mounted are not big, to hear the story behind each one is like out of the old Field & Stream magazines. Now this nicely curtails what trophy hunting is all about for me. The real trophy to me is the adventure of a successful hunt itself. Ed
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Post by ozark on Jun 6, 2009 13:50:14 GMT -5
Killing deer must be something special for the deer hunter. I have killed a bunch of them and sometimes I let my mind take me back to the event. I believe I remember the details of every deer I ever killed. The one that irks me the most was one I didn't recover that I shot with a .367 Magnum pistol. Hit it in the right place and foolishly followed it immediately with planty of blood that played out later on. It was a nice fork horn and I still know it couldn't have lived. But, I am sure I usedd a bullet that didn't penetrate as needed. Anyway, the deer hunter can recall the details of where they were, how the sighting occured, how they took the shot and what followed. When they drop instantly there is no period of concern but when they make that kick and run we experience a period of suspense where we question results until we see the deer fall. Sometime they get out of sight and we have that period of wondering until we spot the body and know that we were right on. It is exciting because we are forced to control our actions and make a good shot. I sometimes allow myself time to think of each one I took in Texas and each of those blacktails I took in Washington State. and then I relive each one I took from my cabin, from each of the blinds and even the one I accidently took while going to my tree house. I got to the top of a bluff like position overlooking a thicket between me and my treestand when a buck left its bed and galloped away through the thicket. I shouldered the 25.06 and got it in the scope while it was still about 50 yards away. I decided not to shoot it in the butt but to try for its head area thinking my shot would be certain or do no harm. At the shot the deer disappeared from view and I didn't see it leave that spot. In the brush I could not see the animal. I got off the steep blufflike area and worked my way to where the deer was when I shot. There he was and the bullet had caused the skull to be mush. The antlers could be spread whereever you wished. Just a lucky shot but was as effective as any could be. It is a great sport that leaves many great memories to the person who dearly loves the hunt. Ozark
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Post by wilmsmeyer on Jun 7, 2009 11:51:43 GMT -5
A trophy to me is the buck that is in the top 2 or 3 around the area....that I know of. Usually this ends up being a 135-145 class buck. I have "settled" SO many times for just under that.
I keep waiting for deer to get bigger around here....but it would be by luck and by chance. Very heavily hunted in the surrounding properties...and deer wander. We tell ourselves at camp that the deer certainly won't make it if we shoot them too early...but might make it if we don't.
Our guys have 8-9 that go 140+. The biggest is a 15 pt that grosses 158. At camp, all of our 110 - 130 class bucks are nailed to the rafters. I think there are about 50 racks in there....most shot in the past 15 years.
As a group we are getting picky...maybe too picky. And we are getting older so it takes a bigger buck to get the blood pressure up. There is nothing like the older days when 6-10 bucks hung outside camp with most of them going 110 plus. I think those days were more exciting then the few bigger bucks we shoot now and then. More stories, more pictures and more action.
The social element of success in camp goes a long way...maybe more then the occational big one.
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Post by Buckrub on Jun 15, 2009 12:31:03 GMT -5
Every deer I ever killed was a trophy. I kill about 3-4 every year.
Big headgear means less and less to me each year. It does still mean something, though.
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Post by northny on Jun 18, 2009 11:33:37 GMT -5
Not sure why, but a decade or two ago I started watching bucks instead of shooting them. I think it started when having filled my bow tag I was out with my camera sitting in tree stand while my 14 year old son was bow hunting about 75 yards below me on another trail and I saw a large 10 point that I watched for 30 minutes (including 5 when I thought he was going to walk in front of my son). I learned a lot watching that big buck. So I started watching what older bucks did different from less mature bucks. In any event, I sort of evolved until where I only shoot a buck that is larger than the last one I shot. So I have not shot a buck in 5 years. Looking for that LARGE mass 8 point, or a ten or better, or a cool drop tine. I put does in the freezer, kill coyotes, etc. My thought (for ME, not that it works for anyone else) is I get just as much thrill out of a good shot on a doe, as I would from a smaller buck. Yet some of the newer hunters (or some of the real old timers trying to tag what may be a last buck) are ecstatic getting that same deer. I was put to the test when a nice, uniform 8 point came in front of me three years ago. I had seen and video taped him in velvet earlier in the year. My wife and I saw him feeding in a field one evening on a "deer walk. Very distinctive dark antlers. I let him walk, watched him chase off a smaller buck. I thought about that one for a week. My 22 year old son killed him later in the season, and I enjoyed that moment so much more than if I had killed that deer. I am sure most of the deer I pass on are killed by someone else. Good for them. Just spreading around the happiness.
So for me, a trophy is "better or cooler than the ones I have on the wall".
No scoring or point systems. I have a two full head mounts in my home office. I don't have a clue what they score. Don't care. But I can tell you a great story that goes with each of them, and the mistake the deer made to get killed, and the mistakes I made that almost let them get away. ( I suspect my sons can tell you the srory too!)
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Post by woodywilliams on Jun 18, 2009 20:49:00 GMT -5
Basically I hunt mature deer and don't worry about the score.
If a buck reaches 4 1/2 in my area he has literally dodged some bullets and is usually pretty savy. Sometimes he will sport a very nice rack, but not always.
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