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Originally Posted by ToddW
Thanks guys, It's the nicest buck I have shot. With my chemo treatments I almost decided not to even try hunting this season but am sure glad I did.
Hi, Todd. the good and the bad with my hunting land is on 2 sides its hundreds of acres of river bottom swampland that is privately owned but gets little to no hunting pressure. That Can be good, but no pressure also means the deer tend to stay put a lot too. I see monster deer on my cameras at night, but in the daylight its a rare sight.
One other side of my land is an owner who has 230 acres of similar swamp and he only shoots quality deer (The QDM plan)
I have shot decent 8 and 10 pointers out there before, but nothing this size, age and mass of antlers. Strange thing is the doe population looked down for my area this year. Maybe thats why this one was moving in the daylight -trying to find does.  |
There always seems to be a good and bad in hunting. We do the QDM boogie on our property, and the neighbors not so much. It's their property and they pay their taxes, but what chaps my behind is they are the one's who benefit from our hard work.
Planting the food plots to sustain the deer through the winter months. Woodland management to help with some regeneration of native species of trees.... the list goes on.
All I ask from our neighbors is to harvest some does to reduce the population and take the pressure off the forest from over browsing from the deer. We can't grow a white cedar in our area, or maple, oak the deer brows them off before their anymore than a stick. Sad!
But my neighbors will sit long enough to kill every buck they get a chance and saw off the antlers and throw them in a bucket and forget about it. But they won't shoot a doe for nothing. I'm fortunate to have some acreage, but it's never enough to hold bucks from wondering over the fence and getting whacked.
Since we started our deer management program back in 1996 we tried to kill five doe to every buck, but without the cooperation of the surrounding lad owners the population keeps rising. Here's proof that I try to explain to them in the easiest way possible. We have kept records of every deer killed since 96, and by records I mean, age, sex, and weight. And with the population growth our records show that the average 3 1/2 year old buck is down in antler quality as well as #20 less than they were in the early 2000's. The doe are down also from an average adult (3 1/3 or older) weight of #123-#128-#130.
We have no rut to speak of, sure the bucks still do some chasing, but no competition for breeding rights. All they have to do is service a doe for 48 hours get up and find another one, down for another 48 hours. And all this tells me is that the herd is in poor condition overall. Nothing has changed in the area than it's been for the last 30 years except that the population has grown.
So last year we went on a doe shooting expedition and killed 17, this year we're going for 25, and so far have 6 on the ground. Something has to give, and it's not going to be me.
Sorry for the long post, just thought another would understand the frustrations.
Again, great buck. If your into scoring I would like to know what the gross score is on that buck, because pictures don't do it justice as a five year old. I can grasp my brain around it better if you were to say it's in the 140' s or something.
Congrats again
I also re-read your post about the doe population being down in your area. That could have very well put that buck on his feet looking for a hot doe. When I talk to Pat Reeve he agrees, low doe population will keep the bucks moving on your property, and they won't get pressure from the doe groups.