Dedicated to one buck

[Dumbluck]

Usually 4 or 5. This year was an anomaly. We had 12. None over low 130s.

Wow that is impressive, how much land are you working with? My targets are always 4.5 up and usually only find 1 or 2 a season. I've been seeing a lot of natural mortality the last 8 years

 

[Ski]

Wow that is impressive, how much land are you working with? My targets are always 4.5 up and usually only find 1 or 2 a season. I've been seeing a lot of natural mortality the last 8 years

Same here. I hunt several properties ranging from 100 to 200 acres and any given year there's one 4.5+ on each of them, sometimes 2 but rarely at the same time. Old bucks don't seem to cohabit with other old bucks in my experience except maybe in summer.

 

[megalomaniac]

Wow that is impressive, how much land are you working with? My targets are always 4.5 up and usually only find 1 or 2 a season. I've been seeing a lot of natural mortality the last 8 years

Around 2000 acres split up between 7 farms

 

[Dumbluck]

Around 2000 acres split up between 7 farms

4 to 5 sounds about right for that acreage but having 12 that is crazy. I had 2 on one farm that's about 250 acres and 0 on another that's 450 acres. The 450 acres is new to me and hasn't been legally hunted in about 5 years. But after taking hunting possession of it, it was obvious that friends of the landowner were taking advantage of him and hunting without permission. I even caught one driving in there and spotlighting. We have put a stop to that and magically almost all his 2 year olds have survived this year. It's pretty obvious they were wiping out his 2 year old population with out him knowing it. We only have one buck in there over 2.5. Next year we should have a plethora of 3.5 year olds, and we might have one 4.5 or 2 if we pick up a new deer.

 

[Talome13]

I don't even put out cameras anymore. I just enjoy scouting and doing it the way me and my dad used to.

 

[megalomaniac]

4 to 5 sounds about right for that acreage but having 12 that is crazy. I had 2 on one farm that's about 250 acres and 0 on another that's 450 acres. The 450 acres is new to me and hasn't been legally hunted in about 5 years. But after taking hunting possession of it, it was obvious that friends of the landowner were taking advantage of him and hunting without permission. I even caught one driving in there and spotlighting. We have put a stop to that and magically almost all his 2 year olds have survived this year. It's pretty obvious they were wiping out his 2 year old population with out him knowing it. We only have one buck in there over 2.5. Next year we should have a plethora of 3.5 year olds, and we might have one 4.5 or 2 if we pick up a new deer.

We only kill 4 to 6 bucks annually off all those farms, so age structure on bucks is good, just all bucks are high graded out by neighbors, so usually just the bottom end of the gene pool makes it to 4.5

 

[Bone Collector]

My time, age, the required dedication and the emotional involvement are prices I'm not willing to pay.

Not doing it for this reason.

 

[Dumbluck]

We only kill 4 to 6 bucks annually off all those farms, so age structure on bucks is good, just all bucks are high graded out by neighbors, so usually just the bottom end of the gene pool makes it to 4.5

Yep I have that issue as well. Everyonce in a while a good one makes to 4.5, but it's a low percentage