BSK said:
Unfortunately, we never see 3 1/2+ year-old bucks post-rut. In 24 years, we've seen a grand total of one 3 1/2 year-old buck post November and zero mature bucks post November.
Odds are, my chances at a 3 1/2+ year-old buck for the rest of the season are near zero.
Same here...
total waste of time for me to hunt more than 3 or 4 days after peak rut.
EXCEPT- rarely one will catch the older deer after they've bunched back up in bachelor groups the first week of Jan on my farms. That's the ONLY time I've ever seen an older (3.5+) deer after the rut.
This year was one of the most fun I've had in a LONG time. Hardly any killing was done since we chose to pass all the does, but I had 2 other friends with me for the first 5 days of my 10d hunt, and we saw 10 3.5yr olds and up between us.
Great rut activity, with at least 6 estrous chases.
My buddy who shot the 153" 4.5 y/o last year actually passed up a mid 130's 3.5 y/o 9ptr this year. I felt bad for him, because he really wanted to shoot it, but didn't because I prefer to let them get to 4.5. I hope karma rewards him and he kills it next year when's he's 160".
I killed a 4.5 y/o we've been following for years, and my other friend also killed a 4.5 y/o that we can't seem to identify from previous years. From pics we had back in September, I couldn't tell if he was 3.4 or 4.5, but he filled out nicely prerut.
My cousin took his 8y/o little girl, and she shot her first deer- a top end 1.5 y/o 7 ptr. That was exciting!
My only failure was not killing my main target buck, despite him being seen twice off the property.
Coyotes were the bane of my existance this year... I saw them on nearly every single hunt. Killed 2, missed 3 (damn ML), and had a pile too far to even try a shot. My buddies only killed one, and missed one. One of them even saw 7 yoties at one time on one hunt. I may have to come back up in Jan/Feb just to coyote hunt.
I did manage to kill the alpha pair on one farm, though... that'll help.
Had fun shooting the steel at long range as well. Didn't even get to attempt to shoot at real critters at long range this year, however... of the 10 days I hunted, only 2 had less than 13mph winds. Also, since I had to work Thanksgiving day, I opted to take all my time off the week before Thanksgiving and skip opening week of rifle.
For the most part it worked out pretty well... in the 90 hours I spent on stand, I got to watch the rut unfold... the first couple of days had young bucks running does like crazy, with the 3.5 y/o's carefully cruising. By the 14th, the first does were coming in and all heck broke loose. The 16th-19th were really tough, however, with all the older bucks in lockdown. The older deer started getting a little more visible after the 20th.
This now make 5 years in a row we've taken a 4.5 y/o buck off the farm.
