Practicing what you preach

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BSK

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 11, 1999
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Nashville, TN
As I've said many times, as a QDM manager, age is the critical factor in my buck harvest decisions. My harvest goal is bucks 3 1/2 or older, and I'll shoot any buck of that age, regardless of antler size. And that's exactly what I did. This buck was the first 3 1/2 year-old buck I could get my sights on, even though he will only score in the 100-110 range. Not many "antler score" hunters would even look twice at this buck, but I'm THRILLED to have taken him. If this is the only buck I kill this year, I will consider my year to be tremendously successful.

2010Bryan.jpg
 
Are there any signs of actual breeding taking place on your property Bryan? There were lots of scrapes at Cathole that didn't have a leaf in them and the wind was blowing 25-30mph there for the last couple of days. We witnessed a 4 point chasing a doe for over 30 minutes on Monday morning.

Nice buck also!
 
UPSman said:
Are there any signs of actual breeding taking place on your property Bryan? There were lots of scrapes at Cathole that didn't have a leaf in them and the wind was blowing 25-30mph there for the last couple of days. We witnessed a 4 point chasing a doe for over 30 minutes on Monday morning.

Nice buck also!
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We saw a lot of yearling buck pestering of does and amazing older buck scraping action on trail-camera in the early part of MZ. Then the scrapes went dead around the 12th and we began seeing "orphaned" fawns. Scrapes opened back up and we began getting trail-cam pictures of older bucks back at the scrapes starting the 19th (in fact the above buck was killed the 19th as he was working a scrape line). All this suggests the peak has passed. Yet we did not witness a single estrus chase during that peak. Very strange. We hope to catch some late chasing this weekend. We usually have decent success catching the last chases late in November.
 
Andy S. said:
Nice buck Bryan, congrats!! Did you have any pics of him beforehand?
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Many (he was Buck #06 ;) ). In fact, I recognized him as soon as he looked in my direction and I saw his spread. He was on my "hit list."
 
The buck I shot during mz was chasing a doe, almost 2 weeks ago now. I witnessed a couple of does this weekend with fawns One doe had 2 button bucks with her. I thought that to be odd at this time of year.
 
Nice Buck, congrats. I agree, harvesting anything over 3.5 is successful. I have been blanked the previous 2 seasons so I know how tough it can be to even see one, much less harvest one.
 
Good Buck BSK. Identifying a "mature" buck, or doe, and waiting on that deer to make a mistake, takes good hunting skills. That looks like a good representative of a NICE Tn. buck.

Congrats.
 
Congrats Bryan!!

If more were like you, I think you would have an easier job convincing hunters to try qdm.

You read it on here every year..."Well one side was busted up, so I let him pass."
 
Nice buck, BSK. People should shoot whatever makes them happy, and fellow hunters should be happy for them as well.
 
I will have to agree with Flipper.

Its a hard sell to convince the occasional hunter to pass on younger deer when that's probably the only thing he will have the opportunity to kill a high % of the time. No doubt your approach, letting it sell itself is most effective. (posting trail cam pics, hard facts, hunting results, simply answering questions instead implying that its something that TWRA should implement into regulation, most importantly as you have pointed out, practicing what you preach)

Heck a few of you guys have got a old trophy hunting dog like me thinking about trying a new trick. :D I wont lie and say I would pass on a big racked 2.5 yo buck (yet) but, I am certainly conscious about buck age now more than ever.

Fine Buck, congrats.
 
Football Hunter said:
And thats what makes it all great,you'll shoot any 3.5,but that is not my criteria,and I dont feel bad at all saying Im looking for a larger racked buck.
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I also look for larger racked bucks, but this morning I shot a buck that I had passed up twice with a bow. I was certain, and still am after getting a closer look at him, that he is at least 3.5. We have been letting all bucks walk on our property for 5 years now. A time has to come where you shoot the older bucks that don't have the genetic potential to be 130 class deer. I am starting to believe that you can't just keep letting bucks run around that are overcrowding the area. My hope is that by shooting some of these bucks, it will increase the visibility of the larger mature bucks that stay in the thick areas and make them come out to breed the does. I am very happy knowing that I killed this buck, even though his rack size wasn't what I am after.
 

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