I got a word and picture from a friend last night that the buck I've been chasing for the last 2 seasons was taken by someone else on Sunday. I'm happy for the lucky guy, but at the same time I'm kinda bummed. It won't be the same knowing that there isn't even the chance of seeing him any more. Our area isn't known for monsters like Iowa or Kansas, so bucks like this one are few and far between.
So, how many here can relate?
I don't consider any deer "mine" until I have a rope around it's neck and am dragging it to my truck.
I dropped out of a fabulous hunting lease because one of my good friends envisioned his name tag on every deer. Anywhere I hunted I was hunting "his deer" in his opinion.
I decided I wanted to keep him as a friend and found me another place to hunt.
This buck showed up 2 yrs ago in my backyard...was poached 1 week before bow season...I can relate....
Brent,
Hopefully he was able to spread his seed among several of the does! Think twice before you shoot one this year, she may be carrying his son! LOL.
Pete
Eric - the word "my" was used with tongue planted firmly in cheek. No deer belongs to anyone until their tag is on it, but the number of hours put in and the number of "lucky" deer that got a pass from me while I waited on this one leaves me slightly depressed. On the other hand like Pete said, we know this buck was at least 6 1/2, so I'm sure his genes are well spread through the area. Maybe in another 4 - 6 years there will be another like him... :rolleyes:
There's one already there...go find him
OOPS, didn't catch the tongue and cheek nature of the post.
I had a lot more run ins with hunting club members that claimed a particular deer or group of deer as their own other than the above mentioned.
As the head of several clubs, I thought I was going to have to referee a couple of fist fights before I got the situations defused. All were over deer "ownership".
No clubs for me now, I hunt alone because of bad experiences with deer "owners".
Are ya sure Brent?I saw picks of the one killed not far away and it ain't no 170 class nice buck but not that big maybe 140-150 tops
I understand, put 200+hours into hunting 2 big boys 3 years ago, bow only, to have 2 guys come on the posted property in gun season and kill them both, while on stand. One ran up the hill and died underneath my stand.The guy then had the nerve to come up and ask me if I would help haul the deer out. After lecturing him about hunter ethics, time spent on stand etc, he continued to stare at me blankly and then asked if I was gonna help or not.
Brent I feel your pain brother...bd
Ouch. Im sure there are more big bucks in NY that most people think. You will find another. One of the bucks I set up for twice this year was killed Saturday from the road...so I know how you feel.
Just curious, Koger... why the lecture on hunter ethics and time on stand? Did he do something unethical when he shot the deer?
I've not gotten hung up on hunting a particular deer yet, so I haven't really had someone else shoot "my" deer... but I understand what you're saying.
A few years ago I did see a big boy while bowhunting (about 150 yards away - looked at him thru binocs) and then saw him again the next morning, which was opening morning of gun season. Then the next day my young nephew shot at him SEVEN TIMES with a gun and missed each time. His dad video'd the whole thing. It was funny to me/us, but not to my nephew. Unfortunately for us that deer was never seen again. I would love to have taken him with a bow.
I feel your pain too. I have seen big bucks during none hunting times and then don't see them again and my first thought is poachers but that is not always the case I like to believe. Its only natural to get attached to deer if you hunt them and especially when you have worked hard for them and came up empty.
Ironicly yesterday the buck I had hunted for the last two years was shot also. I was taking a big bale up the road for some cows and saw a neighbors four wheeler parked in a lane and he was about 200 yards out so I stopped to talk.As he was walking up I saw a buck at 80 yards in a thicket but, couldn't tell much more, he turned after a couple minutes and trotted to the hunter almost running him down. The compound shooter shot and broke his hind leg.I then recognized it as the 11 point I'd been hunting.I saw him bed down at the edge of a corn field and told Reggie where he was. He then slipped in close and got his final shot. After congratulating him I took pictures for him with my camera. I'm sending him pictures of this deer I had taken last year so he can compare and have live pictures also. The buck actually was a 15 point with some trash around a brow tine. He was elated and I'm happy for him. I've already got another picked out to go after. Ben
Coming on to posted land is an ethical issue BroMark
well I got the problem just in reverse. There is a big buck down in the bottom we been watching for three years. every year he is getting bigger and better. I like to see how far he can go :)
rusty
I feel the same way. I spend all spring and summer scouting, planting, hanging stands, putting up no hunting signs and cable gates at entrances, I spend the entire season hunting smart trying to leave as little of a foot print on the land that I can, so the bucks can grow up and reach their potential. Then the gun season opens up and everyone and their brother sit on the property lines. I just pray each time that none of the bucks get caught crossing an open field at day light during the opening weekend. It breaks my heart to think of some of the deer I have spent 2 and 3 years getting to know and watching get blasted by some orange clad hunter that just showed up to hunt that day and was leaning up against a tree on the property line. I guess it comes down to the fact that I absolutely respect the animals that we hunt, and to watch the way the guys on the adjoining properties hunt, it turns my stomach to think of these guys dragging these deer through the fields to their trucks. Maybe I am just taking it too serious but I dont know.
Brent, I feel your pain but there are plenty of others to take his place, if another bruiser don't show up this year it will next.
Sometimes things just stink and there ain't no way around it. All the well wishing in the world won't help and all the well intentioned lectures won't remove that nagging feeling. Your entitled to a little grumbling and melancholy. I would be a bit inconsolable also. Just pray that next time it's the other guys turn to feel the pain!
Bro Mark, to answer your question, he was trespassing on my property, had been told to stay out, and is a chronic road hunter. The hunter ethics part is respecting the landowner(me), the time,expense and effort I had put in on food plots and on stand. He parked down the road 1/4 mile, crossed my fence and was in the woods on my property where they meet the field. I had saw these bucks over 20 times bowhunting, twice under 20 yds without a clear shot. I finally told the guy to get the deer, and never step foot on my land again. I didnt file charges, thought I could have, but will if this happens again. Since then I have vowed never to horn hunt again, since to do so around here takes too much time away from everything else. And I am happier for it.
Sam,
No offence sir but I think you made a BIG mistake. If ya had to tell him to stay OFF your property knowing what kind of person he was you should have pressed charges. You basically just told him you weren't very serious about policing your own property. I mean hell, what more does he have to do!?? Not only that but you plan to change the way YOU hunt instead of it being the other way around.
before we go too far out on this one, let me just say the guy who got this deer was on his own property, hunting legally and ethically I'm sure. He is, to my knowledge, a guy who hunts hard and probably had as much time into this buck as I did.
I don't begrudge the guy at all. As a matter of fact I really am happy for the guy. I'm told a deer's home range is roughly 4 square miles. that's 2560 acres, of which I own 78. I knew going into it there was only a slim chance of actually succeeding. I think the only thing that really is bumming me out is that the "game", at least with this particular buck, is over and I lost. So be it. There will be others I'm sure, but for the rest of this year anyway, any deer with headgear better get down a rabbit hole and not come out till Christmas! :D
As I'm sure you know Brent, it's all part of the journey.....even without getting him you have some pretty good memories. You know going in how hard it is to hunt and shoot a particular deer, it is a decision we all live with when we make it. Good for you, now go shoot something...... :thumbsup: :archer:
David
I think Koger lectured them as they were on posted land - trespassin.
I don't think bbassi was saying the deer was his and faulting anyone for shooting "his" deer as they are not his. Just like knowing a deer is out there when in the woods. kinda the mystique behind a certain buck.
Chased one for years when I was a kid, to see him was almost unreal. almost a figment of my imagination but he was real. He was never taken - in my area one that large makes the papers. He musta just died of natural causes, so he is still "out there somewhere." Keeps ya goin back and day dreamin in the off season.
J
I know how you feel bud.Pick that crestfallen crest back up and go find you another bruiser.The late season is yet to come and if that dont pick up your spirts the bunny hunt is near.
Izzy
Coming on to posted land without permission is not only unethical, but illegal...
Thanks for the added detail, koger. That really stinks that the deer were killed as they were - by a law-breaker.
QuoteOriginally posted by Steve Kendrot:
Coming on to posted land without permission is not only unethical, but illegal...
Not only is it illegal but if he had a firearm while trespassing it is a felony!