NJ-bowhunter Matty Titus.
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Is that counting your last 8-pointer? Congrats on that one by the way, nice buck. I'll be adding some points very soon...
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6,890 Posts
Here is 5 more points for our team.
If you look real close, you will see spikes about 3/4 of an inch long. He is a 1.5 yr old genetic misfit, and I decided to take him out of the herd. This is the third buck like this I've taken here in the last few years...they are big in body (this one dressed 103 pounds), but don't grow any antlers.
He came in after a spike with a smaller body had passed through 10 minutes before. The other spike had 7 to 8 inch spikes. This guy was making rubs and scrapes for about 10 minutes, while my brother captured it all on camera. Then, when he got to about 6 yards broadside, I took the shot. Wasn't going to shoot him, but we really don't want deer like this to have any chance to breed...he is a runt. We've killed several of these runts, one that was aged at 2.5 by a F & W biologist.
Anyway, his spikes are both less than one inch, so no more than five points for the team. Flame away if you will, but it was a good decision to take him out of the herd, and I'm not in an EAB zone, so please don't throw that one at me guys. I've passed up numerous spikes, 4, 6 and yearling 8 pointers this year, however, this guy needed the air let out of him.
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If you look real close, you will see spikes about 3/4 of an inch long. He is a 1.5 yr old genetic misfit, and I decided to take him out of the herd. This is the third buck like this I've taken here in the last few years...they are big in body (this one dressed 103 pounds), but don't grow any antlers.
He came in after a spike with a smaller body had passed through 10 minutes before. The other spike had 7 to 8 inch spikes. This guy was making rubs and scrapes for about 10 minutes, while my brother captured it all on camera. Then, when he got to about 6 yards broadside, I took the shot. Wasn't going to shoot him, but we really don't want deer like this to have any chance to breed...he is a runt. We've killed several of these runts, one that was aged at 2.5 by a F & W biologist.
Anyway, his spikes are both less than one inch, so no more than five points for the team. Flame away if you will, but it was a good decision to take him out of the herd, and I'm not in an EAB zone, so please don't throw that one at me guys. I've passed up numerous spikes, 4, 6 and yearling 8 pointers this year, however, this guy needed the air let out of him.
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6,890 Posts
LOL! That is my shooting platform in my back yard. I put out several 3-D targets in the field and trees behind it for practice. I could have killed several deer from that platform, but if I really wanted comfort, I would just hunt out of the pole barn right next to me, but not in the picture.
I was looking around on a piece of public land in zone 27 today and found an 8 X 8 shed about 3 feet off the ground with shooting windows cut out. Now that's hunting in comfort.
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5,232 Posts
I was wondering if you took it to the check in station and then drove back to your stand.
I saw the metal tag and thought "you gotta be kidding me" [smirk]Nice shot on that misfit. They happen. My father shot a deer about 10 years ago when we were out that had about 3 inch spikes. The biologist at the check station said he was 3.5 years old! If there was any doubt about the age, the toughness of the meat more than proved the point.
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6,890 Posts
Gloucester County, zone 35. Before they began the long January antlerless gun season, we had some really good deer here. One of my neighbors killed 3 bucks in 5 years from 1990 to 1994, in shotgun season, that dressed out between 202 and 225, two 8 points and a 12 pointer. He has a stand right in the woods off the back edge of the field, maybe 30 yards from that platform. One of the bucks was walking across the field that is now my back yards at about 4:45pm. He had just gotten home from work, saw the deer, walked out his back door to his shed and waited for the buck to come past the shed. Shot it at 15 yards while hiding behind the shed. My neighbor a few houses down on the other side shot two monsters in one season there. One was a big 8 pointer that scored in the low 140's, the other an 11 point that was bigger. Both killed on the first day of ML and shotgun respectively, over a pile of corn.
Me and my brother took a few nice bucks back there before the numbers dropped off. We had sole hunting permission for about 4 years from the developer. They developed the woods 2-3 years ago, now I hardly see deer in my back yard anymore. Instead, I get people walking dogs, kids coming up and taking things from my deck and pole barn, etc. They call that progress [confused]
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After typing that post this morning, I decided the piece behind my house has too much potential to just completely ignore. I had to leave the stand early to take care of some family stuff today anyway, so I figured I would hunt at the back of my property off that field a little bit instead of driving to the other property. I had a spot that used to be great for bucks traveling through, and it was not too close to the houses (more than 450'), so I gave it a try. The holly tree that grows next to the black oak I was using had grown quite a bit, so I had to do alot of trimming in the dark, but got in okay. At about 7:45am, I had a small doe come trotting up from the creek bottom and go by me at about 5 yards. She seemed to be running from something, and I figured it was the construction going on across the creek. Those guys were making alot of noise.
At 8:46am, I hear another deer trotting towards me from the same direction and look down to my right, and see the front shoulder of a big deer. His head is behind a tree, but I can see a rack sticking out from the side of the tree...and it's a big tree. I figure I'm golden, he'll just follow that little doe and go right past me at less than 10 yards. He was panting, and looking back towards the construction for a few minutes, then he turned and trotted down the 4-wheeler trail that goes behind my field. He went by at about 12 yards, but that darn holly tree had any shot blocked. He was a big bodied deer, wide rack that looked alot like the one my neighbor killed a few years ago, almost a twin.
So I get down about 10:00am and start walking home, which is only about 250 yards from the stand and I see where his tracks lead down the trail right up to the field. When I'm about 15 yards from the field, my brother calls me on the cell phone asking where I'm at. He came over to pick up my mountain bike and figured I'd be up to the house by now. He says as he is standing there at the back of the field, a monster buck walks out, looks at him, then takes off towards the house. He went by that shooting platform less than 10 yards away, ran straight across the yard, made a left turn at my neighbors camper, and went across the road.
I guess the deer bedded up near the field and I pushed him out on the way home. Unbelievable...only during the rut.
Here is the picture of my neighbors deer, the one I saw this morning was almost identical, maybe a little less mass, but probably 180 pounds dressed.
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At 8:46am, I hear another deer trotting towards me from the same direction and look down to my right, and see the front shoulder of a big deer. His head is behind a tree, but I can see a rack sticking out from the side of the tree...and it's a big tree. I figure I'm golden, he'll just follow that little doe and go right past me at less than 10 yards. He was panting, and looking back towards the construction for a few minutes, then he turned and trotted down the 4-wheeler trail that goes behind my field. He went by at about 12 yards, but that darn holly tree had any shot blocked. He was a big bodied deer, wide rack that looked alot like the one my neighbor killed a few years ago, almost a twin.
So I get down about 10:00am and start walking home, which is only about 250 yards from the stand and I see where his tracks lead down the trail right up to the field. When I'm about 15 yards from the field, my brother calls me on the cell phone asking where I'm at. He came over to pick up my mountain bike and figured I'd be up to the house by now. He says as he is standing there at the back of the field, a monster buck walks out, looks at him, then takes off towards the house. He went by that shooting platform less than 10 yards away, ran straight across the yard, made a left turn at my neighbors camper, and went across the road.
I guess the deer bedded up near the field and I pushed him out on the way home. Unbelievable...only during the rut.
Here is the picture of my neighbors deer, the one I saw this morning was almost identical, maybe a little less mass, but probably 180 pounds dressed.
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