Topgun 3006

Rockport---Man, this thread sure went to heck in a hand basket and I haven't even made a single post on it until now, LOL!!! IMHO the post by kylecullwell calling a person a liar for various reasons was way out of line and it also would appear to violate website rules. I love to see big deer and would certainly like to shoot a big one on his own terms like you did. However, I guess after so many decades of hunting I can certainly see the other aspect of not going bananas either. The biggest buck I've ever seen on property I could legally hunt was on a low fence ranch in south Texas. I watched him grow into a real shooter for two years and finally decided to take him at the next opportunity he presented. The rut got started the third week of December and I had him dead to rights one day while I was on the ground walking to one of our tower blinds for the evening hunt. I put the scope on him at well under 200 yards and then turned it up to 9x. You know what? I let him go he was so beautiful, went in to the cabin and got my videocam and went back to the tower. He was all over the pasture that night checking does and I had him dead to rights at under 100 yards a number of times and all he got shot with was my videocam. I never saw that deer again after that day, but he is in my memory for the rest of my life and will never be forgotten whether he's up on my wall or not!

rockport

I think the problem started right off the bat when the OP simply made a thread about letting a great young buck grow up and we have to hear about high fences and the ruination of hunting.

Anyway, Do you have the video? I'd love to watch him as well.

I mean that is what its all about. My trophy hunting leads to so much more. I really get to be part of nature as I sit hours and hours just watching wildlife rather than just killing the first thing that walks by. Its way more than just the antlers. Its a very long chess match with the smartest animal in my woods(including me)

I myself have also gotten caught up watching and had big boys dead to rights and get away. Admittedly I didn't let them go I just got caught up in the moment and they got away.

I was at our little hunting shack a couple weeks ago and the guys had a hunting show on and I watched for like 5 minutes and saw somebody "stalking" a "wild boar" at 30 yards in a wide open pasture......he just kept eating and didn't even look up..........that is what is ruining hunting and hogs don't have antlers. That is adventurous farming not hunting.

People doing that same thing with big mature deer conceived in a test tube and raised in a pin is not relevant to what I do or the OP in this thread.

There is not a thing wrong with "trophy hunting" unless your doing it wrong and doing it wrong is doing it wrong antlers or not.

As far as the meat that applies to every deer IMO antlers or not.....of course you should eat what you shoot.

I guess you see my point because whether you shot him or not you certainly got something special out of letting that buck realize his potential. By doing that its almost like adding another species of animal to hunt as once a bucks survives even 4-5 years he becomes a much different animal.

Topgun 3006

Rockport---I saw your point and that's why I made that post. Your reply is exactly what my Dad taught me 60 years ago and if I never shoot a thing the rest of my life I've had a ball doing it. In fact, the last few years helping others, especially mentoring kids to get them started, has been much more fulfilling than pulling the trigger myself.

Yes, I still have the video of that buck, but the videocam is an old one with the small film cartridge that I would have to transfer onto a disc and then because I'm not computer literate would have to do other stuff to get it up onto a website that I would have no idea how to do. All I can tell you is that he was a huge, perfectly symmetrical 10 with a great spread and main matching tines that went way up and barely in to make the perfect basket rack that I love to see. He was so perfect I'd bet he wouldn't have had deducts totaling 3"! He was probably the "once in a lifetime" buck for me and I let him go!!!

PS: Loved you reason for editing your post, LOL!

jerry d

Or maybe its time to get into a new sport. He!! just 2 weeks ago the adrenalin was pumping on a spike I had no intensions of shooting!! And this is my 38th season of hunting whitetail, plus quite a few kills to boot.

rockport

Ive got the same problem. I used to film some before I quit because I felt like it was distracting me and all my films are on 8mm tapes or just lost.

I'm going to take my daughter next year. She will have just turned 6 I can't wait. I told my wife this year that this might be the last year my hunting is about me.

I just took my wifes nephew a few weeks ago for our 2nd shotgun season. He is 11 and has killed doe but no bucks yet and I botched it for us. I got us on a nice one the first morning but I set us up to catch him coming into his bed and he was already there when we got there. Just as it got daylight he snuck out of his bed and got downwind out of range and we had to let him go. The weather turned on us and we didn't see deer the rest of the season. There was a doe that stayed in the bed and we could have shot but we chose to hold off and went home empty handed. He understood that is the price you pay to stick with it. He wants to kill a good buck and I'm glad he understood that aint easy and you have to stick with it. I'm going to take him again for our winter antlerless only hunt.

Unfortunately Ive made the mistake of telling the other guy that hunts on the property he can hunt in my stand after I fill my tag and he just ruins the spot by the time second season comes around so I was just pulling guess work when I took the nephew somewhere I hadn't hunted and I guessed just a little wrong.

KyleCulwell

You guys talking about filming your hunts got me thinking of ways i could do the same. I had really wanted to do it, but never really wanted to bother with all the extra junk to carry and worry about getting in the way of the actual "hunt" itself. I think i have found an easier solution to the problem. I am hoping this is under the tree come Christmas time! You can get clear lenses for them so they could work in the low-light situations that are normal to deer hunting. I have done quite a bit of research online on GoPros and the likes and these are about the best i can find that don't have a clumsy factor. From what i have seen on YouTube they have decent enough video quality as well. Google them and see for yourself. Pretty neat!

Hunter's Specialties® i-Kam Xtreme Video Eyewear

salukipv1

Here in IL, I would strongly say a main frame 8pt at 2.5yo, will remain that the rest of his life...

of course other things could affect this, if he's an 8pt in a drought year/poor food etc... he could potentially become a 10pt etc...

it'll be interesting to see...

but either way 8pt vs. 10pt, I'd rather have a stud 8pt breeding vs. a weak 8pt...

rockport

That is just not true at all. A deer with 8 points at 2.5 will VERY likely grow more points.

As he ages his skeletal system will require less and less nutrition and that nutrition will instead enlarge his antlers. At age 4 his antlers should explode as his body frame will be done growing.

Here is a good guide to a life of a white tail buck

http://whitetailoverload.com/watch-s...ett-buck-pics/

Topgun 3006

+1 on what Rockport stated!