ORIGINAL: bearklr
ORIGINAL: sproulman
on stateforestland here in pa.idont believe you will see a 7 and 1/2 year old buck..
on my privateland this year, i have buck i think is 4 years old..how he made it by the POACHERS is mistery to me.he has rack that is about 24 inchs wide, 8 point...i have not heard of anyone getting him,so far..
i raised a michigan deer 34 years ago, he was a big deer.. he died at 9 years old and had a nice rack, 10 point but i seen bigger racks on some of the 4 year old deer..
so, 7 and 1/2 year old deer on stateforestland is not going to happen..
most of the teeth i checked on some of the big bucks i saw this year were 2 and 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 years old..never saw one over 4 years old..
wow...that's pretty ironic because some of the oldest deer we have taken have been on state forrest land (tiadaghton to be exact). The mountains are so vast and loaded with laurel that I can believe there would be deer on there that die of old age and are never seen by a hunter. Behind our camp alone is thousands of acres that are nearly impossible to get to by the average hunter and unless you have a group of people to get those things moving out of the laurel they're gonna be gone before you ever see them. I mean, from the ground you're lucky if you can see 20 feet in any direction. My uncle took a 6 point this year that I would bet was at least 7 years old. His teeth were almost worn flat and his rack was on a definite down swing. This is just what I have noticed from our camp though. Down here in Lancaster is a different story. The land is all pretty accessible and there are a lot more hunters down here thus younger bucks.
BEARKLR,no disrespect but vast mountains does not and will not save a deerfor 6 or 7 years..years ago it did..why??because hunters never had to go very far to get a deer..
wayback as pgc uses now or some that want to let you think deer are WAYBACK is all big lie..derr are NOT wayback as wayback can be accessed ..years ago, that was not easy..
we have biggest mountains around here in clinton/potter where i grew up..no old deer or bucks , are being taken here and have not,i would say for about 35 years..back then as i said, a buck would go WAYBACK and could survive another year..
it was not necessary to go back after him as deer hunting was easy and close to roads..NOW,there is no WAYBACK..roads and trails take you everywhere..people have GPS,dcnr tells you how to get there,carts for hauling your deer out,bear hunting has brought hunters in and if they see a nice buck, they come back and get it..
years ago, from 60 to 70s , i agree with you , you could find a old buck..i saw it and shot a few that were 6 years old..those days are gone..
i have many, many friends that hunt the VAST, RUGGED, ENDLESS mountains wayback..out of 16 of them, they got 2 buck for 2 weeks of hunting..they very seldom saw to many hunters but also did not see ANY DEER..
they saw MORE deer close to roads and homes than they did WAYBACK..why??
because WAYBACK the terrain and food is not as good as close to roads/homes etc..when you go wayback as you said, all you see is laural..deer dont survive on laural..
where did i get my big 8 point buck this year??it was not WAYBACK..if big buck were WAYBACK in vast ,rugged,endless mountains, ole sproul would be there..
i only hunt huge buck and not 1 in last 35 years has been harvested WAYBACK..
take care..sproul