sorry guys no pics... forgot my cam at home and we butchered it on site... i did keep the rack (my oldest wanted it for his bedroom so i'm gonna do a simple skull mount, anyone know the best way to prep a skull mount rack?), it was a small 8pt and I have to disclose that this was taken during gun season with the trusty 7mag (I've sworn off taking deer with the bow this season due to little practice for this season)... even though it is not what I'd call a trophy it was still the biggest I've taken to date... deer in that area are not in rut yet, according to my fam down there not for another 4 weeks or so... hope to take a long weekend and try again over new year... lotsa does down there that need to be cleared out, we've managed to keep a decent doe:buck ratio on our managed property, but it is still higher than we'd like... probably about 10:1 at the moment, trying to get it back to about 6-7:1 which means we need to take about 20-30 does this season between us... i did stay in the stand late one night and used my uncles night vision until about 7pm or so and spotted some truly magnificent deer, many large 8's (all with main beams more than an inch outside of the ear tips) a few 10's, a couple 12's (one with a nice drop tine), and big non-typical that by my count rung up 17pts... i know where they hang during the day and what their routes to food are (now) so I'm gonna set up next season for the bow somewhere near their paths...

a note of interest, on one of our propertys in the area that we do not hunt yet but we allow a couple other to do, a 9th grade kid that lives across the road took a 28pt non-typical, this thing was a BEAST , i saw the picture of it and i'd bet the spread on the rack was 28-30" wide, an absolute monster (though at 7.5yrs old it was on its way down)... interesting story about it to, the kid went out to hunt for a bit before school one day, didn't see anything and was walkin back to the house to tripped and fell, stood up and started brushing himself off and while he was brushing himself off the deer took off, it was bedded down about 50ft from him and he'd missed it, when the deer sprang he heard it and made a good clean shot... this summer we are starting to prep that land for hunting ourselves, we figure it will take about another 5-7yrs before that land is as good as our other managed property, but that's what the off-season is for eh??

on a personal note, my 6.5yr old boy was AWESOME in the stand, he spotted a couple deer for me and actually kept me from taking a doe on my last evening in the stand cuz he fell asleep (i didn't want to fire without him having his ear protection on)... we had him out shooting a .22LR up near the barn during midday and he was AWESOME... first time behind a real gun and I mean he was layin 'em down... 13/15 shots inside the bullseye, he listened well and took advice on how to shoot proper along with good gun safety... next summer we're gonna get him behind a .17hmr to practice taking coyote and bobcat (365 day open season, no limit) and even give him a crack at a .223 or .243... if he does well with the larger caliber i'll let him be primary shooter when we go for gun season... it was great watching him grow so much on this trip!!!!!!