4 guys in camo, all sitting around the OUIJA board. "Oh Mighty OUIJA - Hallowed Be Thy Name - Show Us The Way."


B-O-O-N-E-R

Stupid, right?

But is that really any different than a guy sitting behind the mouse, clicking until he has carpal tunnel, just dreaming up huge numbers and telling his homeboys that he's holding out for a 170?

We all do it. Our little hearts flutter with whims of whopper whitetails. We assign numbers and set limits, as if we know the code.

So how do you do it? How do you know what makes a "big" deer for your area?

Some guys glass. Some pick sheds. Some run spotlights. Some run lines of cameras. Some have no fugging idea, and go in blind.


Seriously?

Let's talk about big bucks. "Mature" bucks. Are they really there?

15 years of bowhunting in the Archery Mecca that is Southwestern Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia, and I don't even know if I've ever even seen one.

"The big boys are there, you just have to find 'em." I had a guy tell me this last year. Isnapped my neckaround, looking for some kind of verification of this bold proclaimation and (amazingly)the biggest buck on his wall might go 120 on a good day, with a liberal scorekeeper. Apparently he's not "finding 'em" either. Two months later, dudeforks out $3200 for a week in the Golden Triangle, and comes home with a 180. Whaddya know. He found one out there. In 4 days, he accomplished what he couldn't accomplish in 20 years on his home turf. Did he really become that much of a better hunter in 4 days? Pot luck?

Are they really there? If these mysterious, reclusive, enormousdeer do, indeed exist everywhere- then shouldn'twe allbe seeing them? Or at least signs of them?
[ul][*]We put cameras out - Dink City. Maybe acouple solid2.5's to give you some patheticglimmer ofhope.[*]We run spotlights all summer/falland see some nice deer, but nothing outside the bounds of normalcy. Thousands of deer every year. Thousands. No joke.[*]8-12 dayshoofing it in the woodseach spring,picking sheds - all Dinks. Dink. Dink. Dink.[*]The "big boys"don't really show up at the local big buck contest. Apparently they're avoiding everyone else, too.[*]Nobody ever seems to get one of these deer that everyone seems to insist "are out there."[*]No booner skulls.If you find anything that would scare150, you get your picture taken with it.[*]Lots of whale's tales, butas far as substantiated evidence goes, it's severely lacking. [/ul]So, if these deer do, indeed exist - shouldn't they drop their antlers? If they're dying of old age, shouldn't somebody find them? Maybe they bury their sheds to avoid detection. Maybe the does cremate the carcasses.

I mean, they are there, right? Or are they?



I have a theory. Color me stupid, because maybe I'm way off base here - but maybe, just maybe,I'm right. But it goes something like this:
[ul][*]If you're seeing big deer and finding big sheds - you're in an area with lots of big deer, and you should be able to get one.[*]If you're NOT seeing anybig deer, and you're looking hard, but stillNOT finding any good sheds - you're simply hunting an area where there justAREN'T any big deer, and you're wasting your life away trying.[/ul]Maybe "Any" isa bit strong... But you get the point.


Pennsylvania is Booner Country.


So seriously - what makes a big buck for YOUR area?

Now, I'm not asking for the biggest buck in your county. Just wondering what class of deer that you think you have a very realistic chance of harvesting. Not the statistical anomaly. The average top-end deer.