Summer bachelor group
 

Just wanted to share a few images I took at our property this past weekend.

All totalled, there were 9 bucks in this bachelor group. I shot the photos late Saturday evening—but the day before, in the same soybean field, there were two more bucks larger than the biggest two in this group. For whatever reason, those two bruisers didn't show on Saturday.

Anyway, it looks like the drought here didn't hurt the bucks growth period as bad as we feared it would. From the looks of things this weekend—there's still some reason for high hopes for the upcoming bow season.

Enjoy!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Well, for some reason, the images won't load.

Any ideas? I keep getting an error message?

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

What error message are you getting?

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

After loading the images, and hitting Submit, I get an error message that says the images wouldn't "save to disk?"

Could the images possibly just be too big? The last one I tried is only 88KB—which is well under the 100 limit.

Any other ideas?

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Open an account with www.photobucket.com it is free and up load the pics to there then link them here;)

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

I have photobucket—I'll give it a try.

[link]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b53/jmac220/bigboys.jpg[/link]

[link]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b53/jmac220/big8.jpg[/link]

[link]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b53/jmac220/other8-2.jpg[/link]

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Thanks Aussie, looks like that did the trick!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Awesome pics! I bet you can't wait for the season to start!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

RI—Been counting the days since Jan. 16th, lol.

Though he's only a mainframe 8—the one with the tall brow tines is going to get a Slick Trick if I can locate him this Fall. The other buck is also a mainframe 8—but has extremely short brow tines for the size of his overall rack. Another year might do miracles for him.

Truth is, I'd pass both of them for a shot at either of the two bigger bucks from the evening before. But, with two buck tags, I like the character of the one with long brow tines enough to take him back to the cabin this Fall, lol. We don't see many "tall" racks like that in our area—most typically look like the other buck—with wide sweeping racks.

Either way, less than 2 months til opening day—and I'm getting more impatient by the day!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Great deer. Good luck sticking them!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Hope at least one of them sticks around for you. I had a group of
five nice bucks hanging around one of my hunting spots all summer last year. But by the time season rolled around they had all split up and left.

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Definately nice looking deer...good luck with them this season.

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

rocket,

we've had the same "issues" the past 5 years. We're one of only two active farms left in a 4+ square mile area—so of course, we're the Olive Garden for our area in the Spring/Summer months.

Our biggest issue is that the properties surrounding us are off-limits to hunting. Now, that's been a major catch-22. The good side is that the deer typically move pretty well during daylight—at least the does and younger deer—and with little hunting in the area, bucks get a chance to reach maturity!

The downside is that the overall herd ratio has gotten really out of whack because of the lack of hunting. We've taken 6 does the past two seasons—and it hasn't even put a scratch on the doe numbers. We've not made a profit on our end of the lease for farming in over 3 years due to the number of deer hitting our crops. Anyway, our problem is, with so many does feeding in our fields each evening, and there being so many more does than bucks—competition, and the need to "seek" during the rut is "LOW!"

There are so many does, the bucks don't really have to compete for breeding rights. And, since most of the deer in the area "bed" on the non-hunted properties, they don't have a lot of traveling to do regardless. The bucks pretty well know that they can cruise our property after dark, and find as many does as they need in our plots and crop fields to keep them active during the rut.

Perfect example, last Thanksgiving, I was hunting about "mid-way" between that "exact" field edge and the next property line. Not 30 seconds after it was too dark to shoot and I lowered my bow, two massive bucks ran a doe directly under my stand and into our bean field!

Curse of the Irish I guess, LOL. Anyway, it's difficult with those conditions to catch up to the big boys during daylight.

My grandfather was issued "nuisance" tags this Summer to try and thin the does—hoping to maintain some sort of actual crop harvest this year—so that may help with leveling the herd sex ratio. I guess time will tell.

I figure our best bet at the big boys will be early season—while the beans are still in the fields. These guys came out about 45 minutes before dark, so if we don't get a good mast crop—they may very well continue hitting the soybeans in the evenings before harvest. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

Either way, there were two larger bucks in the same field the day before—and we have had a bachelor group we refer to as the "4 horses" in our crops the past four Summers that dwarf the fellas in the pics—so unless they've relocated, or died over the past year—we should have plenty of decent bucks come this Fall.

If we can just catch up to them!!!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

10 days for me in Carolina! JUst thought I would rub it in! But, you will have the last laugh if you come away with any of those bad boys.:D:D:D

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Cool pics, thanks for sharing. I like that tall browtine buck!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Great deer. I hope you get a crack at the biggest!

RE: Summer bachelor group
 

Wowzers, those are some awesome deer. Good luck this fall.