In search of a booner
 

I've been hunting this state for for 25 years and cant say for sure that I have ever seen a NET boone and crocket qualifying typical or nontypical on the hoof....Ever... I feel like I am a pretty decentfield judge of what a buck scores.

This state holds a few...I believe with enough effort andsearching I will find one to hunt within the next three years, and hopefully sooner. I blame myself, because a few show up dead each year, yet I am not finding these caliber of bucks, I know they are out there, I havent looked hard enough imo, I get complacent with a 150 or 160 class buck and stop looking, not this summer. I am going to spend more timecovering new areas this summer in the late evenings when the biggest of bucks show themselves on food sources.I am on a mission to find a booner and I am going to find one, Lord willing! ;)

How about you guys? do you ever see booners.. 170 net typical type bucks or 195 net nontypicals.. in your hunting area???

RE: In search of a booner
 

I've seen a few - but like you, i tend to find a shooter and back out and cool down on scouting. I'm leaving to go back in WV in 29 days, so I'll be hunting the good land again, and spending more time there this year than ever before.

RE: In search of a booner
 

Yes I have

I am a pretty good judge myself and without a doubt this old boy was a booner.

In 2001 i saw him on a rainy windy day. You can tell how old a deer is by the way they run IMO.

An old mature bucks does not "trot" or look very fluild when runs. He kind of "lumbers" along. There is a hitch in his step.
The deer I saw was an 200'' + deer:)

RE: In search of a booner
 

Shed:

Do you mean Boone and Crockett...or since this is the "Bowhunting" forum...do you mean Pope and Young?

There is a right large difference.

Since you are talking about 170 class deer (which for whitetails is well above the minimums for typicals in either catagory.....the answer is no...the record typical in South Carolina, last I checked was in the 176 range (net). Where I live now in VA, they score deer based on gross (BTR) score and the top deer in the state each year in the 8pt and up catagories are almost always at or over 200 regardless of weapon class registered.

I have seen one deer in SC that would have likely netted 140. And I have seen a deer or two in VA that would have netted 165....but I have never knowningly seen anything better.

RE: In search of a booner
 

Nope Troy, can't say that I've ever seen a booner on the hoof. The closest I ever come to seeing an actual booner is reading Joey Rott'ssucess post every year.

RE: In search of a booner
 

I saw a deer once that was well in excess of 160" typical and may have broken 170". Whether he would have been a net Booner I don't know. I don't see many deer that big so it is hard to say.

RE: In search of a booner
 

If anyone can put down a Booner it is you Troy, I am pulling for ya!

I would say I have saw a half dozen legitimate B&C whitetails (All time B&C not the 4 year program) on the hoof. Never while in a hunting situation however. Four being Typical and two Non-Typicals.

RE: In search of a booner
 

I've never seen a deer over 150 on the hoof.... A net 140 is a HUGE deer for my area and I've only laid eyes on a few of those.....

2.5 months of gun season during the best part of the season anda 3 buck limitis not conducive to regularly seeing 140+ bucks

RE: In search of a booner
 

You have done pretty well down there with all those variables working against you. Congrats again on some nice whitetails.

RE: In search of a booner
 

Maybe one or two, not sure if they would have netted it though. In my neck of the woods here in Illinois the best chance is to hunt the riverbottoms. If I can regain permission on a particular tract this fall the odds will go up for me, that is if the timber co. who now owns it will lighten up!