How many bigger from stand did I see last season. 16.- over 150hr on stand
How many per year on average? 10-20
Would it make a difference if all I seen was that dink? No that buck cant get a bigger rack if you don't let it walk.
How many do I have bigger than that one? Between mounts, and euro 12

On a serious side note: when I was three years into bow hunting I would have droped him in a heart beat. I honestly very rarely ever seen a bigger deer than that until I made up my mind to wait on one.
You may not have bigger in your area but we def. do here.

They are either there of they aren't but how do you know that they aren't there? Just because you don't see them or get them on camera doesn't mean "they aren't there" and then what is your definition of "there". Just because a buck doesn't live on the property and spend 95% of his time there doesn't mean they don't occaisionally come through particularly during the rut. I hunt an area approx. 30 acres that is behind my house and I have logged hundreds of hours on stand there over the last 8 years and only seen 1 good buck from a stand in all that time. But just about every year, my neighbor that owns the ground spends the vast majority of his time there tells me about the big buck he saw come across the place. He normally sees a big buck once or twice a year and normally within a few days of seeing it the first time and it's always during the rut. So, IMO the odds of me killing a big deer there are very slim BUT if I was on stand at the right time I would have a chance of seeing or killing a big one almost every year. So spending more time in the tree or figuring out where this deer is living etc. etc. could put me in the right spot at the right time. I have other areas to hunt that I have better chances of killing a good buck so I don't spend any time there during the rut (or much at all anymore) but history has proven that eventhough big bucks don't frequent this track, doesn't mean they don't occaisionally come through it.

silent:

It's the same thing Quik wrote about the other day. It's disheartening to hear that there are bucks in "our" woods.....that we just aren't doing the "right" things to kill. It can be downright insulting, too (not taking it that way from you.....but I hope you can see how it could be).

It's also something that CAN NOT be proven.

I posted a thread the other day.....from a trailcam expert. He stated that they had not taken a mature buck off their property that they did NOT have on trailcam.....in the last TEN YEARS. That's tough eveidence to swallow, for some, that these "ghost bucks" just might NOT exist, everywhere.

I hunted 80 acres hard last year for about 2 weeks (about all the time I can get free) I saw over 60 bucks out of my stands, many were repeats, and many were dinks. I ran 3 Trail cams on that property all of last spring/summer only checking them every 3 to 4 weeks so not to disturb the area anymore than necessary.

While Igot several shooter bucks on camsthe Biggest 2 Bucks I saw while hunting were never caught on any Trail Cam.

I guess they were just visiting from the neighbors!

Dan

Last year I saw4 bucks bigger than that one while on stand. One was out of bow range, the next waswithin bow range but going mach 3 following a doe, another I missed with the rifle and my dad got him, and thelast is now gracing my wall as a Euro mount.

I saw a good number of other bucks too that were smaller than that guy.

MeanV, 60+ buck sightings? Wow, that is an exciting season.

0 for both. Plain and simple

That I actually see would be in the 4-5 bigger bucks.

Agreed, It's like anything else with deer hunting "there is never a never and never an always" but you see the trailcam fanatics (the Lakosky's and the Kisky's etc) that kill deer every year that they haven't seen before. IMO it's not because the buck just hasn't shown himself, it's that it's that time of year and they roam onto territory that they don't normally use. I covered half the state of Arkansas and major portions of MS, TN, and MO looking for does back when I was single and in rut

Thats only in IL. but over a period of a half of a month and hunting daylight tildark. Like I said undoubtedly some were repeats.

It actuallywas a pretty normal year, and while I did see a few shooters it didn't work out on any of them. Idid fill the freezer with Does later on.

I hunted7 days in NE.last year and seen many Mule Deer bucks while hunting. I really didn't count, but easily close to 50. Last day I did take a heavy 3 X 3 that was pretty tall and average wide. He was the second biggest buck I saw out there last year in 2 trips. This year they are getting a little more rain so I am keeping my fingers crossed for good antler growth.

It's not a Great area for boomer Mulies, but there is a pretty good population of them and they are fun to hunt as a change of pace from Whitetails

Dan

I guess so. 50 bucks in 7 days sounds like a pretty good population to me. Good luck scoring on both again this year.