James Vee

and time to move on.

Big Buck Brannigan

For what it' s worth. I' ve seen bachelor herds of similar quality deer on heavily hunted land. They are out like clockwork until around the end of August and then guess what? They disappear never to be seen together again. They do disperse, they do get shy and they do show up again + or - a few the following summer.

Anybody that knows even a little about deer knows that the deer you pattern while still in velvet is a COMPLETELY different animal once the velvet is off for a couple of weeks. If you don' t know this it may explain why even a little six point is a real find for you.

True?

Zelazny

You' d turn down a chance to hunt Alberta' s bow only zone then, wouldn' t you ?

You would not have a good time on this place then as its trophy managed first and foremost.

Yes, you' d get the same thrill and then someknowing it took you 4-8 years or more to draw a permit to hunt the place then trying to figure out the patterns on these bucks that live in places that resemble 4-7 year old clearcuts and then passing on marginal 120" -140" deer waiting and waiting and waiting for those smart 150" + bucks to come through. Very tough to do. As tough as hunting non-managed lands ? Of course not, but then there might not even be deer this calss in other parts of public land in my state. You cannot kill big deer if there are none to be hunted. This place provides a very special, trophy managed area that for a small tag fee you can draw a lucky tag that Bill Jerdon would be envious to have.

Calling me a liar won' t change the fact that its there. Maybe your state doesn' t do it ... mine does. I did not find the field this picture was taken in - because the pictures are a year old and those food plots are not there now. If you' re a whitetail hunter, you know 2 days before the opening of season that bucks change their habits and you never see then enter those summer routines again until , well, next summer !

The Alberta Edmonton bow only zone ... is it not what I described above ? Bowhunting only, trophy managed, limited tags to non-residents (controlled tags to an extent) .... this is very much what my state has done.

I took a fellow to my " honey hole" elk spot a few years back. The next year he went in, with a few buddies, and the next year my " honey hole" had several tents and a dozen hunters in it from 3 different states. I learned my lesson there. That buck in the one picture .... he' s got a world class rack. I mean in the 200' s world class with a typical frame like that. 230" sheds are also world class, they would have been my states record or close to it, especially with archery. I love looking at pictures, especially of big bucks. I' m going to go ahead and delete these in case inquiring minds find where these were taken and post it for the world to see. I' ll leave the first one though, it reveals nothing to my knowledge.

I don' t mind you thinking I am lying. Better you do to keep this place as secret as I can and hopefully draw a tag every few years. Sorry your state has no bowhunting only, trophy managed areas. My hunts to KS have been the best ever - watching 125" -175" whitetails in full rut, chasing does, scraping, fighting etc. You dont see that where I normally hunt.

atlasman

So why do we do all that scouting?? What' s the point? According to your logic all year scouting and patterning of bucks is useless then right?


I love when people get upset when someone has an opinion different then their' s and quickly follows it up with a personal insult. It reveals so much about you

A 6 pt is a nice buck in the woods I get to hunt...........why is it OK for you to mock me for having average hunting ground but it' s not OK for me to comment on someone elses land??

Come hunt the state forest I do for a season and see what it' s like before making statements like those.........you have no idea what kind of warzone I have to deal with.

atlasman

Never said I wouldn' t hunt your area......just said I wouldn' t swell with pride when telling the story about the buck I got from there..........sure he is a great animal but your biggest obstacle is drawing a tag.....the rest is gravy.

I' d have a great time..........I never said I wouldn' t kill a trophy, I just accept what my land has to offer and don' t set unrealistic goals. If I waited for a buck like that where I hunt I would never see one in 50 years. Trophys depend on perspective.........a nice 8 pt is about as good as it gets where I hunt.......taking one of these is equal to you waiting on the 150" + guys at this place. Both are the big boys of those particular woods.........they don' t compare head to head but situationally they are equals.


Why don' t you just go hunt there every year.......it' s public land right??

Couldn' t have said it better myself............that is exactly why the thrill is diminished IMO. Your skills won' t be what gets you a great buck.......money and luck in a drawing will play a much bigger role. If a place is crawling with huge deer how excited can you be when you bag a huge deer?? Of course he' s huge.......they ALL are!!!


I still don' t see how you can keep people off public land. If Bill Jordan wants to hunt there or any other person with a legal license for that matter......there is nothing anyone can do or say to stop them.

So it is run by the state?? I thought you said it was run by private citizens?


Here' s an idea...........hunt the food plots that ARE there now That' s why they are there.

You say this like it is a fact that ALL deer behave this way..........is there a post it note on the deer time clock reminding them that bowseason is Monday??

Again......if this is so set in stone then why do we scout deer at all??


That is exactly why I have such a hard time believing that no one hunts this place..........and it' s freely open to the public [] You mean to tell me that not only has no one ever blabbed about this place when showing off the buck they killed but also that no one even knows about this thousands of acres of public land?

Statistically speaking that sounds impossible.


I don' t know what other choice I am left with seeing how you didn' t answer any of my questions about how and who is running such a place.


How many people apply for tags each year..........and where does the money go from the applicants that are not drawn?

Straightarrow

I agree with Big Buck Brannigan. Zelazny, your story makes sense to me.

I for one, don' t believe people who say they' re more proud of a basket 6 point, than a mature trophy. Basket 6s are easy, no matter where you find them. They are juvenile deer that haven' t learned squat. They walk by, head down, paying attention to nothing. The difficulty of shooting one, isn' t even close to the difficulty in shooting a mature buck.

If the woods were full of mature bucks and they averaged 150" , you' d see a lot fewer hunters being successful. These older deer are tough to get close to. However, even if they were so plentiful that they were somewhat easy, there would be all kinds of excitment and accomplishment when you ran into the rare 200" buck. These deer are practically nocturnal and their senses are almost always on high alert. Mature whitetails are never easy to get, if they' re not fenced. I' ll repeat - never easy! Why anyone would consider a stupid juvenile buck a bigger accomplishment than a mature one (no matter how plentiful), is beyond me. Hunting mature bucks is like hunting ghosts. Hunting juveniles is not much more difficult than hunting where there is one.

NorthernMN

Those are some awesome bucks! I am sure I am not alone here in wishing there were more like this where I hunt.
Fortunately, my state does not manage any specific piece of land for trophies. If Minnesota' s Department of Natural Resources put a pile of money into such a thing there would be many hunters that would cry foul. Surely, we must all know that all the money required for something like this would be substantial. That money would be better spent on managing the herd across the entire state. Sure a place like this would be great but it would benefit so few hunters. I just don' t see it as sound management by a state.

I hope you get the chance to bag one of those great deer. It would still be a fine trophy.

Zelazny

You' ve never hunted an area where the deer are bigger, have you ?

Re-read what I posted, its regulated with special draw.

Uh, no, they are not " all" huge. Any large, mature whitetail is hard to kill. Theres other aspects of the hunt that makes it even harder ... but I won' t say because it might tip to where this is !

Say it together ... " special draw " ... go to Colorado and muzzleload hunt without a special tag and see where that goes.

You thought wrong. Its a Fish and Wildlife property

I' ve never seen a buck step into a food plot during hunting season. One week after until 1 week before, yes, during, no.

]

It does, doesn' t it ?

Thats fine by me

Zelazny

What if I told you there was this place, thousands of acres, that only a handful of drawn applicants could traditional bowhunt only for trophy sized whitetails ? McAllister Oklahoma military base. What if I told you there was a place that had units set aside for traditional elk hunting only with no sights, wood shafts, natural feathers and steel broadheads ? Look to Idaho.

I suspect a lot of states have special draws - limited entry permit areas, for whitetails, bear, elk etc etc. I mean, its almost too funny you don' t believe these places exist. I hunted NW NM a coupld of years back. Literally thousands of acres of STATE land, not Federal, open to hunting. Kinda hard to find ' em, but once you did just a huge ammount of land to hunt. We actually saw more elk than mule deer in those areas too ! I remember when talking to the G&F they mentioned a state park that had yearly draws for tags and that there were some dandy bucks in there but few people paid enough attention to draw for it. Come to remember, I never did either !

Stump_MN_Hunter

Atlasman.....you saying that your a meat hunter 1st totally explains, atleast to me, why you respond in such a way(your 1st post) about the pic. You simply don' t care what kind of an animal you shoot as long as you shoot one. Me and many other guys on here do care what we shoot...QDM. You, me and all others are entitled to there opinion sure, but why can' t I nor anyone else respond to your comments? Just because those deer are in a big group early in season doesn' t mean they are easy to take nor are like shooting fish in a barrel. LOL You must be a few hours short of sleep to think that.