atlasman

According to AKA Eastwood his 2 buddies just took a couple bucks that are at or just below 200" ...........still think it won' t be easy?? 2 guys go out bag a couple 200" bucks...........I mean, which one of us HASN' T told that story

Zelazny

atlasman - I spent a week in Steuben County NY a few year back - huge deer in those areas.

The beautiful thing here ? I don' t have to explain anything to you. Many states, if not all, have draw systems for special hunts. If you aren' t aware of them better for me I guess. If you don' t understand it, do some google searches.

atlasman

Yes they do have a wonderful herd there. Big boys with the most bucks taken per square mile in the state I believe.

How did we get into a discussion that reads like me having something against big bucks?? COuld someone show me where I have said I don' t like big deer or wouldn' t shoot one.......or think people who do are silly??

I can' t get to Steuben County. It' s too far. I have to hunt where I can drive to and back from in the same day without getting rediculous.

If you can go all over the country in pursuit of a large rack then have fun. I can' t and even if I could it just isn' t that high on my list of important things I have to do.

You still haven' t answered ANY questions about this place or how it is run. Which you could do easily without giving it away. Now the subject has changed so many times I bet most don' t even know where or why it started.............over me saying killing a big buck in a place crowded with big bucks is not as satisfying as killing one where no one sees deer like that on a daily basis. Money and luck of the draw are your major obstacles in killing one of those big bucks.

You didn' t answer my question about if you would rather have a 200" buck off a farm then a 150" buck you could kill at your spot??

Say a guy walks into the bunny ranch in Nevada. He plops his money down and gets in the door and scores with the hottest chick he' s ever seen. Should he go home and feel like Brad Pitt and tell everyone he scored with a sweet babe or should he realize that EVERY chick there was hot and his money is what got him the fun he had?? It sure was fun...........but as far as accomplishments go it didn' t really have much to do with him personally.......did it?? or could any guy with the same amount of money have done the same thing??

Zelazny

Its public land that is State ran and managed. They use a strict resident only draw system to issue the tags. Its public land, who gets what as far sa money I don' t know and could care less about. I submit $$ for a tag - no different than AZ or CO or KS. Theres not much more to it than that ... except its not well known. Truth is, I drew the tag without knowing what it was - and wish I had 2 weeks of vaction to hunt it !


I don' t agree. Money has nothing to do with it. Luck of the draw will get you a tag, but everything else is no different than where you hunt - except the chances of seeing a large buck is higher because of the way its managed.

This isn' t a farm, or a ranch, or anything like that, so the question was irrelevant really. I have never had a guided hunt. I have paid tresspass fees twice. Everything else has been public land hunting, do it myself. I' ve had some great success too.

Again, just because you are not familiar with these places - honey holes that are out of the way and not well known, does not mean they don' t exist. Like my examples of McAllister OK military base, special KY elk draws, city limit archery onl whitetail draws, Edmonton tags ... theres a long list. Did you know that in the White Sands missle rangd in NM you can draw for an Oryx (gemsbok) tag ? Its $1500 (or was last time I tried drawing) but where else can you hunt free roaming oryx in the US ? Many people do not know that tag exists, doesn' t mean it isn' t there though.

Your babe analysis is again, irrelevant. I didn' t pay to hunt this place, its not a ranch hunt nor is it fenced or anything like that. Its just a big piece of land that was set aside as public and a management plan was attached to provide resident archery hunters with a chance at a 150" -230" or better whitetail for a small tag fee - a hunt like Bill Jerdun goes on in the Milk River areas and in Texas - but without the fences and all that.

atlasman

It is relevant..........It reveals what you value more, a big rack or the satisfaction of knowing you worked your butt off for your trophy. Anyone can kill a huge buck on a farm if you have the money..........rack over hunt. Some people go to extremes that most would never even think of to obtain a monster.......hunt over rack. Your case is a little of both......the rewards of a great rack with a lot of the hard work taken care of because you know where they are already and the hunting pressure is limited by the tag draw........best of both worlds. They aren' t gonna jump in your truck themselves but if eastwood is right and his 2 buddies shot 200" deer then I would say you should be able to do the same. How many people leave the house at dark knowing that??

So if you would take a 200" on a farm over a 150" at your place you are strictly concerned with rack score.........and let' s be honest here, the only difference between your place and a farm is no fence right?? Both have deer grown specifically for racks as trophies with planned nutrition and mananged hunts.......only yours can get away if they run far enough...........to where there are no food plots and lots of hunters

My brother in law lives in Albequerque (sp?) and sends me Oryx steaks and javelina and Elk and whatever else he kills too much of LOL. I don' t really see what your point is.........I have no desire to travel the country in search of tags to hunt. I hunt where I live. The fact that I don' t live in the monster buck capital of the world doesn' t bother me. I hunt the land I have and based on what comes off that land year after year me and my family are very successful.........I am fine with that. I am not the kind of person that is always dreaming of greener grass. I make the best out of the cards I am dealt and don' t try and pretend I am somewhere I am not.


The tag was free??

I guess not


A lot of our lack of communication has come from our different understandings of what tags are versus licenses I think. Where I live you buy a license and depending on which one you get there are tags on it for a certain number of deer. You can also get 2 doe permits for designated areas if you wish. With this license any person can hunt anywhere that is public and you can fill every tag you have for that season then you are done.

If I have cracked your secret code...........I think you are saying that hunters don' t have a " license" so to speak where you are but the " tag" serves as a license to hunt. I' m sure you would need a license to get a tag but a license alone does not give you free roaming rights to every part of the state.

If I am wrong please correct me...........I wish you had explained it better early on as this whole blab fest could have been ten times shorter.

BTW the babe analogy is right on.........he just went in and bagged a different kind of trophy that' s all One he could have desired and searched for his whole life and never even come close..........until he found a place where getting access is the hardest part. No pun intended


Dude, have fun......kill 10 of them if it makes you happy. If your happy, then I' m happy for ya. I just stated my opinion that I think killing a huge deer in a place where huge deer are common is well...........common, and therefore takes some of the WOW factor out of it. It' s just my opinion.......I' m not trying to force it on you or anyone. Just saying what I think that' s all.

Zelazny

Thats what you' re getting hung up on ... killing a buck in this place is just as difficult as it is elsewhere IMO, just the racks are bigger on the average deer and on a big deer much bigger. Why ? They are given the chance to get into the 4.5-5.5 and older age class.

I thinks theres a much bigger difference, you might not - your perrogative.

My point on the Oryx is most people don' t even know that hunt is available to them. I didn' t know this hunt was to me until 2 years ago. Some of THE best hunting is not well known IMO.

I like my hunt. I like my yearly elk hunt, I like my whitetail hunts in KS. Its do it myself on a budget, no guides or anything like that. I do have to pay one guy a bottle of Old Charter to hunt his place though.


You buy a license in my state, and special tags are drawn seperately for special hunts.

I know if I have the chance at a 150" buck and get him, there' ll be nothing less about him that had he been a 100" buck just because he had the chance to grwo older and smarter. The hunt will not have changed that much, only the headgear that the bucks wear. IMportant ? Hell yeah it is. Is it why I hunt ? No.

BTW, I shoot a longbow

A.K.A eastwood

it was actually just one of my friends and a guy he knows. they both got a nice one, but the part of the story you dont know is that it took them 5 years to finally score. drawn 5 of 15 years and 5 years of hard hunting.

Jay Hunter

Atlasman, a little misunderstanding on your part, I think. I was in no way trying to bash meat hunters. EVERY person I hunt with is a meat hunter, family and friends alike; and even myself has been know to fill up all my doe tags. And I was not trying to bash rednecks or city hunters, just stating that both crowds have their meat hunters, as well as trophy hunters.

The point I was trying to get across(should' ve just summed it up for you in the first place) is that this state has bucks just like the ones in Zelazny showed us in his pictures. It just you meat hunters have no idea they exist because YOU never see them. There are many things a trophy hunter must do to get that trophy, shootin the first thing that walks isn' t one of them. So I find it very frustrating that you think Zelazny shouln' t " get excitement" from his 150-200" buck(if he even gets one), because he' s " picking it out of a crowd" of monsters. You have that same crowd of monsters around you, you just dont want to go lookiin for it, which I have no problem with at all.

And I can guarantee you if you do your research on special draw permits in NY, you' ll find more than one area that that applies to. I know its not in your blue hunting regulations book you picked up from the town clerk' s when you bought your liscense, but there out there, several being in bow only areas(hint!, hint!).

I hate bickering, esecially on such an excellent forum, but I cant keep my mouth shut when I feel you are so extremely wrong and you just dont know. But you are keeping several of us entertained, so it will be interesting to hear whats next.

UCObaseball

I really don' t know what all was written throughout this post b/c I got tired of all the bickering about half way through, but I have to comment about Mcalister Oklahoma. That could compare with some of the best deer hunting in the World. It is long or recurve only drawn in hunts that is just unbelieveable. If you said those pics came from there, I would believe it. I think that OKlahoma along with Kentucky is one of the most underlooked places for big whitetails. Here is a pic from my place that I am hunting right now, I have other P & Y deer but this is the biggest. Good Luck to everyone!!

atlasman

When you use words like redneck, cityhunter, meathunter and stereotype......it is pretty clear that you like to lump people into groups and put whatever label on them you see fit............anything to isolate yourself from people like " them"

I' m just thankful you didn' t go off on a rant about blacks, gays or arabs

For the 100th time I never said he shouldn' t get excited..........I just said it can' t be AS exciting when there are so many like that in one concentrated area.......instead of maybe one per county like most areas.....if that. Think about it.......the biggest reactions to the size of that deer will be by people that don' t know where it came from..........the people who live, work and/or hunt that land will look at it like it' s just another big deer.......because they see 20 of them a day and it' s no big deal to them to see a deer like that. Most everyone else will be slack jawed because they are from areas that probably have never seen a deer like that........hence the excitment vs less excitement. Kill that deer on land that everyone has free roam to hunt and people will be in awe.........kill it there and people will be in awe of the deer still.......but if you think people won' t think less of the accomplishment when they find out it was taken from a secret little deer growing project selling tickets to get in...........I' ve got some swamp land I' d like to sell ya