what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
#31
RE: what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
I used to haul a lot of constuction scraps to the land fill near where I live. The place was full of Antlers that people hunt so hard for. Most people don't have room to hang 40 years of Antlers up. I kept my one big set. Now its just for the meat. In many states including mine you don't have the option to just shoot a couple extra does. I had one double tag which allowed One Any Deer, One Antlerless deer and One Muzzle loader deer Antlerless only. I keep my any deer tag for last but always plan on shooting a doe to put it on.
#33
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,476
RE: what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
I find more satisfaction in large bodied deer than small bodied deer. If a deer with a nice large rack isn't huge in body I won't be unpset just a little surprised. I've seenpictures of many Texas deer with beautiful racks whose bodies appear on the small side to me (though some are decent). Having grown up in Michigan and done all my hunting here I see that the more northeren deer just get larger bodied to make it through the winters. I have taken some nice racks so far in my 37 years of hunting but no monster racks. Some of the deer were truly LARGE deer but not monster racks.
#35
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Alabama
Posts: 703
RE: what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
I hunt meat first and antlers (horns 'round here) later. Now that's not to say if a nice rack is the first to walk by (which never happens) I wouldn't shoot him. I'd love to kill one with a nice rack, but looking at one on the wall from last year won't be very good table fair for this year. But I say to each his own...............the more the rack hunters pass on, the more I'll get to see.
#36
RE: what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
Antlers for me. A big deer is not nearly as good to eat as the young ones. And I usually get the oppurtunity to take a few does besides my buck every year. But we have huge bodies here anyway. Last I heard Minnesota still had the record for largest whitetail in the states at over 500lbs!
#37
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: williamstown vt
Posts: 699
RE: what's more important to you, wieght or antler's?
All in honestly, look for antlers first, (being in it for meat second to loving the sport). Bagging a 'wall hanger' or a 'monster' sure would be great but not a necessity. ~legal to shoot would have come first then size of body and last would be its rack. jmo.