These may be average deer for other parts of the country, but around here they are monsters. My management program is starting to pay off. It's early yet so they still have some growing to do.
New Trail Cam Pictures
- Thread starter Knucklehead
- Start date
- Status
Hey Knucks, Why do you want to increase the deer population where you live? We have them here on the east coast and the amount of damage they do to fruit trees, gardens and cars (from running into them) is almost mind boggling. Best place for Bambi is on the dinner table.
Nice pics btw. I'm going to take a wild guess and say your game cam is a Bushnell?....
Nice pics btw. I'm going to take a wild guess and say your game cam is a Bushnell?....
Markw
Well-Known Member
Nice pictures there Knuck's, believe or not they are becoming a big problem over here where I live, they striped my friends garden in a single night !!!
ArizonaDave
Well-Known Member
Knucks, are you allowed to leave corn out at that site? That make them wander by more often. By Florida standards, they're great looking deer. Arizona has 2/3rds high country in the pines that produce 800 + pound Elk, and the deer are HUGE!!!
Rickey60
Well-Known Member
Nice, there comming on good. It won't be long.
MarcL
Well-Known Member
Nice Knuck! you've got albino deer....
grgfinney
Well-Known Member
Nice lookin 8 pt hope you see him opening morning
leverhead
Well-Known Member
Nice looking venison patch!
All the photos really capture that salt lick.
Bob
Bob
Mad Oshea
Taking a break
A buck in velvet by a dogwood in color would make a nice wall poster at the rolling table.
Actually the goal is to reduce the overall population by taking out a lot of does and try to get buck to doe ratio close to 1:1. Also not shooting young bucks. Only taking the old bucks and the does. (and any genetically inferior bucks) Putting out food plots and minerals for a healthy herd and to keep them in the area. With fewer does, the big bucks will have to move around more during the rut to locate them. Right by my ambush site!
That's a mineral block. They use a lot of minerals in antler production. I can't hunt over that by law, only white salt. I have one pure salt lick that the deer have dug out a hole half the size of a VW Beetle. It's near my hunting site. We have out several cameras to get an idea of their travel patterns between bedding and feeding areas. As soon as deer season gets here, they'll change patterns, but right now I'm getting an idea of numbers, quality, and buck to doe ratios.
janetta007
Well-Known Member
Those are real nice bucks. Are you going to be bow hunting before regular season?
I may hunt a little bit with my cross bow. I hunt a buddy's property in Ga. also. Their season comes in a month before the Ala. season. It's too hot over there to bow hunt and by the time bow season comes in here in Ala., I'll be rifle hunting in Ga. Nothing churns my guts up worse than wounding an animal. I had a doe duck the sound of the bowstring one time and I saw then how easy it would be to make a bad shot. Any animal that can move that fast at the sound of a bow string is FAST. It ducked right under the arrow. I shot over it, but could easily have made a bad hit instead. It was only 25 yards. (I'm not knocking bow hunters, this is just a personal choice) I've seen on TV in slow motion where they draw a line at the deers back and show how much the deer can move between the sound of the bow string and the arrival of the arrow. It's uncanny. They say aim low to account for this, but the deer whirled around at the same time.
Do you hunt? I've wanted to hunt Texas since I was a little kid. I made it to Colorado twice but Texas and Kentucky are on my bucket list. Those Colorado Mule Deer look like they have rocking chairs sitting on top of their heads. I got a 3x3 Mule Deer my first year but hunted Elk the second time and got skunked. I didn't care, I had a blast camping out in the mountains for ten days. It was beautiful in a way, but the terrain looked like Hell with the fires out. The tallest trees in that area were about 20 ft tall. There were little scrub bushes I think they called Ironwood. It was maybe 18" tall. I figured I'd run over it with my four wheeler like I do the the little tree saplings and bushes around here. Wrong! That little plant didn't even bend. It lifted my four wheeler slap off the ground, all four tires. There I was with a several hundred pound four wheel drive four wheeler stuck on a little bush no bigger around than one of my fingers. My wheel chair was back in camp. I had to get down in all those little cactuses and man handle that four wheeler off that little bush. It was plumb embarrassing.
All traces of corn have to be gone two weeks before the season starts. I'll supplement their diet on my property (which I don't hunt, I leave it for a sanctuary area. My hunting club joins my property so it's the same deer) Anyway, during hard summers and after the rut I may put out some corn and minerals. They get so run down during the rut that many of them can die from exhaustion. (I remember those days from my 20's)
Food plots are legal and I have them on my hunting club. This year I'm planting a perennial Imperial Whitetail clover. It can last 3-5 years. Then I'll rotate some annuals for a couple of years. High protein stuff.
janetta007
Well-Known Member
I started bow hunting back in the early 90's in New Hampshire. Now I hunt on my relatives property here in Texas. The state of Texas just opened the county they live in. But it's bow only. But during regular season you can use a crossbow. My cousin is feeding them sweet feed and a mineral block right now to get the antlers going. The sweet feed is to lure them to our property cause next to them is a leased hunt property. The deer had a bad winter this year because of the drought we had last summer. No water or acorns. I have a pic of what they looked like in the spring. They look sad. But this year with all the rains we have had we will have a bumper crop.
I haven't been back up there since May so I have know idea what they look like now. I know for sure I will be back up there in September when dove season starts. I am trying to get up before then.
I haven't been back up there since May so I have know idea what they look like now. I know for sure I will be back up there in September when dove season starts. I am trying to get up before then.
You're in some beautiful country. Is that in what they call the Texas Hill Country?
ArizonaDave
Well-Known Member
Those deer will be fattened up before ya' know it. I agree with Knucklehead, beautiful country!!!
janetta007
Well-Known Member
No, this is north and a little east of Dallas and McKinney.
- Status