Deer here are largely considered cute pests and cause thousands in property damage every year. They could stand to let the hunters take quite a few more each season I think. I have no idea how big the bucks get here but just thinning down the doe population would help a lot with the over-crowding. I work in a semi-urban area and usually see a small group of 6 munching on the grass/bushes outside of the plant. They barely look up as you drive within 20ft of them.
I'm hunting a few different pieces that are in the same area, the first piece is 100 acres but only about 20 of it is huntable. The other piece that I am getting pics of the monster in the 180-190 class is only 2 acres. That's where I do most of my hunting. I hunt a few other pieces that are from 13- 30 acres but don't hunt them as hard as they don't have the same quality bucks on them
My BIL lives in KY, he took this one this season. It was 176 and change, far bigger than anything I ever laid my eyes on in the woods.
What type of property is around the 2 acres? I can't believe he hasn't been zapped by the surrounding land owners. My cousin has 200 acres in the thumb of Michigan and they have some nice bucks but he still runs into trouble with other surrounding land owners shooting the young ones. They're starting to buy in after shooting some nicer bucks but it's still a hard sell. He's shot a few in the mid 140's but he still goes to Kansas for the big bucks. Nice mass! What a bruiser!
The 2 acres is a nasty thick briar and brush pack, surrounded by 5 acre parcels with big houses on it. I get more pics of big bucks on that tiny piece then anywhere else I hunt. Can't even hang a tree stand as there is nothing big enough there. We hunt off the ground in a ghost blind. But my plan for next year is to put a bigger blind in there.
Guy I met years ago on a job had taken more big bucks locally than I could have imagined possible. He was an excavator for a developer of large homes. Most tracts were 10 houses or less. He would kill huge bucks right off the lots they were building on. Another guy shot a 160+ that was sleeping behind a barn on a large farm. Point being, when you are in populated and hunted areas, these big boys learn in a hurry that staying around the right houses leads to longevity. The minimum distance for archery was reduced to 150 ft from any dwelling partly because the deer are so happy to stay around the houses too.
Before, but the picture doesn't do the deer justice as it was pretty big. Easily the second largest doe I have shot and the first largest was 180 after it was field dressed. I got 29 lbs of burger, 2 roasts, butterflied back strap, and tons of steaks out of her. When I took her in to have it cut up even the our local deer processor commented on the size of the doe. said it was one of the larger ones they had seen in the last three days.
Not hardly, It's just a TC Omega 50 cal. Best I can figure it's an illusion as I was standing down hill from the deer and it was up the hill from me. It didn't fit in the bucket of my tractor. Only reason I weighed it was because I thought it might come close to the largest one I shot but after I saw what it weighed I was dissapointed and didn't even weigh it post field dressing it as I knew it didn't stand a chance. O well only thing that matters to me is that it was in my freezer and tasted good
A few of my recent ones. I set up a trap tonight to see if I can get rid of some of the coons. Hope I have one in the morning.
All I had in the trap this morning was our cat........but I did have tons of pics of the coons after the cat got himself trapped in the trap. I figure he spent the better part of 12 hours in the woods last night and he didn't seem real happy this morning.
