my deer blind last night

[Lloyd Smale]

no bucks all year on the camera and monday i had a spike and last night this. Probably the biggest buck ive seen at camp in the 25 years ive had it.

[Land_Owner]

I've hunted my stands since 1990 and taken only one (1) buck of any significance from my land, an 8-point that does not begin to approach 90 inches of mass without deductions.  I can't eat the horns, but they are nice to look at and remember the hunt out of respect for that animal now on my wall. 

They come at all hours in the dark of the night, register on Trail Cameras, seven or eight "potential shooters" this year, a couple that are larger than my "best", and NONE come in the light of day when I am there.  I am pleased with every opportunity to hunt and recognize I am NOT in an area blessed with a plethora of deer.  I can say I have historically had a LOT of trigger time with the area hogs, so that's been the Silver Lining.

The rut already occurred here in the middle of October.  Truly.  Modern gun season does not open until November 5th, this coming weekend.  I hope one or two legal bucks (as defined by the FL Wildlife Commission) stick around AND pop out for consideration in daylight sometime in mid-November.  The "best" shooter on my trail cameras this year was already killed in a hit and run car accident last Friday night.  What a mess bacteria and flies make in two days when we saw the buzzards. 

[Mule 11]

I've hunted my stands since 1990 and taken only one (1) buck of any significance from my land, an 8-point that does not begin to approach 90 inches of mass without deductions.  I can't eat the horns, but they are nice to look at and remember the hunt out of respect for that animal now on my wall. 

They come at all hours in the dark of the night, register on Trail Cameras, seven or eight "potential shooters" this year, a couple that are larger than my "best", and NONE come in the light of day when I am there.  I am pleased with every opportunity to hunt and recognize I am NOT in an area blessed with a plethora of deer.  I can say I have historically had a LOT of trigger time with the area hogs, so that's been the Silver Lining.

The rut already occurred here in the middle of October.  Truly.  Modern gun season does not open until November 5th, this coming weekend.  I hope one or two legal bucks (as defined by the FL Wildlife Commission) stick around AND pop out for consideration in daylight sometime in mid-November.  The "best" shooter on my trail cameras this year was already killed in a hit and run car accident last Friday night.  What a mess bacteria and flies make in two days when we saw the buzzards.

I’ve come to realize that there are few “trophy” deer. I am now a meat hunter although I have played the trophy game and let “ undeserving” bucks, amble by. What a dumb ass...

[Land_Owner]

The mantra at my "farm" is the first legal deer you see, put it on the ground as you may NEVER see another for the remainder of the season.  I hunt HARD in the 3-days of either sex hunting on the Fri., Sat. and Sun. of the third weekend of November.  Two-a-day bag limit (HAHA), one doe a day, if you are so lucky, and one legal buck a day on those three days.  After that, and before, two legal bucks a day, but that's deer hunting in heaven on my land. 

I have polled a HEAP of hunters who agree, they have NEVER seen a deer step into the daylight with inch demarcations on its horns for positive ID of MINIMUM LENGTH.

[Drilling Man]

  A buck did this by my deer stand two nights ago,



  As you can see, I now have a camera there to see how big that buck is.

  DM

[Ranger99]

The mantra at my "farm" is the first legal deer you see, put it on the ground as you may NEVER see another for the remainder of the season.  I hunt HARD in the 3-days of either sex hunting on the Fri., Sat. and Sun. of the third weekend of November.  Two-a-day bag limit (HAHA), one doe a day, if you are so lucky, and one legal buck a day on those three days.  After that, and before, two legal bucks a day, but that's deer hunting in heaven on my land. 

I have polled a HEAP of hunters who agree, they have NEVER seen a deer step into the daylight with inch demarcations on its horns for positive ID of MINIMUM LENGTH.

there's a good many in my area that would get pretty
puffed up at you for that, and posting such

my motto is
hunt your own hunt and let me hunt mine

a trophy is what you make of it
they're all trophies to me

[Drilling Man]

  I let deer go by pretty much every day that I go out, it's no big deal, I'm not starving.

  I really enjoy seeing them and I try to shoot 4 points or bigger bucks.  I shot two bucks last season, I probably saw at least 6 bucks, and more than double that amount of does.

  DM

[Mule 11]

  I let deer go by pretty much every day that I go out, it's no big deal, I'm not starving.

  I really enjoy seeing them and I try to shoot 4 points or bigger bucks.  I shot two bucks last season, I probably saw at least 6 bucks, and more than double that amount of does.

  DM

How long have you hunted the same ground?

[Drilling Man]

  I let deer go by pretty much every day that I go out, it's no big deal, I'm not starving.

  I really enjoy seeing them and I try to shoot 4 points or bigger bucks.  I shot two bucks last season, I probably saw at least 6 bucks, and more than double that amount of does.

  DM

How long have you hunted the same ground?

  I hunt on the farm I grew up on, we have owned this place since 1954, but there haven't always been deer here.

  I bought this farm from my parents in the early 80's, sometime after that, I slowly started trying to improve it for hunting.

  Here's one of last season's bucks,



  Not a monster, but a decent meat buck...

  DM

[Land_Owner]

there's a good many in my area that would get pretty
puffed up at you for that, and posting such

my motto is
hunt your own hunt and let me hunt mine

a trophy is what you make of it
they're all trophies to me

There have been seasons when we saw no deer whatsoever in daylight.  There have been seasons when the first "little one" was given a pass and no other deer in daylight was seen for the rest of the season. 

I have had seasons of drought, fire, hurricane rain, hurricane wind, tossed and downed trees/stands/feeders, poachers, and flooding - a whole lot of flooding.  I have had food plots wiped out by the deer eating every leaf of new growth to the dirt line in the nights leading up to the modern gun season and then seeing no deer whatsoever in daylight.  It has routinely been frustrating over many seasons. 

The one "silver lining", if you can call it that for a venison meat hunter, has been the abundance and prevalence of feral hogs, in which I have richly taken a LOT of trigger time.  I estimate over 500 hogs have been taken from my land.  The State hired Trappers on its adjoining land in 2015.  They removed 650 hogs in 15 months I was informed by the Land Manager.  Only then did the rest of the wildlife start to rebound, including bears for the first time.  Now I have bears. 

When the prevalence of feral hogs is high, deer are proportionally scarce.  For me, dropping the first legal deer may be the only venison taken over an entire season and may easily be the ONLY deer seen in daylight over an entire season.  It is different here and my acreage is rural and small, real small, but the State's adjoining NO HUNTING land is a HUGE renewable Wildlife Pump.

[Lloyd Smale]

im for the most part a meat hunter too. That said if i want meat i shoot a doe. I dont shoot bucks that are smaller then an 8 and havent in many years. Would i shoot this one? HELL YA. I dont think even the meat hunters here would pass it up. It came in again one more time. I even went to camp and sat out two nights with the cross bow. Rifle season doesnt start till nov 15. Both nights i sat out i left well before dark. My blind isnt really set up for bow hunting. I had to move a bait pile in closer and i left early because i sure dont want to screw up and wound a buck like that and have him run off and die. But my meat hunting comes in late muzzle loader season. THe rut is well over by then and we are in an area that deer migrate to when the snow comes so we can shoot does that are local deer. My biggest problem is my back right now. 4 hours sitting and i feel like someone shoved a knife in my back. So i will probably hunt evenings for the first 3 days then give up till muzzle loader hunting. Im a meat hunter but honestly ive shot so many deer in my life that it doesnt even bother me to shoot nothing. Bottom line is if i took what i spend on camp and deer season i could buy two or three cows every year if meat was what I really wanted. Anyone that says there just a meat hunter is smoking crack. A deer has 30-40 lbs of meat on it and its barely worth the gas you put in your truck to go hunting. A real meat hunter is someone that shoots a doe off the back porch of his house. It cost me at least 60 bucks in gas at todays prices to get to camp and back. Thats 2 bucks a lb before i even buy food, load ammo, buy guns, maintain and pay taxes on camp, buy propane, gas for the generator and chain saws to cut wood and the time i invest in all of this ect ect. Id bet if i really figured out what it would cost me to shoot a doe for meat im probably pay well north of 50 bucks a lb for it. Probably closer to a 100 bucks a lb. Even just buying a license sets me back 40 bucks so before i even leave home that venison is a buck a lb. When we were doing crop damage THAT was meat hunting (or shooting) I doubt that more then a tiny percentage of deer hunters are really out there to put cheap meat on the table.

[Drilling Man]

  Here's the buck that made the above rub,



  He better be careful, rifle season isn't too far away now!

  DM

[Ranger99]

. . .  I doubt that more then a tiny percentage of deer hunters are really out there to put cheap meat on the table.

I don't know.  Maybe
Country neighbor across the road shoots
at least one of his allotted deer out of the
kitchen window every year.  I've shot em
out of the back window ( after removing
the screen) sitting in a recliner.
A couple of the other folks on the farm road
spend mucho dollars on ammunition and attractants
and different hunting doo-dads and pay a
processor to cut up and package their deer.
It's whatever you make of it.
It's not hard to kill an animal anymore than
it's hard to catch fish. Depends on how
"sportsmanlike" you want to be.
I don't ever complain about the way that
others do their wildlife harvesting, and I
expect the same courtesy from them.
I've hunted and fished with most all the
legal methods allowed in my region, and
don't begrudge any of them. In this area
the feud has started again
between the trophy antler people
and the people that just want a deer that
they can put in bags in the freezer.
I guess that'll be an annual event until the
gubmint eventually bans all civilian guns
and hunting and fishing by any method

[Land_Owner]

lloyd, if you count the vehicle, fuel, maintenance, guns, ammo, gear, house in which you live, utilities, taxes, outhouse, kitchen sink, and "the whole nine yards", venison costs a heap.  It is not that, which keeps us coming.

There is nothing like venison and only legislated ways to get it legally.  So, we chase the renewable resource for its benefit and ours.  "Mutually exclusive" are not words often spoken with regard to shooting accurately and eating what you kill.  There is a Sniper in each one of us I think. 

Like you, Brothers of Different Mothers, I have shot my way through a plethora of pigs so the experience is no longer heart-pounding and neither is shooting a deer, if they choose to participate.  The greater difficulty lies in "going the distance", sitting on stand from the wee hours before dawn through the darkness of dusk waiting and watching.  I can no longer sit that long.  My knees and legs excruciatingly retaliate after-the-fact in ways in which I least expect.

[Ranger99]

Some time back, I wandered into
wallyworld housewares and bought
some cushions intended for hard
bottom dining chairs and rockers
and such, and use those for sitting
in a fixed blind or stand. I have some
hunting specific cushions and
pads I've bought and used in the
past, but the cheapo wallyworld
cushions ( $5.00 ?) outdo the others
as far as overall comfort.
I know that if your butt is uncomfortable,
the blood vessels and nerves in
your legs are also suffering as well

Good Luck