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How they get old

These are BlountArrow's buck pictures:

11RidgeMonsta5-2.jpg


12RidgeMonsta-2.jpg
 
Thanks, BSK...Yes, above is the object of my obsession ;) .
Pretty darn good for Blount County. We watched him for 2 years and haven't seen him since 1/15/12.
 
Very nice buck BlountArrow! Hopefully he'll make one last appearance for you this year! Anyone ever find any of his sheds?
 
BSK you ever do much shed hunting on your place? Just curious if you've ever found any of them from the monsters that hide on your place.
 
Hollar Hunter said:
BSK you ever do much shed hunting on your place? Just curious if you've ever found any of them from the monsters that hide on your place.
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Never have shed hunt.
 
southernhunter said:
I don't understand with all the bucks people get on cam each year , why finding sheds is near impossible
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Thats a good question. I havent used cameras long but Ive known what lives on my place and do good to pull one or two sheds a year out of there. Im gonna approach things a little different this year and see what happens.
 
geezer said:
southernhunter said:
I don't understand with all the bucks people get on cam each year , why finding sheds is near impossible
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Thats a good question. I havent used cameras long but Ive known what lives on my place and do good to pull one or two sheds a year out of there. Im gonna approach things a little different this year and see what happens.
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I have a partial answer, although it still remains somewhat a mystery to me why we don't find more sheds in TN.

1) We have more cover areas than large fields. This is very unlike the Mid-West states where sheds are relatively easy to find by simply scanning large fields with binoculars & spotting scopes. Might also add that large sheds are more easily spotted than small sheds, and these Mid-West states have more larger sheds.

2) Rabbits & Squirrels can quickly "eat" a shed once found.

3) Coyotes ---- this one hasn't been discussed much.
I think in much of TN coyotes could be a big part of the reason we find so few sheds. When sheds are "shed", they have a amazing amount of deer smell on them. A coyote can often smell them when he gets within 50 yards downwind. He'll then pick it up and carry it back to his den, where he'll chew on it for a few weeks until it's totally consumed.

Although I've found larger single sheds, this past spring I found the largest matching pair of TN sheds I've ever stumbled across. Assuming a very conservative 15" spread, he would gross score 134" as an 8-point main-frame, and would be easily identified on good trail cam pics via all the "junk" (numerous small stickers near his bases). I'm pretty sure this buck was 4 1/2 in 2011 (5 1/2 in 2012). I expected him to develop into a 140-class mature 8-pointer this year as a 5 1/2-yr-old buck, and have hunted hard trying to find him, but have yet to see him while hunting this year.

And despite my best efforts placing numerous black-flash cams around his known bedding and rutting areas, I've failed to get a single pic of him during the summer, fall, or during the rut. It's possible he died in the Spring, but he sure appeared healthy around shed time. I'll sure be looking hard for his sheds again this Spring, and if he's still alive, you can bet I'll be looking even harder for him in the Fall of 2013.
 
BSK said:
Andy S. said:
For sure. I know that feeling all too well. Trail cameras will humble a hunter in more ways than one, albeit, they will teach us more than we could ever learn in a century in the woods during daylight. Great buck Bryan, best of luck with him for the remainder of the year.
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Unfortunately, my chances are pretty much over. If we don't kill a particular 3 1/2+ buck before Nov. 12, odds are exceptionally low we will kill him that year.
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My brother is a mature buck hunter and he would rather hunt after the rut than during. His reasoning,during the rut bucks are in lockdown mode and with more does than a mature buck can handle that bucks movement will be minimal.His movement will be between does. He likes his odds better when the majority of the does have been bred and the buck has to move to find them.Granted he hunts private property thats not highly pressure but he has put a few good bucks on the ground after the rut is gone. Good luck with that monster.
 
Your brother's thinking has merit. Although hunting the rut is the most exciting time to hunt by virtue of the fact that more deer are breeding at the same time so you're apt to see the chases, etc, after the peak phase there is more competition for those does not bred. The right place at the right time can see some great action with the potential for some good bucks.
 
Missed a 140ish 10 point last year the Friday morning before the season closed . Seen the deer before bow opened but never again until that day I missed. He was with a doe in a bean field on a farm that i spent forty some odd days hunting. I have a hard time gettin up for deer in Jan though and he caught me by surprise.
 
timberjack86 said:
BSK said:
Andy S. said:
For sure. I know that feeling all too well. Trail cameras will humble a hunter in more ways than one, albeit, they will teach us more than we could ever learn in a century in the woods during daylight. Great buck Bryan, best of luck with him for the remainder of the year.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my chances are pretty much over. If we don't kill a particular 3 1/2+ buck before Nov. 12, odds are exceptionally low we will kill him that year.
Click to expand...
My brother is a mature buck hunter and he would rather hunt after the rut than during. His reasoning,during the rut bucks are in lockdown mode and with more does than a mature buck can handle that bucks movement will be minimal.His movement will be between does. He likes his odds better when the majority of the does have been bred and the buck has to move to find them.Granted he hunts private property thats not highly pressure but he has put a few good bucks on the ground after the rut is gone. Good luck with that monster.
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Fortunately or unfortunately, our rut is very intense but very short. We have been running an adult sex ratio of 1.2 bucks per doe for about three years now. Competition between bucks for breeding rights is amazingly fierce during our brief rut, but when it's over, it's over. After the first week of December, we have never gotten a daylight trial-cam picture of a 3 1/2+ buck (not in 13 years of running full-season censuses). They go completely nocturnal. In 25 years, not one 3 1/2+ buck has been seen by a hunter after November, and we do hunt quite a bit in December and early January.
 
Interesting stuff. I know each buck has his own personality and I also think different areas see different behavior as a whole sometimes. Meaning 2 areas with equal pressure will see 2 totally different reactions from the bucks that live there. Some seem to deal with the pressure, while others simply wont take it and go completely nocturnal until its gone! I hunt several different places in a 2 hour radius, and there are some places i have learned to simply forget about after Nov, and I have some areas I can still see the older bucks later in the year. All this with equal pressure and some not 20 mins apart! I guess thats why I like to hunt them so much???
 
You couldn't be more right Winchester. It never ceases to amaze me how deer in different areas react so differently to the same stimuli.
 
BSK, its probably because all of that rifle hunting you do - everyone knows that the season is too long and them deer have you patterned.

stir, stir, stir :grin:
 
I know you're sort of funning, but no doubt deer are reacting the hunting pressure we place on them. In fact, we hunt our property much harder than neighbors hunt their properties, hence we do have to be as careful as possible, as well as specifically gear our habitat plans toward sanctuary from hunting pressure. If we don't, we'll drive deer right off the property in short order once MZ opens.
 

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