I never heard as many shots as I did this past season. Starting with early muzzleloading through late muzzleloader, constant shooting. I went from seeing lots of young bucks to none. I've had my camera out the last 3 months and pulled the card Saturday..... I'm glad to see a few of the younger bucks made it after all. Also got pics of a couple mature bucks and a 2 year old, that will all be shooters next year.
This one I have lots of pics over the last couple years, but none since September. I thought for sure he somebody got him so I was very happy to get these post season pics. Deformed rack I guess from an injury, been like that a couple years.
Nothing special here but he's definately mature.
Should be a shooter next year:
Here's some plots I've started:
along the water
top of the hill
along a bottom that borders some thicket
Last season fizzled into a heartache when I found the buck I'd been hunting the last 4 years up at Barry's with somebody else's tag on it:
Had a trail cam pic of him just a couple weeks earlier under one of my stands.
I had missed him with my bow in '09, he was huge then, came in fast and I put the 25 yard pin on him, turns out he was still at 35 yards, but would have come closer if I had not got excited. Then in 2010 I missed an offhand shot with the muzzleloader. He still didn't go noctornal, saw him all summer in '11, and found his shed that year. He was actually bigger than when he died.
Anyway, he was shot on the property backside of ours. The jawbone had a lot of wear with the molars cupped out. Old buck.