Holding out: too picky

Another Saturday has come and gone and I?ve yet to cut a hair on a deer. I?ve had plenty of chances on does but I?m hunting an area with several mature bucks and not wanting to blow an opportunity I?ve held out. Combine that with my limited opportunities due to work and family and my time left to score is getting short.

I?ve been within range on a few young bucks but our club has a pretty rigorous buck management program and none of them have met standards.

There?s a cool front coming in Monday. Hopefully I can generate enough business early in the week to hunt Wednesday Thursday or Friday.

Our season is over and all I saw were spikes. Hang in there and don't give up. Everything can change in a matter of minutes if not seconds.When the opportunity comes believe in yourself your training and your gear.

Good luck. Last year I had 4 awesome mature shooter bucks on my trail cams. I passed up numerous Does and small bucks hoping to get one. I ended up shooting 2 does towards the end. I usually take 3 to 5 deer, and donate some to IL Hunter's for the Hungry. Now I wish I'd of taken one or two Does earlier on. Still won't shoot small bucks.

I let a nice 10 point go opening morning. It was at 160 but did not give me an angle that I liked. I had three 4 points that I could have taken, and no telling how many does I counted coup on.
I saw 3 big bucks the first two days of the season, then they got scarce. The second one was following a doe across the pasture out of range, and the last was in the woods, and too much brush to make a clean shot.
I start again on 23 December thru 2 January. I need to not be so picky the last half of my season. I have a hard time shooting the Does I see almost daily in the pasture.

Good luck Monday.

Bob

We?ve got some really nice buck deer but most of our guys are, well......lazy and don?t see them. The smart bucks generally aren?t coming to your wheeler, save the rut crazed buck.

Our acorn crop has been incredible for the past 3 years so the food plots are underperforming. I like to slip in the bottoms and set up much like a turkey hunt on the ground. Yesterday found me between two blow downs with a lot of concealment but good visibility. The two ridges I was looking at were full of scrapes and before long I had deer within 30-40 yards. But these generally aren?t places you want to drag a doe out of.

I tip my hat to you guys that hold off & wait for just the right deer, that takes patience. I only hunt with revolvers & when I see a legal buck I shoot it & I do it with a cast bullet so I don't worry about angles too much. I'll drive that bullet to the vitals.
Several years ago I did hold out on my once in a life time Idaho Moose, I wanted a good one. Twice I passed on a very good bull that was probably 46-47 inches because he was in velvet. I had him at 15 yds once & probably have 20 minutes of video of him. I hunted 27 days & saw 37 moose, ended up taking one of the smallest bulls I saw the whole season because I ran out of time. No regrets, I did it my way, Ruger 480, cast bullet, one shot offhand at 45 yds & after 17 years of not drawing a tag I finally filled mine.
PS, an easy way to drag those deer out is some real heavy, hard plastic with grommets, that way you skid them out, works great.

Dick

Im an equal opportunity killer. I did pass two spikes the first morning, but shot a doe that afternoon.

Used to, when I rifle hunted, I'd wait until a respectable buck showed up. I'll shoot anything with a handgun though, unless it's young deer or a doe with a fawn.

Brenden

sixshot
Great story on that moose hunt.

Handgun400
Good luck. Hope to see some success pics.

Had I waited maybe 1 minute I would have taken a much nicer buck this weekend, but I haven?t taken a deer in 2 years. I?ll be much more picky from here on out.

This has not been one of my better seasons so far. I did kill one spike with my CVA Optima V2 muzzle loading pistol. I shot that one for a doe at 73 yards, a mistake that cost me a fine from our hunting club. We have some tough rules about the quality of bucks taken.

Since then I have seen 24 deer, 12 of which have been young bucks that did not meet the club requirements. Some of those bucks tempted me for almost a hour at a time but I did not yield to the temptation.

I have been trying to kill a mature buck or doe with my sweet 14 30 30 contender but even though I have seen several does I have not gotten a shot that I wanted to take for one reason or another. We have photos of several good bucks but have not seen them during legal shooting light yet. I hope the season turns around for us soon. Good luck to everyone.

Redhawk, my club has fines for small bucks too which is why I?ve held off. I had a nice 2.5 year old 6 point in range Saturday but passed because I don?t want to pay a fine.

Sixshot, do it your way and every deer is a trophy. Great story.

Well I tried the hold out for a better deer for several years only to see them leave property I had permission to hunt and get slaughtered by adjoining neighbors. So I started biscuit and gravy hunting. If the deer would look better on a plate with biscuits and gravy I kill it, if not, I let it walk.

Love it. And that's about where I'm at.

Our acorn crop is almost non existent this year.
From the house I saw 8 slick heads, a big 4 point, and a 10 point along with around 8 Gobblers this morning. I saw the last deer at the pond getting a drink at 10:30.
We passes a freshly planted bright Green field going to town at 2:05 PM that was full of deer. I estimated 20+. We passed a neighbors field going home that we counted 14 deer in and spotted more after that. If I had glassed the field it might have had 20 also.

Bucks of any size got pretty scarce after the first weekend of deer season here. It is nice to be seeing them again. We are down to a couple weeks to Alternative Weapons Season.

Bob

Our late week long M Z season starts Sat.,supposed to be cold with a chance of snow. Have seen nothing but spikes and does. Wife has seen several bucks and we have one good one on camera,hope she gets him.That would make my season.