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Are you a hunter of opportunity or hunt a specific deer

3K views 58 replies 43 participants last post by  VSala 
#1 ·
This post is probably longer than most of mine, but this deer is haunting me. He is probably only 3.5 years old and has more smarts than my 70+ years. I first found him on camera 8/8/2018 in full velvet. A beautiful animal and with a couple of other bucks at that time.. Proceed to today. I have hunted him, off and off since bow season opened. Only saw him once during that time, and way too far for archery. Now he is in my prime zone. But, he knows I am hunting him. 2 hours after or before hunting light. He is now looking for does, but unless this cold snap triggered them, none are receptive. He originates on my property and none of the other neighbors have seen him so I guess he stays here, pretty much. I have killed a buck, in early bow season, so I am not blanked, but this challenge makes hunting the challenge it is. I am not a head hunter, per se, but whether or not I will shoot him, either with bow or rifle, if I have the opportunity remains to be seen. He is the top dog of the deer on my farm, for what he is. I hunt him almost ever day, but he continues to elude me. I guess I could take a day off and fill my last tag where there are more deer, but then maybe it wouldn't be hunting. In the picture below, notice the time and temp. I was up, but decided to stay by the fire. If the opportunity doesn't arrive he might be a good daddy to my does. For those of you that get a week to go to camp and hunt, I envy you. I have been there. To challenge a local deer who is obviously smarter than I am is a hunt. Enjoy your hunt and take what you get, the whitetail is an elusive target, and every one is a trophy. Best of luck to all.

Wildlife Deer Black Nature Antler
 
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#2 ·
After years of hunting I only have two bucks mounted on the wall. The primary reason for that is that I shoot whatever makes itself available. In the Ohio county I hunt, I am allowed 3 deer, only one of which can be a buck. When I start a season, I'll kill anything. I shoot the first doe I see (regardless of size) and I shoot the first buck I encounter, even if it's only a spike or a forkhorn. As I said, over the years, twice now the first buck I've seen happened to be a wallhanger, but most of the time it's not and that's OK.

Now, 256WinMag, in your situation, you've already killed one for the freezer, and hunting is all about recreation. If you are enjoying this "quest" on your own property, well, go for it and more power to ya!
 
#3 ·
I tried hunting that buck (12 point?) my B-I-L told me about. Tried two mornings, never saw it.

I hunt public land mostly so I hunt terrain and sign. Don’t dare try putting out a camera...goodbye camera!

I love to hunt and I hunt hard but scouting virgin sign and any honey holes are few around me on public offerings...so, I’m an opportunist.
 
#4 ·
Deer Reindeer Wildlife Antler White-tailed deer
I have been looking for this one all year. I have seen him on camera a few times but never in person/deer but I keep trying. I will go this afternoon God willing,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Woodland Forest Natural environment Biome Tree
 
#6 ·
I spend most of my time hunting big woods deer in the mountains. I have noticed the dominant bucks move to the same areas every year, usually an area with a lot of doe trails crossing from different doe groups heading from feeding to bedding areas, usually near the top of a hollow. So instead of running all over the mountain using up energy he hangs out in this doe hot spot, scrapping on and checking on the trials in this more confined area, where the bucks follow the same what I call a rut trail every year. Which is usually on an old logging road kinda level across a short section of a mountain. The lesser bucks run all over the place up and down and across the terrian hitting secondary areas mostly. Anyway, never fail to find big buck sign in these areas year over year, and those are the bucks I hunt, so I do hunt those specific bucks.

Then there alot of deer drives at the club, where I take what comes along.
 
#7 ·
I don't hunt a specific deer but I don't kill young bucks. My interest is in mature bucks and doe. One of my favorite deer I've killed was an old 7pt that would score about 80" but he weighed 200lbs and had whipped everything in the woods. I had a euro mount on him and the guy that did it aged him at 6.5yrs old. I had passed up several younger bucks that would have out scored him, passed them because of their age. We eat quite a bit of venison and I've never been able to tell the difference in taste or tenderness between the old bucks I've killed or the does that I've killed. I killed 2-3 doe a year, sometimes it's tag soup on the bucks and sometimes I get lucky.
 
#8 ·
I usually hunt public land in SC so I tend to be opportunistic. Although, I have on a rare occasion targeted a specific buck. Can't leave cameras out. Heck, they gnawed thru a 1/4 cable that had my tree stand secured to the tree :mad:, I know they would take a camera.
 
#10 ·
I am more of a hunter of opportunity but I let a few go as I want a specific type of deer. I am a meat hunter and feel that that is as good of reason to shoot deer as trophies. There are those that push to get laws to improve trophy hunters chances of seeing big ones and those that plant fields and put out mineral blocks to improve the herd. I do the food plot thing, quit the mineral blocks. Basically the rarity is what makes a trophy and laws to protect the smaller bucks to allow them to become bigger bucks defeats the trophy concept.

I have antler hanging up in my shop and hang things on them, but no mounts. Antlers and pictures are plenty. I have shot old bucks that definitely have a taste and tenderness difference over the younger deer. Shot an old doe once that also had a bit of a stringy texture. 6 pointer I shot last year was more chewy than the second year doe I had shot. The bucks my brother in law shot this year were pretty lean, the does had a heavy layer of fat on them. I let a very large buck go once as I did not like the shot and did not shoot at a large one this year. He was running and a ways away and I will not risk wounding a deer like that. In some ways I feel like shooting those nice bucks is like a rancher butchering his prime bull. Not all bucks that don't get shot will grow up to be trophies.

DEP
 
#11 ·
In my neck of the woods everyone wants to get a buck, the bigger the better for bragging rights at the bar except me. I hunt for the freezer and I'd rather take a small buck or doe anytime. The really nice bucks I pass on so they can enhance the gene pool. I'm not and never will be a trophy hunter. I admire big racks, not try to hunt them down to kill. I've yet to find a good recipe for antler stew.
I can remember years ago when I was young, getting a buck was a necessity because it was bucks only tags. Then the sports writers trying to justify their salary started writing about "how to get your big buck" and where to look for them etc. There has been more stories written every year about some new research that helps decode the big bucks movements. That's all they write about anymore.

BS, instead of enjoying the deer season now there is that faction that hunts big bucks relentlessly. It's become a passion instead of sport....whatever..
To be honest I never go out with the thought of killing the first deer I see. There have been days that I was enjoying myself in the woods so much I didn't want to ruin their day either and just sat and watched them.
Then all of a sudden the gun is up - bang - and the deer is down. I can't explain why, but that's what happens, and season in over for me. It just wasn't that particular deer's day I guess.
 
#56 ·
To be honest I never go out with the thought of killing the first deer I see. There have been days that I was enjoying myself in the woods so much I didn't want to ruin their day either and just sat and watched them.
This is what deer hunting is for me - when I was still able to do it.
 
#13 ·
I'm definitely opportunistic. I do not own the land that I hunt on. I visit the land only a few times before the deer hunt (during small game season) and do more deer scouting than small game hunting. I then pick a spot that I'll set up in a month later. I have a general idea where the deer move because of trails and the landowner's cameras. Some of the deer in that area a quite nice. But I don't pass up anything legal for a chance at that "big one".

redhawk
 
#14 ·
I am picky on what I shoot.
1. Dry Does
2. Cull Buck
3. Big Moe a 20" spread 9 pt. with a crab claw on the right beam. Have him on camera only at night.
4. Swamp Donkey is a 22-24" spread 6 point. Old joker.

Since I have 2 now and the wife has one I will not take another doe unless with a bow for my triple. Modern gun, Primitive gun and archery. I have the first two.
 
#15 ·
I hunt for the personal development. Staying practiced in fending for myself, keeping my wife's and my butchering skills in tune. And we enjoy the meat too.

If a nice buck presents itself it is mine. If not, I tend to look for mature does with a better meat to "waste" ratio. No immature bucks if I can help it. Deer repopulate like us. Almost a perfect ratio of males to females are born. Most of my buddies hunt bucks only. I figure bagging does myself helps even things out. Too many does and the balance is off.

Many bio studies have been made disproving the old myth that bucks mate with many does. They don't. Bucks mate with an average of 1.9-2.3 does per year. If the does are 4-1or greater then a lot of does are eating food but not reproducing.
 
#16 ·
I don't consider myself a trophy hunter, I just want to kill a mature buck.
However, here we are allowed a spike and a buck with horns past the ears (13").
We don't buy meat in the store unless it's chicken or fish...so if I am
running low by deer season I use my spike tag.
I sometimes will hear of a good buck with big horns and sometimes it turns
out to be true. Ranchers will often tell me and dad about seeing big deer.
This year we heard about one, and me and Dad finally saw him.
It turned out to be a really nice buck with a 20" spread...
A few years ago I was told about a buck with a big rack that had real dark antlers
seen on one of the places I hunt I went out there every day for 2 weeks and
finally saw him. He scored 153 5/8" B&C and he is now on my wall.
I hunted a buck for 3 weeks straight once that I thought was real good...
He got by me twice, and I finally got him...but he had ground shrink, and
wasn't what I thought he was. But he was a decent mature deer.

I don't begrudge any hunter for not wanting or caring to shoot a buck with
big horns. It's all hunting, and to each his own, as long as it's legal and ethical.
 
#18 ·
I am generally an opportunity/meat hunter and will take the first decent size legal deer that I get a shot at though I prefer that to be a doe.

There are a number of reasons for this:

- Our property consists of two 40 acre parcels in a line so the space we have isn't very large and if we don't take a deer as it's passing through chances are good that the neighbors will, the last Sunday morning of firearms season this year was nothing but constant shots from the neighboring property. I have no idea what they were doing but I suspect they might have done a deer drive.

- I enjoy venison and primarily want to fill my freezer. I'd like to get a trophy buck once in my life but I have no idea what I'd do with one if I got it. My house is small and a large mount or even a large set of antlers wouldn't really fit anywhere, that's ignoring the fact that my spouse has basically said no to a mount (I'm not sure what she'll do if my daughter gets a big buck since my daughters plans are to do a European style mount herself. It could be funny).

- As mentioned above I prefer the first deer I get to be a doe or at least anterless. The county I hunt in allows for 3 deer during firearms. One is an Any Deer and the other two are anterless so I usually hope that I can use an anterless tag first for the freezer and be more selective for a second deer later on which hopefully is a big buck. Which brings me to...

- For whatever reason I never seem to get more than two or three shooting opportunities throughout the deer season. Some of this is due to time constraints in that I only get to hunt 4-5 days out of our 10 day modern firearms season in November and then maybe a few more days during the Alternative methods (Black Powder/Handgun) season at the end of December for a buck. There's also a doe only weekend in my county which is this weekend. Out of the 8 or 9 deer I've seen so far this year, I only had open shots at 3. Two of them were the 4pt I got opening morning, a very small doe/button buck that I passed on the same afternoon. The third was a spike buck that I couldn't have shot having already used my any deer tag on the 4pt the day before, fortunately I was sitting with my daughter and she didn't pass up the opportunity and got her first ever deer. Every other deer has been too far back in the brush to make a shot.

Despite the fact that there has been 3 tags available in my county for years, I've only rarely taken two deer during the season and have never gotten three. This year was particularly good with myself, my father and daughter able to take one deer so far. Given my lack of opportunities I seem to have, I opt for taking a deer when I can. Unfortunately, trying for a specific deer with the small size of our property and the numerous neighbors that also hunt seems rather futile, in a different situation however I could certainly see myself targeting a certain deer.
 
#19 ·
I am mostly a hunter of opportunity as nothing in my cameras shows me my property holds big bucks. We do have a herd of does that during certain times attract the big boys. I have been fortunate enough to wait and be patient in my hunts and landed 2 8 pts and a 10 pt over the past few seasons. I hunted the 10 pt once I spotted him, he winded me and gone. I hunted hard to find him and where he hung out. I stumbled upon his bedroom by tracking his big footprints, he winded me again and won the battle but it was mid day about 1400 hrs. he was up and mad since I busted him with 2 does, later that afternoon he came out right where I wanted him. It was not a bang flop but an extended search and blood trail for 150 yds in the thickets knarliest crap on the farm.

So I do both if I get to see the big boy I hunt till I find him, sometimes it takes a season or two to get them.

It is certainly a challenge to hunt for the specific deer and takes a lot of perseverance and fortitude to stay on it. Kind of why I like hunting.
 
#20 ·
For me, it’s kinda like Mickey Gilley’s song......”The Girls all get Prettier, at Closing Time”! I start out with high expectations.....and my standards lower with time! 😁 memtb
 
#21 · (Edited)
I'm on private land but it might as well be public so many people have access to it. I had 7 bucks on camera and 5 were killed by other people on this property, all 5 are 2.5yrs old or 1.5yr olds. To my knowledge the two older bucks are still going but they could have been killed off the property. Even of the ones I passed maybe they kill them and maybe they don't, if they don't they get older and bigger. If I kill them they probably won't be getting any older.

If a person kills a young buck and is truly proud and happy with it then that's what hunting is all about.


Here is what I usually encounter.....

Brown and downer, "hey, you kill any deers this year?"

Bearcat74, "a doe"

Brown and downer, "hmm, no bucks?"

Bearcat74, "yeah I passed on several young bucks"

Brown and downer, "I killed 2 cull bucks, you know a scraggly spike and a 5 point"

Bearcat74, "yeah, I passed both of those"

Brown and downer, " yeah, between dad, me, my brother Darryl, my other brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl we killed 10 bucks, 5 spikes, a two 4pts, a 5pt and 2 button bucks, we just ain't got no big deer to hunt. I just cut out the backstraps and hams and leave the rest, they ain't worth foolin with"

Bearcat74, "you reckon it's because you kill them all when they're young?"

Brown and downer, "nope, thems all cull bucks, our deer don't get big"

Bearcat74, "you don't shoot does?"

Brown and downer, "naaa, we're meat hunters so we just shoot cull bucks"


These guys shoot bucks only so they can say they're tagged out. There is no pride in what they kill hence the leaving half the deer and the excuses.

We're allowed 2 bucks a year, one neighbor killed 15 bucks in 3 years, none bigger than a basket racked 8pt.
 
#23 ·
This is alot like what we deal with here in Central Texas.
The properties here are small, 100-400 acre tracts. Some people are
lucky and have access to bigger tracts.
But we have what we call "fence-liners" that figure out where guys like
me are trying to build up the deer pop by planting crops and feeding
year round, and they will sneak onto or lease the place next to you
and shoot whatever they can.
Worse yet, the deer hunting down here is pretty much done on a honor
system program. Sure, you have tags, but there are very few Game Wardens
to patrol and check hunters, and unless they get a call in your area,
you likely will go all season, or multiple seasons, without even seeing one.
I personally know of guys that have killed 3-4 bucks a year for many years.
It's easy to do if a guy wanted to do it...and you'd have little to worry
about as far as getting caught unless you advertised what you was doing.
Stuff like this makes me crazy.
 
#24 ·
Here in Arkansas you can shoot six deer. No more than two legal bucks. Spikes with two inches or longer and bucks with less than three points on one side are Illegal to take here.

A Cull buck to me is a mature deer with legal messed up horns or body mass is a cull. I will take one of those. I save one buck tag for a nice buck I may have on camera. I usually only shoot one buck a year because I don't the biggest bucks I know of in the area.

I can still take 5 does legally but usually only take 2-3. I like to make lots of breakfast sausage with all scrap meat like legs, shoulders, belly and neck meat. I make hamburger too. I usually use a lot of the buck for that.

So that is selective. I have seen old bucks with huge spikes but I don't shoot them because they are illegal. I wish I could cull them.
 
#25 · (Edited)
I rarely see a warden that checks me. Had one parked in my yard explaining that he had a call about some guys driving the road with their guns sticking out the window. He caught them and just told me why he was parked where he was. There is a very large field around the corner form my place that some like to poach on. Game warden likes to stake it out. Guys hunting public land across the road from me got pinched for dragging out a deer without putting a site tag on it. (one of those laws that could be done without) Another close by for baiting. I have not been checked. I do think they tend to leave land owners alone pretty much unless there is a complaint like baiting. Baiting in MN means hauling piles of goodies out for deer to eat. Food plots are actually supported and I believe if I were to open up for public hunting I could get state help.

Cutting off the hams and back straps and leaving the rest could be defined in MN as "Wanton Waste" and is illegal. Many of these infractions means a loss of hunting privileges for a time. It is also despicable.

DEP
 
#26 · (Edited)
A story on game wardens. When I was bow hunting a few years ago I was in a stand and heard some shots and saw a coupel of deer run out of the woods close by. This was in October and I thought it was kind of brazen. I called the game warden and met him adn showed him where the shots came from. MN has 5 Native American reservations and I live on one that is broken up with some Indian land and some that that had been sold off in the logging days. I own my property free and clear but live within reservation boundaries as do a lot of other non natives.

I had a new neighbor who was a Native and had bought the adjoining piece of land but had not met him. He was legal as Natives on the reservation had a different season. His 13 year old son had grazed a deer (we never found it and the trail ran out) and it ran onto my land so the game warden who knew him (Native warden) and myself helped him try to track it. Here was a white man with a bow and arrow helping a Native with a rifle try to track a deer. When I have told others about it they found it kind of amusing. The warden impressed me to no end on his abilities and wrote the deer off as a non lethal hit. Got along fine with the neighbor after I apologized for my ignorance.

DEP
 
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