dlist777

Great story. Great buck. Congrats!

Yeah, I'm not at that stage yet. I understand how cams would be critical if that's your goal.

I love a dead buck in the snow! Congrats.

I'm having a pretty good year deer hunting so far this year. I got 2 bucks and they both were my personal best (vs. before last year). I also have more buck sightings. I tried to change things up this season 2 ways. I went 100% mobile and I gave up cams. Now, when I say mobile, I don't mean "hunting beast" mobile. I'm not walking through 2 miles of swamp and frag to kill a buck 50 yards from his bed on public land. This is private land mobile. Just not relying on pre-hung stands and following sign and hunting it each time. I don't know which has helped me do better (mobile vs. no cams) or both or if its just dumb luck. I thought I would seek out some reaction / comment from the group about cam usage. Other than those changes, it's the same hunter and the same properties. Over the years, I have become more and more frustrated with cams: thousands of pics of one leaf blowing in the wind, dead batteries, corrupt SD cards, cams that walk off on their own power, pics of racoons and squirrels, and yes, the occasional great buck...usually at 2am. I kind of had two "last straws" last year that made me decide to give them up. A. I was sitting in a stand and I watched a few doe and a buck go down a trail that I had a cam on. The doe all went right by it. The buck actually looped just around the tree it was on. It was like he knew it was there and was just a bit worried about it. It didn't scare him off the property, but clearly he didn't like it. B. I was going to clear the SD card off a cam and a nice big buck popped up out of his bed not 10 feet from the cam and ran off. It was clear upon inspection that it was his bed and I had just missed it when I set the cam (or it wasn't there then). It seemed like he'd been there for a while. When I got home the card didn't have a single pic of that buck on it. I guess I kind of used cams in 2 ways. 1. One was to just put over a bait or mineral site and get an "inventory" of bucks in the area esp in the summer. This worked fine. 2. The second way was to really pin down movement. I would go in the off season and really look for trails and set cams up. Then, I would go back from time to time and try to get intel....maybe move the cams....then check the cards in season. I did get some intel from time to time, but it was really just confirmatory that the sign I saw was really sign. Also, I'm not sure when I got no pics, it was really enough info to conclude there was NOT a buck in the area. I guess I view cams used in the second way (to pinpoint movement) as just a risk / reward proposition. You might get good info...but you might scare of bucks (either by your physical disturbance or the cam itself). So, I felt like the risk/reward wasn't working for me and gave them up. The other nice thing is when I actually see a buck, I don't have any info that there is a "better buck" in the area, so I just shoot if he gets my heart reacing….also don't have to worry about batteries and SD cards or cell phone reception... The other thing might be that w/o pics, I am really just focused on fresh sign. Every time I go out, I'm just looking and looking for sign b/c I have nothing else. Anyway, this is just my experience. I know most everyone uses them and likes them and I'm definitely NOT saying you're wrong. If they are helping you, keep using them for sure. Thoughts? Experiences?

Congrats!

This tool is super-useful. It helped me get a deer out of steep ravine earlier in the year. Tons of other non-hunting benefits. I recommend it: https://www.amazon.com/885030-Cordless-PullzAll-Lifting-Pulling/dp/B00DAZ5PS4/ref=asc_df_B00DAZ5PS4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312158556709&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16784111977245656210&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007324&hvtargid=aud-801738734305:pla-434012675896&psc=1 Also:

Nice!

Got my first 9.27. Got my 2nd tonight. He snuck out to a bean field just about 5 mins before last light. Shot him at 30 yards. He went 50 yards. Double lung. No drama recovery. One of my rage blades broke but still got a full pass thru and both lungs.

November 1 630pm Buck snuck out of the woods a few minutes before dark.

September 27 7:20pm Moving through a travel corridor in the woods No bait

If it's the best buck you've ever shot (or the first buck you've ever shot)...SHOOT IT. Don't get all caught up in the rack shaming. I will never and have never passed on a buck that is better than any other I previously shot. This is just opinion.

This is the first season I would probably pass on this guy. I've just started getting a little selective. That being said, shoot what you want and don't worry what other hunters say / think. It will drive you crazy. But, I might shoot him too...who knows.

So happy for you man! That's great.

Last year we had this enormous thread on here. https://www.njwoodsandwater.com/forums/topic/17901-getting-the-itch-to-purchase-a-xbow/#comments Someone posted about buying a xbow. After everyone posted saying whatever bow they happened to own was the best, the thread morphed into a whole discussion of whether a deer could have enough time between hearing a shot and the shot getting there to turn a good shot into a miss. I think we were mainly discussing high speed xbows (like 400 FPS or so) and distances of 20-30 yards. There was alot of disagreement of course. Some name calling and then (as usual) no one actually changed their mind from what it had been at the beginning. I was firmly in the camp that if you had a good shot and a 400 FPS xbow, there was no way a deer could move enough to turn a good shot into a miss at those distances. The main reason I was firm in that belief was that I believe when a deer is reacting it is dropping and not pushing or pulling itself down. I posted all kinds of formulas (Sir Isaac Newton's) based on how fast you can drop based on gravity and the numbers seemed to show the deer could only move a few inches at most at those conditions (400 FPS xbow / 30 yards) even if they had instantaneous reaction. I stumbled across this video. You can ignore the first 6 minutes. They do a whole set of tests on jumping the string. They base their tests on much slower FPS but one of the things they state at the beginning is that the deer is just dropping and can't move faster than gravity. So, I was thinking this had confirmed my understanding. But later they note that deer with their heads down seem to be able to move more as a reaction to the sound of a shot than deer with their heads up. Their conclusion was that when deer have their heads up, they are limited to just dropping (i.e. speed of gravity / falling object). But, when their head is down, they kind of throw their head forward which pulls their chest down and lets them do kind of a crunch which would allow them to move faster than gravity. They have a pretty convincing animation / video. Anyway, go to 6 minutes if you want to watch the whole thing or about 16:30 if you want to see the point about head up vs. head down. I think their presentation is pretty logical. I have changed my mind. Deer can move faster / more than I thought Now, I'm not going to do anything different with this info. I keep my shots short in any case. But, it is interesting... Video

I have a full size pickup and wanted to bring my ATV in the bed for deer recovery. But, then I need a place to put the deer if I get one. I was thinking of adding a hitch mounted cargo carrier. Any recommendations? Does anyone have one that would fit a jet sled in it well so I could just drag the deer onto it? I have a 2.5 inch receiver but have a conversion sleeve to get down to 2.0..... TIA