Mossy_71

Congrats on a nice deer. Judging by the photos, he appears to be on the mature side. Nice to see people up their standards. Deciding to harvest mature deer will be a tough undertaking but the benefits of future hunting will be rewarding by allowing your deer to reach more of the potential. Good story!

I agree with the above. Good luck in your search tomorrow. Be sure to post some pics!!

.22 or .17 and a good spotlight. Knowing what type of feeder you are referencing might would produce more responses. Is it a gravity, trough, broadcast, etc. feeder?

dbHunterNY, I would like to suggest the following linked article on judging deer on the hoof. It will give you some body characteristics to look for in helping make better judgements on a deer's age before the shot. Verifying the age after the kill is still a good idea to help you gauge your ability and make adjustments to you criteria interpretation but does little to help you with improving the age structure of your herd. By no means should antler size be weighted high on the list for determining age-class. http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=85 Hope this will help.

Not sure where you are located, but I would check the state game laws concerning baiting, especially if you are in a region where there have been previous CWD or EHD breakouts.

What type of help are you looking for? Not sure I saw a question. Thanks,

That's what I'm talking about. Isn't life great?

How is the acorn crop--if any--in your area? If you can find an area that has dropped alot, i would locate a stand site off of any trail coming or going if you can find them. We were up in TN this weekend and all of the deer we saw (not hunting) where in the acorns and very, very few in the plots.

Congrats to the both of you!! Isn't it great to share the passion of deer hunting with your children. Kudos to you as a dad!!!!

Good link, GW. Thanks!

New OSU Logo

Congrats on the harvest. What's the deer's age?

Live in Birmingham and hunt in Tallapoosa County. Not too much been going on. According to the game cameras, the bucks are still in bachelor groups. I have had as many as 4 big racked 2.5 year old deer on the fields together over the last month and a half and all at night. I have started to see some sparse rubs, but no scrapes. Maybe this cold weather will get something sparked. A February rut does little good for us.

Oh yeah, someone needs to tell Tressel that sweater vests are not in.

OSU is what...0-8 (?) versus SEC opponents. They were totally out-played, out-coached, and yes MUGGS, out-ran by a much superior team from a much superior conference. I don't need to follow the lead of any ESPN announcer. I eat, live and breathe SEC Football. It is simply the best and toughest conference in college football. Who won Big Ten Coach of the Year...Ron Zook at the Fighting Illini. Where was his last coaching job prior to that...let me remind you, Florida Gators. Looks like he learned a few things by coaching in this far better conference for such a short time. Took it to IL and handed it to Wisconsin and OSU this year.

Being new to the forum, it is great to start off by reading such an impressionable post. I am a firm believer that too often people get caught up in the whole "size matters" craze. Not that I am bashing it, because believe me I'm not. I just hope that people that are fortunate enough to have such reachable high expectations stay grounded enough to realize that: It should never be more about the harvest than the experience, and The term trophy has different meanings to different people and that should be respected. By the original post, I believ that you are someone that has come to realize this and thanks for acknowledging. And by the way, that was an awesome deer you took and a great story to boot. I wish you, as well as everyone else, a lifelong of trophies. I look forward to sharing everyone else's experiences as well as my own. Thanks, Mossy_71