treeinwalker

wait just a minute This is early July dude, that buck ain't done yet. He's going to make a 150 before he's done. Antler growth finishes up by roughly the middle of July. This guy is going to put on a few more inches. Let us know when you got him on the ground.

second that motion... I secoond the motion. My choice here, if I had to pick ONE, would be the .243. I have a .243 that I use for coyotes. My wife uses it for deer hunting. There is a wide variety of ammo for this gun. I use Hornday's 58gr. customs for dogs, she uses 100 gr. customs for deer. It kills a deer just as good as it kills a dog-just use the right load and make sure it's sighted for that load before going out. She's killed 2 bucks and a hog with it and it all went down just as well as if my .270 had done the work. This is a very flat-shooting long-distance rifle. I set mine up for dogs at about 1" high at 100 yards. Most every shot around here for that gun is point-and-shoot.

I would call that a successful scouting trip. Those bucks aren't done just yet & won't be until about the end of July. Keep snapping the pics. Watch them grow. Nice work!

that's right.... Siince we've started a scent-control routine, we've seen 10X as many deer in the past 3 years than in all years previous. There are many people out there who loose deer that they never see. A deer can stare right at you and if you're perfectly still, never become alarmed, but if he smells you, it's off to the hills for him. There are occaisions where a friend will say "all that scent control crap is just a gimmick to get you to spend more money" and take a nice deer smelling like Tide, Aquafresh, cigarette smoke and Drakkar-Noir cologne. I try to remind them, that a deer can't smell what's up-wind from them and that in those cases, all the scent control in the world wouldn't matter. Scent control is for when that nice deer IS downwind from you, because when he is, he'll believe his nose over his eyes every time. It's hard for people to believe because we depend much more heavily on eyesight than our sense of smell. Deer, however, are different creatures, they depend much more on their sense of smell for survival than their sight. You can get a deer to second guess his eyes, he will never second guess his nose. Take that to the bank (or should I say to the taxidermist)!

dpends on time of year I start using mine in Aug. I leave it in an area that I have reason to believe is frequented by a big buck (another thread). If I don't get him in 2 weeks, I move it until I find something I want to hunt. If I get really nice deer on it, I laver it there and visit it very infrequently. Leaving it there 2-3 weeks at the time strings as little scent around as possible. If I get a pic of a buck and don't see him on the camera again, usually, I will put it back in that spot a couple of weeks before the rut and leave it there. Just before the rut gets into full swing, I'll check it to see what time of day he's there, which way he's entering the picture fro, etc. Is he muddy because he just came from the swamp? Does he have briars caught in his horns because he just came out of the cutover? Does he have cockelburrs stuck to him from the burr patch down the creek? All of these are clues and if he's not at my camera during legal shooting time, they will help tell me where he might have been during those times. Keep the camera moving every 2 weeks or so. Let it sit longer if you start scouting earlier than I do. Don't check it more than once per week. Lessening your intrusion is more important than getting the pics every week. Besides, if you are taking pics of a big buck, you need several days worth of pics to really pattern him. Just because he's there at 4:45 today, doesn't mean he'll be there at that time tomorrow. You want to get an average time he's going to be there and find out how he adjusts his movements and feeding patterns to the temperature, weather, etc. There's no harm in leaving the camera in a spot for 2-3weeks. However, if you're not seeing any sign, or getting any pics, move on. Again, don't worry too much about loosing a buck you got on camera. Do your scouting. If you think he's coming back, reinstall the camera in that spot during the pre-rut. Deer don't live by any set rules. Therefore there are no set rules for how long you should leave the camera there. If you see sign, but don't get a pic, move it to the sign, but be patient, you still have pletny of time to get up with ol' mossytines before deer season. Most inportantly, don't interrupt his pattern before the season comes in. Stay out of there as much as possible.

Gotta agree with that. I'm looking for my first m.l. right now, but I gotta say that it seems to me the T/C quality would be hard to beat. I'm looking for a rifle that will last many lifetimes. I don't mind paying for that. As long as it's within someone's means, I think going for enduring quality is worth paying for. Being able to pass down freedom to a new generation is definitely worth paying for.

They sell pads in "natural earth" scent also. I don't hunt ground blinds in NC usually until December because of the snakes, so I'm ususally up in a stand when the skeeters are out and the scent usually stays up high. By the time any of it makes it to the ground, it has dispersed enough so that there are few particles for the deers' noses to pick up. They can smell 'bout anything, but thier reactions are based on how strong the smell is. The less of an offensive smell particulate there is in the air, the less of a threat the deer percieve. They know if a smell is very faint whatever is making it is usually ver far away. The stronger it is, the closer it is to them. This is when they react. I like the contraption and it goes everywhere my gun goes until about the end of Nov.-first of Dec. Get the "natural earth" pads.