TN Bucknasty

Definitely not steam. You're liable to rehydrate the hide and cause a lot of problems. You can take a cotton swab and use windex or alcohol on the skin and glass areas.

I can't guarantee it to be ethanol free. It may contain traces of Uncle Jesse's "corn extract".

Regular Unleaded or Premium?

I can't picture a scenario with that conversation ending well.

This is going to sound ridiculous, but it happened. I'm not necessarily recommending it either. I read somewhere that you could rake back the leaves and pee on the ground under a low lying branch, and deer would take over your scrape. Out of curiosity, I tried it. I put up a trail camera, and over a three week period, the scrape was investigated by bucks, does, a racoon, a coyote, and a couple of dogs. I got pictures of all of the listed animals urinating in the scrape, and it was still bare when I packed up the camera.

Choot 'em!

I've mounted a few Florida and South Carolina bucks this year for people, and I'd say that he's 3.5 with around 75 inches of antler.

The first has the typical belly and deep neck that meets the brisket of a 4.5 year old. Because there is no sag in his back, I don't see him as being older than that. Score- 145. If you covered up the second deer's rack, I'd swear by the long legs, thin neck, etc. that he was 2.5. Closer to November, he'll beef up a little more and his body might begin match the rack he's sporting which would be more fitting of a 3.5 year old. I'd estimate his score at 120-125. At any rate, he has the potential to be a monster.

Here's something that I don't get to do very often. The client was pleased.

Yes sir, that is a McKenzie 4000 series. That is one of my favorite forms.

Oops, forgot one.

A couple more.

I've had a pretty nice run on catfish. Here are a few pics. All are rod and reel catches. I don't run trot lines, jugs, etc.

Rarely do I get a chance to work on my own stuff, but here is my last KS buck I call Scarface because of the marks on his snout.

The tail mechanism is something made for regular, plastic decoys. I just modified the form and installed a metal electrical box to secure it to. I also glued hair onto the foam tail that came with the tail flicker.

Thank you, sir. Good to make it back.

I built a decoy using a real deer. The antlers are removable, it is reinforced with all thread, the tail flicks every 8 seconds, instead of clay, I used apoxie sculpt on the eyes and other areas for durability, and I even made a blaze orange cover with an accessory pocket and a handle on it. I put it up in my yard just to test the mechanics and stability, and my neighbors started driving into the ditches because they were staring. I'm excited to try this thing out.

My boat was stolen out of my yard recently. The thief was apprehended, but most of my tackle was gone, and my hull and trailer were completely destroyed. Insurance is only covering $1,000 toward my boat, but they are going to cover $1,100 toward my missing equipment. Here's the BS I was told this morning by my adjuster- I have to provide receipts showing that I purchased replacement items for each piece of stolen property. So basically, I am required to purchase life jackets, fire extinguishers, anchors, etc. when I can't afford a boat. Not only that, but they are paying $1,000 less than the actual replacement cost of the equipment. Example- The thief stole 5 gallons of 2 cycle oil so I have to buy 5 gallons of 2 cycle oil. This applies to all of the listed items. I guess I'm gonna spend the summer sitting on my front porch in my life jacket with my fancy new fishing equipment. If it gets windy, I'll just throw out the anchor in the front yard. Maybe I'll just use the damned oil to make a mixed drink or something.

I wasn't using trail camera pictures in those figures. I also get many pictures of the same deer over and over, but they stick around for a few weeks, then disappear or move on. I don't usually actually lay eyes on the same young bucks too many times because I rarely hunt the same area consecutively unless I'm targeting a specific buck. We are supposedly carrying the same density here as well.

3 months of chasing deer with firearms here explains a lot, too. I don't think my numbers are all that impressive. I'm just putting in A LOT of hours (30-35 hours in a regular week/ 50+ hours on weeks off) on multiple properties. I was counting this season, too making it almost 5 years.

Here is why I don't trust the state data. McNairy County- 1,427 deer tagged/ 1 aged Hardin County- 1,254 deer tagged/ 0 aged Hardeman County- 3,003 deer tagged/ 10 aged Catoosa WMA (4 points on a side rule)- 50 deer aged Oak Ridge WMA (antler restrictions just lifted)- 40 deer aged Representation is not uniform, therefore results WILL be skewed. Also, let's think about aging for a second. If I'm collecting data, and I'm only aging one or two deer per year in a place, am I more likely to age a spike or a twelve point? I'm not saying our state data is any better or worse than any other state. I am saying however, that the data is unreliable. The only way to know is to put your own time in and find out.

Bucks Only- 187 individual bucks spotted in 5 years not counting trail camera pictures. One 4.5 year old (.5%) and eight 3.5 year olds (4.3%). So when counting only individual bucks, the figures for bucks above 2.5 years old comes up to 4.8%. All Deer- 72% of bucks were only spotted once. If this number holds true for does, that would mean that I've seen 282 individual does. So of a possible 469 individual deer total, 9 have been bucks above 2.5 years of age. That comes out to 1.9%.

Yeah, I've noticed that the only counties to log significant numbers of age data are ones where managed hunts are conducted on WMA's. Most of those have antler restrictions. My county and 3 of the four neighboring counties have had 1 or 0 registered each of the last 5 years. I don't blame the agency for not keeping up with it. They have their hands full enforcing the law already. I just think that the available information is misused and could be very easily skewed.

This is a legit question. Let me crunch a few numbers, and I'll put out some figures on buck sightings.

I know what you mean about what the biologists say. They are really defensive about it here, too. Just mentioning the words "age structure" puts them on edge.