Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What antler charcteristic is your weakness?

Ditto.

A lot of other antler characteristics require some reflection and study. Mass leaps out and slaps you in the face....even at distance....without alpha binoculars.

You know it's time to shoot. No questions.

When I see the buck and think, 'I'd pay $400.00 to put that one on the wall', then it meets my criteria to be a shooter.

Drop tines.

ringworm, I have killed a bunch here that looked like that. I don't see them as much as I used to, so maybe I am doing some good. miles

Mass, mass, mass. The thicker the better and I like it when it carries it's girth through the whole rack, especially tines.

Generally my weekness is the first one with legal antlers.

When Karen and I used to hunt near Jordan, Montana, we'd usually spend the first couple of days just driving around and figuring out what kind of bucks were on the ranch ... that year.

Sometimes, the good-to-great bucks would be up and out of the Missouri Breaks and sometimes they weren't.

Anyway, on about the third day, we'd start picking our deer.

THEN, one year, this was the very first deer I saw and I fell in love with the shape of his antlers. So, he just had to die.

I killed him with my .280 Ackley Improved using a prototype 160-grain Ballistic Tip. He was right at 400-yards. Normally, I would have stalked him, but I wanted him so badly, I just killed him right there.

BANG - FLOP KILL

To my way of thinking, he had it all. Nope, I've never put a tape on him ... Why spoil it?

Blessings,

Steve

In chocolate

That was me, back in 2007, talking about shooting "The Big One." in The Savage Speaks Again.

I have not shot anything bigger than TBO since. In fact, I'm probably due. Of course, I've been telling myself that for 7 years now. Up until TBO, I had a simple rule:

Only shoot a buck if he was bigger than last year's. That worked up to a point. Then I had to add provisios like:

1) If you don't shoot a buck the previous year, the scale resets
2) If you have to finish off a wounded buck, the scale resets
3) . . .

. . . pretty soon it was meaningless. I finally had to admit that I was just another naked ape with a rifle and gave up.

The problem was, after TBO, where do you go? Granted, the state record came from the next county over. TBO was 275 lbs. I've seen 300 pounders. However, I got to figuring one day and came up with a number: at any given time, there less than a dozen deer bigger than TBO roaming my county.

Since 2007, I've shot my #3 and #4 best deer. I've also passed on a nice 10 pointer that came right under my stand in 2010 during October Muzzleloader Season, and after he was gone I got to asking myself why I'd let him walk. The best answer I could find was that shooting that animal would have pretty well ended my season a month before Deer Camp officially opened.

That's my first weakness. I love the ritual of Deer Camp and hunting in those few weeks in November. Little else matters.

My other weakness? It all comes back to TBO. I'm fairly certain I will have a bigger deer in my sights some time before I die, but until he shows up, I'll always be asking myself if I should hold out for something bigger or be happy with what just stepped out from behind the cedars.

whent out the front door and looked over the hill and it looks like we have some dinks hanging around.this is the same deer in all pics.

I'll come down and cull for you, if you need me to.

DMN dinks!

Hi David. I don't know if he is going to make it much longer. watched some tag team bow hunters after him last night they took a shot but clean miss i watched it all unfold from the yard here. i do know a guy is next in line when muzzy open up if he can manage to make it through that then i have a third season tag.but by then i hope the the dinks dad shows up. he is here but as long as they want to chase babys im not telling them that daddy is here to.

I'm rooting for you.

Nice thats what dreams are made of.

Here is one I took a few years back

These days, antlers small enough that I don’t feel compelled to get the buck shoulder-mounted. Still fail in that once in a while.

These days, antlers small enough that I don’t feel compelled to get the buck shoulder-mounted. Still fail in that once in a while.

Here in Maryland, we don't get the giant massive bucks like some of you guys have in the midwest. We absolutely don't have Mulies.

But here are a couple that float my boat.