Yesterday I let this guy walk, to grow another year...

yep. sure 'nuff........

looks to me, he's asking you the same.

For me if you plan to hunt that spot next season then you done good.

If not then yeah you're getting old....BUT maybe good or better!

Either way great spot!!

Well, at least you're young enough to be able to wait until next year.

He's the best looking deer I've seen on the lease. So maybe I'll let him breed a few does

Well just the fact that you "could have..." should mean something. Nice pic.

Looks like a young deer. He won't be that tame next year, I'll bet.

You may never get a shot at him when he's bigger....... but if you shoot him this year, it's for damn sure certain that you won't.

I'd say, good for you...
ked

Some of the shots that we don't take are just as meaningful as many of the shots that we do take.

there is a lot of wisdom in that statement....

That's pretty touching Tex . . .

Thanks for sharing.

Let's hope he makes it and isn't seen by another guy. Nice to let him go.

I bet you'd have felt a bit younger if that buck had sported about a 9" drop tine...

Patrick, in the late 'nineties I was sitting under an old post oak tree that had limbs drooping all the way to the ground, making a natural blind. I was watching one of my box hog traps with corn scattered out in front of it and soured corn inside.

One by one, young bucks came and fed on the corn a good while. I believed all of them to be 1 1/2 Y O with small 8 point racks.... except one.

He appeared to be the same age as the others, but he behaved differently. He never came fully out of the brush but I could see he had a ten point frame and appeared to have some trash points.

I figured I'd see him again next year, but I didn't. Nor the next year or the next.

I forgot about him, figuring one of my neighbors killed him. But I saw signs of a good buck each year.

Then, in 1999, about 150 yards from where I had sat watching the young bucks that day, and after finding signs of a big deer, I threw up an elevated box blind.

And killed this deer:



174 gross, 163 6/8 net NT, with 18 score-able points.

At the base of his right antler, on the rear, there is an "L" point with each leg of the "L" being about an inch. For several years, someone would kill a young buck with that "L" point in the same place, but often only an 8 point.

In spite of all my "schooling", my young lease partners just couldn't pass up young 10 points, and the last one killed in that pasture that had the "L" point was only 1 1/2 YO. He had an inside spread of about 15 inches and 15 points. That was 3 years ago.

I hope you are rewarded for doing the right thing.

Another Viewpoint, maybe Patrick was just not hungry enough. miles

true dat.

I did take a cull buck on opening weekend.



Oh yeah, after all the deer left Saturday evening, a group of jake turkeys wandered in. I'm having wild turkey for Thanksgiving

Look at it as "reaching maturity," not getting old. Either way, I think that you made the correct call.

The first time I realized I was getting old, it had nothing to do with a deer. I broke one of the golden rules.

I trusted one fart too many.

I knew that day, I was officially old.

Very well said.

I am 75 now and have not taken a shot at big game for about 3 years. I miss it a little but enjoy seeing them in the wild.

Hmmmm????

How many of us can relate to this????????????????????

Nice deer.....hope you see him again.

we had a winter kill in 95-96 i believe spring south slope count on my driveway went from over 100 count to 30 did'nt kill anything for 2 years , there was twin mulie bucks that had beautiful racks, much better to let them build the future herd.

norm

Tex,
Nice rifle. My grandfather bought his Win. M-1907 .351 WSL brand new in 1909. For thirty years it was his only rifle. He took several deer with it and a few woodchucks. It sits in my safe as I type this. Your picture prompts me to get it out into the sunshine once again. Thanks for sharing.

Hell Pat, your just a pup, I am 78 yrs old and still guide hunters almost every day you want big deer you have to let the nice young ones walk,it will pay off in the end.Rio7

that is what I keep telling myself. Hopefully everyone else gets the memo and lets him go, as well Last year I let a nice young 7 point go and he hopped the fence and got killed by the landowner's 10 year grandson

That's a pretty boy!

You would have missed anyways......

Good choice. Regardless of age.

No, I had my .270