I wasn't aware that all such parameters were recorded on the hunt. It lays bare your Teutonic heritage... and database mgmt background...
FC
I started a Lotus 123 worksheet way, way back and then lost it in the divorce. After we got the farm, I started keeping it again in Excel, but struggled to get back the original data. Eventually, I was able to find a source of historical weather data and got a pretty good estimation of the conditions for the previous 20 years of data.
Nowadays, I've got the weather station. As long as I get on it within a day or so, I have pinpoint information of what was going on when deer are taken.
When I started to write, I saw all sorts of claims about weather, moon phase, etc. The only way to be sure what was bunk was to keep my own records. Your two deer are the 93rd and 94th records in the log. I have to admit to all sorts of biases. For instance, everyone at camp tries for a time to take a buck before filling a doe tag. As a result, the majority of doe in the log are taken in the afternoon after Friday of the first week. Also, the log shows that your best bet for taking a buck is before 1000 ET of the Rifle Opener. That's because we often see a decent buck on the first morning and then take it without waiting for something bigger to come along. Of course, your monster belies that trend. However, I can say unequivocally that the chances of sighting a buck with a good rack goes down as the season wears on.
What you shot was the epitome of our large bucks. They're very mobile during November and cover a very large range. I doubt we ever saw him prior to your encounter. We tend to only have 1-2 mature bucks on the farm at any given time. Our happy little doe herd keeps them coming. You were as much of a surprise to him as he to you.
I also started keeping a turkey harvest log. This has been far less revealing. Bottom line: turkeys are about as random as you can get. Identical conditions on the same day in different years produce nearly opposite results.
