Hold your position,never give up your post,stick and stay and make um pay....I know these all very well but failed to heed them. I sat my stand I specifically hung 2 days before the season opened this Saturday with one buck in mind the big drop tine buck.I sat in that stand from 5:45am till a bit after 1 PM . I saw 1 doe and a fawn at 10 am not much shooting going on around the area. I made the fatal decision of thinking the grass would be greener on another property that also held some big bucks and rumor of the piebald I've been after the past season still being alive and running the pines I hunt was a sirens song to go try. Things went south at that property shortly before 4 pm when some one unloaded very close to me in the pines had a slug crackle through trees and branches falling. I left disgusted after I was sure I wouldn't catch a stray round .

Anyway I hunted back at the original property till noon Sunday and retrieved my camera cards.It was a good morning with 11 doe and 3 buck seen but not who I was looking for. When I got home I checked the cards and wanted to slit my wrists....


Here you have me in stand and the dink walking by in the morning





Here you have my empty stand and the object of my obsession 15 yds away!



Droptine passed another of my cameras on the way to the stand

You have him surrounded.

It’s just a matter of when, not if.

When I decided to use a camera for fun, it didn't take me long to figure out that I didn't want it on during hunting season.

It doesn't matter what is there when you aren't. Though a pic of you looking at the dink while the droptine slinked behind your stand would be hella cool

Dude !! You need to be out their every chance you get!!! Drill that frigging Buck! Do a 10 or 11am to dark hunt on him possibly
He might have hunters morning times in the woods patterned in his deer mind . Kill him!!!

Nice buck. Best get him before some one else does

Wow missed by that much.Frustrating also fun,hang in there.

That happens a lot, but it's always frustrating.

Well Dan..to play the devils advocate here....isnt it a bad idea to sit the same stand a number ofttimes in a row? Seems like your presence would kind of pollute the area and gradually move the deer out...I don't know, never having hunted them that way...

Not if you hunt it on the right wind

That's why they call it hunting, and not killing. I predict we'll see another photo of that buck before it's over.

Notice he came through at 4:20? That's the code for getting high. The buck must have figured that's a safe time since the hunters are back at the truck firing up.

Joking aside, I hope you get him. That is a hell of a nice buck!

That is a funny observation.

I got a funny story from this year.
Opening day of rifle a group of three whoppers walked along my south fence line on the neighbors side. I did not shoot , since I did not have permission. Same as the last three years. Since I moved there. Took 6 days to get the one I wanted, where I wanted.

I invited another neighbor over for dinner last week. He told me when the plots were surveyed I actually own about 10 yards of the southern neighbors field other side of the fence.

Looks like you had Murphy for a hunting guide. You'll get him and it'll be even sweeter.

Still alive I think I saw him this morning but no shot it was a shooter for sure
He was on 3 different cameras last night between midnight and 3:40 am dogging doe

That's it. I unfortunately go days without hunt just because the wind isn't right for my property. A south/southwest wind fuggs me terribly bad. It's best to not go on those days.

you will get him.

Don't think that anyone mentioned it, but no matter if we play the wind right and do everything we can not to do anything wrong; sometimes those old wise bucks just know when a hunter is in his stand. I don't use cameras, just for some of these reasons. Hunting can be frustrating enough without the burden of knowing that big boy walks by 15 minutes after you got down to eat a ham sandwich.

Not to be trite,

BUT

That is why we go hunting much of the time.

That old right place right time conundrum.

Sure hope you guys listened to Steelhead's advice here. If they smell you, chances are they won't come in.

I actually don't see why its such a big deal if someone else shoots a good deer to so many.

I"m happy for whomever gets a good one. And a good one to them, not just inches....

Good point, I've lost count of the times I've been at the right place at the wrong time......

But doesn't that make it the wrong place?

Agreed. Wholeheartedly.

Killed my first whitetail a looooong time ago still hunting.

Took off from the truck where I wanted to go, simply couldn't get the wind with me, so I went back, crossed the road and hunted in the direction I didnt want to go, just to keep the wind with me. Voila! Dead deer in very few minutes!

I don't see where anyone was bothered by it but we're all pleased-as-punch to know where you stand on this.

This lesson applies to those fine Wally World customers browsing the dozens of "scent control" products and not one single bottle of wind powder on the shelves....

I keep checking back, I don't want to miss the hero shots! Maybe I should just stay here?

So when you got the wind in your face, did it keep your matchlock burning brightly?

Oh you are gonna smoke a turd in hell for that one

Have hunted 19 days in a row not knowing if the buck was even still alive...he is and has resurfaced

Get on him

You must endeavor to persevere

Well, at least you know the drop tine buck is still alive and in your stand area.....hope you tag him...

I've done the same thing with gobblers. Never leave the one you roosted and started. I've left birds for what I thought were "hotter" ones. Only to have the first one holler at me from where I was sitting at first light. While the "hotter" bird walked off with his harem. Start em,and stay with em. At least until you are sure it's over.

He's screwing with me
22 days in a row of hunting and counting

That sucks but at least you know he's still alive. I'm pretty confident you'll get him before its all over. Good luck!

What you have there is a now nocturnal buck and a nearly nocturnal one back on opening day. Just look at those pictures time stamp. What you need is a fawn doe of the year coming into her first estrus about now to get him back on his feet during daylight hours. You have enough photographs of him in that area, so you know that he is pretty happy being there or he would have left or been on someone else's meat pole by now. You are not exactly invisible up on that stand of yours and you do make some noise getting in and out of that stand. Your deer didn't get that old by being ignorant and he probably has been counting the days that you have been there too. I had a big buck that made a new rub on a tree at night very close to where I had posted that day several days running, so he knew I was there. I went to a seminar once where a guy from the audience asked how do you hunt a nocturnal buck? The speaker said when you jump him up and he runs, then he isn't nocturnal anymore. The watch out is jumping him up and he gets shot by someone else. Been there and done that too many times. Maybe have a buddy jump him up for you with you on a stand. A friend of mine had a similar stand set up to yours and he put a manikin in a hunting suit in that stand so that the deer got use to seeing a person shape up there. Once a deer gets about 4.5 years old, about the only chink in their armor is the rut because they do not feel comfortable walking around during the daylight.

He knows when you are there and when you aren't.

Horse crap to all that pucky....he's not bedding on the property I have permission to hunt so jumping him isn't an option
Waiting for him to make a mistake or not is the only choice
He was nocturnal before the season started he was either bumped or after a doe opening day and yes need a doe to come in late to draw him out in light
Had my chance weather he gives another is doubtful but I'll be there if he does
He doesn't see me in the stand because he's not moving when I'm in the stand
And yes thats why I'm so successful killing big buck during archery season the rut is the best chance of them slipping up

With 22 days under your belt, you sure get high marks for determination. You have an entire rooting section here hoping that you get him, but we sense your frustration. That saying: "If you always do what you've done, you'll always get what you've got" comes to mind. If you have a good idea of where he beds during the day and an estrus doe is not helping you get him moving into where you can hunt him, have you tried putting out estrus scent yourself when you have the right wind direction? It is probably real late in the season to be putting up another stand closer to where he beds, but you might catch him at first or last light that way. Maybe a mock scrape with some buck in rut tarsal gland. That deer needs to think that another boss buck is in the area. Post rut they get real hard to hunt because they don't move much. From the pictures it sure looks like he has plenty of brouse to feed on, so post rut you might catch him in a feeding pattern when winter sets in. It looks like NY is getting snow now, so after a storm front everything on four feet is out there moving and feeding. He can pattern you and probably faster than you can pattern him. I've had a big one make a 180 degree turn and leave when he came to my boot track. Security is job one once they get big like that outside of the rut. Good hunting.

I FULLY understand your pain. I've had similar experiences and I still dream about it 20 years after it happened. Try to forget. It will be less painful.

You can only cover what you can cover. Can't worry about the rest. I hunt for enjoyment. If I think I'd be enjoying myself in another spot, I go hunt that spot.

-Jake

Any chance U can draw a " claymore" permit?

LOL... Good visual in my head.

I would have NEVER hunted that close to a mature buck with a gun. 100 yards is a MINIMUM. Good Luck

I think that is excellent advice.

LMAO

Lol, distance means squat.
It’s all about wind.

I disagree. If one is stand hunting, just the act of being there.......especially me.....

I am a smelly bastid with filthy habits...

If one gets too close to a core area....

Adios.

How ever with the consistent night footage in this case...

There is hope!

Best of luck and Merry Christmas!

The biggest deer I've ever seen in my area (and passed on the year before because it was in my neighbor's field) was killed by someone else, 30 yards in front of where I'd been sitting, 10 minutes after I got up and left. In a torrential downpour. "This is crazy, no deer is going to be walking around in this, they'll be bedded down under a hemlock somewhere." Uh.. yup.

Hunted this 10pt in the Adirondacks,N.Y. 12 straight day's dawn till dusk.Hit his scrape every night.No where to be seen in daylight.

I think with out the pressure of cold weather

Good bucks become good bucks by being nocturnal

So it is very hard to see them move in daytime.

After 29 days in a row I got it done this afternoon

Well done....

Great eye guards.

Congrats, Dan!

Fantastic, we were all pulling for you. Same stand? What time did you get him? We need details. Darn few of us would have that kind of determination.

Ya got him in your front yard? Way to go man!

Congrats! Where's the drop tine?

This isn't the droptine buck he was actually the buck I left that stand for on opening day
different property.
Unfortunately I didn't have a preferred food source on the 15 acre I have permission to hunt
The property I killed this buck had a cut bean field that the deer were hitting like mad so made the choice to hunt him when the frigid cold and snow came in this past week

You shot one of Santa's reindeer in your front yard?!


Nice buck regardless!

Next Christmas you can wait for 'ol Droptine to wander past the front porch...........

I hunt alone so unfortunately I had nobody to take a picture till I got home....Deb wasn't to happy about having to do it lol

Dang nice buck, congrats.

Drop Tine made it through the season

heckuva buck dvd! Congrats, and I commend your patience and tenacity!

Good stuff!

Congrats!

This^^^.

If it had been me and a camera was at tge second place, he or the piebald would have shown there. They have this habit of being where you aint, or at least where i aint, anyway

She'll get over it.