Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Hunting/Trapping 2014-2015

My apologies to all for bringing up such an unsavory topic. I was just outraged when I heard this news and needed to vent my angry. As my newly adopted PBF family, I nominated you to talk to about it!

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JKB,

I am heading for bed with that thought in mind. The elk in your case feed a hungry family. Thanks for talking to me. It really does help.

Bill

Nice, Theo!

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Must have been old baler twine. That stuff is tough.

Nice deer to get out of the gene pool.

Where did you hit it?

BTW, when did you quit wearing flaky looking hats? That one looks too sensible for you.

I agree. Eating that deer makes perfect sense to me.

Theo, did you scare it to death. I even put my glasses on to try to see the bullet hole but no luck. Take care, Friend.

In the back hay field.







Entrance hole is on the left side, just behind the shoulder and a little above the midpoint top-to-bottom. Exit hole is just in front of the right shoulder - you can just see a bare-ish looking patch of hair a few inches to the right of my thumb. The shot messed up the (right) shoulder a little, and I believe clipped the spine, as the deer dropped immediately, was paralyzed in the back legs, and couldn't move both front legs properly. I put a second round threw his neck, top to bottom, to finish him.

The picture is after I washed the body off (in & out) with a hose, so that's why no blood remains.


I can fondly remember when both you and Bill Cody had a nice, dry sense of humor.

Mr Theo - Ah yes the good 'old days'. Being a moderator and competing with all the witty members tends to harden your prospective on humor. LOL I know,,,,, we mods are supposed to set the standard.

It has been a good deer year here. I took a medium sized doe in the front yard last Friday. I had my choice of seven that were not paying any attention to me until I pulled the trigger. And this was on the next to the last day of the two-week buck-rifle season.

That deer had more fat than I've ever seen before on a deer.

I don't know if that means we had a great growing season, and or if the animals are getting ready for another very bad winter.

I believe I've seen 5 deer this season that started 11/1. A massive acorn drop stopped just about all movement.

Been trying to take a couple does to manage the population during muzzle-loader season and had seen a herd both yesterday and the day before, but without a close shot. Yesterday I saw where they came out of one of our stands of overgrown spruce Christmas trees, and this evening I stood downwind about 40 or 50 feet in my appropriate dark green camo. On cue a nice big doe came out, and as it worked out, I had my 3rd heart short of the season (dumb luck). When the smoke cleared, it lay about 50 feet from where it was shot. One of the largest does I had ever shot, so I ran my hand over its head to be sure it was not a button. Went back to the house and grabbed the jeep and my wife to load it up. My wife said that is a nice doe!. Then she said, but it smells like a buck. My wife takes over when I shoot a deer, so I knew something was up. I went back to the head and saw that it was a shed. No bumps - just small areas where the antlers had been (probably a 1 1/2 year old). I will be cleaning up the guns for the year. So much for managing the herd for trophy bucks this year. Best intentions thwarted by early shedding antlers...

Well, look at it this way. What I learned after I did the same thing as you is this:

The bucks that are stressed the most, and in the poorest body condition drop their antlers first. Bucks in great health and that aren't stressed drop their antlers late. I've seen bucks with antlers in late Feb.

So, there's the possibility that the buck that you shot might not have made it thru the winter if the winter turns out to be a hard one.

The buck that I shot in late ML season a few years ago had a broken rear leg. The leg bone overlapped itself about 1 1/2" and was starting to fuse itself back together. There was a knot on his leg about the size of a small softball. When I shot it I thought "Dang, that's a huge doe".

This guy appeared in great shape and was big and fat (guessing between 170 and 180 lbs live based on the 200 lb weight of the mature buck I shot earlier). I think the rut is often especially stressful for bucks without big racks. I really cannot see how to consistently avoid making this mistake once the racks start dropping. Our herd has lots of food including browse, crop residue, and alfalfa fields, but I have noticed earlier shed the last three years. I may put out 3 mineral blocks instead of just one next year. I just need to put them where I will never hunt. I think in the middle of the evergreen blocks would be perfect.