Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Deer Season '24/'25 Thread

We don't have the trophy deer around here that you folks have in the plains states. We pretty much have neighborhood deer and many of them pretty destructive to the landscape. I'm happy my 11th grade son has kept his interest in hunting. He has watched his game camera pictures and can often recognize the bucks he saw last season on this year's cameras, with a little growth in body and in the antlers. It is cool that he gets to recognize various deer as they move through and then can see some new bucks that also travel mostly at night.

He had his hopes set on what looked to be a very nice 8 point but the deer was cautious and only seen on cameras at night. He has spent a lot of hours in various blinds and stands and watched a lot of smaller does and a few spike antler bucks chasing them around. He would prefer to get one with a bow as he has only been successful last year with a gun. He didn't take a shot with his bow prior to gun season. He uses a Stevens 301 20 gauge with single shot break barrel. (sorry if I get the lingo wrong as I'm still new to all of this)

This week he watched a new buck not seen on camera before come into a clearing after a doe and decided to use part of his combo tag to harvest it. The body seemed lean but the rack was pretty symmetrical. We get to put some more venison sticks in the freezer and he was happy to have his first set of authentic antlers to use for rattling in other bucks.

The first 2 pictures attached are my son's deer.




I'll also attach a game camera picture of the desired larger 8 point.





Sadly he got word today that another hunter we BELIEVE got the larger 8 point in a protected apple orchard just beyond the rear of our property. When seeing the desired deer in real life one can see the antlers seem to have some real unusual bends in them. I expected with the larger antlers the body would be more solid but this deer also looks skinny. Can someone take a guess if the deer in the night time game cam pick is the same one in the last picture?