How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

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How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

<3
86
64%
3-5
29
22%
5-10
14
10%
>10
5
4%
 
Total votes: 134
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WV Bowhunter
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby WV Bowhunter » Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:43 pm

4 mature bucks seen, killed two and missed one of the other two. Still don’t know where that went wrong other than I knew he was a dead deer walking and was already field dressing him in my mind. Sure got knocked down to earth on that one for sure.


Luck is when preparation meets opportunity!!
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Jdw » Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:01 pm

I live in a one buck state and filled my tag early in the season on the first mature buck I encountered.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Tempy » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:17 pm

I had 3 encounters. 1 early October winded me, setup too far up the hill and got winded with dropping thermals. 1 came through before I could latch on to my bow midday November. The 3rd I killed at 8 yards. Believe it to be 4.5 year old, taxidermist agreed.

This is better than my previous years, but I also had more time. Makes me feel a little more confident that alot of you consistent killers also get few opportunities.
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Hawthorne
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Hawthorne » Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:27 pm

I saw 2. One I shot the other was 100-150 yds during bow season.I’d be happy with one opportunity a year at a mature buck. Gotta make it count.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby blackwidow » Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:04 pm

6.5 year olds- I have one buck to hunt in this age class. I've seen him 10 times so far this year I believe. 4 of those were within 100 yards. Haven't killed him yet. Still got a couple hunts yet, so if I'm lucky.....

5.5 year olds- I had one buck in this age class to hunt as well. I saw him 2 times from a stand, both within 75 yards. Didn't kill him either time.

4.5 year olds- I had 2 bucks to hunt on this same piece of property. I encountered each one of them only once. I killed one of the bucks.

3.5 year olds- I've had several encounters with bucks in this age class this year. To be honest, I have no idea what the count is. I don't keep up with the numbers on these bucks as I'm not interested in killing this age class.

BTW, this is on one piece of private that I have to hunt. I know, I"m spoiled. The farm that I own with my brothers, I had 2 encounters with a 3.5 year old buck, and one encounter with a buck that I believe was 4.5. I don't have quite the history with these bucks as the main place that I hunt.
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flinginairos
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby flinginairos » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:48 am

I had six encounters with what I consider to be a "mature" buck, which is 3.5 and older and killed three of them. Of the ones I killed two were 3.5 and the other 4.5. Had a 12 yard encounter with a 5+ year old brute while I was filming for a buddy but I consider that a success because we set up exactly like we needed to and one more step and that buck was dead. That is out of 30 hunts in a season so I think that is pretty dang good. Pre-beast I would be lucky to have an encounter with one 2.5 year old buck a year!
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Rich M » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:55 am

I only saw 1 deer on stand for 3 WMA hunts - large, mature FL buck at 170 yards in the middle of a palmetto flat at 09:00. Moved in and nothing - probably too close to his bedding and bumped him.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Rome » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:08 am

I had 3 outings that bumped my numbers up. I consider 3.5 yo as mature.

1. First week of September, had bachelor group of 5 mature bucks at 58 yards in North Dakota. Saw 3 other mature bucks that day too.

2. First week of Wisconsin season, mid September. Bachelor group of 3 mature bucks, then a lone mature buck.

2. First week of Nov, had 3 mature bucks chasing a doe, and 2 more cruised through area shortly after.

That's 17 from those 3 sits. Take those days out, and only saw 4 other mature bucks. That's the most mature bucks I've seen in a season, by a long shot. Interestingly, I had more deerless sits this season than any other season.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby wiscbowhntr » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:10 am

I approached the season a little differently this year. Normally I chase bucks all year. This year I chased does until Oct 15th. I killed my buck the first sit for a buck. The teeth came back as a 4yr old. I did some rut sits to video and shoot another doe. Could have shot a 130ish 9pt. So I only had two encounters, but didnt chase bucks that much this year. On average I have 3 to 4 encounters on bucks I would shoot, which is a 125ish caliber or up.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby BAS4109 » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:32 am

I saw 2 bucks that appeared to be 3.5. I shot one of them.

I think that we would be surprised if we really knew how old some of these bucks are. Bowsite does an buck age challenge every year and the overwhelming majority of people guess wrong.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby flinginairos » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:03 am

BAS4109 wrote:I saw 2 bucks that appeared to be 3.5. I shot one of them.

I think that we would be surprised if we really knew how old some of these bucks are. Bowsite does an buck age challenge every year and the overwhelming majority of people guess wrong.


I agree. I know for sure the one I killed this year was 4.5 because of trail camera pics for most of his life, the others are just a guess based on body/antler size. I have all the teeth from them and will be sending them in for cementum aging soon.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby llcooljames » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:34 am

I had 7 encounters with mature bucks this year. 6 of which were with my bow. 3 of those 6 was the same ten pointer. He dogged me all year.

I saw one mature buck with my gun and shot him. I figured he was 4.5, taxidermists first impression was 5.5.

Last 4 years before this one I saw no mature bucks. I hunted the same two stands every sit for 4 years. This year I didnt sight in the same tree more than twice. I also had 25 or more encounters with sub 100 inch deer. One was probbaly a 90 inch deer that I could have shot twice with my bow. Ive never killed a buck with my bow and wish I would have taken the shot. He was killed in gun season in November.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby Dhurtubise » Thu Jan 11, 2018 3:34 am

I said 3-5 but those are encounters where I actually had a good shot at them but failed to execute. In reality, I was within 50 yards of mature bucks at least 10 times but failed in the final stalk every single hunt this year, except on 4 different occasions, but then i screwed up in other ways ... :oops: :oops: Alot of those bucks, I never saw but I heard them and know they were mature because of the sign and because I chose them from the get-go, tracking them in snow.

One of them was the largest buck I've seen in the woods on the first tracking snow of the season, late October. He dwarfed my buck from last year that grossed approximately 161 inches and had an even bigger body than him too, well over 225 lbs. Maybe more like 280 lbs that early in the season - he was an easy booner, at least on gross scoring. He came out of some thickets as I was sneaking in after jumping him. He stopped broadside at 35 yards and stood there for what seemed like 10 seconds and let me take aim with just a little bit of brush between ourselves, but closer to me. I picked a hole, and squeezed the trigger and he bounded off out of sight instantaneously. After I regained some level of calmness, I walked over to the location where I shot him only to find 1/4 inch dark hair.... I gave him a haircut - shot just over his back. I tracked him for more than another mile, no blood or sign of a hit. My hunt was over shortly after since my partner was able to fill his tag and the day was waning. I had tracked this very buck three times the previous year and almost got him the first time I took his track then. I think three times a charm if he manages to evade the wolves again this year. I call him the Buzzcut Buck and he will be my number one target buck come the first snows of 2018. I feel like I know him like the back of my hand now after having tracked him all over his home range some 30 miles or so.

Another one of the encounters, I was tracking a buck with about a week left to the season. He had a real nice stagger and good long strides but he had smaller feet. I assumed it was a 2 year old based on the hooves so I wasn't taking him too seriously and doubted I would take him if I saw him. I knew at one point that I was approaching his bed and slowly eased my way over the top of a small ridge. He jumped 5 yards from me, and I could immediately see he was a very large bodied buck with 140-150 inches of antlers and decided ok.. this one is definitely good enough. He ran in an arc 5-7 yards broadside. I raised my rifle and centered the pin on his vitals...... and I shot him with my safety on.. :oops: :oops: I tracked him all day and jumped him 5 more times without ever getting another shot. This is the Safety Buck and since he's not the biggest or oldest in the area his lives in, I doubt I'll be looking for him particularly for another year or two.

Another one - I just passed on him. I played with him for 10 minutes at 15 yards until he circled my location and winded me (at 6 yards). He new where I was but couldn't make me out because I was crouched and had some brush around me. I had grunted him in after jumping a small group of does, early November. He was a good bodied deer but his rack was underwhelming and I chose to keep my tag a little longer... And it turns out he wasn't the buck I was tracking. I ran out of daylight on that track.

I had a bunch of other close encounters this year and several bucks that picked up names - most notably the Orchestra Buck which will be a solid No.2 on my hit list for next year. I tracked him 3 times this year and came very close twice and he is HUGE. I'm getting better at this tracking game but I still have quite a bit of work to do. That final approach is always tricky and old snow and deep snow makes things hard as well. The knowledge I gained here on the Hunting Beast is invaluable for what I do because I am almost always tracking bedded bucks. The understanding of how and where bucks bed and how they set their wind and visual traps is the single most important piece of the puzzle if you want to get within shooting range while tracking. Furthermore, I learned about tracking here, although I now rely on a wide variety of references.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby IkemanTx » Thu Jan 11, 2018 3:45 am

Mature... 1
I had the wrong day curse most of the season. Target bucks would be on camera the day before, or the day after I hunted every other week or so. And typically well into daylight too. That’s what I get for spending a whole season on one buck...
Go where none other dare to go, and there you'll find success.
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Re: How many mature buck encounters did you have this year?

Unread postby BAS4109 » Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:07 am

flinginairos wrote:
BAS4109 wrote:I saw 2 bucks that appeared to be 3.5. I shot one of them.

I think that we would be surprised if we really knew how old some of these bucks are. Bowsite does an buck age challenge every year and the overwhelming majority of people guess wrong.


I agree. I know for sure the one I killed this year was 4.5 because of trail camera pics for most of his life, the others are just a guess based on body/antler size. I have all the teeth from them and will be sending them in for cementum aging soon.


Please share the age results when you get them. That is always interesting to me. I sent in a tooth to deerage 2 years ago and they confirmed that the buck was 3.5.


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