Dougfirtree
Well-known member
No western trip for me this year. I've been hunting close to home, mostly with my kids. I got out tracking once last week when winter showed up for two days, but today was supposed to be sunny, calm and 68 degrees. I decided to try to fill a doe tag I drew for a large island in a large lake nearby. I'd never hunted there before, but figured it would be a fun thing to do on a beautiful day.
There were a couple of impressive rubs, but I wasn't seeing any does.
All of a sudden, I heard a crunch, looked up and a buck had just stood in his bed about 40 yards away. I could see that his antlers were outside of his ears, but that's about it. His body looked big. I thought hard about passing, as I hate to limit the amount of tracking I can do later in the season, but tagging out now would make it easier to get the kids out some more... and there's something that just rubs me wrong about passing on a racked buck in the Adirondacks...
He turned out to be a large-bodied deer with modest antlers. From the thickness of his bases, I'd say he's at least 3.5 years old (and obviously, he was a fighter)!. In any case, this was my first experience driving the buck home in the boat and I liked it.
I still have a late muzzleloader tag here and a Vermont tag as well, so I should be able to get some more tracking in this year. Hope everyone else had a good day, too!
There were a couple of impressive rubs, but I wasn't seeing any does.
All of a sudden, I heard a crunch, looked up and a buck had just stood in his bed about 40 yards away. I could see that his antlers were outside of his ears, but that's about it. His body looked big. I thought hard about passing, as I hate to limit the amount of tracking I can do later in the season, but tagging out now would make it easier to get the kids out some more... and there's something that just rubs me wrong about passing on a racked buck in the Adirondacks...
He turned out to be a large-bodied deer with modest antlers. From the thickness of his bases, I'd say he's at least 3.5 years old (and obviously, he was a fighter)!. In any case, this was my first experience driving the buck home in the boat and I liked it.
I still have a late muzzleloader tag here and a Vermont tag as well, so I should be able to get some more tracking in this year. Hope everyone else had a good day, too!
