Big buck hunters here

[crazyfarmer]

just checking to see how many of you guys have limits to what size bucks you will take Ive been blessed with goodluck every year LOL so I always set limits of atleast wall mount material(board mount atleast which is normally 20inches in spread or thick mass). Ive passed 2 bucks so far this year, 1 6pt about 14inches wide and one yesterday which was 8pts and 20inches wide but had small G2's at 25yards. I know some arent blessed with alot of time in the woods so they cant pick and choose but does anyone here let the small ones walk? If so, whats your min size limits. Im not just a big buck hunter since I'm usually only like this during bow and ML seasons.. When general season opens here plenty doe get killed Already took 15 on damage tags this september

[Tigerpaw]

What do you do with 15 or more deers worth of meat? I can not eat more then 2 a year and have a hard time even giving it away when I am blessed with more then we can use.

[Partikle]

I passed on this 8 point lad last December. (Sorry for the poor photo quality, I had my flash turned off)
I haven't been out yet this year, I keeping away from my sweet spot until the last week of October. I'll let you know what I pass on.

[DuckHunt]

My personal size limit: No spots.

[vapredhunter]

I try to stay with the 8 points or better and spread wider then the ears. There are a couple of orchards I hunt that have kill permits and ask that I shoot all bucks or I am not welcome to come back. Sometimes what they don't know won't hurt them sometimes I shoot one just so they think I'm helping keep the population down.

[kevin]

I let smaller Buck's pass till around the middle of Nov. After that I'll take any Buck before gun season opens.

I almost always get mine at the end of Oct. or first few days of Nov. Thats always been best for me.

[Farmer]

Meat hunter here , bone is optional . ( Have tag will shoot )

[crazyfarmer]

I passed on this 8 point lad last December. (Sorry for the poor photo quality, I had my flash turned off)
I haven't been out yet this year, I keeping away from my sweet spot until the last week of October. I'll let you know what I pass on.

kinda like the one I saw a few days ago.. decent buck, but ive always found that if you let them go you might get grandpop thats walking behind Jr

Tiger, on those deer we have 3 options. We can process the deer for hunters for the hungry, use it for ourselves, or let the deer lay. Its a waste to let one lay, but in september deer here are so infested with ticks thats what we have to do. I hate doing that, but we have no choice when the deer eat about 50% of our crops


vapred, we have some landowners here where they want anything shot.. so its anything goes in those woods. Ive just always used bow and ML seasons as trophy weeks. Then as the year goes on its thin out the heard time. Since by then dogs have hit the woods hard here and the big bucks arent moving much during light

[Mike P]

My three hunting partners and I set our minimums at the beginning of each season. This is at our farm that is managed for whitetails. I and one of the partners each hunt one specific buck that we have on film but will take another buck if it appears to be 160 or better. The two remaining partners are newer at the game and have not killed the bucks that I or the other partner has so their minimums are down in the 140 range. We are fortunate to live in an area of large bucks so while these goals may appear to be lofty by some standards, they are not by ours.

We bring in hunters to kill “management” bucks and many are in the 140 to 150 range and for the most part they are large eights with racks that we want to eliminate from the breeding pool. We also bring in hunters to kill does as we strive to achieve a buck/doe ratio more to our liking, but we just can’t seem to eliminate enough does to achieve our goal. Most all of these hunters are clients of one of the partners. He is an attorney, but we don’t hold that against him, well, we really do, but we try to act like we don’t. We like to think of him as Denny Crane with a crossbow.

We are trophy hunters and at the extreme end of the spectrum. We make no apologies for our position. This being said, we also defend your right to determine your limits. Everyone’s circumstances are different. I have killed 59 bucks in my life, and this year I look forward to killing buck number 60. For me to shoot a small buck just makes no sense. But it makes sense for legions of other hunters.

If I had one wish regarding this subject, it would be this. Always shoot a buck that is larger then the buck you shot last. Constantly raise the bar. If everyone followed this rule the quality of bucks in every area would improve.

[BigUgly]

If it's brown it's down.

[Fox]

I find it interesting the difference from the States and Ontario, I guess we just do not have that much time or that many deer to be selective. When I hunt if I have a tag I drop it, mind you this is my 8th year of deer hunting, bow, rifle and shotgun and I have shot 2 deer, 1 in each of the last 2 years.

[diesel]

I to have change my position. I always use to want to shot bucks, did not care how much horn just so it had horn.
Now I have changed. I shoot does, they eat a lot better. One of my brothers once asked me , why would you want to shoot a buck unless it was big enough you were going to mount it. I too only need two deer a year. I'm very lucky as well because I have a great place to hunt will a lot of deer.
The last buck I shot scored 137" So my goal is it was be bigger than that. Most of my family is really tryiny to let the bucks go till they get to about 150" or more we killed two that big or bigger last year.
Now I do not care what size buck anyone shoots just like Mike P. says. For each his own.
I I shoot a buck it will have to be a big one.

[R.J.]

I have never scored any of my bucks .... I decide about 5 seconds before the shot ... It's nice to see and hunt a monster , but it is not what keeps me going !

Just being outdoors is " My Juice "

I have 3 tags this season ... will fill them all before Dec 31st ... hope to get a monster ( saw one yesterday ) .... but if an excellent rattling or grunt sequence pulls in a lesser buck , he will be the end to an exciting outing .

I understand the let the " younger bucks walk " routine , but in our neck of the woods that has few monsters and many hunters = most of the time you are letting them walk to the next hunter that will iron them out ...

Bottom line is ... enjoy your time outdoors , set your own goals and don't let anybody make you think you are less a hunter because you haven't harvested a large racked monster ! ....

Any whitetail harvested with archery tackle is a trophy in my mind !

I passed the young 7 point in this sequence a few years back because I had seen a 9 point piebald on the same property ... the 7 point provided me with an excellent photo squence and cool photo journal entry ... but he got ironed out by another hunter a few days later ...

To this day , I have never seen or heard of a harvest of the 9 point piebald ... always curious of his where abouts ?

[DanO]

You're right R.J. there are alot of hunters in the Guelph area. I certainly don't pass on any good shot because that deer won't be around long in the areas I hunt. Especially after the shotgun hunt!

I can't the believe the deer populations the U.S. posters seem to be seeing. Will out Ontario herd ever reach those kind of numbers? Anyone?

Dan O.

[vixenmaster]

Fer me its freezer meat. First come first served. I passed on a small Doe second day of season and haven't seen her since!