So how did we fail to take one or some of the larger “shooter” deer that were captured on camera early in the hunting season? As the saying goes, we failed to pick the tree when the fruit was ripe, at least partially. We’ll call the shooter deer # 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Deer # 1 was killed on a neighboring property a week before we started hunting. It happens every year that a few good deer are taken around the last week of October before the serious chase period begins not counting spikes chasing does.
Deer # 2 was seen by us only twice. The first time was by the only one of us that can shoot well out to 400 yards; he had the shorter range gun that day so of course did not even attempt the shot which was a solid four hundred yards out. The second possible sighting was only fifty yards away with the deer walking directly away but in the open. My wife decided to wait for it to stop and turn but it just kept on walking away. No cameras picked that deer up again after that and a deer that looked like him was killed Thanksgiving week on a neighboring property.
Deer # 3 disappeared from our cameras a few days before we started hunting. Note; counting plot watchers and trail cameras about 307 to 319 thousand pictures were taken WEEKLY on the property and deer # 3was not in any of them starting two days before we started hunting. Thus it is likely he either left for the season or just plain got killed elsewhere. There is also the remote possibility that he simply stayed deep in the woods during daylight as cameras were not placed in deep.
Deer # 4 also disappeared in late October and then reappeared late in the season as the rut was winding down. He walked within six yards of my ground position; the 3 ½ year old eight that in the October pictures looked like he would dress out at or close to 200 pounds looked like a scrawny 120 lb or less yearling with a giant rack later in the season. The small body made the rack look larger than it was. I just saw no point in shooting him in that condition. It was very late so I’m pretty sure he made the season.
So while we were able to grow a few bucks we considered special, we did not harvest any of them this season. In addition to starting hunting late and missing out on a couple of opportunities we also may have had unrealistic expectations? Next year we will likely hunt a little earlier if the deer are showing any signs of earlier movement and each of us will shoot what they want and I’m guessing that good 2 ½ year old deer won’t look so bad to us most days. Barring any unexpected long lasting winter storms yet to come, shooting a fair amount of does may be possible again also. A browse check walk yesterday saw a lot of browse left, and insane amount of deer beds in much of the property. A decent fawn year and we’ll have plenty again like before the 2013/14 winter that severely reduced the herd for the entire North Country.
So did we learn a lot? We'll see.
