Hello Deer! Are you home?

Native - that is exactly what I am finding too. Deer do some crazy things. I am guessing you are correct and that deer did his same thing every year on your farm. Back in 2009 I was hunting a buck that I thought would go in the mid 180's, in 2010 I got on this deer. I had multiple encounters and should have killed him with bow and definitely with a gun. I had him at 5 yards sitting on the ground and my shotgun did not fire. Needless to say I gave up shooting the Remington Copper Solid Slugs and Remington received a nasty letter and a few phone calls from me. The deer I was hunting I believed to be well over 200" typical. I also have pictures that would suggest that I was correct about him being that big.

Back to the theory, in 2011 I never saw this deer again, never a picture again, it was like he vanished. I quit running camera's on that farm because I believed the deer died of old age and his rack was never found. He was the type of deer if he was found dead, people would be talking about him. Now that I have learned this theory about deer that have these odd yearly travel patterns I am guessing this deer was back and active on my dad's farm every year around the same time until he did finally die of old age or was killed after his rack had gone down hill. I sure wish I knew then what I know now.
Too bad that you did everything right and this trophy got away. Almost every story of ammunition malfunction includes Remington in it...
 
Believe me if I was a crying man I would have cried. The bow encounters didn't discourage me much. I had shot opportunities but I didn't like them and let him walk. He was always quartered too strong for my liking. I wanted that perfect broadside shot so I knew I wouldn't blow the shot. That is the only time in my life I have had a shotgun slug not fire, I just don't think I was meant to kill that particular deer.
 
That's it. I'm leaving that Michigan forum for good. Those guys are over there perpetuating every myth you can imagine, while you guys are conversing intelligently with open minds about real studies with real, albeit not statistically credible, data. I will waste my time here now.;)
 
That's it. I'm leaving that Michigan forum for good. Those guys are over there perpetuating every myth you can imagine, while you guys are conversing intelligently with open minds about real studies with real, albeit not statistically credible, data. I will waste my time here now.;)

Welcome to the Major League! I get where you are coming from, but you won't be wasting your time HERE!
 
I haven't read all the studies linked in this thread yet, but I will try to get to them. Here's my own contribution. This is a blog entry from the Penn State Deer-Forest Study that tracked 21 does during a 12 day period last March which included a nasty blizzard. With all the normal caveats about small number of data points, etc., it fails to show any evidence for the cold-front theory of increased deer movement.
http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/projects/deer/news/2017/hurry-get-bread-and-milk
 
I haven't read all the studies linked in this thread yet, but I will try to get to them. Here's my own contribution. This is a blog entry from the Penn State Deer-Forest Study that tracked 21 does during a 12 day period last March which included a nasty blizzard. With all the normal caveats about small number of data points, etc., it fails to show any evidence for the cold-front theory of increased deer movement.
http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/projects/deer/news/2017/hurry-get-bread-and-milk
My personal studies show that the best time to go deer hunting is when you can get off of work.
 
Back
Top