2012 Deer Season Check Station

2012

Took a 4X2 smaller buck the first Mon of archery and a doe the 3rd or 4th week.
Both in Allegheny Co. Both with a Wicked Ridge Invader crossbow from the same tree about 25 feet up.

Tomorrow is the last day of antlerless only archery in 2B (roughly Allegheny Co). I'll get out in the PM.

Mon starts Pa firearms season. I'll once again be in Allegheny Co with my Ithaca Deerslayer 12 ga with Rem copper solids. On Sat, I'll head to Washington Co. 2A with a Ruger Redhawk in .44mag.

Small 3 point buck killed with a Ruger Old Army cap and ball revolver after the muzzleload rifle bullet disintegrated on his shoulder bone. He hobbled 40 yards behind me and paused so I took a desperation shot with the pistol. The cast bullet passed through both lungs.

Great Year!

2 does with a bow, 1 with 45LC Ruger Blackhawk, a six point with rifle and a decent nine point with 50 Cal. muzzleloader. Still got tags and working on a big one.

BIG (!!) southern New Mexico mule deer on the fourth day of the first rifle season. 4x4 with a small sticker on one side and some palmation on the brow tine on the other. Shot at around 25yds when he walked up the ridge while my hunting buddy and I were contouring along it.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=686171
That one. It's been a slow season for me with much less hunting on the schedule this year than years past. Hopefully we'll add to it soon.

The first whitetail down, on the evening of November 9th.

If you're wondering the shot placement, it was from a rear angle through the lungs and heart. Didn't run anywhere. 80 yards, .308 Lapua Mega. I'm looking forward to the first snow now, feeders will be crowded with roe deer after snowfall.

Nothing too special, but there he is.

Called this one in on the morning of November 10th

We don`t have Check Stations in Missouri any more, it`s all done on the net..............

^^^Same in NM unless you're hunting one of the military ranges.

I shot a big 3x3 whitetail, he would have been a 4x3 but he broke a browtine. Montana public land spot and stalk. 20yds in the neck with a 270 Win. He has a big body (I had to drag him 1/2 mile) and was pretty old, he only had about 1/4" of teeth left and he is tough (was tough, now he is mostly burger).

SD Mulie, taken Nov 19th, 1PM spot and stalk, public land Saw the same deer two weeks earlier, but never got a shot opportunity before he magically disappeared.....he survived the two weeks I couldn't hunt, and I spotted him from above and worked my way to about a 200 yard shot.

Very nice bucks! I really feel like an exception, shooting does for venison.

I wish I could shoot does, it would have been a lot easier, you can't eat horns.

No doe tags issued here. And the does know it.

No doe tags issued here. And the does know it.

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I can get doe tags every year. If meat in the freezer was the ultimate and exclusive goal, I'd never have to hunt past 9AM on opening day. Does are plentiful, dumb, and easy to find. I choose to hunt bucks because I like the challenge of a hunt, and filling a doe tag is often like shooting fish in a barrel around here....I'm sure doe hutning is a worthwhile challenge in some areas, but its not much different than pulling into a prairie dog town and popping the first one you see at 25 yards.....pretty anti-climatic for something you've waited all year for

Some of the places I hunt (as a guest) have massive whitetail populations, to the point of being a nuisance. Several hundreds of deer accidents every year on a single short stretch of rural road, they cause damage to agriculture and so on. They HAVE to be harvested and locals can easily get half a dozen tags per hunter every season, often more.

Last time I was out there I was instructed to shoot every g___amn whitetail I see. The only chances I got to shoot a buck were pretty poor, one across a field at 300 yards at dusk and another one, a monster 12-pointer ran right past me before I had time to react. I chose not to take my chances and settled for does. During the rut that feels like a good choice as far as meat quality is concerned, some bucks are so full of testosterone that their meat has a distinct smell of urine.

Or, that's my excuse for now. I'd love to shoot a nice trophy buck, too.

some bucks are so full of testosterone that their meat has a distinct smell of urine.

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Color me fortunate I guess....I've shot a buck every year since I was 13, some rutting, some not, some whitetails, some mule deer.... and have never had the displeasure of my deer smelling like urine (unless, of course, the bladder was punctured during field dressing or some such thing)....and that includes animals that were shot on a dead run, and animals that never knew a hunter was within miles.......when properly cared for, I don't think one should assume or presume a rutting buck will taste or smell like urine in the least......In 23 years of harvesting bucks, I've yet to see, smell, or otherwise experience such a thing

I've come across what some call "pee-buck" twice since I started hunting in mid 80's. They're not common by any means but once you've smelled the meat once, it kind of makes you wary. And they make a convenient, semi-plausible excuse for me not being able to down a buck.

Fair enough..... but....Ill take my chances and keep hunting the big boys

deer

I just shot my 3rd deer. The first 2 were a small 4X2 nad a doe with a crossbow. I hunted some really thick stuff this AM with my .44 Redhawk in hand till noon, then switched to Rem 760 pump in .06.
I went to a spot where 2 doe surprised me and I didn't get a shot last year.
The exact same thing happened just after I clipped a few branches. I was standing with rifle bbl down and 3 doe were looking at me 10 yds away. I took off the safety, quickly as I could raised the gun, they took off. 2 ran back from where they came. The lead doe bolted in front of me and ran smack into a 150 gr Nosler Ballistic tip. It went down 20 yds from me. Closest shot I ever had.

11-30-2012...5:20PMCDT....9 point, 15" inside spread, about 120-130lbs gutted. Soaking on ice at the moment, probably start butchering tomorrow.