2024 Deer Season Stories/Pics/Etc.

[BearSitsInTheWoods]

You can’t kill big bucks if you don’t hunt on a place that has big bucks. If I never hunted anywhere but east TX, my biggest buck to date would be a 140 class I killed in 1997. I’ve killed quite a few 125-130 class bucks which is a really nice mature buck for my places. Antler restrictions in TX has given alot of young bucks a chance and has made a difference, but where I hunt doesn’t have the genetics or food quality to grow big racks. It just is what it is.
For several years, I got obsessed with hunting up there to the point I completely quit deer hunting here other than taking my daughter, but I finally came to the realization a couple years ago that the challenge of getting on a 130 class in east TX is exactly the same as getting on a 150-170 class on the Salt Fork. I’ve had to adjust my expectations, but I now enjoy hunting in east TX again.
Over the last couple or three years, the drive has started getting to me, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. My youngest son actually called yesterday and wants us to look at a piece of hunting property in Kansas, but I told him I wasn’t interested in buying anything else that far from home but would be happy to help him get it set up with stands and feeders if he bought it.

Don’t let the flame die pas the torch!

 

[Dorkus]

That sounds good in theory, but has it ever really worked for anyone?!?
I’m convinced coyotes get to a carcass faster than buzzards.

I lost a deer on a Friday morning and found it because of buzzards the following Sunday. It ended up being 148 3/8” buck. Meat was gone but I found the antlers. This was 2021 or so.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I guess need to give up hunting. Lost a nice buck a few years ago during blackpower season that I thought I made a good shot on and last night, I lost one w/ my crossbow. Should have been an easy shot and I thought I hit him good. Arrow went through, but very little blood to be found. Looked for him until late last night and again today. No new signs of blood. I’m just sick about this one. I just hope my shot was bad enough that he’ll live. View attachment 521728

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[Birdistheword]

I guess need to give up hunting. Lost a nice buck a few years ago during blackpower season that I thought I made a good shot on and last night, I lost one w/ my crossbow. Should have been an easy shot and I thought I hit him good. Arrow went through, but very little blood to be found. Looked for him until late last night and again today. No new signs of blood. I’m just sick about this one. I just hope my shot was bad enough that he’ll live. View attachment 521728

We have been there. Follow the tracks too not just the blood, replay the shot in your head, a hunched deer with tail down or straight will be dead shortly. If hit high they will sometimes bleed internally more than externally at first. Also if you can pinpoint where you last heard him and walk straight to that spot you can sometimes see them that. All of this played into hunt several years ago for me. Shot a buck at 10yds with a black powder. Blood at shot, tiny drops for 40yds, then tracks mixed with other deer, got paranoid and called a dog tracker only to find the deer had circled about 90 degrees and where I last heard him was where he laid. Hopefully you find him,

 

[Okie4570]

That sounds good in theory, but has it ever really worked for anyone?!?
I’m convinced coyotes get to a carcass faster than buzzards.

Most buzzards have migrated south in our area up here, on a normal year anyway. Not a lot of crows around either so usually it's always coyotes doing fall, winter and spring. They're usually gone from mid-October through early April.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

We have been there. Follow the tracks too not just the blood, replay the shot in your head, a hunched deer with tail down or straight will be dead shortly. If hit high they will sometimes bleed internally more than externally at first. Also if you can pinpoint where you last heard him and walk straight to that spot you can sometimes see them that. All of this played into hunt several years ago for me. Shot a buck at 10yds with a black powder. Blood at shot, tiny drops for 40yds, then tracks mixed with other deer, got paranoid and called a dog tracker only to find the deer had circled about 90 degrees and where I last heard him was where he laid. Hopefully you find him,

I respectfully disagree that a hunched up tail down will be dead shortly. This often indicates liver or gut shot and could take as long as 12-24 hours to expire.

 

[retrieverman]

Most buzzards have migrated south in our area up here, on a normal year anyway. Not a lot of crows around either so usually it's always coyotes doing fall, winter and spring. They're usually gone from mid-October through early April.

Neither red head nor Mexican buzzards ever leave east TX, and I’ve never found a dead pig by using them as a guide. They may like deer better, but I’ve never lost one to test the theory.

 

[Okie4570]

Neither red head nor Mexican buzzards ever leave east TX, and I’ve never found a dead pig by using them as a guide. They may like deer better, but I’ve never lost one to test the theory.

I got no idea what goes on south of the Red lol

 

[kirk1978]

I got no idea what goes on south of the Red lol

We all have an idea, but this is a family forum and it shouldn't be spoken in public.

 

[dlbleak]

Not a good deer day. Last year it sounded like a war zone around here. Haven’t heard a single shot