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Finally got one..

Mountaineer

Mountaineer

Banned
661
0
WV
Its been a long season..Ive been back and forth to Ohio 4 times..All my buddies tagged out and i was all alone for the 2 day gun season..I drove back Saturday morning and got to my spot alittle late due to the snow..roads were alittle slick..Anyhow..i had a 2 mile hike back in and i basically spent that looking for good sized tracks..I found 2 sets of large tracks around 8am. The hunt was on..The tracks looked to be fairly fresh..i figured they had a couple hours on me but if they were slowly feeding i thought i may have a chance to catch up with them. Their tracks took me over ridges and down through hollows..they were pawing the ground in several spots and feeding..Well. around 10 am i finally caught up to em ..I caught movement on the next ridge over,..about 100 yards..I could see they were both bucks and 1 was larger..They slowly worked their way down the spine strait accross from me..I let the first one pass and the bigger one soon followed...I spent the next 5 hours trying to get him out...Great hunt..great season.....This is my 3rd 140 inch or bigger buck in 4 seasons on Ohio publicland..I couldnt be happier..It was a great adventure.:smiley_cheer:

 
R

rrr

Senior Member
5,065
0
Public land buck...off the road...ya sat in a funnel and let them push the deerz to ya, didn't you :D


Nice buck
 
Mountaineer

Mountaineer

Banned
661
0
WV
lol.. thanks fellows...I didnt sit Saturday..I spent the first hour or so lookin for fresh tracks that i thought could be bucks..Its very hard to tell..I just took a chance on those 2 sets of tracks because they looked similar in size...lol..jbrown..funny you mention that..i spent 8 years trackin in Maine ( have all the benoits videos/books:smiley_bril: However in Maine..distinguishing a buck track from a doe is fairly easy..In ohio its just a guessing game. I tell ya..it was one of my more enjoyable hunts.
 
jagermeister

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,296
237
Ohio
Mountaineer said:
lol.. thanks fellows...I didnt sit Saturday..I spent the first hour or so lookin for fresh tracks that i thought could be bucks..Its very hard to tell..I just took a chance on those 2 sets of tracks because they looked similar in size...lol..jbrown..funny you mention that..i spent 8 years trackin in Maine ( have all the benoits videos/books:smiley_bril: However in Maine..distinguishing a buck track from a doe is fairly easy..In ohio its just a guessing game. I tell ya..it was one of my more enjoyable hunts.
Click to expand...

I used to think I could distinguish between the two pretty well, up until this past November. One morning I had a 2.5 yr old 10 pointer come off the ridge, right to a mock scrape I made the day before. He stepped all over it and checked out the licking branch. When I climbed down, I walked over to the mock scrape to look at his tracks. I couldn't believe what I saw! His tracks looked like the tracks of a medium-sized doe... or at least what I used to consider doe tracks. Had I not been there to see him, I would have just considered those tracks to be from a doe without a doubt in my mind.
 
RedCloud

RedCloud

Super Moderator
Super Mod
17,438
207
North Central Ohio
Congrats. Fine looking buck. Wonder what happened to his brow tines. Did it look like they where broke or grew that way ?
It will hurt the overall score but with a track and hunt like that, score makes little difference :D.

Congrats again.
 
JD Boyd

JD Boyd

*Supporting Member*
3,173
0
Urbana
RedCloud said:
Congrats. Fine looking buck. Wonder what happened to his brow tines. Did it look like they where broke or grew that way ?
It will hurt the overall score but with a track and hunt like that, score makes little difference :D.

Congrats again.
Click to expand...

If it would of slowed down when it almost ran him over he would have been able to tell it had short brows and he could of passed it up. Next time the atv runs out of gas just walk back to the truck and get a jug of gas.

Congrats!!! That's a nice buck and welcome too too...
 
Kaiser878

Kaiser878

Senior Member
2,633
97
ohio
Congrats on the buck! Although, if I were you, I just woulda picked the deer up and put it on my shoulders! Looked to be a small bodied deer!lol WHat were you shooting? 12?
 
Mountaineer

Mountaineer

Banned
661
0
WV
Thanks guy...Yeah kaiser..he didnt feel like he was a heavy deer..I didnt weigh him yet..I got home late last night...He definetly has some issues..His spine is exposed..looks like an old dog with sway back..Ill be very curious to see how old he is..Ill post a pic of his jawbones when i get them out..maybe you guys can let me know how old you think he is..Im thinking he doesnt weigh more than 135lbs...however..i could be wrong....And..I was using my Encore Muzzloader..I cant seem to find an accurate slug gun.
 
Mountaineer

Mountaineer

Banned
661
0
WV
Guys..

For those of you that still have a buck tag and will hunt Muzzle, I encourage you to try tracking if the snow conditions permit..Seems the bucks will feed in daylight hoours in these cold temps...

Look for wide spacing(Offset) tracks and long strides..Bucks seem wider at the hips and obtain longer bodies than Doe's....I would look at those 2 factors before id look at track size....In the pic below is a buck..Notice the long stride and wide spacing of the tracks...Id follow that track lol

 
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