No shooters known in your area. . . What do you do?

[Jamie]

Dammit, Dave, you have gotten too predictable. You gotta be sly like a fox. leave more tracks than necessary, and some in the wrong direction...

 

[giles]

What I need is to go out in the morning and drop a 5.5 year old 6 point! Prolly go out and shew away turkeys all day. Because my property sucks and this ain’t no fun. #poorme

 

[Crappieking15]

Can’t eat the antlers.. I hunt for food not decorations..

 

[Lucky]

This will probably be unpopular...but its what Ive seen.

The only thing Ive seen happen over the last ten years of TDM being preached religiously is that it has sucked all the enjoyment out of hunting for lots of folks. Suddenly its not enough to just go out and sit and enjoy being in the stand. Now you have to worry about age classes, point restrictions, body weight, whats on your trail cams, whats not on your trail cams. Gotta put out minerals. But you can't bump em out of their bedding. Oh...gotta do lots of hinge cutting...but...but...but....Oh look, my neighbor just shot a 2.5 year old eight point that bastard.

Just shoot the damn deer. All the attempts at 'management' do is make work out of what should be play. Be happy with what the good Lord gave you to hunt. Shoot what you see and get back to the basics of what drew you into the sport in the first place. Unless you've got 1K acres of high fenced land you're not really managing anything anyway.

Just shoot the deer.

Im not a head hunter so to say, but i shure as shit would rather shoot a mature buck than i would a 2.5. Maybey public land you can count on hunt manegement 100% not going to work , but if you got a little farm or privite land you hunt and can hunt for yrs to come, ill do hunt management any day. Ya niebhor, or other niebhor or yotes, cars are likely to take that deer your watching for yrs.

 

[Lucky]

But it mite work. But not busting out bedding areas and giving 2.3s a pass for a yr or 2 is still fun and my basics of hunting. To me how ever some one wants to hunt to each there own and enjoy. Gota respectfully disagree with ya on that way.

 

[finelyshedded]

I'm in a position this year. I have one 4 or 5 year old I would shoot. He will measure 120"? Maybe? But he is mature. That is a trophy to me. I have one 140ish 10pt on camera. I'm on the fence whether he is 3.5 or 4.5. I don't want to shoot a 3yr old. I'm not boasting. I have been very fortunate over the years. I generally have 2-4 bonafide shooters I'm after. This is a true blessing most years and I know it is not normal. Please don't take this thread as me complaining. It is ground zero for me right now. I'm okay with that.

What do YOU do in this situation? I know what I'm doing. I'm just curious what you would do. I think this could be a great thread for stimulating our minds and hopefully some strategies will come out which will help others. I'll post what I'm doing after we see some replies.

In a perfect world and I am able to hunt every day or 80% of the season on multiple prime properties to where I can be picky and drag out my season I’d use my observations(big sign,intel from cams) and hold out for the ones that trip my trigger cuz it’s a long season and I’d have the time afforded to do so. Unfortunately that’s not my case sooooo....

Here’s my reality.
Like every season as the majority here can also attest I’m regulated to hunting on my weekends, 4 days hunt 11/9-12 bowhunting and the week off during gun week with my homies back home. Sooooo, that being my situation I’ll just hunt when I can and thoroughly enjoy my time out there hoping I can capitalize on a close encounter with one of the mature deer I have gotten on camera or a slob that’s expanded his range and is passing through checking on the resident does. If it happens I’ll be happy and excited as anything like always but if it doesn’t it just wasn’t meant to be. I might be shooting a doe this year as passing on them year after year for awhile has helped bring the numbers up really nice where I hunt but I’ll do it later in the season if I do. I ate my buck tag last year and if it’s on the menu again this season I’ll just have to order seconds, no biggie.
I hope I make it to retirement cuz I’ll be trying to make up for lost time that’s for sure, just about 2 years and 3 months exactly but whose counting....