Out of velvet and ready for the season.
I don't know how I came up with Lugnut. It just popped into my head. Been watching him for 5 years now.You should have named him wow
Thanks. Me too. He's pretty much 100% nocturnal so hopefully in the rut.He is a dandy and I hope you get a crack at him !
Not this year. That last few years, yes. Daytime pictures in the summer. None, ever, once velvet was off.Awesome buck, any daytime pics?
I don't see him doing anything dumb. Me, on the other hand........Best of luck catching him doing something dumb.
Saw him once while hunting. I was hunting the woods behind our turnip field on the last day of 2016 archery. He was a perfect 5x5 that year. It got too dark to see in the woods but there was still about 15 minutes of legal shooting light left. I decided to climb down and walk the field for the last minutes. He came out in the last 5 minutes of shooting time and jogged straight to me and stopped, broadside at about 50 yards. I thought it was 40 yards and shot under him. He ran about 30 yards and started feeding. I just stood there until dark and he slowly walked away. Won't leave home without a range finder now.Have you ever laid eyes on him while hunting, or just trail camera pics?
No and no. We're hunting big woods. Thousands of acres of unbroken forest. Overgorwn clear cut, swamp, thick laurels, thick blueberries, steeps. Deer can literally bed anywhere. Of the 35 years I've been hunting here, I've never once had a feeling that I knew were any deer were bedding at any time. For evening hunts, I do know that deer feed in the couple of fields we've planted. Other than that, they mostly mosey around and bed and browse. As a matter of fact, in my go-to stand, I have seen deer coming from every direction at all different times of the day. There's never been a pattern. I just gotta be out there.Do you have a specific strategy that you're confident about? Any idea where he is bedding?
He's a tough one to guestimate because his spread makes other measurements hard to guess. I've been coming up woth 152 on the low end and 160 on the high end, so you may have it on the button. I'll be 48 next month and my biggest buck so far is 120". So, a 155ish buck would be my buck-of-a-lifetime. And, score aside, I think he's a stunner. His score would not do his appearance justice.Freakishly wide buck. I’d guess 153-155 “ gross.
Closest oak tree is a few miles away. We are mostly overgrown clear cut which is getting to pole timber stage, hemlock swamp, blueberry and ferns in openings and laurel. We do have scattered beech trees making nuts, but they are everywhere. In the bordering SGL, it's mostly mature maple. My guess for where he beds is the steeps and cliffs at the edge of the mountain. There are a few benches and the whole area is blow-downs. So that would make good bedding..If their are acorns he will eating them till dark.
You could try describing him to your hunting buddies, but they would not get an accurate picture in their mind. If you said "he's 30 inches wide if he's an inch", they would tell you you're full of cr@p. Not saying he's 30 inches, but I'll bet he's at least 26 outside.Thats what makes trail camming so great, years back it would be rumors that such a buck existed.