Already looking forward to next season

I sat for my last time last night. Hoping with the cold weather and standing beans I would get one last chance at another deer with the bow, but nothing showed up.

Was a fun and taxing season at the same time. I passed on more 2.5 to 3.5 year old bucks this year than ever before. Pretty proud of myself for the restraint I showed this year. It’s finally sinking in that you can’t shoot a big boy if you shoot them when they are young. I put my time in, saw a bunch of great deer, ended up with just one doe with the bow, and I am truly burnt right now, but I bet by the weekend I will be anxiously waiting for next years season to start.

I have high hopes for next year. Some of the deer we passed this year will be 4.5 year olds and should be very nice. By far the most 3.5 year olds we have had on the property in one year and between me and my son we had the stones to let them walk making our chances for next year very good.

Here are a couple of the bucks we let walk until next year.

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And the last 2, the second pic is heartbraker. Had him at 5 yards and decided before he even got with in 40 yards I wasn’t going to shoot so I didn’t even take my bow off the hook. This was by far the hardest one I passed on and am still wondering if I made the right choice. The first pic is a nice 3.5 year 8 in front that I passed the day after this pic was taken. The other deer in the back is Mr. Perfect, the one I really wanted this year.

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I was just cleaning up the SD cards last weekend. I’ve got several cameras that wet the bed on me so I’m in rebuild mode. Trying to cobble a couple together from old ones etc… The most disappointing one is the old Cudde flash that runs on D cells. That thing has been bullet proof til this year. Our most expensive camera but we got our moneys worth.

Anyway, I too am very excited for next year. I had A LOT of nice 3.5 & 4.5 year old deer running around this year. I blew my chance at a nice mature 5×5 and as far as I know, he and a couple other good up and comers made it through the rifle season.

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One I’m really pumped about.

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Finally, the deer I shot. I’m quite disappointed in myself for taking this deer after getting him on the ground. He’s a nice buck but only 3.5 I think. Like you said, if we don’t pass these deer, they will never become 150 or 160 inch bucks.

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To make myself feel worse, I passed up this buck mid-way through my week long hunt. He was on my cull buck list but I couldn’t bring myself to shoot him at 12 yards when I had 3 more days of hunting left. I’m confident he is 5.5. His body was huge.

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Kooty,

I love those huge bodied , white horned buck of Hand Co… Those shelter belts up there are like shooting fish in a barrel! They use them so heavily in the fall and winter!

Its crazy when really look into detail about the differences of a Prairie South Dakota buck vs. Northern MN or Northern WI deer.

I bet if some of your Northern hunters could see the body size of some of the bucks out in the prairie in person… you might sheet your pants. lol

sticker, You’ll be one very excited kid come next fall. I think I get more excitement from the random encounters while working around my farm each fall that i look forward to. Never ceases to amaze me that you can sit in a treestand for a week and not see them….yet, you have a chain saw in your hand and log splitter running, and they walk right by you.

Good luck and i hope they all survive the winter

We have good food sources, plenty of cover including 20 acres of pines for thermal cover and they won’t be bothered until spring. They should come through in good shape as long as ma nature doesn’t throw them a curve ball. Just have to keep good food plots going for them next spring and summer and keep them happy.

Time now to go through all my trail cam pics and organize them so I can make a plan for next year. Already know of 2 stands locations I need to develop. Also planning to expand one food plot and add a new one.

I am excited for the next season as well, but I have the long job ahead of me trying to find some land to hunt and also get a few stands for bow hunting. I am excited to try out this new chapter in my hunting career with my oldest son. otherwise its going to be alot of driving 4 hours north to the rifle land to hunt up there. was hoping to find something closer to the cities.

good luck next year sticker, hope you can find that big one.

shane