Thanksgiving Feast

Merle shot this awesome 12 point Friday morning after passing up many young bucks throughout bow season and early gun. This one has double brow times and double G2's & G3's on the left. Truly the type of bucks we are looking to harvest off the property.



Brian shot this 8 point Friday morning as well. It had an injured rear leg from something, possible hit by a car as there was some bruising under the skin.

Dale finally got a chance at this big 10 that we have several pictures of. About 20" wide with nice long tines, and almost perfectly symmetrical. Not quite as massive as Merle's or Nancy's so it will be interesting to see how old he is from the tooth analysis.

2 More

Chris and his boys had a good night in the blind when they shot this 9 point Saturday night.

Nancy started the opening morning off shooting this nice 10 point ending a seven year drought of no bucks.

Buck Down

Shot this 8 pt. on the morning of November 9 at about 8:45. It was chasing a doe, could not get the buck to stop until the doe stopped. About a 35 yard shot. I released and the arrow found its mark and I watched him run about 60 yards until he fell. It weighed 145 lbs. dressed and it has a 17.5" outside spread.

Happy Hunting,
Steve

The Final Countdown

I believe we have a couple of pictures of this one already, notice the 9th point on the left beam and long tines.

Holding Out!

Here are a couple of examples I wanted to share to show everyone what we are looking for and trying to grow out in the Hills. This came off of our Iowa property in the last 2 weeks. Look at the body size, thick necks, massive horns and old face.

Compare this body with the ones below and you can see a big difference, this one is smaller and thin, but has great potential.


Size of the neck and big belly, horns are small for the area and would probably be let go.

This guy looks good from this angle. Massive horns that are clearly outside his ears.

Yup. definitely a shooter.

Look how the neck is an extension of his chest, it makes his head look small.

October Lull

More Bucks

Another angle of this one with what looks like a 9th point on the left beam.



Nothing special here.

Getting Better

Do we have a shooter? Try posting a comment at the end of this post.

A Few More Pics

Two pictures of what I am calling the "BBB" buck. He sure looks nice now but would be ever bigger next year if we can all wait. Same buck as the first picture in the post below.

Can easily identify this one from the crab claw on his left hand side. Looks like this is the same buck as the second buck in the post below.

These ar all nice yound bucks that need a couple more years to grow.

Setting the Standards

I think if we all share our pictures of the bucks we are seeing we will have an easier time identifying the bucks that we should be shooting and the ones that we should be passing up. I am starting by posting the first good pictures I have got this year and writing my thoughts below each buck.


Appears to be developing good mass and length, should be left to grow another year for those that have shot several bucks already. Nickname "Tiple B or BBB" as in Big Browtine Buck.


Clearly great potential here, nice width and form, but a very young buck that should be passed.


Nice average buck that we typically all pass up.


Hard to tell from the picture but there appears to be some pretty heavy mass and good beam length. A possible shooter, hopefully will get a clearer look soon.


These two appear to be the same, young buck that hopefully stays on the property.



Another young buck making the rounds.