Info requested -

tell me - what makes a magnificent deer? What is it you see that sets one off from the rest? What is it that just causes your heart to stop when it steps out? Its it size, age, movement, color? How would this deer think? What does it have beyond the others that made him this way? Why does he do what he does? What are his habits? Where does he sleep- when does he move. Why does he move? Why does he go one direction instead of the other? Is it more instinct instead of intelligence?

thanks

My thoughts usually go like this... Im bored one morning or afternoon with no luck in seeing nothing. I get distracted and think of something else and I am not really paying attention to anything in the woods then I look down and see this deer.. I watch it and realize holy crap its got antlers! So for me the glowing white antlers and long snout

One I have a history with, as in have seen in years past, now we all can get trail pics but in the passed it was just by sight.

One of my favorites is not my biggest antler wise. I killed him in the late 80's near my house. I saw him several times feeding in soybean fields near my house in the summer. There was a group of three nice bucks that fed, he would step out just before dark and keep his distance from the others, a loner. He looked like Farmer Browns prized steer when he stepped out, he was way bigger than the others. I shot him the first AM I hunted that stand, heavy hornded 8pt, he field dressed 187lbs and had the largest neck I've ever seen on a Southern white tail. He had one eye and was scarred from years of battle. I don't know his exact age but was very old because he had been seen and shot at, for several years by several other hunters and no way a buck gets that big in our area without some years on him.

As far as as bucks in general, I like the total package age , weight, and large antlers. If " I know him" that's a plus.

When I decide it's a shooter, I quit looking and focus on making the shot. Time to get excited is when you first walk up on him after the shot. I can tell a stud by the way they walk, when they are on the move they have a steady gate that looks like they are floating across the forest floor, young bucks and does don't move the same. They will also creep along moving very slowly and with much caution, they don't mind stopping in a thicket and standing for long lengths of time. After about 4-5 years they have what seems like an extra sense. All have it, some do seem sharper and more cautious than others, as well they should , they are all individuals just like people. He thinks about survival, before food and breeding . That's why most really old studs move very little or none in daylight, they are happy to feed and breed at night.

Where they sleep, I've seen them bed in the roughest nastiest places a deer could crawl in, I've also seen them bed almost in plain sight. Plain sight being a thicket behind a country Church or a thicket in the middle of a ag field. You'd never know they were there unless you saw them enter the area. But those plain sight places offer some good security for that area. Many times someone will carry there BIL hunting , send him to a thicket just behind camp , because he's out of everyones way and won't hunt till 8 AM and he kills the biggest buck ever seen on the place.

I like pretty dark horns with lots of mass and long tines. Crab claws are cool, but I don't really care for a gnarly bucks with crazy non typical racks. Not that I wouldn't shoot one, just not my preference.

Also if they have a good story attached to the hunt, cool points go up.

It's the body/age for me....I always like seeing a flicker then a large body....I'll figured out how big of rack he has when I get him on the ground....

As far as the racks go, I like long tines, mass and non-typicals...

I love seeing all of em! But a magnificent deer to me is either:
A) perfectly symetrical 8 or 10 point (drop tine would be a plus)

B)Non typical with a rack unlike anything anyone has ever seen

Wrinkles in the skin around neck and shoulders

May want to swing by the house one day. It isn't difficult to explain but a pain to post.

As he made his way toward the top of the mountain he came across the OAK. A large white oak tree which he knew well. It grew at the top of a bench, about half way up and had a nice rock beside it that made a perfect seat. Over the years he had taken many deer from it, including his best, a massive 10 point, which today graced his living room fireplace, just above the mantel. It's antlers were heavy, tines that seemed to reach to the tree tops. He couldn't help but marvel at his deep brown coat and double white throat patchs. He was and old buck that he knew was there but had never had seen before. His rubs and scrapes had filled the mountain in past seasons. Mermories filled his mind of that fateful day. The buck was huge, it would require a walk back down to get friends and half a day to get him home. He had a deep reguard for this very place but something inside him told him to press on, to the top of the mountain.

Sorry..

....................

To me; doe or buck, it's just the fact that I am in that stand and the deer doesn't know that I am there. Of course this is multiplied when it's a buck

The way they move in the woods. They have a majestic gracefulness about them. They can run helter skelter through the woods, bounding over obstacles, dodging trees, jumping ditches ...... amazing moves. They are mobile and agile.

I was on a dog drive in South Carolina's LowCountry one weekend. I had drawn a stand on "Dumpster Road, Stand #17. It was a favorite stand. Many a deer has been killed on this stand. On the backside of this stand is a big laid out field that is used for growing sod.
The drive had been underway for about an hour. Several shots rang out from the opposite side of the field from "The Pond Dam". This is a signal that deer are headed toward stand #17.
It was chilly out that morning. Frost was still showing in the shade. The sun was rising behind me. It was a beautiful day to be alive.
I see the deer. It is a mature buck. It looked to be in the 180 pound range, with at least 8 points. He was crossing the middle of the field, headed in a diagonal direction away from me.
The sun shone on his body and antlers. I could see the smoke of his breath every time he exhaled. His head was held high, as was his big white tail.
He was doing this trot thing I have seen horses do before. Canter? Fox Trot? Amble?
It was a beautiful and amazing sight. It was a picture of nature's grace and agility, built by God's hand. Magnificent!!

Yep

The only thing I can say for sure is that I know within a millisecond if they are a shooter or not. If I have to look for even a second they aren't one that gets my blood pumping.

If this were a dog hunting, baiting/feeding, high fence questions we'd be at 3 pages by now. Roadkill posed some good questions, this should be in our happy zones, lets hear some hardcore, monster buck info.

Any deer that is running in front of the hounds. YEHAW!! YAHOO!!

Bedding area story time.

It was about 1980 when the light bulb started getting brighter about big bucks MO. I hunted Miller Mountain in Paint Rock Valley, I would have to get up at 3 AM to get in the woods before first light. I had the passion, but knew little, I almost always hunted alone and would go farther and into rougher places than most others that hunted the area. One day I found a bedding area on a point right under the bluff. It was a small flat area less than 1/4 acre and just on the edge of it was another little bluff. There were very faint trails going off both sides and from the top. There were fresh beds and older ones and a couple of very large rubs. There was a large rock in the center and most of the beds were on the down hill side of it. You would never know that little place was there unless you walked a long distance to the top bluff at that exact spot and looked off. The buck bedding there had three escape routes, he could check the wind in several directions, and large rocks to blend in with. I knew I had found a special place.

This was even before buck lures were popular, but I had some and thought this might be the place to use it. I slipped it there one morning way before first light, walking a great distance across the top of the mountain. I poured out some lure behind my hiding spot on the bluff, hoping the wind might carry the scent across the top. I knew if that buck came to bed after shooting light I had him. I hadn't been there 10 minutes when I heard heavy footsteps, then strange pig like sounds. It kept coming closer , but was still pitch dark. The buck stopped at no more than 15 yards, I was turned had my gun up before he got close. I had the scope turned to the lowest power, all I could see was a black blob. I knew what it was but it was just too dark. The buck stood probably less than a minute turned and ran. After he left it hit me I had heard a buck grunt for the first time! I did shoot a small, young, 10 pointer in the general area on another day but am very sure he wasn't the stud buck that was bedding in the secret sanctuary.

Old

About 10 or so years ago in West By-God Virginia on a chilly morning, I sat against a tree overlooking a 'bowl' of hardwoods with a rifle in my lap. Three of us were on a stand and the remaining four or five drivers were doing a little push.

A doe walked within 10 feet of me. I saw her coming and never moved a muscle other than to follow her with my eyes from under the brim of my cap. I'd tilted my head slightly when I first saw her so I could watch.

She stopped in front of me, nibbled something, looked straight at me for probably 30-45 seconds, swished her tail and kept on walking. No fear, no alarm. For once, I'd done a good job of being a stump.

She wasn't a wall-hanging rack monster BoonerShooter. She was a deer. Doe season wasn't in or I might have perforated her. Dunno for sure, though.

I think they're all magnificent. They're still just deer, just an animal, but they're pretty cool.

It is the hunt period..... Just being outdoors and making memories. I only hunt now with my father who is 74 years old. Love every minute of it. A small buck is a trophy to me and him.

You havent killed a buck in two years. You've been staring at a patch of cold static woods for hours. Frigid, cold trees and brush with angular joints and sharp points. In the dead of winter it can be a bleak lifeless sight.


... Then from nowhere (when you least suspect) a fluid form comes gliding silently across the forest floor. At once in complete contrast - yet complete harmony with its surroundings. A mature buck projects a commanding presence - you and every living thing in the woods are powerless to look away. Yet when it pauses it melts into the background if your concentration breaks for a moment. It seems impossible that something so warm and graceful has appeared within the harsh image before you.

Clock is ticking ... 5 .. 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Any opportunity of you coming into physical contact with this creature is evaporating. Emotions and physical effects wash over you. Personal ethics, club rules ... and truth be told bloodlust are racing through your brain. ... You feel the touch and balance of your weapon in your human hands. Can you win this struggle? Will you fail? The moment of truth!

thanks for the info - great perspectives.