Nice start

congrats nice buck and welcome to alabama

Awesome first buck buddy.

Congrats, welcome to the site and welcome to Alabama!

Congrats man...

Awesome!

congrats Man! Great buck for Bama too. Way to get it done

atta boy!

Congrats ! Tell us how you like being 30' up as opposed to hunting
Muleys .

Hey thanks, everybody for the support and for welcoming me to the forum.

For those of you who asked how this compares to muley hunting, it is a pretty different ball game. The first thing I noticed is that all your whitetail bucks have twice as many points as our deer do... Never knew anyone who had shot a ten-point buck until I came to the South... I had to learn how to use a climber once I got down here, and how to wrangle myself into a darn climbing harness. I think that was the most difficult part. The first time I used a climber, I got all the way up (probably 25') and realized that I hadn't put my harness on ahead of time, so I had to try to get it over the top of all my hunting clothes, in the dark, while balancing myself and all my gear on the lower platform...don't want to do that again. Some folks back home do use tree stands, I guess, but the vast majority of us stalk hunt. I've trekked upwards of 20 miles a day stalk hunting. I think when I go back home I might try using a climber to hunt deer and elk. I really like being able to see quite a ways from up high and like being out of a deer's general field of view. Shots are often decently far (some of my former hunting partners routinely take 400-600 yard shots, though I don't advocate this), but of the deer I've shot back home, I think all my shots were under 200 yards. While there is some use in patterning deer, it isn't the same as it is down here. From my experience, mule deer (and black-tailed deer) aren't quite as habitual, and they don't really use scrapes.

This buck I shot was probably the same weight (estimated 150-160 lbs live wt) as a mature blacktail from one of the islands on the coast, but maybe a little smaller than a mainland blacktail, and quite a bit smaller than an average mature mule deer buck (my last mule deer buck was at least 220 lbs live).

The main difference for me is the access to land. I'm used to being able to go out and hike/hunt my legs off on forest service land and in wilderness areas, but public land is quite a bit more limiting here, as you all know. I have hunted on the WMAs a couple times since I have been down here though.

Also, it is nice to have an ample deer population that can support the harvest of does (in most areas), and to have a lengthy hunting season. I'm used to a 9-day modern firearm season, with a bag limit of one deer per year, buck only, 3 point or better on one side.

That circle of blood on the ground is the spot he was standing at when I shot him. You can see the blood trail taking off to the right. Here's another picture of the blood trail he left. You can see it leading off the top right corner of the shooting rail.


I really have no desire to trail a wounded deer, and so am perfectly happy with them leaving all their blood on the ground and piling up really close. The 7mm mag with 150 grain Core-lokts seems to leave nice piles of blood at the kill site (though my sample size is 2, with both kills being under 20 yards). Here's the blood trail from the doe I shot in December. It looked like someone dumped a 5 gallon bucket of blood all over the ground. She went 50 yards and piled up, no heart left. Blood trail is at the base of the small pine in the center.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, back home we do have mandatory hunter harvest reporting and mandatory tagging requirements, with a baiting rule that is currently in hot debate and is probably going through legislation, no black panthers to speak of, but we do have the occasional Sasquatch.

Great buck! Welcome to the forum its going to be a interesting ride

Welcome to the forum. Nice buck!!! Congrats

Oregon or Washington?

Congrats on a fine Alabama buck! If you don't mind me asking, what grad school are you attending?

Congrats!!

Nice buck for your first whitetail.

Congrats...nice deer

Congratulations! Great first buck!