Should I take the first buck that's legal or try and hold on for a big one?

Question

I've been hunting for years and years, I usually do pretty good but I am ready for a trophy 10 point or better would be bigger than anything I have killed before. I more or less skipped early season waiting for the rut. (bow hunter) I see the big ones all the time when its not hunting season. I have 1 week to hunt really hard (vacation). I have seen a lot of nice fat bucks at close range recently.
This is a delima isn't it, what would you do??

Answer 1

hi there
well like you said "it's time for the big one "if you have hunted successfully and are not feeling like you are getting the most from your hunt , then certainly wait out the big one, and may your Patience pay off. have a great hunt Mr T.

Answer 2

Your best chances for large bucks is during early bow and late bow season when pressure is low and then food becomes a prioity.

Now for reference! I spent whole seasons hunting one buck never looking back at what I could have shot.So you have to decide that it is a priority to hunt a trophy buck or not.(but a real trophy is up to you)Dont set your sights to high and spend more time in stand doing the proper things to take a good buck.

Stand placement-location,access to,food soure,cover,wind are a few things I will follow to a T! Dont hunt and be patterned or hunt in the wrong conditions(wind is wrong,timing to stand..) so out of one week the best stand you have may only give you one or two days good hunting.

These good bucks change habits with pressure from humans,the rut and the winter feeds to survive hunting pressure they dont disappear they just change habits so you need to look and hunt the buck differently becuase of this.

To me if I am trophy hunting I will spend the time and effort hunting one certain buck I have scouted and I will never over hunt him or hunt the area on days when conditions are not good for that stand.

So good luck and just enjoy the hunt and dont pressure your self to the point of "I have to kill a book buck"!

Answer 3

a huge rack is nice on the wall but it will make terrible soup. you don't have to take every buck that comes along and you will know inside when to take a shot. harvesting a big trophy is like winning the lottery. if you keep at it maybe one day you will have the opportunity to get the big one but until then just enjoy the hunt and don't pressure yourself into making a choice that may take the fun out of it.
i took a really nice white-tail and a decent mule deer this past fall. i was hunting to fill the freezer but both deer turned out to have mountable racks. just the luck of the draw.
happy hunting and enjoy it.

Answer 4

unless you need the meat i'd wait...

Answer 5

Actually, wait!
When I was a teenager me and a buddy took his mom's pop-up camper and headed south of where we lived on a Saturday for a week (Come home Sunday next week). This was an area where there where a lot of Oil Rigs pumping. One thing we noticed was there was "Salt Water" everywhere on top of the ground (They pumped it out for the oil). So, we started scouting the area for fresh water and found a stream. Sure enough there were tracks everywhere, raccoon to deer. What we agreed upon was to wait for "Big Buck" until our last day and then anything was game. We seen deer and other animals everyday! That Friday there he came; "Big Buck" :-)
He was confident and walked up for a drink. I aimed high behind the shoulder as I was up in a tree. Bang! He tried to run and struggled into the middle of the stream and went down. One shot at 16 years of age, I had bagged my first and only 12 point! :-p
Hunters around the area using dogs were Flabbergasted!!!!

Answer 6

If you don't need the meat for survival over the winter, try holding out for a big deer. This is the only way to bag a trophy. You must decide what is the size that you must have as a trophy and then let all the others roam free that are smaller. There are two books written by Boyd Iverson about
Blacktail deer hunting. Blacktail are infinitely harder to hunt for trophies then Whitetails and Boyd suggests to pass on everything that does not meet your standards set prior to the season start. Sometimes he gets "skunked" but he also has MANY trophies to his name. Good Luck and shoot a big 'un.

Answer 7

It's your call...I've been Bowhunting my whole life and my philosophy is simple..Put meat in the freezer first than take your time and see what happens..Like you I always see "monsters" in the off season. I ever had one try and commit Buck-a-cide that literally ran right into the front of my Jeep Cherokee the last day of the season last year. I was sitting still,totally stopped and wasn't moving at the time. He ran literally right into my radiator..Punched a hole in it with his "rack" (My "Dream" Buck) and trotted off like nothing happened...lol I also have to admit that there were plenty of years that I went without a Buck of any size too..Thats why they call it "Hunting".Good Luck to you either way!

Answer 8

I used to feel I had to kill a buck every season. As I got older, I realized it was the hunt that I really enjoyed, and that urge was detracting from the enjoyment. If I don't kill one for a couple of years, the world doesn't come to an end, and I know the ones I turned down, some of them very nice deer indeed. Only you can answer this for yourself, but I don't think you should pressure yourself in either direction.
It's also a bit of a chuckle to turn one down, tell friends about it, and see whose truck is parked in the are the next few days!

Answer 9

I guess it depends how badly you want to kill a deer, and what your feeling is when you do see a legal, non-trophy deer. Remember, the fun stops once the deer hits the ground, and you have to clean it, etc. This is especially true if you are only allowed one deer by law-you're through then. Personally, I have shot fewer, but larger deer over the last few years; I let my kids shoot the smaller ones.