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Is this the new OK record? ๐
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> He first saw the big buck in a trail camera photo last year, but didn’t see it again on his trail camera until recently.
> On [that] day…he almost released an arrow from his compound bow on a 180- or 190-class non-typical whitetail, which would have been the biggest deer he had ever shot. But he decided to pass…in hopes the giant buck would appear that he had seen on camera…. 10 minutes later it did.
> “I see [the non-typical] get all puffed up and licking his lips…he is acting scared. “I thought, What in the world could be out here scaring this deer? I start looking around and I could see the antlers coming.”
> The 2 large bucks started sparring and the non-typical runs away. The big typical started chasing him but stopped about 60 yards away, giving Meadows an opportunity for a shot. “I am shaking so bad I can barely see my sights.”
Still must have gotten off a great shot because the buck only ran 25 yards:
> …been scored before deductions at 210 by Terry’s Taxidermy in Oklahoma City….
Little perspective: The current state record bow deer was first thought to be a 200+ but ended up 188 5/8. The overall state record typ is a 194 killed in 2007.
Good info on how Zach and his family manage the herd:
> He and his sons have chosen not to shoot smaller bucks over the years, allowing them to grow and mature. His neighbors also have been following the same plan. “When I first started hunting out there, you were really lucky to even see any bucks.”
> Meadows said he used to hunt almost daily, but discovered from trail camera photos that the deer would only show up at night when he was there so often. “That’s been huge, staying out of there as much as we can and not checking trail cameras every day.”
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200+, 300-lb buck down in OH! ๐คฏ
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Took 2 years, 7 mineral licks and 38 trailcams to pattern that Megatron deer, but Kevin Miller did it! Here’s a little of how it went down, from OutdoorLife.com โ it started in 2020 when he got permission to bowhunt a friend’s 40-acre OH farm and got some shots of a huge 10-pointer he named “Blades” for the big brow tines:
> “…once Blades saw a camera or knew it was there, he wouldn’t show up at the spot.” …he got photos of the buck shying away from cameras 50 to 60 yards away.
> There was an adjoining 400-acre farm beside the smaller 40-acre farm, and Miller believed Blades was spending his time on the bigger parcel. That [2020] winter he got permission to hunt the 400-acre farm, placed trail cameras on it and got photos of Blades.
> Miller spent the rest of the year and into 2021…trying to pattern Blades. “I started writing on a calendar when I got pictures of Blades, at what location, and what the wind direction was because that was the only way I would find some pattern about him,” Miller says. “I never found his shed antlers, and lost track of him after Feb 2021.”
Before this season he got ultra-serious:
> “I set out 7 different mineral stations and 38 cell cameras…. His summer range was mainly on the 40-acre farm and on half the 400-acre farm.”
> Miller learned from a video by deer hunting guru Don Higgins that mature bucks use the same areas on the same dates from one year to the next. …discovered that Blades was indeed following the same pattern he had the previous year.
> To deal with Blade’s camera shyness Miller placed cameras high off the ground, 10′ high in some spots. Eventually Miller learned that Blades was hitting 1 scrape every 5 to 7 days. To keep the buck excited about the scrape, Miller touched-up the spot with different scrape urine scents….
He hunted Oct 13, 15 and 16 but no luck:
> He hunted the spot again beginning the early afternoon of Oct. 17, freshening the spot with Black Widow Scrape Master scent before heading up with a climbing tree stand.
> …a small 8-point buck came by his stand. About 5:30, Miller caught some movement and branches moving near the scrape but couldn’t see the deer because a large tree blocking his view. “But once he put his head down, I realized it was Blades and I almost went into shock and felt like I was having a heart attack.”
> Blades worked the scrape, then laid on the spot…. He stayed nearby for 15 minutes without offering Miller a shot. Then Blades turned and started leaving, heading back to a corn field.
At 45 yards, the buck crossed a clearing, quartering away from Miller. He raised his TenPoint Vapor 470 crossbow…sent an arrow through the top of Blades’ heart. The buck fell dead just 100 yards from Miller.
> “Even after he was down, I couldn’t talk clearly for 30 minutes. Just the amount of time. Work between scouting, planting food. Plus, all my friends and family, who helped โ it was one heck of a ride.”
Amazing story, congrats! The deer was 258 lbs field-dressed and is an estimated at 7.5 yrs old. Kevin thought the buck would be about 180 til he saw it in person โ the green Buckmasters score is 203 3/8″! ๐คฏ
Kevin’s an Air Force vet โ thanks much for your service man! ๐๐บ๐ธ
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GA hunter gets a 199 with a rifle after a bow misfire.
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Cory Craft and his neighboring landowner were both aware of this buck for a couple years, and Cory finally got a shot at him this Sept during bow season but:
> “About 7:40 he came back to where I was. I had bought a new release for my bow that day and I didn’t know that the trigger tension was a lot lighter. He was just 22 yards away. I was wearing a glove. I drew back and was settling the pin on him when I touched the trigger and the sucker went off. The arrow hit him right on the shoulder blade. He ran off. There wasn’t much blood.”
> …his neighbor contacted him and told him that the buck had returned to his property and was still alive. “A week ago, he showed back up in photos on my property. 2 times in the afternoon I saw him bedded in a thicket and he just lay there until dark. On the 3rd afternoon, I hunted him again.
> “I got my binoculars…that’s when I saw the big buck bedded down about 80 yards away. I could see his antlers, but not his body. The 3-yr-old buck walked over to him and I got ready. The big buck stood up. I shot and he ran only 16 yards.”
> The rack has 18 scorable points…sets up as a 168″ main-frame 10-point with about 31″ on the 8 abnormal points. With all those abnormal inches, it’s definitely going to score better as a non-typical. The green score tallied 199 total inches. The minimum net score for a non-typical rack to make the all-time B&C record book is 195.
Glad you got another shot at it Cory and that sounds like a dang good neighbor to have!
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Harvesting young does hurts the herd?
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> Years ago I read about an area where hunters routinely harvested younger does for their better-tasting meat, and there was a negative side effect that began to show in the herd as the years went on.
> …they noticed that the survival rate of fawns started dropping. Young does, often first-time mothers, were unable to “teach” their offspring how to find food. Studies showed that since these birthing does had mothers that were harvested prior to full maturity, they were not “taught” how to teach.
> Having mature does that have reached ages 3 1/2 or older have survived many seasons and have gained the ability to teach their young how to find the food and water that they need. Their young learn how to teach their young.
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“I don’t want to shoot small deer. I want to shoot big deer.”
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– Heck yeah! That’s 82-yr-old MN great-grandma Darla Fisher talking โ after she shot an 11-point during x-bow season! ๐ More from startribune.com:
> For an encore, she has been bowhunting again. If she doesn’t get lucky soon, she will unpack her .30-30 brush rifle. The Badger State’s nine-day firearms season opens Saturday with expectations for increased chances around the state.
> When the kids were grown [her husband] planted a field of prairie grass that added to their transformation of 80 acres of hilly farmland. They planted trees and created other wildlife habitat…it’s become a haven for deer, wild turkeys, song birds, butterflies, bees and furbearers.
> “It was so beautiful and such a peaceful place. I just loved it and I said to myself one day, ‘I will try hunting.'”
Nice! Hope she’s after ’em for many more years!
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Sounds like the limit is now 10 per hunter too.
> …hunters harvested 16,281 deer during the early portion of the archery and muzzleloader seasons. The harvest was a 17% decrease from last year’s official harvest of 19,616 deer for the same period.
> The early season harvest decline was attributed to multiple factors, including warm weather during the first part of the archery season, abundant natural food resources that slowed deer movements, and some lingering effects from an epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) outbreak in some Region B counties last year.
Maybe also the fact that a lot more folks were home this time last year?
…because it’s a 14-pointer! ๐คฏ Good to see a gov’nor who is pro-hunting and pro kids hunting and shooting:
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Good job dad!
…before heading out to the woods. Is it not cold in MI anymore??
Big props to warden Todd Long. ๐
…especially for new hunters:
> “What a weekend โ 15 degrees and my daughter’s first buck. Thanks IWOM for keeping us warm. Great times = God, family & the great outdoors.” John T Cole III
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Had been senior VP and general counsel. Former president Bryan Tucker is now chairman and CEO.
Lotta rumors, Jim Shepherd from The Outdoor Wire puts ’em to rest.
> …will help provide more than $40 bil in funding to enhance fish and wildlife conservation programs and increase access….
> Their mission is to bring home from Afghanistan every US Citizen and Legal Permanent Resident (LPR), the immediate and extended family members of US citizen and LPRs, and Afghan allies and partners who served the United States Armed Services faithfully as Afghan special operations, interpreters, security specialists, and intelligence analysts.
12. 2A stuff.
13. Keep an eye on…
> “We really don’t know much about it yet and we’re so used to wearing a mask now anyway, so it’s not that large of an inconvenience.”
Guess the bottom line for all of us is do we trust our gov’t at this point and, in this case, would you take medical advice from a wildlife biologist โ and is it legal for him to give it (it’s not, same for governors and anyone else who is not a real doctor).
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American Hunter has a quick rundown on 8 of ’em โ here’s the Kimber Hunter Pro Desolve Blak:
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> An elevated suite of premium-grade gear, purpose-engineered as an unstoppable tool kit for serious bowhunters that are committed to staying on stand in any weather conditions.
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> Radical generation upgrade is what Ceska Zbrojovka calls their new CZ 600 series of bolt-action rifles that has just been introduced. …packed with a lot of new and innovative features and will apparently replace both CZ 527 and CZ 557 becoming the only centerfire bolt-action rifle line….
> …wide variety of caliber options, from .223 Rem to .300 Win Mag….3 action lengths: Mini (for intermediate cartridges like .223 Remington), Medium (for short action cartridges like .308 Win) and Long (for long action cartridges like .30-06 Springfield).
> The receivers are made of either nitrided steel with Remington 700 scope base attachment provisions or anodized Duralumin with integrated Picatinny rails. The controlled round feed bolts feature cocking indicators, 60-degree throw and 1 (Mini action) or 2 (Medium and Long actions) rows of 3 locking lugs that lock into the recesses in the barrels.
> The barrels are removable allowing to change the caliber. All CZ 600 rifle barrels are cold hammer forged, nitrided and threaded.
> The single-stage triggers of CZ 600 rifles are adjustable and can be set to 1 of the 4 weight options that range from 1.3 to 3 lbs. The adjustments are done using an Allen key without removing the barreled action from the stock.
> When the rifle is on safe, the bolt is locked…the action can be opened by pressing the bolt-release lever.
> …fed from proprietary double-stack detachable box magazines of 3- to 5-round capacity depending on the cartridge.
Sounds pretty nice, especially with an price around $750. Here’s the Alpha, Lux and Ergo models:
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> …the greatest attribute it provides the bowhunter is mobility. Most saddles weigh about 2 lbs or so and you can wear them to your stand. And when you throw in a few lightweight steps and a platform, and a few other odds and ends, you’re barely in-to double-digits.
> Let’s be honest, it sucks carrying a 12-lb hang-on (plus climbing steps on a pack) while also carrying your bow. …it’s noisy. The platform and steps are constantly getting hung up on branches…and it’s virtually impossible not to clang metal together as you’re setting up. Not so much with a saddle.
> Because you are leaning out away from the tree, trunk splits and angles are acceptable for a tree saddle and are even preferred in some cases because of the concealment they provide. Also…skinnier trees are in play.
> Because the saddle is set up with both a line-man’s rope for climbing and a tether once you’re in shooting position, there is virtually zero chance of falling once your feet leave the ground.
> As for comfort…it’s kind of like sitting in a hammock. Even when I’ve embarked on a few all-day sits, I’m able to stay more focused and find myself fidgeting less trying to get comfortable. Simply put, their sling-style seat feels good on the derriรจre….
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“I was shaking like really bad when it came out but I got it done.”
– 15-yr-old Chris F talkin’ about getting his first deer in MI! ๐๐๐ Congrats and that shaking might not ever go away!
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Little more info available on that buck now:
> …16 scorable points, and members of his archery club collectively scored the buck as a non-typical at 205 6/8″. …PA game officials….think it will score even bigger….
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What’s the DB and who does it?
The DeerBlaster is a weekly roundup of the best, funniest, newest and most important stuff about whitetail deer hunting โ culled from around the interwebz for DIEHARD whitetail hunters and blasted into your inbox.
The DB is put together by some deer nerds ๐ โ Ted, Jay, others โ from around the country. We excerpt content (and credit EVERYONE!), comment on content, do some original content…because we can’t get enough deer hunting โ bet you’re wired the same!
The DeerBlaster’s a work in progress, just like we are. ๐ Any issues, suggestions, whatever, just hit Reply to this email and weโll get it. Thank you for reading!
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