Post your deer hunting storys here!

So answer this question for me. How do you shoot a very nice eight point buck and only drag out a four point buck?

Story to come latter.

Uh.......you had to share the rack with the buddy that helped you drag it out???

I typically "share" my bounty with my hunting partners and/or they "share" with me, unless we both score.

But we NEVER "cut it down the middle"!!

I've seen guys shoot antlers off. Once saw a nice buck fall onto some rocks and cracked one side off. Have seen points cracked off...It's too bad, but all part of that hunt's particular character. Can't beat the taste though (well elk, moose, and a black bear that's been eating berries are pretty darned good too!).

hmm, how does it taste? only tried some large game uncle shot in NC, turned some of it into jerky like strips, and the taste was, well, definitely strong, i couldn't take it. not sure if it was how he made it or if indeed big game as a strong taste (relative to veal, say)

I've always enjoyed venison, then I tasted elk - that was much better. Moose is very good, better than plain ole' beef! The black bear (that had a berry diet) was also extremely good! Caribou to me has a "stronger" taste, but not as good to me as the above meats.

One reason I like game so much, is the lack of chemicals, vaccines, antibiotics, etc. that they are pumped up with.

The only "strong/gamey" meat I've ever had was meat that wasn't properly taken care of, aged incorrectly, or perhaps the one caribou that I had that was in the "rut" oh and a bear that was on a fish diet!

I actually don't hunt much anymore. I make a real good Italian sausage though (just got done making 40 lbs of "Moose Italian Sausage"). Folks give me meat to make it for them and I get some out of that.

I've eaten venison before and liked it. I haven't tried many of the other meats like elk or caribou but I do like game bird. Quail, pheasant, turtle dove, etc.

Oooo yeah, birds..that's what I'm talkin' bout! Breast them out, wrap a piece of bacon around them and grill em'! Oh and someone mentioned putting a sliver of jalapeno inside...yeah!

I'm originally from Ohio..miss those quail & pheasants! I was in Arizona for 6 years and talk about a dove season!!

We have spruce hens and ptarmigan (a type of grouse) here in Alaska, but I've not had many. I did buy a "Cookshack Pit BBQ" (Cabelas) and it smokes a mean game hen (and pork loin, brisket, etc.), but the hens aren't like a wild bird at all in taste.

Now your making my mouth water Sigman. I'm originally from Oklahoma. Used to fish there mostly but would hunt a couple of times a year when the bird hunting seasons began. Nothing like eating some fresh quail and pheasant on one night and then having some fresh pan fried bass and crappie the next. Lot's of good dear hunting there as well but I never did any. I've been in Indiana for about 10 years now and don't get to do much of any of it now. Oh well.

My brother and his family live in Phoenix. Good dove season out there huh? I wasn't even aware of that.

What took an old Ohio boy out of my neck of the woods and deposited him clear up in Alaska?

Now you're making my mouth water -> Pan fried bass and crappie (and walleye too!)...we don't get that up here...(though we have 5 different kinds of salmon, halibut, cod, several types of crab - including those huge king crabs!, shrimp, trout, char, grayling, even some pike - taste good - but they kill too many of our gourmet fish..., and I probably left a few out)

21 years in the U.S. Air Force, went from Ohio -> Texas -> Mississippi -> Georgia -> Alaska -> Colorado -> Alaska -> Michigan -> Arizona -> back to Alaska for good! Retired and work for the Alaska Railroad Signal Department now.

Gotta feed the babies and pay the bills, someday I hope I can really retire!

The deer opener here in Michigan is November 15th and my father and I left the truck for our stands at about 5:15 am. We wanted to make sure to get to our stands before any other hunters as we are hunting state owned land. I of coarse had plenty of light to find our stands which are located about ¾ of a mile from where we park. Around my neck was an Infinity Ultra, in my front left pocket was an E2 with the LOLA, in my front right was an E1E with a KL1, in my backpack was a Surge and Arc AAA, on my belt was a 6P, and in my leg pocket was an X10. We got to my stand at 5:50 am and my father had about 5 more minutes of walking to get to his stand. So now I had about an hour to sit and wait for legal shooting time which was 6:58 am on that day. So this was like heaven for me it was pitch black, I mean you could not see the hand in front of your face. I was really impressed with the Arc and Ultra in this pitch black they really light things up. I think it was about 6:55 am when I saw the light of another hunter approaching at about 100 yards. So I wanted to let him know that I was there and tried signaling him by flashing my Ultra in his direction, well this seemed to do nothing so out comes the X10 and a couple of flashes from its high beam and the hunter stopped dead in his tracks and started off in the direction he had come from. Well opening morning after that was quit uneventful I did not see one deer the whole morning notta, but I hung in there and was determined to sit in my stand all day. It was about 2:30 in the after noon and I was looking off to my left when I heard a crack right in front of me, so I slowly turn my head and there it was the first deer of the day. It was a very large doe and very dark in color compared to other deer I have seen in this area. She was in a very big hurry, not a spooked kind of hurry more like a buck is chasing me kind of hurry. So I was exited thinking maybe there is a big old buck fallowing her. She was now almost out of my site and she stopped dead looking strait up the hill to my left, the she turned and bolted strait back in the direction she had come. Just then I noticed another hunter coming over the hill, he then sat down about 50 yards from me. I whistled at him about ten times before he noticed I was there, and then he finally moved on. So now I am thinking the first chance I have to see I buck and this guy ruins it just my luck. The rest of the evening I saw three doe and that was it for opening day I was going home empty handed.
Well the next morning we went through pretty much the same ritual. It was about 7:20 am when a heard the familiar crunching of a deer walking briskly through the leafs, I then caught a glimpse of the body. It was directly behind a young oak tree that was very thick and still had most of it leafs. It must have known that this tree has a great barrier between me and it because it stayed right there for at least 15 minutes walking and pawing at the ground, then it just turned and walked back up the hill directly behind him. I was never able to see its head to tell if it was a buck or doe. So needless to say I was very upset with this oak tree. At about 8:45 I spotted a deer coming toward me at about 150 yards and was not able to spot it with my binoculars until it cleared some think under brush between us. The deer came out of the brush about 50 yards from me and was fallowed by six more they were all doe, two of them where very young and small. Now at about 9:00 I was starting to get cold and ready to take a walk to warm up. I spoke with my father over the radio and he wanted to sit until 9:30 which was fine with me. I figured I could go down to that annoying oak tree and shake off all of its leafs so that the next morning I would be able to see behind it. That took about fifteen minutes, so I sat back down in my stand figuring my dad would be ready to go soon. At this point the sun had cleared the trees and was right in my eyes so I am sitting there thinking I have just spooked every deer within a ten mile radius, and I can't see a thing. When right in front of me I see a deer coming from my left to right at about 60 yards and it is moving at a good pace. I them noticed it looks just like the doe that was spooked by the hunter the night before, she was very large and very dark. She got to the same point at which she stopped the night before, but this time she kept moving right out of site. About thirty seconds after she had disappeared I saw a deer with it nose to the ground coming from the same direction the doe had. At this point I can tell it's a large deer and it has its nose to the ground but with the sun in my sees I could not see if it had horns. I put my scope on it just as it stopped with its head behind a tree. The scope was very hard to see through with the sun glaring on it and I am thinking I know this has to be a buck but I need to make sure. Just then it turned its head toward me with its head still down and there was no mistaking, there was definitely some head gear there. I put the scope back on him just as he started to walk. So I pulled the trigger not having any idea if I had hit me because of the glare. He took off strait up the hill in front of him and I took another shot, but it was very thick and with the sun being now directly in the scope I had no hope of hitting him with the second shot. I then walked down to the spot where I had shot at him the first time to see if there was any blood, when I got there I heard noise coming from the thick brush he had run into, so I approached it very slowly and there he was lying there a very nice eight pointer. After waiting to make sure he was dead and for my father to get there. I approached the deer and lifted the very nice rack up I noticed that there was no antler on the left side it had been broken off. My father said you must have shot it off to which I replied there is no way that I hit that running deer through this thick brush with out being able to see a thing through my scope, there is just no way. Well upon closer inspection there was a very large caliber bullet whole through his left ear right where the second antler was broken off! So that is my story of the eight point buck that only came home with four of them.

Man, it's almost like I was there...very nice description!

I was mountain-biking through Ocala National Forest last weekend and came across 4 deer on the path. I stopped 30 yards from them and it was a stare-down for about 5 minutes. I didn't have a gun and I'm not a hunter anyway so it doesn't matter. It was a very cool experience. Wish I would have had my camera.

Jtivat, Any sign of diseased deer? I read the waisting disease was headed our way (Illinois).

I took it to a deer check station and had him checked out they said it was a very healthy two and a half year old. Now they can't actually check for the wasting disease there, they did say there have been no cases in Michigan.