Vabowman

After 20 yrs of bowhunting and 20 harvest, 10 bucks and 10 does, I need to change. As many of you know, I have taken 5 bucks that range from 95-120' with bow, (Im excluding gun kills).. I truly want to start harvesting better bucks, I hunt land that holds them, Im talking P&Y BUCKS. I feel comfortable with my abilities as a shooter, I feel comfortable with my knowledge of deer, I do however need to bemore familiar with sizing them up before I shoot. I also need to be patient. I will still hammer some does, but Im thinking of letting more bucks walk, I let several small ones walk this year, but I still pulled the trigger on two that went 110-115' Im proud of those, however, I want to move beyond this mark in my career as a bowhunter. Anyone willing to give me advice on hunting P&Y bucks, or just advice on judging them, please feel free!!

BowHuntingFool

Your kidding right???? There's about 20 threads on subject as we speak, and I'm sure there will be more... Just wait 5 minutes

bawanajim

quit shooting 110 -115 ' bucks Now wasn't that easy.

Gundeck

You have more experience with taking buck with a bow, so I can't help you there, but I admire your effort to improve your hunting experience. I think you will find, even the small ones will get your blood pumping just to watch them walk past. (Just don't focus on them too much. You never know what is following them!)

GMMAT

IF "I" were "you"....and had the ground you have to hunt (based on our previous onversations).....I'd do 2 things:

1 - I would NOT target does in the areas I was thinking were going to be the MOST fruitful for "big" bucks.

2 - I wouldn't even go into the areas mentioned above.....until the rut.

In one of the other threads.....mention is made to targeting big bucks while they're still on their summer feeding patterns. I have no experience with this....as I have no access to ag. crops.

That still osunds like another viable option, though. Seems to be you'd find out pretty quickly (ESPECIALLY since your season doesn't start until Oct.) if this was viable for you (maybe inside the first week or so). If it didn't work out.....no harm done....go back to the above strategy.

That's just what I'd do if I were hunting your woods.....and ALL I wanted to take was a big buck with my bow.

Take it with a grain of salt.....I don't know ****. I'm a beginner!

Arthur P

My 'judging' system

Cute little guy.
Nice little basket.
Good length and/or width but kinda scrawny.
Good mass, but short and/or narrow.
Close.... but not quite.
That'd look nice on the wall.
OMG!

virginiashadow

I wish you the best of luck.

Killer_Primate

Dude,
Everyone turns over that leaf in the post season...

Just kidding man. Good luck. I'm in VA also, so I know what that commitment means.

Sliverflicker

Ha Ha, Thats the same system I use!

NEW61375

Well I wish you luck. I have been revamping a little the past couple of seasons and it has been working out pretty good but I have yet to tag one of the giants I know are there. I am ok with that and I feel like sooner or later a season will come along when the stars will line up, and I don't meanthat in a "I'll get lucky way"what I mean is I hope to have a season soon where my time off, the kids, the weather, the places I have to hunt, and everything else lines up in my favor. I admire guys that consistently harvest big deer and at the same time I don't think they are truly that much different than me as far as their approach to hunting bucks but where they are different is the fact that the level of committment to their goal of harvesting a big, mature buck is higher than mine. I'm ok with that too because priorities are priorities and vary from person to person. Time is a valuable commodity and one that many of us have a limited supply of. I hunt hard when I can, take notes, kill some deer, but above all else I want to be learning something newabout the area/deer every season so that when that season comes along where everthing "lines up" I will have amountain of knowledge to apply to my efforts, which is still no guarantee but it will help tip the scales in my favor a little more.

Not a lot of advice I can give other than pick good spots, hunt your standssmart& with patience, andput in all the time you can the entire year.Tip thescales in your favor and pray to be there the day that big boy runs out of luck.