Luke E.

You're correct, I think the discussion was about unit L though. I'm assuming you're in unit B? What's the buck/doe ratio like in your area? The reason I ask is that it seems like some unit B areas have every bit as many doe as your average unit L county yet they've not opened it up to hunt doe like we're allowed in L.

There is no question, you must have a type 94 permit in order to hunt doe during rifle season. The most important opinion (in this matter) is that of the TWRA and their opinion is that you must have the 94 permit. Here's another side of it that'll make your head spin (I'll see if I can put it clearly). In unit L, if you have shot your 2 buck limit and decide you're done deer hunting for the year but want to hunt coyote, you still have to have the type 94 because "they don't know that you're not hunting doe". In east tn I don't think you can even hunt cities once yoube taken your two bucks because you can't take doe at will over there.

Yea, I just used the fish fryer like in your second pic. Just be careful with the nose area, they break on you if to get crazy with the heat.

Congrats on your deer. The first time I went after the peroxide, the Four Asian women in the store were speaking English when I walk in but that changed when I told one of them that I needed to find the peroxide. The euro mounting isn't hard but I'd suggest getting something to cut and squish the brain with so that it can be rinsed out with a hose. Boiled deer brain smells terrible!

Okay, educate me.. I've never heard that water = bacteria. Can you explain?

I just stopped by a buddy's house and there was a doe hanging. He said he killed her Tuesday morning. He was going to process her tonight. I kinda shook my head he said well as long as she's outta the sun she's fine. I'm skeptical lol. The only reason I can think of that his processor said his meat was bad is that his deer say with blood and guts in it where I assuming yours was field dressed and sprayed off before you left her hanging? I do agree though, if it was bad he probably would have known and just quit field dressing.

For I have to illegally bait, spotlight, road hunt, shoot across property lines, etc in order to shoot a huge buck, well, I guess I just won't be shooting a huge buck. I know that all aren't like that though, like you said. I thoroughly enjoy watching deer and generally watch 100+ deer for every one deer a kill. Since I've started hunting that way I have seen deer doing some really cool stuff. B

Well it sounds like our stance on it is pretty close to the same. I do what I can to up my chances of seeing big deer regularly but I consider myself very much a meat hunter, I just have certain deer that I'm not willing to shoot to get it, if that makes sense? And that is exactly what most every Whitetail hunter that is labeled a "trophy hunter" is. I guess I just place extra restrictions on myself to try to get the "trophy" along with my meat. I have no issue with killing doe and honestly, when it comes to immature bucks, I wish everyone let them walk but I'm not upset that they don't. Really the only thing that kinda makes my stomach turn is seeing deer killed that have less than a year under their belt. I wholeheartedly agree that there really shouldn't be any statewide detailed regulation. I've often thought "well, they should regulate strictly by the unit" but then I think further into it and think about how extremely different we are from county to county and get to thinking that maybe that's the answer. Then I think about the places I have to hunt in Rutherford county and they are as different as oil and water and would require COMPLETELY different regulation to accomplish the same goal. What I always end up settling on is that the only way for an ideal situation is if everyone were honest and had cameras so they know exactly what they have population wise and and took exactly what was needed to keep healthy ratios. Then I get depressed because I know this could never happen. Most will never put the time in to accomplish this, many would take advantage of making up their own rules and kill as many as the want, etc....it really makes me think about what a hard task the TWRA has on their plate when it comes to making decisions that effect so many completely different places and people. I can see shooting the first deer you see for the season, especially if you're out of meat. Plus you never know when you could be injured and miss the season completely. I sorta thought you meant that you killed the first thing you saw every time you hit the woods. In the spirit of full disclosure, I killed a button buck on the last day of muzzle loader. It was by accident and I felt like crap but it happened. It was actually about the size of a 2.5yr old doe. It was at the end of shooting light and I'd been watching a mature doe but there was just enough brush between us that I wasn't willing to take the shot. She headed in behind a cedar thicket and I thought, I'm gonna take her as soon as she clears the thicket. Her it came out the other side and into the clear so I made smoke. I was very confused when I heard two deer running in different directions since I'd only seen one deer. I guess she went in one side and the button walked out the other side and played the switcharoo on me. I'm willing to let friends and family take smaller buck from that property than any others I have because I know for a fact that every boardering property has hunters on it that will definitely kill any deer they see no matter what. I know that the chances of seeing a 130" and up buck on that property are slim to none. I guess it's made me realize that I have to be somewhat reasonable in my expectations.

I agree, I never even attempt to tell someone else what they can and cannot kill unless they're hunting my land or land that I have the hunting rights to. There is a whole heap more that goes into managing deer that letting them walk. I have enough cameras out to pretty accurately keep track of what the deer are doing in my general area. I keep food plots out as well as feeding (during the off season) and keeping mineral and such out. There's a lot more small stuff that goes into it but I've found one of the most effective methods is to work with as many neighbors as possible. I've found that most people are willing to pass on young bucks if they know everyone or most everyone around them will do the same.

Whether or not I see a problem with what someone else shoots doesn't matter in the slightest and I won't fool myself into thinking it does so I wasn't asking the question in a judgemental manner, I'm honestly just curious as to what thought process one follows to arrive there. So for you, personally, it's the fear that if you if let the first one walk, another one might not come through that day and you'll go home empty handed that day? Again, I'm not trying to be a judgemental a-hole, I'm just trying to understand the rational and everyone I ask (not talking about here on TGO)to explain it ends up getting defensive and pissy about it.

The vast majority of the hunters that regularly voice their opinion would like to see more mature bucks (that's exactly how we ended up going from a 3 buck limit to a 2 buck limit) and if they feel that to many are still tagging out on the little immature bucks, they'll start screaming for a one buck limit because they would rather only get one really nice mature buck than have to settle for two or three small to mediocre bucks. I personally won't advocate for a one buck limit but I definitely wouldn't fight it. Id personally rather see a "at least 4 points on one side" regulation. As long as you're not in the eastern zone, you can legally kill more doe than you could possibly eat or even give away. It sucks for the guys and gals in east TN because they only have a few chances to take a doe unless they hunt muzzloader and archery. I really felt like if they were going to take the 3rd buck away from them that they should have allowed them to replaced that with a doe that they could take at anytime they were allowed to take the buck. Many have actively sought to demonize those in favor of the 2 buck limit a pretend there's some sort of "meat hunter/trophy hunter war going on. By their definition of trophy hunter, you'd have to let the big ones walk and only kill the babies to not be one. The me a trophy hunter is someone that hunts animals that aren't eaten i.e. cheetahs and such. I manage and only kill mature bucks and will even get them mounted but I'm not a trophy hunter. I process and eat whatever I kill, the mount (trophy) is a bonus.

The vast majority of the hunters that regularly voice their opinion would like to see more mature bucks (that's exactly how we ended up going from a 3 buck limit to a 2 buck limit) and if they feel that to many are still tagging out on the little immature bucks, they'll start screaming for a one buck limit because they would rather only get one really nice mature buck than have to settle for two or three small to mediocre bucks. I personally won't advocate for a one buck limit but I definitely wouldn't fight it. Id personally rather see a "at least 4 points on one side" regulation. As long as you're not in the eastern zone, you can legally kill more doe than you could possibly eat or even give away. It sucks for the guys and gals in east TN because they only have a few chances to take a doe unless they hunt muzzloader and archery. I really felt like if they were going to take the 3rd buck away from them that they should have allowed them to replaced that with a doe that they could take at anytime they were allowed to take the buck. Many have actively sought to demonize those in favor of the 2 buck limit a pretend there's some sort of "meat hunter/trophy hunter war going on. By their definition of trophy hunter, you'd have to let the big ones walk and only kill the babies to not be one. The me a trophy hunter is someone that hunts animals that aren't eaten i.e. cheetahs and such. I manage and only kill mature bucks and will even get them mounted but I'm not a trophy hunter. I process and eat whatever I kill, the mount (trophy) is a bonus.

Omega, if it came across that I was directing my post at you I apologize. I was only giving my reasoning for choosing what I shoot and let walk. Not all button bucks are that light but I've yet to see only wouldn't net 50% more meat if let go until the following year and that's more than enough reason for me let one walk. As far as buck not staying on your property. New bucks generally move to a new area once they're old enough to split off so there's one way the venture off. You may lose them but you also gain someone elses. The good lord preprogramming an inbreeding defense mechanism? Seems likely to me. When I pass on a young buck I feel very certain that it doesn't hang out on my property for the next few years just like the young deer that my neighbors let walk will almost certainly come through my property. I had to get to the point that I didn't let myself get upset if I let one walk and someone else shot I. Heck I let a really tall 8pt walk the first weekend or rifle. It left my plot headed towards the Southern property line and had just enough time to make it to the line and BOOM he was shot. Under almost any conditions, the neighbors can't kill them all unless they are killing more than the law allows or like in my situation, the landowner is charging $100 per day ( kill whatever you want) but even with my problems(them tasking hundreds of deer off the one property each year) I still see multiple "wall hangers each season so I can say without a doubt that management, even on smaller tracts, really makes a difference. You're right though, a man is fooling himself if he thinks every young buck he passes on will grow to maturity and offer him another shot at that point. If both of those hunt clubs have a strong management practice in place then it would seem to me that you are in a perfect situation. If they are "if it's brown it's down clubs then you may not have a lot of chance to capitalize on passin on 1.5 and 2.5 year olds. If you don't mind me asking, and I'm only asking to satisfy my own curiosity, why do you shoot the first thing you see?

Sure, part of the reason I give young bucks a pass is because my cameras generally give me hope of seeing a mature buck and the young bucks of this year are the "biguns" of the next year or two but that's not even close to being the main reasons I let them walk. I ever have drawn any joy from the taking of a life and I feel like we have an obligation to ensure we're getting the most that life can offer if we're going to take It. To me this means taking deer that have physical maturity. I've seen many pictures on Facebook groups and around the webs this season of people that have killed yearling doe and bucks that's weigh less than my dogs. They might get 15# of meat off them so the whole "I'm a meat hunter" thing seems sketchy at best. They say "it didn't have spots" but they don't realize that they did have spots a couple months before and are in most cases less than a year old. These deer haven't come close to reaching their potential and to me it's poor stewardship to take deer like that. This is just my opinion and I realize many don't share said opinion or even put this much thought into it. Just something to chew on.

Funny how that works huh. No one wants to be the first to start letting them walk. I hear all sorts of excuses but one I love the most is "I only want the meat anyways and you can't eat the horns" I always reply with then why didn't you kill a doe? It's easy in mid and west to to kill doe so why not do that since "you can't eat the horns". Bottom line is, I've yet to ever meet a TN deer hunter that would let a 150"-160" buck walk because they didn't care about the "horns". Just an excuse to pull the trigger on the first thing they see. If that's what you want to do then far be it from me to stop you but if you have to make excuses about it why you shot that spike or split tine then maybe.... Yea

I've not taken a 2.5 yr old in years and after that first year there were noticeably more 3.5 yr old deer. I've been trying to not take anything unless it 4yrs or more this year. I still haven't taken one but I have had pictures of them. I know that you can't do that in a lot of places because of dozens of other hunters in the area that wouldn't dream of letting a 3.5 yr old deer walk. We've got 1 buck that's 5.5-6.5 and if you ever see one like that, it's hard to want to take less. Good job giving the 8 a pass and I hope it pays off for you next year!

Been a good morning to sit in one of my heated blinds but my knees wouldn't have been happy if I'd have made the sit in a stand!

Congrats on the deer folks! I've not had much time this year with the new baby showing at about the time I started seeing early scrapes and rubs. The people to the south of me have killed so many that I'm not even getting night pics of deer very often. Wouldn't be such a big feel if I weren't averaging 6-700 pics per week per camera during bow season. From what I've heard, they've already surpassed the 100 deer mark on that property this year and totaled close to double that last year. Guy is charging $100 per person per day on an "it's brown it's down" basis. I've seen wounded fawns and other sickening things from those a-holes. Anyways, I just got the key to an 800 acre farm down the road and permission to finish out my season there if I choose. I can only hunt it on weekdays though so I guess I'm going to start working Saturdays and taking off a lil early each evening. Good luck for the rest of the season guys.

Well I've not had the opportunity to take that really big buck on our place and the bright moon and clear sky's have been nothing short of discouraging for the last several days so I've moved over a farm just for some new scenery. I was told by the neighbor that he'd seen 2 140"+ bucks over here a few times last week so here's hoping. Good luck folks!!

Congrats to your son!

That sucks, if I didn't have thanksgiving at the in laws tonight I'd offer to come help.

Congrats!

I totally agree that the short wait times contributed caused people to make NFA purchase, hec, as soon as I found out I filed two. I just seems like they really focus on one thing at the time more than the other. Trust submissions were shot time and personal were long. If the flood of submissions is responsible then the personal should have stayed the same while the trusts went up. But instead trusts went up and personal went WAY down. Glad you got that form 1 stamp back you've been waiting on that one a while.

Here's the link for anyone that hasn't stumbled across it yet. http://nfatracker.com/TrendGraph.aspx

They were quicker a year ago. Trust efile form 1's were 25-45 days and form 4 on a trust was around 90 days while their paper counter were very high. The tides began to turn and eventually the paper filed submissions were the short times and the trust submissions took their place in the long wait camp. It's absolutely ridiculous that they don't take submissions in the order received or have trust and personal employees that way the wait times would stay a bit more level. Of course I find it ridiculous that there is a such thing as the NFA, especially as it pertains to suppressors and sbr's! So of course I find everything envolved with the NFA asinine. I haven't checked wait times since my last two were let out of jail but I found the "NFA tracker graph" to be exceptionally accurate.