Chris's Buck and Creigh's Buck

 Just got word that our friend Chris shot this monster on Sunday evening over in the Hamilton, OH area.  Of course there's a story.

 He shot him at 5:00 and they tracked him for 750 yards before they lost blood.  They hired a tracker with a dog on Monday and tracked for another 3 hours.  Perry put out a bunch of cameras to see if they could catch a photo of him and on Wednesday night, when checking cameras, Perry found him.

 He was in the edge of a bean field only about 50 yards from where originally shot.  He had made a mile loop before expiring.  Congrats Chris - awesome buck.

 This is Creigh with his buck taken on my farm.  I got a call from a neighbor, Dusty, who said he recognized the buck and thought that he was ten years old.  I decided to do some research in the archives to see if I could trace him.  On the right side he has a G2 that goes backwards a bit and he has a long G3 with a wiggle.

 He was a wide mainframe 9 point this year with a couple of stickers.  His face looked very old and he was big - 180 pounds field dressed.  His brow tines were small for such a mature deer.

 Anyway, it's hard to positively identify a buck year to year.  Their rack keeps some similarities but it gets bigger every year until about 6 years old and then it usually starts to decline.  And, of course, he's been breeding in the area so he has a lot of relatives running around.

 Dusty thought he could trace him back to 2011 but I thought he was looking at a different deer from 2015 and earlier.  So I went thru my files.

 This is 2016 and I'm sure it is the same buck.  He was a 10 point then, still with small browtines.

 The right G2 goes back and the G3 has a wiggle.

 I think that this is him in 2015.

 Still small brows, wide frame, 10 points, but the right G2 and G3 don't look exactly the same.

 Now we're into 2014.

 Looking at an 8 point with wide frame and small brows.  Looks similar but I'm less sure.

 In velvet 2014.

 End of 2013 season - January 2014.

 2013.  Wide frame, small brows.  This one is in December and looks intact.

This one is a broken 9 point in November.  Right G2 has a wiggle.

 October.

 September.

 September - are these the same deer?

 This one is a 9 point with a large right G3 with some wiggle.

 G2 has some rearward tilt.

 Different buck with a wiggle?

 Now we're in 2012.

 Could it be?

 Has a wiggle in right G2.

 Rear tilt G2?

 If this is him, he was at least 3 1/2 in 2012.

 G3

In velvet.  I have no idea if this is the same deer, a relative, or just a coincidence.  In any event, I think Creigh's deer was old.

Photo Galleries

Here's a few links to some interesting nature photography galleries.

BI Reuters Nature Photos

Nat Geo Wildlife

Nat Geo Nature

Nat Geo Travel

Comedy Wildlife Photos

African Trophy Hunting and Bushmeat

I will never hunt lion or elephant.  That's just me.  But I remain very interested in African wildlife conservation mainly because of some first hand exposure on my one trip there.  What is clear to me is that what works in the US (North American Model of Wildlife Conservation), is unlikely to work there.  There are too many forces at work - human population growth, poverty, weak governments, underfunded enforcement, corruption, high market value for poached animals, criminal networks trading in wildlife, worldwide demand for animal parts, etc.  African wildlife populations have been in decline for years - especially where legalized hunting was abolished (Kenya is an example).  There are some successes and it appears to me to be related to creating a legal market value for the wildlife (South Africa is an example).  Some people have summarized this as "if it pays it stays".  I'm not sure if this is the only or best answer but some sort of pragmatic approach is needed.  Anyway, I recently saw these two articles that I think describe the situation.  I also included an older 50 minute video on the elephant situation in Zimbabwe.  If you are interested and have some time, I think that this is good info on a complex subject.

NYT Article on Trophy Hunting

Sports Afield - Eating Eden to Extinction

The Elephant and the Pauper

On another note, I also get infuriated with the media who seem to use hunter and poacher interchangeably.  A law abiding hunter is like someone with a banking account and a poacher is like a bank robber.  Both are involved in banking.  But they are not the same.

Gun Season Finisher

 I was in stand again Saturday morning.  It was chilly.

 Lots of frost on the turnips and nothing was moving.

I got the call from the processor that the three bucks were ready for pickup.  I drove over and got the meat.  This stack of heads were the bucks that people decided to have made into European mounts.  They've had a busy week.

One of the bucks dropped off that morning.

Anyway, I started stacking meat in the freezer.

And I kept stacking.

And I kept stacking until it was full.

Saturday evening Dave (and family) were out.  Dave hunted the pond stand and only saw a few does.  I hunted the driveway hoping to take a doe.  Nice evening.  Nice view.

But only saw one doe way up in the main field.

Sunday morning I hunted the main field and this doe showed up.

That's what I was looking for.

She looked to be full grown.

About 155 pounds.  After field dressing she was 120.  Dave didn't have any luck in the barn stand.  There was a lot of activity on the neighbor's property down below.

Dawn was interested in doing a little shooting so we started with the 22.

We had a variety of targets - paper, bottles, plate, etc.

Then we went to the 40 cal.  Dawn won the prize for accuracy.

Then the 44 mag.

And we finished up with the 17 cal rifle.

While we were shooting, this came in.  My friend Jim has a place near our home in Mason.  His nephew Matt took this buck there.

That is a fine looking buck - congrats Matt.

We had a few more touring shots on the trailcams from earlier in the week.

A little activity on the cameras in the few days since I last checked.

This is what I usually find when I think that I am hearing deer moving.

Bluejay.

I'm worn out - time to take a break.