[petey]

Fairly typical season for me. My 6 year old killed his first buck under the mentored youth program, with me by his side, the first hr of daylight. Dandy 8 point that was bigger than anything coworkers shot. 5 minutes later I passed on a mainframe 8 with it's tines sheared off from a fight. Gotta commend the PAGC on this program, I have to say.
I hunted 4 days in gun season, passed on 5 "legal" bucks waiting for the one I've been hunting in archery. I saw 8 bucks, 3 I could not have shot, b/c they were just flashes or in thick stuff that no bullet could have made it through. Probably 20 some doe sightings in those 4 days. My neighbors missed 8 bucks by 8 am the first day (thank god). I didn't hunt as many days as normal in archery, but still had multiple opportunites at legal bucks. I choose to pass on the 1-2.5 year olds and shoot only bucks in the 120+ class range. We have them...I have plenty of trailcam pictures and pick and choose which bucks I will shoot. To each their own, but I don't just shoot any old buck to say I did.

BTW, I do not hunt private land, I do not own hoards of posted property, it's public and I do my homework before archery season. I know where bucks live, I know their patterns and I have names for all of them. Call my physco, or whatever, but it's how I choose to hunt. I pass on lesser bucks and over the past 5 years I've come to a point in my hunter career where I can wait on that one buck that I've found..him or nothing. I nice to watch bucks grow up, and I have several years worth of trailcam pictures of the same bucks. It makes me smile when I see a 120-140" 4.5-5.5 yr old and I know I was one of the factors in him getting that age and growing that big, b/c I didn't pull the trigger or release an arrow when he was just a 1.5 or 2.5 yr old.

So far...I have nothing, other than does and my boy's buck in the freezer. I'm happy with the season and sightings so far. My boy's kill was one that we'll both remember for the rest of our live's and the bond we shared that day can not be weighed on any scales. A successfull season thus far. So I have to kill "my" buck with a flintlock or bow after Christmas? Can't wait for it...he'll be back to his normal patterns in two weeks and he'll make the wrong mistake soon enough. If not, I'll kill him next year as a 6.5 year old. If not, he just may die of old age! My buck to doe ratio in my area is what I think it should be. Less deer sightings than 10 years ago? Well yeah, but I'd rather see 3 descent bucks in a day, than 100 does and 1 spike.

Anyhow good luck to the rest of you all, if you're still after that big one like me.