2016 Hit List Bucks

[fishnfur]

   That one shows a ton of promise!

Does anyone else just shake their heads in wonderment at the size of the racks on those CA blackies?

[Wolfdog2314]

Best guy to come thru so far. Hoping a couple show up from last year tho.

(Dates wrong. This was last week or so)

[Buckewe]

Wow he is going to be a stud really fat

[Wolfdog2314]

Yeah I'm anxious to see how he turns out

[Miles]

Here's another wide blacktail off a different cam.  I'm interested to see what he ends up as.  These are decent bucks down here, but I've seen three in the last three years that make these look tiny.

[skeeter 20i]

A couple we stumbled on.

[fishnfur]

Best guy to come thru so far. Hoping a couple show up from last year tho.

(Dates wrong. This was last week or so)

 
What a toad!  He looks like he'll go 250 lbs. easy.   Looks old too.   I'll bet the young bucks run like hell when they see this guy coming.

[Miles]

Here's some more ca Blacktails from the recent cam check.

[Miles]

Blurred pic, but I think he's a good one.

[Timberstalker]

Christ Miles!  Those are dandies!!

[pd]

Christ Miles!  Those are dandies!!

Miles, that last one looks like a Selkirk caribou.

[pd]

OK, I will play.

Most years I see a lot of 3x3 bucks, seldom do we see 4x4 or greater around here.  This year is shaping up to be a normal year.



Just for fun, this poor boy was caught with his pants down.  What would his Mother say?

[fishnfur]

Nice ones PD!   He's well endowed on both ends!   
 
 I think we discussed this last fall/winter.....  Where do these bucks go in the fall??

[pd]

F&F, as we talked last year....

I am by no means an expert on blacktail behavior.  But I have observed them enough to draw these conclusions.  The mid-sized bucks (not the baby boys, who are still with their mothers, and not the bruzers, who never come out) tend to hang together in the summertime period, up 'til late September.  Then the bucks just vanish, they really do.  Around here the does (with and w/o fawns) become visible in the fields in late October and early November, waiting for the rut.  The bucks seem to know where the does are, and they cruise looking for them.

I have been fooled many times before by summertime bucks, and their predictable behavior.  You can feed bucks all you want during the summer and early autumn, but it won't help you come Halloween, because the bucks will disappear for their own reasons.

Thus, I hang cameras more for the entertainment value, and also to know the health of the buck groups.  Come Halloween, I will go to those known rub lines. Where there are does, there will be bucks.

For those who have time, now is the chance to find rub lines.  They will hold both bucks and does come mid-autumn.

[fishnfur]

I feel your pain man!

Sage advice for those wandering aimlessly.