Quality Buck ?

[bornforhorns]

Is it that very few get posted on here anymore or is it that nobody is killing anything of any stature?

I can speak on behalf of my cousin in that the Gardner Unit has either had some major changes happen to it's traditional migration routes or most of the decent ones are on private ground where you can't get to them.  I know that fires, predators, loss of wintering range and the shear mass of people (bikers) in the area has changed the dynamics from the early 90's when I would see world class bucks in huntable areas and definitely a flood of deer migrating through there.

I know some others probably have thoughts about this?  I'm interested in what others think.

If anybody on here has some photos of old Gardner bucks that go 170 or better please share a pic if you feel inclined!

[bobcat]

Yes, not as many being killed. Look back at posts in 2015, you'll see plenty were posted that year, even bucks that were killed in the general season. In fact there may have been more from the general season than from the later special permit hunts.

[nwalpineguide]

With apologies to internet experts and country store clerks, this one stepped out at 11:28AM on Saturday in the Lake Wenatchee area. We left a few for others to enjoy in future. Plenty of others like this one running around fighting and rutting. Late season quality buck permit hunt.

Oh, bye the way; I forgot to mention that the data informed our decision about where and when to hunt. And thought some might find interesting how trail cam data can be utilized to narrow down your hunting location, ours being tree stand locations along migratory routes.

Brad: Hi Mike,

I thought you might enjoy seeing the data analysis I did on your picture data.

Attached is the file I created.  If it was pointed to your directory you could just click on links and see the pictures.

I first created the "Data" tab by downloading the path of the pictures and the time they were taken.  For a better analysis, I would include a stand column.   I then indicated the duplicate pictures in Col  D, Deer Type (Buck or Doe) in Column E.  If a buck, the points in column F.  Hunting Hours in Column G, I then separated the Date / Time into their own Columns.  See below.


From this data I created a spotting chart as shown below.  The left axis is hours and the top is date.  So it shows how many deer were spot during which hour each day.


Then I looked at the sightings over a 15 day period to determine the best hunting times.  The first four columns are the total sightings per each hour group.  The Four hour period is the number of sights over a 15 day period in each four hour block.  I then computed probability of seeing a buck or doe during the period.  What it shows is if you hunt from 11 to 2 you have a 93% change of seeing 1 animal each day during that period.  The best periods for bucks is from 12 to 4 and you have a 20% chance of seeing a buck.  If you want to see a 4 or 5 point buck you only have a 7% daily chance over 15 days.


This analysis could be refined in many ways, but I wanted to show you what could be done with your picture data.  I would narrow it further to also look at shorter day groups rather than the 15 day period.

If you did this per stand you could figure out which stand has the most productivity and the best period of days and times to hunt.  Realizing of course that a random monster buck can appear at any time regardless of the analysis.

Brad

[huntnphool]

 

[X-Force]

Nice buck

[Skyvalhunter]

Wow Mike that's a nice buck Congrats

[trophyhunt]

Good deer, quality is in the eye of the hunter.  But, I wont be putting my 14 points in the draw for a while. 

[C-Money]

I'm pretty sure folks are not so willing to post pictures anymore, and this is unfortunate it is this way.

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah thats a beautiful buck, nothing wrong with him. 

[NOCK NOCK]

Yes, not as many being killed. Look back at posts in 2015, you'll see plenty were posted that year, even bucks that were killed in the general season. In fact there may have been more from the general season than from the later special permit hunts.

Yes, 
2015 was a VERY hard year on the muley population. Fires, High kill, Bad winter. Takes awhile to get back from that.

[NOCK NOCK]

I believe both of your questions are correct. Less quality bucks being posted (some folks ALWAYS have to be a downer and if its not a Monster they just gotta say something) people get tired of that. If the guy liked it enough to shoot it, then its a Quality buck to him....BE HAPPY FOR HIM, period. 
and less being killed (population is way down)

Here's mine from this year, not a Masher to some (I don't care) I shot it for me and that's all that really matters.

PS: Beautiful buck nwalpineguide

[NOCK NOCK]

@nwalpineguide  Hope ya don't mind that I rotated the pic for you. If that's not ok let me know and i'll remove.

Congrats again, awesome buck

[Twispriver]

They're both mashers to me - congrats and thanks for posting 

[opdinkslayer]

I believe both of your questions are correct. Less quality bucks being posted (some folks ALWAYS have to be a downer and if its not a Monster they just gotta say something) people get tired of that. If the guy liked it enough to shoot it, then its a Quality buck to him....BE HAPPY FOR HIM, period. 
and less being killed (population is way down)

Here's mine from this year, not a Masher to some (I don't care) I shot it for me and that's all that really matters.

PS: Beautiful buck nwalpineguide

  got news for ya nock nock, that is a beautiful muley buck & not many people would pass him. Congrats

[mburrows]

Two awesome bucks guys. Congrats on the success

[2MANY]

I just love the leaf broach the one buck is wearing!

[Griiz]

Nice buck👍 I don’t think he suffered with that shot😀

[Buckjunkie]

They're both mashers to me - congrats and thanks for posting 

[bornforhorns]

Guys!  Those are beautiful bucks!  Congratulations!

[Watimberghost]

Both great bucks!

[Rainier10]

Great bucks fellas. Congrats.

[deerlick]

Quality tag

[nwalpineguide]

@nwalpineguide  Hope ya don't mind that I rotated the pic for you. If that's not ok let me know and i'll remove.

Congrats again, awesome buck

Thank you NOCK. Am grateful for the assistance and positive comments. Smoker of a buck you took also. I respect and admire your leadership and efforts.
Still trying to navigate and learn how to post properly. Will get it with time and effort.

[nwalpineguide]

Wow Mike that's a nice buck Congrats

Thanks Keith. Enjoyed the various phone as well text conversations this past year. Allot of the info and images you shared with me informed my decision making and judgement while hunting both bear and trophy class muley bucks in the GPW this summer and fall. Your assistance will not be forgotten anytime soon. I owe ya brother! Thanks again. Now, if only we could connect with one or two of those piss-walloper bucks I recently caught on video and posted to Facebook. Staggering to think these cryptic bucks are out there! Just incredible.

[X-Force]

Quality tag

Any more pictures? Nice buck

[Skyvalhunter]

Beautiful buck deerlick I love the mass

[wsmnut]

Three very nice bucks.
Thanks for sharing.

[deerlick]

Quality tag

Any more pictures? Nice buck

I plan on doing a write up of my season and saving some pics for that.

[Wunderlich33]

Nice bucks!  Great job to both!

[MerriamMagician]

I'm pretty sure folks are not so willing to post pictures anymore, and this is unfortunate it is this way.

This is very true. A big reason for that is because someones posts something that they were proud and happy about and people find something to criticize, demean, judge, slander, insult, bash, be a grammar nazi, be an internet cop, etc. This forum, other forums, and most social media platforms for hunting and fishing all have this common problem. People get sick of it and just decide to stop posting and writing about their success stories. This includes myself. I do a ton of big game hunting both here in WA and out of state and I havn't posted any of my big game success stories and pics in years. I've been attacked before and many others have too and it doesn't take a whole lot of that foolishness to get people to just stop posting. Of course, the hunting is currently on the downside which is going to limit the amount of quality pictures that end up posted. However I would place the most blame on the general lack of photos and success pictures posted to all the negatives I just mentioned.

[boneaddict]

Quality tag

Any more pictures? Nice buck

I plan on doing a write up of my season and saving some pics for that.

Looking forward to it!

[Skyvalhunter]

I want to see "BENCHLEGS"

[JohnVH]

Only 3 ?

[T-ROY]

hear is one more for the quality tag

[Watimberghost]

Stud!

[OutHouse]

I think you're right that Gardner is way down for mules in general. I hunt it every year and for the last several have only taken whitetails. Their populations seem to be doing just fine. No pic but I knew a guy whose family homesteaded Mazama and he had a really heavy 30 incher that he took right in Mazama in the 80's. And on posting pics I agree with a lot of the comments. I seem to remember a past thread where a guy talked about how his young son posted a small buck he was proud of and the jackarss commentary put the poor lad in tears. I posted a whitetail doe I took in Gardner during archery this year and afterwards I thought maybe that was a mistake, but I don't recall any bad comments.

[WildlifeAssassin]

Great bucks being posted in this thread. Congrats all around, appreciate you guys sharing photos.

[sagerat]

Nice buck T-ROY

[jstone]

Great bucks gentlemen
Congratulations
That’s the reason I have never posted pictures