First of the season

[boneaddict]

and if I had been using my longbow instead of a camera, probably would have been the last.   He had a group of about 12 doe to his name.

[7mmfan]

Great start Bone.

[ELKBURGER]

Nice buck! I hope he breeds them well!

[elkrack]

He’s got some cool character! Nice shot!

[abhold87]

Stud buck!!!

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Good one! My cousin brought up your name this evening while we were looking at this year's calendar stud bucks. 

[Skyvalhunter]

Nice buck!!! Probably would have been the last? Tell me it isn't so that you've taken up leaf licking.

[hunt6226]

Nice pics sir.
Have been patiently waiting for your pics and ready for another calendar

[boneaddict]

Nice buck!!! Probably would have been the last? Tell me it isn't so that you've taken up leaf licking.

Meaning tag notched.

[pianoman9701]

Another great buck, Doug.

[Gonehuntin01]

Great start...can't wait to see what's coming.

[724wd]

thank you for sharing! I LOVE seeing your photos!

[blindluck]

Great picture

[OutHouse]

Cool. Do you ever bust out the long bow anymore? I recall seeing many older pictures in the deer thread. I remember seeing at least a few and then boom no more Boneaddict and his five point mule bucks every year.

[Pathfinder101]

Great start Bone.

 

[boneaddict]

Cool. Do you ever bust out the long bow anymore? I recall seeing many older pictures in the deer thread. I remember seeing at least a few and then boom no more Boneaddict and his five point mule bucks every year.

I put myself on a self imposed freeze.   I believed strongly enough that the herd could use a break.  Once I get a feel that things are back on track, I’ll hunt again.  I figured it was hypocritical of I’m saying how bad things are then I go out and shoot one.   In the meantime I have been playing catch and release.

[Buckhunter24]

Thats a cool buck. Do you pick up many sheds of the deer that you photo?

[fishnfur]

Superb photo Bone!

[OutHouse]

Cool. Do you ever bust out the long bow anymore? I recall seeing many older pictures in the deer thread. I remember seeing at least a few and then boom no more Boneaddict and his five point mule bucks every year.

I put myself on a self imposed freeze.   I believed strongly enough that the herd could use a break.  Once I get a feel that things are back on track, I’ll hunt again.  I figured it was hypocritical of I’m saying how bad things are then I go out and shoot one.   In the meantime I have been playing catch and release.

Right on, shows a lot of restraint. It was a few years before I joined this site that I started to see how bad the mule deer were doing (only been doing big game for about 10 years). Then I joined the site and saw all the commentary on the herd and I really started to feel the same way you do. Took a mule doe in the last half of archery one year and after that decided I would do my best to not pursue mule deer at all and focus on whitetails. That was about six years ago and have take five whites since. When I was kid up in the Methow it was common to see 20 different mule bucks each summer around my folks' place. Now we are lucky to see two during the summer months.