Band of Bucks II

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
absolutely beautiful pics.. So pretty makes you not even wana kill one. They feel super safe there.

Well thanks, Blisterapine! I certainly could not kill one of these bucks, that for sure, but put me in a climber 45 minutes away from here and all bets are off. :bounce:

glad to see you back at E. I'll be keeping an eye out till you quit for deer season. Comon' Nov!!!

Good to hear from you, BIGABOW! Yeah, I hope to be able to show most of the 10 or 12 different bucks that were captured in velvet as hard antlered before I wrap it up for the year but I can tell the bachelor groups are already breaking up so that will require some luck.

I found a shot from last summer of Killer and Slick on the deck - Slick did well to go from a little 3 point to a respectable 2 year old eight.

Also another pic of Killer from last night still not free of that pesky velvet.
 

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Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
A few more from last night.
 

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Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Sitting out on the deck a while ago with several bucks in attendance. A big bodied 9 was definitely feeling his oats tonight and was checking the credentials of every other buck that approached. He briefly hit horns with small 8 point slick when he was trying to pass and then really got into it with another larger 8 a few minutes later - locked up, grunting, heads in the dirt...the whole deal! Of course I had to check the cam and it didn't catch it. Maybe next time.
So far Killer doesn't want any part of the 9 but that could be just a temporary situation.
 

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Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Got a good close up of Killer last night - he's still holding onto velvet over a week in to the shedding process. I'd like to shoot a deer that looked like that.
 

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antharper

“Well Rounded Outdoorsman MOD “
Staff member
Great pictures and y'all said something about j-bo genes , if I remember correctly jbo had a little extra point kinda like killer
 

bh4mr1ck

Member
Thanks for sharing Echo. I keep coming back to your threads. They are always amazing to follow and see these groups of bucks.
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Great pictures and y'all said something about j-bo genes , if I remember correctly jbo had a little extra point kinda like killer

antharper, that sure does look like a little kicker point on Killer's left beam but it's actually just the tip of one of his especially impressive brow tines. His rack will fool you from a lot of angles in to thinking he's more than a 6.

Thanks for sharing Echo. I keep coming back to your threads. They are always amazing to follow and see these groups of bucks.

I'm glad that you do my friend!

Had another good turnout from the bucks this evening but I didn't observe any more fighting. I'll check the cam in the morning.

We're watching Irma pretty carefully down here at the moment. I've been planning for months to evacuate right into my Summit Viper this Saturday morning but that looks very much in doubt right now.
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Beautiful pics - beautiful setting...living the dream

Thank you, sir!

I had almost 350 pics to look through this morning so I guess they were busy feeding up ahead of the storm. Caught a nice little sparring sequence as well, not the sort of full-on lock up I saw the other night but the 9 point is continuing to exert his dominance for the moment.
 

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Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Ernie, you still in Savannah? Hope your evacuating! Cool pics!

Negative on the evacuation, Kevin. Was certainly considering it but with each update things seem to be looking a little less dire for the Georgia coast. Will continue to watch it closely however.

I really feel for those folks in Florida though and hope all will make it through in as good a shape as possible.
 

BornToHuntAndFish

Senior Member
Looking good, Ernie, as usual. Cool watching 'em go thru their velvet shedding.

Be safe & stay safe with them big game critters & beast of a storm coming. Nice seeing Hurricane Irma track drift more west as we see each 4-hour storm update. Really appreciate your fine entertaining neighborhood whitetail photo updates.

:fine:
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Looking good, Ernie, as usual. Cool watching 'em go thru their velvet shedding.

Be safe & stay safe with them big game critters & beast of a storm coming. Nice seeing Hurricane Irma track drift more west as we see each 4-hour storm update. Really appreciate your fine entertaining neighborhood whitetail photo updates.

:fine:

Thanks, BornTo!

Pleased to report that all are present and accounted for here after Irma came through. She left us a heck of a mess to clean up though, that's for sure.

The Band starting rolling in early yesterday afternoon even as the winds were still whipping through the trees. Some of the younger bucks looked a bit rattled but Killer was unmoved and seemed ready to begin working his way back to the top of the hierarchy. I've noticed that his neck has swollen considerably during the last week or so. His rack is still holding shredded pieces of velvet going on two weeks after it began to fall off.
 

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antharper

“Well Rounded Outdoorsman MOD “
Staff member
Glad all is safe with not much damage ! It's funny how some deer slick out over night and some take forever, probably got to do with how slick their antlers are I guess !
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Glad all is safe with not much damage ! It's funny how some deer slick out over night and some take forever, probably got to do with how slick their antlers are I guess !

Could be, I think the greater the antler mass the more likely it is to persist longer as well.
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
New Year's update!

It's been a lean late fall and winter for the deer in these parts as we had the smallest mast crop that I can recall in quite a few years.

Add to that the near record cold, ice and snow and you've got some hungry deer, so I recently started feeding again a little bit earlier than usual.

The bucks didn't seem to mind that idea one bit..
 

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fishhunt05

Senior Member
Good to see echo. I’m feeding mine now also. Hoping to find some sheds if I don’t end up killing my big one.
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
Good to see echo. I’m feeding mine now also. Hoping to find some sheds if I don’t end up killing my big one.


Yeah, fishhunt after the deer season I've had I'm hoping for better luck with the sheds myself.

I've seen some really good bucks while hunting this year but it seemed like they were just out of range of whatever weapon I was using at the time or running after does without stopping - just a whole bunch of close calls that resulted in me not getting a shot off. Very frustrating year in the deer woods for sure but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Back in early December I finally killed a young buck on a WMA buck-only hunt just to secure some meat for the freezer.
 
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