It’s been a fun season so far! I was fortunate to kill 2 public land bucks in December. Im holding on to my last buck for an SOA hunt next week. The first buck was killed around 2pm. He came to the edge of a cutover after I grunted a few times. He walked out in the cutover quartering to me and I squeezed a round off. He ran in a semi circle, got wobbly and tipped over. He still had his head up so I put another one in him ( probably unnecessary lol) and that was that. I didn’t pull his jawbone but he was an older deer. 160lbs live weight. He either damaged his left side in velvet or it just grew like that. It wasn’t a fresh break. It’s pretty rare for me to kill a buck in the afternoon and I’ve never killed one that early. It wasn’t nice to drag him out and it be daylight lol




This buck was killed around 9am. I was hunting some thinned pines that I had scouted a couple weeks prior to the hunt. I had an idea where I wanted to climb but hadn’t marked a tree. I had marked a scrape on an old skidder trail so figured I’d walk to that and see if the bucks had put any more sign down around it. When I got there the one scrape was now 3 and they had all been freshly worked. I picked out a tree about 50 yards from the scrapes and got settled. Right before shooting light I had 2 deer walk under me and go to the scrapes. I didn’t see another deer until about 10 minutes after I rattled and this buck came over the next pine ridge. He stared in my direction for a while and then started side hilling the ridge. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder and squeezed as he was walking. He kicked and ran with his tail down, disappearing over the ridge. It was a short tracking job. I heart shot him and he ran about 60 yards.



I was in a club the last 4 years and I hunted it out of obligation. However my most fun deer hunts was when I would skip the club and hunt public land. This year I went back to full time public land hunting and I love it. I just want to encourage yall to remember that deer hunting is supposed to be fun. If you aren’t enjoying your time in the deer woods, then do something different. Your success in deer hunting isn’t defined by others expectations, it should be defined by you. Shoot what makes you happy. This goes for trophy hunters and spike killers alike. Good luck the rest of the season!

Nice deer! Public land deer are always rewarding.

Good season you having bud!

Congrats on another great season Southwood!

Thats awesome - congrats and great freaking message!!

Good deer!

Great season buddy!

Damn right!!

Congrats

Southwood we haven’t met but I have read many of your kill threads and imo you are one of the most skilled hunters on this site man. Somebody that can get such results on public consistently is a cut above.Much respect…..congratulations on the kills!

Enjoyed reading. 95% of my hunting is on public land. I've never had problems with overcrowding since there's so much land to spread out on.

That second buck was in need of a manicure!

Congrats on both!

Congratulations bud! Hope you end the season with a bang on the SOA hunt

I was wondering if it was the picture,or did the front hooves look unusually long. I killed a buck several years ago with long hooves,some peeling off in layers. I posted pics on here and was told he was an EHD survivor.

Awesome deer!

Good bucks! Congratulations.

Congratulations man

Thanks for the kind words!

He did have long hooves. I didn’t notice it until after I got him loaded up. He was healthy otherwise.

Congrats on the bucks!

Congrats on a fun season!