My 2008 Deer Season

My 2008 deer season wasn’t a great one. I hunted pretty hard Oct thru Jan but didn’t see a whole lot of deer. The drought conditions we had here made it pretty hard hunting and my food plots didn’t do that well at all. This is also the county I hunt in’s third year for a new antler restriction  program. You can now legally take two bucks in this county but one has to be a spike and one has to have a 13 inch inside spread or greater. Any buck with  less than 13″ inside spread that is not a spike is illegal to shoot.

We are allowed two doe tags but you can only fill them in the October bow season or during the Thanksgiving weekend doe days with a rifle. I had a couple of doe’s that kept hangin out at my feeder’s all season but I let them keep hangin around my area hopin they would come in to estrus and start draggin in some bigger bucks. Seen several yearling bucks that were not legal and I had hogs everywhere. I managed to take eleven hogs off our place this year. I think the hogs were havin’ a negative effect on my deer hunting also, but what the heck they are good eatin’ too!

Well I did manage to score on this nice 9 pointer at the end of December. His inside spread was just over the 13 inch’s and I was really proud to get him. He is not a monster by any mean’s but I will be more than happy with a buck like him every year and be satisfied, especially when I have the drought conditions and hog problems I had this season!

I have takin a few bucks larger than him and a whole bunch that were smaller. I really hope the new antler restriction program works because I would love to start seeing  some bigger bucks around my area! I guess it’s workin some because back a few years ago a buck like him was a monster for where I hunt. Guess we will just have to wait and see if the antler restrictions help out over the next few years, but for me anything that leads to shootin bigger bucks is worth the wait!