There has only been a few bucks that I have been able to watch for a few years. One is a buck I called lefty, becaues he only a fork on the right side and 4 points on his left at 2 1/2 and 5 on his left side at 3 1/2. unfortunatly, I found him dead while shead hunting. He still had his rack, but his bones were picked cleans by coyotes. The other buck had split G2's didn't get a chance the first year, but the second year I got him during muzzleloader season.

Unfortunately hunter pressure doesn't allow people in my area to follow a deer for a few years unless you have a huge piece of private land but that isnt happening for a while so im hunting public land and taking what i can get

I shot Widespread in 2000 after first seeing him in 1997. I guess he went 3 seasons. He sported a very wide rack hence the name. It's not uncommon for me to see the same bucks year after year. I hunt close to town where there is a lot of protected areas for them to live in.

Small public woods with lots of pressure means i rarely see the deer i'm looking for from last year. Just hope a big one got chased in from somewhere else.

I like how the deer show guys always get huge bucks and have huge stories to go along with them. ps, where is the tag on that buck--oh thats right you don't have tags for ranch deer.

I let a buck walk for 2 years on public land. He was developing some interesting palmated antlers. Those antlers turned out pretty nice. I got to see them up close the third year, but he hanging from another hunter's pole. That was okay, though. I'd do it again. Next time I might be in the right spot at the right time.

I find that the longer I "know" a deer the less likely I am to shoot him because he's now become an "acquaintance".

Weird huh?

I have also passed on several bucks wanting them to get older or larger and watched them make it to the neighbors property and get shot. It happens, but I know at least what happened to a particular deer. The positive is though that has happened on the tracks of land that I own 80 and 70 acres that on one section 660 I am the only one that deer hunts it and on the other it is by the afore mentioned neighbor. He is a good guy.

I am trying now been 2 seasons but its very hard to hunt only one animal it really makes you understand how smart they are.

I hunt in a huge tract of public land. I started hunting a bucks rub and scrape line in 2006 and ended up seeing him. He was a huge 8, and probably 5 1/2 years old... I ended up killing him last season on Thanksgiving, but he was so old his rack was on the way down. We had a bad winter the year before also which may have contibuted to his rack shrinking.

I also started huting a new rub line in a new area last season... Last week I found new runbs and scrapes along the same line, indicating he made it through the winter... I have yet to see this guy, but his tracks are huge, and from his rubs i can tell he has a wide rack since trees about 18 inches away also get marked up when he is rubbing another tree... I will be on that rub line all weekend... I think I know where he beds in the early part of the year, but last year by the rifle opener on NOV 15th he must have moved his bed farther back in the woods...

I've got trail cam pics of 3 nice bucks on our farm. They'll be bruisers in a couple more years. Unless of course the guys who hunt on the neighboring farms that shoot anything that moves see them during the season. Fingers Crossed they'll make it!!!!