Ghosts of deer seasons past?

[newfarmer]

Nothing like the rest of you- but a lot of single pics or up to 3-4. Then never seen again

 

[Big8s1992]

Love these types of posts. This deer showed up on a farm in early Nov 2020 - I had already filled both my statewide tags. Had a buddy hunt the farm for him but he tagged out on 11/13 at 1pm on a different buck. Two hours after we got done recovering and loading up his buck, I got trail cam pic of the big boy walking right past where my buddy was sitting that day. He became very regular on the farm from late Nov through late Dec daylighting multiple times while we were tagless.

In 2021 he reappears on my cameras on 11/15 (had a noticeable neck injury) - I still had my statewide gun tag so I thought it was going to be game on for Gun 1 or Gun 2 given his 2020 pattern (He was very killable in a very huntable part of that farm during the 2020 gun seasons). On 11/19/21 I got pics of him exiting the farm where he would enter it from the neighbor's and I haven't seen him since. He was/is my heartbreaker mystery buck.

 

[Bassattackr]

This buck lived on our property from the time he was 2 years old. Here he is at age 5.5 taken on the neighbors farm. Never saw him again.



I'm not exactly sure of the story of this buck below. Came on our farm at 4.5 (my estimation) during the rut, and stayed thru winter.

Here he is at age 5.5 at the beginning of last fall. Neighbor got a few pictures of him last season the same day I did. Neither him or I ever got another pic of him.. over 300 acres. My guess is killed in firearms season.

 

[tall@wide]

The way bucks travel around from one food source to another, most probably were shot by neighbors. Most bucks are easy to kill, it's getting them to age and keeping them on your farm that is difficult.