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Popcans, the 8.5 year old is back

is he being more patternable this year?...perhaps beggin for a "put me down" arrow?

The history you have with this buck has always blown me away. It's very cool that he made it through last winter. Good luck with him.
 
I hope i'm not beating a dead horse and boring you all with this post by continuing to post pictures throughout summer, but anyways....

Popcans shed his velvet a few days ago. It's crazy, but nearly half of my pictures that I have gotten of him this summer have been in daylight. I don't understand why, but he seems more killable this year than any other year. I always thought that the older a buck got, the more nocturnal they would become and harder to kill.

Maybe he is just old and wise enough to realize that we can't hunt them in the summer? :)

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sureshot1 said:
I hope i'm not beating a dead horse and boring you all with this post by continuing to post pictures throughout summer, but anyways....
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The next time someone says they're worried they're 'boring' me by posting pics of great deer I'm a-gonna :thrwrck: (kidding!)
That's one of the things that makes this site the best on the web, man!!


That's awesome! Thanks so much for sharing & really hoping to (finally) see you with his rack in your hands this fall! Good luck!
 
don't stop......

i know you got some other high-scoring potentials going on, but I don't think there would be any greater accomplishment this year than for you to stick this ol boy......

Great stuff, Chris
 
Really hope you get a crack at him this fall. You've had a long history with that deer and it would be a fitting finish to the story. I don't know if that old guy has another year in him. Amazing animals.
 
I would guess he is more patternable in daylight cause he is having to eat and drink more often to keep his health up being he is so old. He is going to have to eat less more often to keep going. Hope you get that old boy!
 
codywright said:
I would guess he is more patternable in daylight cause he is having to eat and drink more often to keep his health up being he is so old. He is going to have to eat less more often to keep going. Hope you get that old boy!
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Purely spitballing here...but is it possible that a deer like this would become more active in the daytime hours in his advanced age class because it may be harder for him to either see well in the dark and/or avoid predators, etc? (I know the older I get the harder it is for me to see :grin: and my wife is always telling me that I am clumsy because I stumble into her "traps". :grin:)

Chris - I think I speak for many when I say that you are certainly NOT boring us with the story of this buck, it is a fascinating tale and I would love to be able to establish a year-to-year history with a buck like this too. Keep the pics and story coming!!! :way:
 
Nothing boring to me...If there were ever a buck that deserved a place on a wall so his story could keep going it's Popcan's, and that story is quite a long one with the history you two have shared.

I look forward to all the updates and I have a feeling that in a few weeks popcan's final chapter will play out.

Best of luck to you Chris, and be sure to thank popcan's for all of us.
 
Daver said:
Purely spitballing here...but is it possible that a deer like this would become more active in the daytime hours in his advanced age class because it may be harder for him to either see well in the dark
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Wondered that as well as I read the post. Great story no matter the ending.
 
This is a great thread! What a history you have with this old boy. I have never had a history like this but I might be inclined to give the W to him if we ever crossed paths. Keep the history lessons coming:way:
 
Epic story and pic progression. One for the books. If he gets and arrow or dies of natural causes, it's a win/win for me as a reader. Good luck.
 
What? Are you kidding. I just spent 45 minutes reading this thread. I need some closure here!!! Best thread by far I've seen on here. Hope to hear how this past season went, or how shed season went.
 
I'm thinking he's 9 1/2 and maybe even 10 1/2

Brilliant story and great photos, but I'm thinking that first antler is from a 3 1/2 y.o. deer (and maybe a 4 1/2 y. o.) which makes this deer several years older. (The jump in size looks like the 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 jump sequence.) Not all deer produce large antlers however, regardless of age, and I've seen 6 1/2 y.o. Kansas whitetails with 130" antlers.

We killed a very distinctive 8 1/2 y.o. (4x4) buck on our place this year, have been seeing him ever year since he was a 3 1/2 y.o. and although he got a lot heavier, he didn't get much longer or wider. (And he stayed typical, with the same carry and conformation the whole while.)

Most deer in Iowa and Kansas don't go "down hill" until they are around 10. Their antlers will vary year to year due to injury and social pressure however.

It will not surprise me all to finally hear (read) that this deer was 10 1/2 this year.

What a wonderful story--you've done an awesome job documenting a stunning fragment of this deer's life.

Bronc
 
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Wow Chris Awesome story!! and bore us never I will be satying tuned untill I hear he got your arrow!! (I hope that is the way it turns out) Even if this deer had a stub for a rack he would by far be better then most bucks taken just because of the incredible story. Thanks for the great read and I can't wait to hear more.
 
blakesburg said:
What? Are you kidding. I just spent 45 minutes reading this thread. I need some closure here!!! Best thread by far I've seen on here. Hope to hear how this past season went, or how shed season went.
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I would give you an update if I had one, but I don't have squat on this buck since he shed his velvet. Not one picture (nothing unusual for him though). We will see if his sheds show up, but who knows, he may be dead and gone by now......either way, it was fun hunting him. Whenever I hunted this particular farm, I be sitting in my treestand and just wonder to myself 'I wonder where Popcans is now? Is he going to walk by?' Well, he never did. He outsmarted me, and many others. Smart mature whitetails are natures ultimate survival machines, the toughest animal in North America to hunt.

Even with all of the advancement in technology, they still seem to outsmart us, which is why it is so rewarding when it actually comes together. Whats nice is that we can continue to mess up and live to hunt them another day, while they can only mess up once, and it's game over.
 
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