Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

8-pter's, what's your take

turtlshell

turtlshell

PMA Member
I've heard a lot of things about shooting all 8pters because they just don't score out like a 10 or 12.

Personally I don't think 12's are all that common, especially where I hunt...even though larry, darrel and darrel back home seem to see 14's and 16's every-year.

I see the point in a 3.5 year old 130 inch deer...never being more than a buck-fifty, but with all the dilution of genes in a "free and wild" herd...whose to say that deer won't pass on some awesome spread or heavy mass.

I know it's a total toss up, but I'm curious to know if anyone employs an 8pter "shoot on sight" method?

Personally I don't, but I'm not blessed with a bunch of ground or a lot of time hunt either. However if it appeared to be a 3.5 year old 120 inch 6 pter, I'd be zingin an arrow for sure.

I know there's a million different factors in the equation, but realistically (besides the "anything's possible" answer) what's the chance of a 3.5 year old 130's 8pter becoming a booner?

I know, let them grow to find out...which is what I try, but the neighbor keeps whacking the 120 inchers every year regardless of what I try...but that's another story.

What I think is that a 3.5 year old 130's 10pter would theoretically have a better chance at becoming a Booner than an 8pter of the same age and score. (then again that same 3.5 year old 10pter with the same mass, spread and tine length the 8pter would need to score 130, would probably be pushin 150)

Maybe I'm talking circles, guess I'm curious to know what ya'll think? Anyone else have ideas on this?
 
I love big eights. Although not all deer are always an eight. I have a buck on my wall that scores in the high 160's killed off my parents farm back in MO. My dad and I watched this buck from 2 1/2 year old to 5 1/2 year old when I took him. As a two year old he was an eight. As a 3 1/2 year old he was a 9. As a 4 1/2 year old he was a 9 with a few kickers. Here is what he looks like as a 5 1/2 year old.

721513_3-med.jpg
 
I personally love big, heavy eights. One of the areas I hunt is notorious for eights. Usually they are 3.5 year old 130" eights but the older they get the more crazy stuff they do with there G-2's. My buddy killed one a few years ago that was a clean eight with big mulie splits. Grossed in the sixties. Two years later had a clean eight with three kickers going straight out on each G-2 easily would have grossed in the seventies.

Bottom line is you never really know what there gonna do the older they get. It takes a great deer to be a booner someday and not all deer have the capability to get there regardless of age.

But I do know one thing. I'll shoot a 150-160 inch eight point everyday of the week.
peace.gif
 
I have seen some great 8's over the years. Most of the time as these bucks mature they start adding alot of character and become incredible animals. Some of the most memorable bucks I have seen are large 8 pointers. Here is a good reerence article from.the QDMA covering this. Remember the does hold half the DNA as well. I would focus on other aspects of your management goals rather than culling. As the article states your goal on a wild herd would be hard to achieve. If you start shooting those inmature buck as well as your neighbors you will not be very happy with the results. Shooting based on maturity and inividual goals is what I beleive in. For every deer you pass that's not mature or not up to your standard it let's another one go so larry, darrel and darrel back home have something to fill thir tag with. If you do and they do the bucks have no chance to mature.
QDMA Article
 
Nets are for fishing, and sometimes the score doesnt accurately reflect the true trophy caliber of an animal. i dont care if he is 120 or 180 inches, killing a mature buck is an accomplisnment worth celebrating.
However, you are correct, if the deer are getting killed before maturity, one will never know what they could have been.
if a deer is mature, he is a shooter for me!
grin.gif


This buck was aged at 5 1/2. true 7 pointer. he was huge, weighing in at 300lbs....fatty! the night i shot him he ran off two other bucks, one that was younger, but would "score" better.
he is mature, but only "netted" @ 120" but a mature dominant buck with lesser genetics. this is the kind of buck that a herd under managment might need shot....
im proud of him, that is for sure!!
6352IMG_3991-med.jpg
 
THA4,

I agree 100% with you...Net doesn't mean much to me either. A guy I work with shot a deer with a bunch of "junk" on his main-frame 9 points. That deer grossed in the low 180's and netted just above 150. No way in haties would I even begin to call that deer a 150 class buck. It was a 180 in my eyes...heck the deer grew it, and unless I'm trying to make some record book, I'm giving that deer credit for what he grew.

I try to shoot mature bucks and have passed several 130 inch deer (both 8's and 10's) because I want a shot at a booner.

About your deer though, and kind of the point of the thread...even though rack-wise he's not specifically a good gene carrier...that deer was aggressive, and had a very good body mass. He was obviously healthy and mature. Bred to the right doe he could yield some great off-spring...potentially a true 8, 10, 12...who knows the sky's the limit when it comes to gene combinations. It's better to have a dominant buck doing the majority of the breeding IMO, regardless of what head-gear he carries.
 
I don't thing the size of the rack at 3.5 yrs. old can tell you much for the potential of a deer. Since it takes the deer 3.5 years to grow its mature bone structure you truely can't judge what a deer is going to do until after that. Let the 2.5 and 3.5 year olds mature and see what happens at 4.5 and 5.5. Like someone else mentioned, let those deer walk and a few will get wacked by others that is uncontrollable but several will also make it and turn into booner class deer
 
An 8 pt may not ever score out that high, but I would like to take a unique, old heavy 8 pt like this one over a 130-140 inch standard 10pt.
293P1030022-med.jpg
 
That is my ideal buck with the bow. A clean booner 8.

here is one that came up to my blind last fall 5 times. He needed some growing up. He won't be big enough this year either, but he sure has a big body. I guessed him to be in the low 130's

1104068800040.jpg


102806136.jpg
 
[ QUOTE ]
I don't thing the size of the rack at 3.5 yrs. old can tell you much for the potential of a deer. Since it takes the deer 3.5 years to grow its mature bone structure you truely can't judge what a deer is going to do until after that. Let the 2.5 and 3.5 year olds mature and see what happens at 4.5 and 5.5. Like someone else mentioned, let those deer walk and a few will get wacked by others that is uncontrollable but several will also make it and turn into booner class deer

[/ QUOTE ]

Wasn't the Hanson buck aged at 3.5yrs??
 
[ QUOTE ]
I've heard a lot of things about shooting all 8pters because they just don't score out like a 10 or 12.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know you mean nothing by that comment but it's the one that sticks out in my mind the most. I'd take a big funky 8 point over anything out there for the most part. Big 8's with character just do it for me, each and every time. Limb shot a great one a few years ago, OneCam shot another awesome 8 in '05 I believe. They just look more impressive in my book, expecially with some junk!
 
Nothing wrong with an 8 pointer. Some of the most impressive deer I have seen are 8 points. Or a 7 with a small drop
grin.gif

4185bow_pics_006-med.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom