Deer are food. Deer are varmints. Nothing else. TV shows have turned a relaxing quest in the outdoors into a competition. My opinion of the people who hunt competitively is not very high.

CorkScrew

Lol Dude get help Your man crush is getting pitiful!

Call him pushing 400! The mathematical liar !!

Isn’t all hunting a competition? You trying to harvest an animal. It is trying to evade a predator

Call him Pot Roast!!

Deer cant add 1 plus 1. Not really a competition is it? Unless its a quest for the biggest antlers. Its tv and magazines that have convinced people they are smart.

Danny just from your comments I take it you have never targeted one particular deer . I figured out decades ago deer are smart . Long before tv, YouTube, heck even trail cameras!
Do I trophy hunt ? Yes But my trophy deer others might laugh at I try to kill the oldest biggest bucks on the property I can hunt . If a buck is smart enough to only move after dark than it does have intelligence. Some one here might have trouble adding 1+1 ( guy pushing 400 kills in 35 years in 4 tag limit state). But same guys might rebuild a motor blind folded . Heck might even be able to set a trap that connects!

Oigo boingo

I’ve only named one deer. The year I saw him I knew he’d be special. The next year he blew up and seemed nocturnal for my area…named him The Ghost. The name was mainly for others to know which deer I was talking about. He eventually earned the name from being everywhere I wasn’t. What’s really interesting is after 3 years I killed him and no one else on the 2500ac had his pic on trail cams. He was deserving of a name.

Most of our other deer are just referred to as their antler character…wide 8, tall 10, young 10, broke brow 8 or 10, etc. I am impressed we have hunters that have no issue killing mature deer. I’ll keep reading and maybe I can pick up some pointers where it won’t be an issue for me to go out and kill these older bucks that seem to be nocturnal or very elusive once they reach that 5.5yr old age.

We named one once. The - fork, tried to kill him for six years. He had a big thick fork straight up on the right, a nice normal eight on the left. Never did kill him, he's our legend. LOL

I have a 10 pointer named ghost for similar reasons. I have thought about Niner-Tiner or something similar.

Nocturnal means u just don't know where it spends its time during daylight hours. They all get up and move around during daylight hours. The wise ones just do it in places they feel safe. Finding that spot and being able to hunt it can sometimes be the challenging part.

Earl

I killed the phantom buck of gold tom park. No I didnt name it. I was 22. Had a pretty good idea where it liked to lay up of a morning. About midnight when I figured he wouldnt be there, I got on top the pinion covered ridge, Wrapped up in my sleeping bag and waited for the sun rise. I rolled a rock down where I figured he would be. It ran down the hill and stopped to look back. Some luck but it was still just a deer.

Be careful telling that story Danny, someone might take it wrong and think you were trophy hunting. Lol. JK

I was. I was 22 and all the old men were telling stories about that buck. I trapped back in there and know my way around it pretty good. My point was if property lines are not an issue and you know the area, they can not outsmart a human. Wind might change direction, or may feed someplace else than you know about, might not get its sanctuary located, stuff happens, but a deer is just a deer. A human has no problems out thinking one.