They sure are tender

Yes the button bucks , or spikes , are my choice as well . I hunt mostly on my farm. Haven;t shot a doe in a lot of years. There just seems to be one doe , that lives here, If I leave her alone , the boys , will come visiting.. old243

The smaller they are the easier to drag or put into the truck. I've let big ones walk before, lol

I hunt archery because you can shoot a tasty doe in WA,,
Eating a buck is like eating a bore pig…..

40 years of Deer Hunting probably average 3 a year. During years when bonus tags were high, I shot as many as 8 and donated to Hunters for the Hungry Programs. For those that don't care for tough deer, cut in 1-inch cubes, pack in canning jars and put in 2 beef bouillon cubes per quart and can it. I use this meat for deer Manhattans, barbeque for sandwiches, add to vegetable soup and many other recipes.

Does are better, but i dont complain bout eating a buck. Still good vittles.

I believe I told the ground beef story on here before, but will repeat myself......was grocery shopping a few years back (8-10?) and saw some ground beef on sale. I was planning to make myself a big pot of chili that afternoon so convinced myself to buy the burger instead of using venison as usual. I did just that, and it was disgusting. I couldn't stand it. It was like eating Crisco soup. My Bride asked if I had drained the burger when I browned it and I had not. I gave the greasy crap to my son-in-law and he loved it! I was talking to my Bride about it later and asked her if she could remember any time when she brought ground beef into the house that didn't already have a bun around it. She could not think of a single time in the years we'd been married when she bought ground beef. We always had ground venison. To this day I still grind 90% of my deer meat. As to lifetime tally, I lost track decades ago, but have been at it since the late sixties. When I started deer hunting you were allowed ONE deer per year. Period. You can pile them up now days. I very rarely shoot more than 2 a season now, but when the kids were young I would feel I needed at least 4 to sneak by. After my All Purpose Boy started hunting we would shoot 6-8 between us. We often had bear, caribou, elk, etc. as well, so didn't buy much in the way of red meat. I also can venison every year or two and have it on hand most always.

At least two weeks in a walk in cooler makes all the difference in the world when it comes to eating a buck.

I'm turning 53 in June. First deer season was 1986. In 39 seasons I have killed 43 deer.

I don't have any idea how many deer I've killed over the years. We party hunt so some years you might kill a pile of them and some years only one or even none. Depends on how many times you are in the right place at the right time.

Now, instead of including does and yearlings, let's hear how many branch antlered bucks.

Thread killer

Antlered bucks - I've kilt some, but don't know how many. I do know I've never shot one big enough to put the head on the wall. But I've never just hunted for big bucks either.

I keep the antlered deer for my nieces and nephews, I shoot the does.

I'm happy to hear that. So many "hunters" hog the bucks, and only let the kids shoot does. That always seemes backwards to me....selfish is another word for it.

Bruce, you have to admit, saying you have averaged 10 deer a year is hard for alot of us to believe. How much time does it take to get 10 or more? How did you get time off from work, or whatever you do? How much did all those non res. tags cost? What did you spend on travel? WV is a long way from Maine. You're old enough to have been hunting 50 years ago. Did all those eastern states you hunted allow multiple deer harvest in the 70s? 80s?
I haven't lived in a whitetail state since 1975. Only hunted one season. I'm not overly knowledgeable on eastern state deer history. Your numbers seem high .

No idea.Would be roughly maybe a little less then half.I have shot 19 bucks that dressed out over 200 pounds and 1 doe that was over 200 pounds live weight.

Dang that's an impressive pile of deer, how many more from Maine you got to add to that list?

I deer hunt Alot.Days off and weekend on the few jobs that I worked falls.When I worked for the union for 30 years and now Baxter State Park for 8 years I have all falls and winter off.Also what helped me alot was growing up in Maine hunting the big woods bucks.A person had to really learn alot about deer to be successful.We are not talking about fields,apple orchards or food plots.Its tough hunting.Upon moving down to Virgina in the blue ridge mountains it was easy hunting for me.I also did alot of bear and coon hunting with hounds and learned all the gullies and places where deer crossed like the back of my hand while living in Virginia, nearby West Virgina,and North Carolina.I knew a number of places where large groups of hunters would park to start going in at daylight.I would then drive up to higher areas above them where I knew the deer would cross.I would get in my stands before daylight.Daylight would arrive and I would hear all the doors shutting and noises made from the hunters.Pretty soon here would come the deer.You are allowed 2 deer a day with basicly a 4 month long season which includes early bow season,Rifle season,muzzleloader season,and late bow season.You just had to keep buying the permits.Believe it or not I would also pass on alot of deer.I always would stop at 30 if I shot over 25 deer.I knew all the deer crossings.My brother inlaw who lives in Conn owns a greenhouse business there and has piles of places to hunt deer there as the deer eat all the shrubbery.People pay him to deer hunt.I shoot 4 to 6 deer every year hunting there for the last 27 years.Its also as easy to hunt even with just a bow as its just tiny patches of woods surrounded by houses.I hunt in New Hampshire on Sundays as they allow Sunday hunting where Maine does not.The bear hunters that I guide here in Maine allow me to come down and hunt their land in Pa.I also was invited to hunt up in the Upper Pen. of Michigan one year getting a buck up there as well.It goes on in on.What can I say but I love to deer hunt.I have never bought burger in my life.