Aside from the extension cord, what's he got wrapped around his head?
Before it's asked, yes we feed deer down here in the south. NO... I do not bait deer like 95% of the folks that hunt down here, I feed year round. Typically plant anywhere from an acre to 2 1/2 acres of feed spring and fall, sew a hundred pounds of soy beans on my trails in the fall too. Didn't get it in this spring because it was entirely too dry, and I wasn't wasting the seed. Planted it last fall, hauled water and watered it to get it up, got a little rain, it took off, then it ceased raining and everything but the rye grass, turnips, and radish burned up, or got grazed off before it ever started. So now that we have some rain, I've got it all broke up again, and I'm going to try and get the fall feedplot in early this year. Aside from that I feed about 50 lbs. of corn a week, 52 weeks a year, and put out mineral blocks to try and enhance racks. So I get all sorts of pictures on the camera, and about the time hunting season starts, most of the bucks I have pictures of, wander off 2 - 3 miles down the road for someone else to try and shoot.
There are those that will say that ain't sporting, but here your options are feed deer, or don't see any when EVERYONE else is feeding. Been down that road too. First year I hunted it, I didn't see anything, second year I saw a doe and a fawn. In the 5 - 6 years now, that I've been feeding, I have seen as many as 18 deer in the feedplot at one time, and in that 5 - 6 years, I've missed one buck, he was decent. And, I've shot 1 buck. He wasn't very impressive, old buck, beyond his prime.
I've had opportunities to shoot bucks, the 8 point below I could have killed as a yearling, again twice as a 2 year old, and I could have shot him on 3 different occasions last year as a 3 year old. Sat there and watched him eating corn for over half an hour on 2 different occasions, at 15 yards last year. It isn't about piling them up in the freezer for me, it's about that freak chance that one of the BIG bucks in the neighborhood might wander in while I'm out there 'birdwatching' as my neighbors accuse me of doing. Otherwise, I just like watching them in the field. I have on occasion sat out there half the night, just watching them.
I walk the 250 yards out there to my Condo, kick back in my reclining office chair, fire up the thermo-cell and enjoy the peace and quiet. Tried the public hunting routine here in the National Forrest, and simply got tired of the idiots that were running around there. Had guys sitting on the road in lawn chairs, with a rifle, shotgun, pistol, and hunting knife half as big as they were last time I was up there. It was kinda scary!! And, I can't see paying $1500 - $5000 for a hunting lease, to do the same thing I'm doing here at the house, when I've got better deer here than most of the guys have on their leases.
All that having been said... This one has been a pretty decent 4 x 4 last couple years. Rack grows up, not out and around, so he looks pretty impressive when he gets grown. However, the velvet on his left beam has split here in the last few days, so I don't know what he's gonna do this year.
In looking at yesterday's pictures, I pull my cards every 2 - 3 days, it appears this little guy has something going on with his velvet as well, so his rack is going to do odd things. Whether this is the result of bug bites, or they've run into something, I honestly don't know. The one above looks like he was maybe getting rambunctious and ran into something, the one below looks like bug bite on the tip of the horn.
This guy looks like he could be decent in a year or two, decent rack, little light, but he looks like a young buck too. And, I've had a real nice 10 pt. running around here for years that may have sired him. Don't know if someone finally got the old buck, or what, he's been here every summer for about 5 years now, and has vanished; never afforded me a shot; every year about hunting season he starts roaming chasing does and makes several of us in the neighborhood grumpy.
Hogs are eternally an issue here as well... This boar has haunted me for about 5 - 6 years now too. Have seen him one time in daylight, ran in the house and grabbed a gun and he was gone when I got back out there. Otherwise, he's here for a night or two gone for a night or 22, comes in midnight, 2 am, 4 am, occasionally 10 - 10:30, 2 am, 12:30, 4 am. No rhyme or reason to this SOB what so ever, or he'd be dead by now! Won't go near a trap; neighbor caught 17 in one bunch that he was running with a couple years ago, but not him. If I could get him coming in regular, I'd wait on him, but you never know when he's going to show up. Took out one sow that was about to have pigs a few weeks ago, the week after that, took out a sow and 6 pigs 20 lb. range, in one evening. When eradicating hogs, shoot the sow first, the pigs will come back looking for her.
As mentioned earlier, had one starved to death bear pass through a week or two ago. Judging by his size, I'm guessing young male the sow has run off. He's about 125 yards out the backdoor at this spot.
Just because it was a really cool picture!