This morning where I had seen a Hugh buck crossing thru a cedar swamp this winter while I was rabbit hunting.He will go at least 250 pounds dressed weight.

Good luck getting him killed

Thank you.It would be my 20th buck dressing 200 pounds or more.

We call 200#ers "patch" bucks. If your deer breaks 200 pounds on certified scales, the state will issue a patch to go on your hunting coat or jacket. Very few people get that patch.

I figured you for a tracker.

Have shot 18 of them big bucks tracking on snow and 1 sitting all with a rifle.Might get one now with a bow is the plan.

Fantastic. Very few people have accomplished that.

Did a bear hunt in Maine years ago.

Was talking to some guys in a bar about deer hunting and the one guy said he had killed 4 deer over 200. I assumed he was talking 200" and thought I had stumbled across the worlds best trophy buck killer ever.

He explained the weight thing is used in Maine. We get some big deer in the UP of MI too. The jumbos are basically a sub-species.

An interesting fact about PA deer. My uncle told me that back in the 1930's when they killed a big deer in PA they called it a Michigan Deer. Seems like the deer they stocked from Michigan were bigger than the native PA Deer.

The PA Game Commission began a restocking program in 1906 to accelerate the return of the whitetail. Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, itself, supplied deer. The restocking program continued for 19 years.

BruceT,
Did you just put that stand up...like April 2024?

No worries about squirrels chewing straps? Or wasps/hornets building nests under seat? Or tree growing some over the summer & fall and putting strain on chain and/or straps?

Your climb next winter could get very interesting.

Putting up a hang-on and stick ladder set-up months early don't work for me.....incredibly unsafe....and all this isn't even considering the fact that deer movement patterns may be totally different from year to year.

Good luck though!

I'm about 75 miles north of BruceT, it is a common practice to put up stands and leave them in place for many years. The bear hunting outfits I've guided for have 100's of stands out year around.

Yes just set it up.Never had a problem with squirrels chewing on anything.Where this stand is set up is where a big buck is cutting thru a cedar swamp.Unless he dies this won't change as it's a funnel area to bedding and cutovers.I will check it periodically as well.

Why?

I get dizzy and shaky just looking at it. I can’t hunt comfortably in a tree stand. Too nervous. Me climbing up or down is a sight to behold and takes about eight minutes.
I’ll stay in a blind

Why what?

Stands like in Bruce's pic are set up and left for YEARS? I need some of those straps that last for years. Also these trees down here grow too fast to leave stands on more than a few months. Can't get the dang thing loose of ya leave it longer.

I assume the timber is managed there by you mentioning a cut-over. Logging/timber harvest will change deer movement.....dramatically.

Trees grow a lot slower up here in the north compared to the south.

Already been logged over.This area will take another 20 years to change.

I had actually pulled the stand from a different spot a few days ago that I had set up early last fall and left over the winter.