Reloader, you're right, they are few and far between, you have to put in the time for sure. The farther north you go, as with most critters, the bigger whitetails seem to be, at least body wise, and I think antlers follow as well. Having said that, they are different in terms of relative mass and what not, but south Texas has some whoppers!

Fury01, we see this ourselves when looking for places to hunt. I'm glad you've got some good ground to hunt.

Thanks Jameister, that last minute stuff is stressful!

We have about 10 inches of snow over this area today. Would have been great hunting weather! How did you come to choose the Salina area to hunt?

Fish, congratulations on a beautiful buck!

Fury, we met a rancher from Salina who had the ground we hunt. He is a cattle rancher, and the ground is mostly open which makes it really tough, as you probably know, the deer will visit the open ground, but they don't hold there, especially the big boys.
We are trying to lease or coordinate a lease for our rancher friend that has more wooded ground.

It will be hard not to go back after this year!

Thanks Brad,

Happy Holidays to all--Don

I have hunted the creeks, the woods and the pastures along with the CRP fields. All hold deer at different times. The productivity of them however is indeed a different story. The biggest two deer I have seen in KS both were in "holes" in pastures and left them 1000 yards before I arrived. They bed with all the factors in their favor. I did not spook the first one, he was just leaving with does when I came up the hill. The second was a fickle change of wind. I do believe I might have had him if the wind had not shifted. I have killed several nice deer out in the pastures but I know them very well and know exactly how to hunt each of them. I have killed most of my good deer from a ground hide on the confluence of two creeks with heavy woods in the first light as they went back to their bedding ground. The CRP is a nightmare to hunt and I don't have much in my hunting ground so I don't spend much time on same. I love it all though and try some of each every year.