Shed season came and went, and I looked hard for his sheds, but I just couldn’t find them. I felt confident I knew his core area well, and that I would be on him in 2011. During shed season, I scouted his core area extensively and hung a few more stands for him and another mature buck I was hunting in the area. I like to try to hang my stand and do most of my scouting for the next season in late winter/early spring. I was feeling confident I had him pretty much figured out, going into 2011. All I had to do was get some cameras out and see if I could get some pictures of him over the summer to confirm he was still alive and that he was living in the same area. Sure enough, the first buck picture I got in July was him. He looked to have added some mass and gotten a little wider. As the summer progressed, I decided to put all the data I had on the numerous mature bucks I was after into folders on my computer. Well, when I made a folder for him, I had to name it something. I decided he would be called the Skinny 8, because his rack was wide but lacked any real mass in the fall of 2010. As the summer progressed, my Covert trail cameras photographed the Skinny 8 several times, and I could see he was growing nicely.
( Continued PG 45 )