Hunting A Buck

[Coach1310]

Next time I crab the card, I will try to post a pic up here. Like I have said a few times already.... we aren't talking a world class 200" deer.... probably a 140" deer.... I don't know enough and the picture isn't great to get a good idea, I just know he's the biggest deer we have ever gotten pics of.

We are going to do all we can to get out, be smart and take our chances. It is very true that we may NEVER get another pic or see him, but knowing he has walked by sure keeps the attention up on stand!! Every twig snap or movement brings the possibility it could be him, but either way, it is gonna be a fun rest of the season.

Thanks again for all the thoughts, tips, advice. I will try to take pics of the mock scrape and setup once I have that in place for critiquing!!

[Bear55]

Gentlemen, we are approaching the rut, not hunting now would be a waste.

Don't think of it as a waste, think of it as not pressuring your land at the wrong time. One pic at 10 tells me the buck is in the area but just passing through. He could be living hundreds of yards or miles away, I suspect miles since this is the first pic he has gotten of him. If you start hitting your small acerage hard right now you are potentially scenting up/pressuring the place for when/if the buck returns and also letting other deer in the area know you are there.

Now if the cam pics start becoming more frequent or closer to shooting light and other sign starts showing up I'd say quit your job and hunt him every day for as long as you can.

Again this is more advice for going after this specific buck, if you have other bucks running around there is no reason not to hunt but lets be honest, how many of us have land with multiple mature bucks on a small chunk of land? I know I don't.

[bmc]

Coach,

We had a similar experience w/ a 130" ish 11 point buck on my dad's property 3 falls ago.

My dad's property is 120 acres, mainly hardwoods with 3 small kill style food plots mixed in and 3 mineral licks, one on each 40 acre parcel.

We had this buck on camera the summer he was 3 1/2 at the mineral licks. He was strictly nocturnal. After he shed his velvet, we moved our 3 trail cams from the mineral licks to the food plots. We never saw this buck again until Thanksgiving Day. We were done hunting for the year and he showed up at the deer feeder. He was there all winter.

The next summer we again watched him at 2 of our mineral licks and again he was strictly nocturnal. He shed his velvet and we never saw him again, till he showed up in the middle of the night on one of our food plots, in mid October. He would show up every couple of days and always middle of the night.

Then one night at the very end of October, my brother was in the right place at the right time and he stepped out in front of his ground blind and my brother double lunged him.

We have a TON of hunting pressure around my dad's property, private N, W, and E of us and public south of us.

Those big bucks don't get big by being dumb. However, they are kill-able, granted there has to be some luck involved, especially w/ a bow.

I think the best time to kill a big buck is the 1st week of season and the pre rut phase. Once the chase phase starts, it's hard to tell where he might end up.

Hope you get a chance at him!!!!

Brian

[96trigger]

Come on Bear, you know as well as I that the one time you don't hunt because you are trying not to "pressure it", that buck will be standing out there at 5:30 in the afternoon in front of your stand sniffing around a doe....

[RangerJack]

Come on Bear, you know as well as I that the one time you don't hunt because you are trying not to "pressure it", that buck will be standing out there at 5:30 in the afternoon in front of your stand sniffing around a doe....

x2...play the wind and make sure you keep your scent off of deer trails and bedding areas and hunt as much as you can. sitting on the couch doesn't result in antlers hanging above the tv. There's absolutely nothing wrong with hunting a spot regularly, as long as you don't let the deer know you're there. If you walk across your food plot while the deer are on it, then it's a different story!

[Bear55]

Come on Bear, you know as well as I that the one time you don't hunt because you are trying not to "pressure it", that buck will be standing out there at 5:30 in the afternoon in front of your stand sniffing around a doe....

Yes that could happen but you have to ask does he show up because the pressure is low and had you hunted the area hard the wrong week he might never show up because of all the pressure. No right or wrong answer to this but I like to play the odds, with one night time pic and 40 acres I would sit back and monitor things.

[slimngrizzly]

Im gonna have to agree with Bear here...

If you want a big buck you're better off hunting the RIGHT time rather than the most time. By hunting a mature buck during the low % time, all you're often doing is educating him to your ways. You're leaving a scent map everytime you come and go whether you believe it or not. Stay in bed, stay on the couch, wait until the time is right then go in and kill him. And that time, btw, STARTS NOW! Good luck!

[Coach1310]

Thanks again to all for your advice. I am hoping to end this thread at some point with a picture of me and my boys kneeling next to this dude! I wasn't able to get out there yet, but I am sure when I pull the card next, he will be standing in front of the cam, posing at 6:00pm!!!

[Bear55]

Stay in bed, stay on the couch, wait until the time is right then go in and kill him. And that time, btw, STARTS NOW! Good luck!

Well no don't do that!!!! Get out and hunt some other land or public land while you wait for the time to be right. Sometimes that time is early season, sometimes the rut, sometimes I don't see bucks show up in certain places until the pressure is up or the rut is over but the old saying "right places at the right time" is key.

[96trigger]

Quote:

Stay in bed, stay on the couch, wait until the time is right then go in and kill him. And that time, btw, STARTS NOW! Good luck!

My point exactly, now is the time. A month ago I would have told him to wait. The bucks are moving and are getting a little more careless. Now is the time to be in the stand.

[slimngrizzly]

A play on words... Go fishing, shoot birds, rake youre lawn... get the honey do's done. Just stay out of your hotspot.

[Bear55]

A play on words... Go fishing, shoot birds, rake youre lawn... get the honey do's done. Just stay out of your hotspot.

I know slim, just giving you a hard time.

[PurpleFloyd]

Put up a fence, make sure he is on the right side of the fence when you build it, make a video when he walks by and sell it. Make sure to pump your arms and thank the lord into the camera after you shoot it.

JK- Good luck on the hunt.

[Bear55]

My point exactly, now is the time. A month ago I would have told him to wait. The bucks are moving and are getting a little more careless. Now is the time to be in the stand.

No doubt trigg, now is that magical time we all wait for and anything can happen at any time. But still you have to look at his situation and try to play the odds if you want a specific buck or want a buck on a specific chunk of land. I don't want to hope there is a buck there I want to know it.

Lets say I have two chunks of land, if I just decide to hunt the dump out of one this week I might get lucky but maybe there isn't a mature buck near by and I just burned that place out with little proof a buck is using that land at this time of year. Or I could do some light scouting and monitor the place with came and then move in when I know a buck is working that area and hunt it hard.

[bigbucks]

I guess I would hunt it sparingly with the right wind & hope you get another sighting, you may have to refine where you're sitting. If you're not bumping deer, you can hunt it more. On a good sized hayfield, he could have just altered where he enters. He may be there every other evening, but just doesn't go by your camera. I very seldom get multiple pics of good deer on a field edge, they just avoid the camera. They still use the field, they just go around the camera.

I was targeting primarily does on a 15 acre field. I have a permanent that I've shot 4-5 deer out of over the years & had chances on several I didn't want already this year. My buddy plowed the 3 acres on the end where my stand is. They don't like crossing the plowing, so now they're entering from other places. Last night I finished placing & trimming a stand about 5:20. I shot a doe out of it at 6:20. I'd never hunted in that location in the 12 years I've been hunting there, but I noticed from hunting & landowner observation that the pattern had changed. Everything worked last night, obviously it doesn't always go that much like clockwork, but you have to try things too.