So this is a topic I've been wrestling with for a while now and I'm interested in finding out other people's take on this. This will be a several part question so feel free to chime in on any and all pieces as your experiences fit. 1. Have you ever targeted a specific buck for an entire hunting season? Meaning every time you went to the woods (of only that farm/location if you have more than one) you did so in pursuit of a single deer. 2. Were you successful at harvesting that deer? 3. If so, why do you think you were successful? If not, why were you unsuccessful? 4. How did that experience change you as a hunter? 5. What advice would you give another hunter faced with the same situation? Here's my story. 1. Yes. Last year for the first time I exclusively hunted for a buck that I call "Swayze". He's a 180 inch typical 10 point who was at least 8 years old last year. I've been getting pics of this deer since 2009 at he was at least 3-4 years old at that time. Last year I decided every hunt on this particular farm to that deer. 2. Not a chance. In fact I never even saw him. After getting pics of him all summer and most of October he disappeared never to be seen again. However I got confirmation from another local hunter that he was still alive and his shed had been found after the season was over. 3. First and foremost it's hard to kill a specific deer when they don't spend an ample amount of time on your hunting grounds. I believe Swayze likes to spend his summers where I hunt but elects to go elsewhere once the food is good (corn cut for silage) and the pressure is on. I didn't discover that he was gone until it was too late. This year, assuming he comes back, I plan on targeting him much earlier in the season before he leaves. By my count, depending on food sources, if I don't kill him before October 20th there's little to no chance of me getting a shot at him. 4. It's a very humbling and trying experience. Often times it seems the pursuit of these big bucks leads you into areas that are somewhat void of other deer or other deer sign. These old dogs are loners which can make for some very boring hunts that will test your resolve and make you question your sanity. Often times I felt like I was wasting my time hunting unproductive areas and locations when I knew I could have been in other spots that have produced in the past. I don't know if one season of this was enough to change me as a hunter but it certainly provided a new perspective on things. 5. At this point I'm not sure I have an advice to offer anyone. I only did this for one season, and split 1/2 my time between this farm and our new lease. On top of that I wasn't successful so I feel it wouldn't be right to offer advice (unless someone wants to know how to sit a dozen sits and have 3 deer in bow range). If anything my advice would be to keep grinding and be ready for a mental test. It certainly isn't easy - especially when you get deep into the season and past the rut. With all that said I'm planning on another season of chasing this same deer (assuming he shows back up this summer) along with the buck whose sheds we found on the lease (Baconator). Both deer will be over 170" and having the opportunity to chase deer like that doesn't happen often. I won't hold myself to only those deer if another good one drops by, but those will be the deer I specifically target with each and every visit to the stand this fall.
I targeted a specific deer one bow season and passed several deer that year that would have been a personal best. After failing to get it done and eating tag soup, I found him gut shot and partially decomposed in a ditch next to the road during the last week of rifle season. We did spend a LOT of time hunting a specific deer in the Adirondack's with rifles. Many of you followed and read the story of the Crab Claw buck we killed in 2012. I didn't tag him but we put a LOT of miles on to kill that deer specifically and after two years of pictures and chasing him we finally killed him right where we expected to the very first time we saw him on the hoof. Other than that, I can't say I've ever had a specific deer nailed down well enough that I was only hunting that specific deer. I've also never hunted in a place that deer bedding was as consistent as what I'm seeing out here in IL. I don't have any good advice to give but am certainly anxious to read input from others on this thread as it grows.
In my early years of deer hunting (with a gun) I was always interested in big bucks. Most of my attention went to how many big bucks were out there. How many were by my stand. How many were on our property. My brother finally told me; "Your not hunting all the bucks, your just hunting one buck". He didn't mean one buck like you are talking Justin, but rather that any big buck will make me pull the trigger. So he saying doesn't quite match your question, but it got me start on the idea that there may be huge bucks out there that i would want to focus on all year, but in the long run I think I would be happier shooting any "shooter" buck and not waiting for "the one". That being said, we also haven't had any pictures of true giants on our land before. Every giant that has been shot was saw for the first time through the crosshairs so I dont know if I would change my mind if I knew for certain there was a mosnter out there. I wouldnt advise anyone to hunt one particular deer. I would advise new hunters against it, and I wouldnt advise experienced hunters to do anything other than what they want when it comes to deciding which deer to shoot.
I've targeted specific bucks for short periods of time, but I would think after a few hunts the pressure would put the buck on high alert and he would either move or become completely nocturnal. 2 years ago I targeted a very big buck and had a few close encounters but did not seal the deal. After those few hunts I didn't see him again. Ended up shooting a 140 that I had passed earlier in the season when I was targeting the larger buck. Last season the bigger buck was again bedding where I could hunt him on certain winds. Hunted him hard for a few sits then I moved on. Saw him leaving that bed later in the year and moved in and had a close encounter with him but again didn't get it done. Didn't see him after that. Hoping I get another crack at him this year.
This past season, I was holding out for one of two deer who were both over 170". The deer on the right had been showing up on my cameras for 3 years now, and he was about 130" when I first got pics. I am guessing he is 7 1/2 years old now. I was getting pics of these two deer every day, morning and evening. I knew if I was smart about it that I would eventually get a shot at them. The problem was that they were coming from a different direction every day. Some days they came from the north, some days from the south. The season opened here in mid September, so I would sit in the evenings to try and kill one of them. I finally saw both of them one evening, but they came from the south while there was a north wind, so of course they knew something was up and never came in. After that, I laid low for a bit on that spot. On the evening of October 22, the deer on the far right showed up by himself. This time he came from the north. He came in right at last light quartering away hard, and I took the shot. Terrible decision... I tried forcing a shot that was not a gimme, and hit him between the shoulder blades and exited out the side of his neck. He bled for a bit, then the trail dried up with no deer to be found. He went M.I.A for about a week, then showed up again. I hunted that deer for just about the next month straight. If the wind was remotely close to being able to hunt that spot, I was in the tree. I was still getting pics of him every day, but you could tell he was hurting bad. He couldn't pick his head up past parallel to his spine. On the morning of November 17, I was sitting in the same stand I shot him the first time. I had a couple decent bucks come by that morning, and a 135-140" 9. Around 8:30 I heard something running towards me, so I stood up and grabbed my bow. A doe came busting past my tree, and the buck I killed was dogging her hard, grunting the entire time. The buck walked by at 25 yards broadside, and I sent an arrow through him. He ran about 40 yards and fell over. I have never felt such a rush in my life. After chasing that one deer for 28 days straight after wounding him, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I think I could have jumped out of that stand (33' to the seat) and not even felt it with all that adrenaline pumping through me. How he sits now:
I stopped doing that to a point. I'll hunt 2-3 deer on a piece of property if the numbers are there. I hunted that 190" for 2 years in Walworth county and had 2 encounters with him. The first time I knew of this deer was a trail camera picture of him in August, the only one I ever got. The first encounter with him was a night in mid October I rattled him in and he was trying to circle me when the neighbors came out and spooked him off. The second time was gun season the following year it was Thanksgiving morning my wife was pissed I went hunting but what are you going do. I rattled right at day break and there was fresh snow on the ground I couldn't hear anything moving. I gave it about 30 minutes and hit the horns together again and he busted out 20 yards away from me he was behind a cedar tree and I couldn't see him. You have to be willing to eat tag soup more then you fill tags is you target a specific buck. The neighbors are probably hunting him too. You can do everything right but the guy next door might screw you and you'll never know it. I put my best effort into hunting those 2 years and came up short and frustrated and realized it wasn't as fun as chasing smaller younger deer. Yeah I would still love to kill one of that caliber but I'm not specifically going to target 1 deer anymore
True, but only if you're willing to pass other deer in pursuit of that buck. In my case I'm going to be hunting 2 specific deer, however if another suitable candidate comes by I'll be more than willing to introduce him to one of my arrows. Which is part of what makes this so difficult and mentally challenging. You may never really know what happens when a deer you've been watching simply disappears. It's happened to me before and I'm sure it will happen again. It's all part of deer hunting.
Great story Cole and heck of a nice deer. What, if anything, did you do different in scouting and hunting this deer than you've done in the past? Was the stand you killed him from hung just for that deer or was it already there from seasons gone by?
I have the bar set at 120" right now. If I see a buck that I think is over that he is dead. (If I get a good shot) I think I would do this even if I knew there was a monster out there. Maybe the first month of hunting I would tighten my standards but I'd rather shoot something than nothing. When I hunt public land in ND this year I'll probably shoot any buck I see or doe. I think my first deer on public land will be a trophy no matter what it is Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I see your point but what I was getting at was with my first encounter if the neighbors would have stayed in the house I probably would have got a shot at him. Who knows how many times a buck gets bumped out of their beds buy the neighbor kids that could screw up your perfectly planned hunt. The unknown factors is what makes it more frustrating I believe.
Thanks Justin. That stand was hung specifically to hunt those two deer. I hunt a 640 acre section of property divided up into quadrants, and this was in the SW quarter. I had never hunted this area in the past 4 years, due to the ranchers always being down there cutting trees and installing spring fed water tanks, etc. They finally called it quits there, so I started running cameras and setting up mineral licks. I was pleasantly surprised with what showed up. I checked cameras every Saturday, and always on the ATV. I usually just walk to check my cameras since they aren't terribly far apart. This time, I decided I wouldn't even step foot out there unless I was on the ATV with the engine running. Its crazy how the deer got used to my Polaris 800 ATV, even compared to the rancher's Polaris Ranger 800. I would dump corn out once a week, and the deer would be there within an hour most of the time. But then the ranchers would drive by on their Ranger, and the deer wouldn't even come to check things out. I believe staying on the ATV helped me out during the scouting season. During the hunting season, I just did the usual routine. Stay as scent free as possible, plan the entry and exit routes, stay in the tree until pitch black and there were no deer around, etc. Some nights I couldn't leave until 10:00.
That's pretty hardcore. I've stayed in the stand for 1/2 hour past dark before but never that long. I'm pretty sure my wife and/or my hunting buddies would kill me if I was in a tree until 10 pm.
Thats one of the perks of being a college student, not too many responsibilities The girlfriend has learned to just let it happen :D
1. Have you ever targeted a specific buck for an entire hunting season? Meaning every time you went to the woods (of only that farm/location if you have more than one) you did so in pursuit of a single deer. Yes and no. I do not have any big pieces of land to hunt other than public, so every time I go to a certain property to hunt it is because I have located a buck I want to hunt on that land. If I do not locate a good buck on a land I hunt I do not bother to hunt it that season. As for the no... Some properties may have had more than one buck on it I would have taken so in the truest sense I wasn't targeting one specific buck in each instance. Also, I usually do not have bucks located on public. I hunt areas I feel they are bedding. 2. Were you successful at harvesting that deer? Yes many times, but no many more times. The bucks definitely hold the overall edge in our showdown. 3. If so, why do you think you were successful? If not, why were you unsuccessful? I am an analyzer, I analyze everything. This has caused me to have a great sense of details for my hunts regarding the lay of that piece of land, time of year, weather and the bucks behavior tendencies relating to the phase of the rut. 4. How did that experience change you as a hunter? The success has caused confidence. Confidence often leads to more success. 5. What advice would you give another hunter faced with the same situation? Follow your heart. I hunted one buck for 3 years (but not exclusively as I hunted other lands as well during that time and took two other bucks the previous two seasons I hunted him) before I finally had the chance to take him down. It was a great feeling, one of my best moments. I wish everyone could have that feeling I had that day.
1. Have you ever targeted a specific buck for an entire hunting season? Meaning every time you went to the woods (of only that farm/location if you have more than one) you did so in pursuit of a single deer. Yes. Two years ago I was targeting a couple different bucks. One was the buck that I ended up killing. He was 6.5 years old at the time. The night that I killed him was only the 2nd time I had ever seen him on the hoof. This past year I was targeting a 7.5 year old 7 pointer. I saw him 2 times, but neither time close enough to shoot. 2. Were you successful at harvesting that deer? Two years ago I was successful, but this past year the old guy got the best of me. 3. If so, why do you think you were successful? If not, why were you unsuccessful? The first target buck that I killed I feel like I was successful for a couple of reasons. The first was that I didn't hunt where I killed him until October 27th I believe it was. I saw him at 45 yards or so away that night come to the field at last light. The next day that I was able to hunt again was on Halloween. I moved my stand in the middle of the day and got closer to where he came out. That evening I shot him at 22 yards. That year I really started being extremely careful with my scent control and I could tell results immediately. This past year I didn't kill my target buck, but learned a lot about the property in general and how the bucks use the place. I feel that I didn't kill that buck because I didn't move in when I knew where he was. I was so afraid of blowing him out of the area that I played everything timid and his daytime movement was shrinking by the time that I moved in. This buck has also shown me just how little pressure he will tolerate. I ended up shooting a buck that I actually thought was my target buck in the same area he was in. I walked through tracking that buck and scented up the place. The 7 pointer left that area and relocated. He didn't show back up until I pushed him out of his new area while looking for his sheds in late January (which I finally found last week). I think I have a good idea when and where to hunt him this coming year as long as he makes it to the fall. 4. How did that experience change you as a hunter? The first buck I killed got me overconfident. The 7 pointer brought me back off that cloud. They both taught me to hunt my stands at the right time. For me that time is the last week of October on the main property that I hunt. This last year taught me a lot about how the bucks use the winds in relation to the water (I hunt along the Mississippi and a channel coming off it). And both bucks taught me just how important entry and access routes are. 5. What advice would you give another hunter faced with the same situation? Pay attention to every detail and hunt at the right times. For some that may be September, others it may be December. For me that magical time is that last week of October and the bucks continue to prove that to me. Figure out how the deer use the wind from every different direction and pay close attention to your entry and exit. And don't forget to have fun. You will be frustrated a lot by hunting a specific deer, but the reward is definitely worth it.
1. Have you ever targeted a specific buck for an entire hunting season? Meaning every time you went to the woods (of only that farm/location if you have more than one) you did so in pursuit of a single deer. I've done it with two different deer, both deer I had past experiences with. 2. Were you successful at harvesting that deer? On both deer I ended up being successful, one of the deer took me two seasons. 3. If so, why do you think you were successful? If not, why were you unsuccessfuly? I feel I was successful for mainly one reason, the encounters I had with the deer the previous years. One deer I had three prior seasons of encounter with this deer, I had his bedding pretty much narrowed down to a few acres. The other deer I knew where he was traveling to bed, he was bedding off the property I had access too. Both deer I waited until I felt the time was perfect, and both hunts I killed them I was very confident it was going to happen on that sit. 4. How did that experience change you as a hunter? Both taught me the importance of knowing where a specific buck is bedding. I now feel if you don't have a bucks bedding locations narrowed down, you're just relying on luck. 5. What advice would you give another hunter faced with the same situation? Think about bedding, any encounter you have with a deer think about where he's coming from in the evening and where he's going to in the morning. As you narrow down bedding locations, you narrow down the location you have to be to kill him.
1. Yes, we call him "The King" and he's a massive 10 point with bright white antlers (like a crown, hence The King). Ironically we've only seen him in person, absolutely no trail camera pictures of him. Unfortunately we didn't see him last year but we saw him in 2011 and 2012. He seemed to only come around during the rut and then he would simply disappear. 2. No. A few years ago I had him walking towards me on a dime and almost had a shot at 40 yards until he turned and simply walked away behind some brush and out of distance. 3. I really don't have the answer to this because he seems to appear only for the rut and then would disappear, never to return until the next year. I'm not sure if I am just missing him or if he just isn't from the immediate area. Maybe it's because we are small property hunters. 4. It has taught me to be more patient because he was a target buck for 2 years in a row and in fact he was actually my first target buck. I've never really targeted any specific bucks until I adopted quality deer management tactics back when we purchased our hunting grounds. 5. My only advice would be to keep being patient and try and figure out the specific timeframe he shows up on the property so you can put in more time to harvest him if he is still the target buck.
You probably already know my answer. Go get him. I've been telling you that for four plus years. i wouldn't care if I never saw another deer all year, I'd give everything I had to pursuing that one deer. as far as targets, my targets have always been set to nothing but tracks, scrapes, or rubs. I'm not really a picture guy. But every track I really hunted, and a lot of beds and scrapes too have ended up on the dinner table. I've never had the opportunity to devote an entire season to just one deer because I've never had one deer I really wanted to take. But if The Lord willing, He ever lays before me a 180, (even a 170) I'd give everything I had to him. And he'd be a dead deer walking. But alas, I fear that day may never come. You have the opportunity here my friend, one very very few ever get, and I think you're crazy if you let it pass on by without putting up a fight.
1. Have you ever targeted a specific buck for an entire hunting season? Meaning every time you went to the woods (of only that farm/location if you have more than one) you did so in pursuit of a single deer. Normally I have a certain buck I want to hunt in a specific area every year. Usually I can find 3 or 4 bucks to target in different areas. While I always have one that I want to kill the worst... I like the option of hunting other areas just so I don't over hunt an area and only hunt it when conditions are almost perfect. The last thing I want to do is let him know he is being hunted when conditions aren't right to hunt him. 2. Were you successful at harvesting that deer? In the last 9 years since I've gotten into targeting certain bucks... I've killed 2. I've passed on 4 ( they were targeted but it was early in the season. I really wanted to kill a another bigger buck in a different area. I get too greedy for my own good. ). 3 bucks that I had in bow range but blundered on ( misjudged range and shoot under, shot over the back of one... he was on high alert and ducked, and the last one ( Trash ) I passed because I wasn't sure of the yardage and the range finder was in my back pack ( stupid ).). I can think of a few more that I had in bow range but couldn't get a shot. 3. If so, why do you think you were successful? If not, why were you unsuccessful? I was successful on the two because I know where they liked to go. First one was to his bedding area in the morning. The 2nd one was due to weather. It was rainy and windy. I had a good hunch where he would go to get somewhat out of it once he left his bedding area. with a mature buck... I can usually get on them but usually I will get a crack at them in bow range only once almost every year. I try to figure out their weakness or quirks. Some bucks are more patternable whether it is the time of year or behavior in them. Each buck I look at as an individual and try to decipher his quirks. This has helped me the most. I wait for almost perfect conditions to hunt a buck. Again the last thing I want to do is let him know he is being hunted. ---------------------------------------------- My failures have been for the most part... self inflicted. I am greedy and pass bucks I shouldn't. I blundered on the range of one so I bought a range finder. Range finder isn't much good in the backpack when you have 4 bucks milling around and you can't reach for it. Stupid stuff like that. Like I said early... I usually can get in bow range at least once a year of the buck I've targeted. I can't afford to make mistakes. 4. How did that experience change you as a hunter? Between the highs and lows... it makes me more focused. I love targeting certain bucks and I doubt I will ever change. I feel I am doing good getting on the bucks but I need to capitalize on it when I do get them in range. As far as the greedy part and passing bucks that I shouldn't... that probably will never change. I can live with that. 5. What advice would you give another hunter faced with the same situation? Don't over hunt. Wait for the right conditions to hunt. Try to figure out the buck's quirks. Tim
