I will be going on my first ever hunt for a velvet buck this September. A friend of mine bought a farm in western Kentucky and he invited me down. I'm going down this weekend to scout it out and hang a camera. I'm going back down in 2 weeks to get our stands set up. Then 3 weeks after that I'll be down there Labor day evening to get my first hunt in. Then I'll have Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning to fill my tag. If I kill a giant it would be a huge bonus. Realistically a 110"- 130" I would be very pleased with. We don't have a clue yet what's even on the farm. So, I'll pretty much be hunting blind. Can't wait!!!!!
Good luck, it's always exciting scouting a new property. Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
What County will you be hunting in? I hunt farms in 7 counties and have recent experience in a couple others. Let me know roughly where you will be and maybe I can provide some insight as to what you might expect. Regardless of the area the first thing I can tell is that you better pray for decent weather. As with anywhere I suppose... if its in the upper 80's and 90's while you are here it will be tough sledding. Problem is that those kind of temps have become the norm for us in early Sept. If you get lucky enough to arrive to high temps in the low 80's or better then you should be in the chips if your buddy's farm has anything decent on it. My advice would be to look for places where you can hunt afternoon food sources without intruding too far into cover. I know it will be hard given your limited opportunity but if I were you I wouldn't even consider hunting mornings unless its just an out of the way place to shoot a doe. In other words if you find good spots that you have confidence in for your afternoon sits... don't ruin them by trying to get in there in the mornings. Early Sept bucks (of any size) are not going to be moving very far back and forth from bed to food so if you trundle in there before daylight trying to get in between them when you have no idea where the deer are you will probably screw yourself. Also I presume you know about seed ticks. If you don't you'd better find out before this weekend or you will regret it. Make sure you have some tick spray that contains Permethrin. Lastly you can call it a velvet hunt but roughly half of our bucks will be out of velvet or coming out of velvet by first week of Sept. Yes it is possible but every day that goes by during that 1st week of September the odds are rapidly decreasing. Anyway though... who cares about that? I'm sure if you kill a nice deer you won't mind if he has hard bone. Good luck and let me know if I can help.
The county i'll be hunting in is Grayson. The town is Leitchfield. Lots of good information there, thanks for the tips. Any more info about this area would be greatly appreciated.
I've never deer hunted in that county but I do know some big ones come out of that area. I have several friends in Litchfield. Nice little town and pretty country. And two words to help you out.. corn pile.
Grayson is probably a top 10 county for big deer. I haven't personally hunted it so I'm not sure about deer densities but a lot of really big deer are killed in that county. I hunt Hart to the SE and Butler to the SW. Both have really big deer. Hart has a lot of deer. Butler has lower densities. Grayson is zone 2 so it is probably more like Hart. The county is a mix of fairly modest terrain and hilly terrain and a mix between big woods and pasture/Ag so there's no way of saying what you'll have in that regard. Since you are getting a late start you might as well go ahead and start corn at a couple of likely a looking spots. Normally I'd say it's too early but you are behind the game and are trying to figure out what you've got. Resist the urge to put the corn in the woods if fields are available. The younger deer will just lay near it and screw up your chance for approach. If there are crop fields use their edges. If not use whatever fields/clearings you have and find the spots that get the first afternoon shade. Put corn and camera there. Put your salt in woods near water if possible. It's really too late for salt for this Summer but might as well start it. Let us know what it looks like. Not everyone gets to look at new spots so let others live vicariously through you.
There are some big woods, a pretty good sized ponds, couple streams, and ag fields. Not sure how it all lays out yet, but I was mostly planning on hunting edges as close to water and fields as possible.
Pics of my setup. There are 5 paths that come together in this opening. There is a pond just to the left of the stand that's left when you're in it. There is a larger pond down the hill probaby about 80 yards away. Got cam up, corn, apple flavored salt licks, sugar beet block, and a trophy rock. Also have lucky buck mineral lick powder and sugar beet powder. To the south east of the stand is a large field. Stand has very easy access without intruding making any noise but yet several bedding areas all around.
For some reason it's not letting me post pics right now. It keeps saying security error. Anyone know what that means?
