I've had multiple threads on the subject over the last few years... Expanded... After five years, a couple dozen subjects, an insane amount of map work, foot work, camera work, this is a consolidated version of about three chapters worth of notes; conclusion...with a colorful twist for flavor. I stared into the fractured image, waiting for something to emerge from within the seams. Where was this buck? And why didn't the map quite fit its frame? There were multiple edges, and layers of edges, sporadically tossed about. Too many edges. None of this fits together. Yet it all seemed significant, but choices were made and I couldn't figure out why...where was the core? I didn't think I'd ever be able to translate this map, or pattern this buck. There were questions, pieces missing. Pieces wedged into random locations. Edges with loose ends, bound just enough to hold the parts, but not the whole. Like looking through a fog at a set of irregular limits, trying to see around the edges, within the edges, through the edges. Transcending through the transitions, to and fro, interior and exterior....edges, hard and soft, made of cover, structure and terrain....The seams. Both limited and limitless in multiple forms, they encourage, alter, and define. Then something started to emerge, a form of subliminal recognition, where the subconscious and reality collide, an enhanced awareness of pattern, past and present...Regardless of the direction I searched, I always came back to the same conclusion...access. Access to security, variety, diversity. Access to repeatable, sustainable, consistencies within a range of environmental factors. Access with minimal shifting required annually. This also helped bridge the gap from core to core, buck to buck...patterns that translate and transfer to virtually any landscape, and within a wide range of subjects. The realization that there were never any choices made. A process, tumbling like a mental avalanche. Where chunks of reality splinter away and tumble downward, except that instead of chaos they fall into something that has form, a kind of restructured whole whose final shape starts to emerge from the depths of confusion...The core.... Which slowly develops with maturity, through repeated consistency. Not a conscious choice, but a subconscious manifestation of essential needs, a small group of environmental factors that draw and hold a buck to a specific location. It's like reading his biography, it defines him, and provides the portal needed to enter into his world. "Not a conscious choice, but a subconscious manifestation", is the key to crossing over that threshold, from a cloud of mystery, to clear predictability.
I would like to invest in that product, I think it would be great for retail distribution. What’s 100k get me in “ maps” . ?
After thinking about it, I can't post the maps I have, I would need to make fictitious maps that are similar to what I've got. My maps are of public land locations, showing real core's, bedding, primary/secondary food, water, transitions in cover, trails, beds, edges, security,....ane all the variety and diversity within the above. I would be showing the world exactly where these bucks are living 11 months out of the year. Finding a 150"+, mature buck to hunt is the hard part...strictly due to availability...once found, figure him out, setting up on him and killing him is the easy part.
Yes, I've done some crazy camera recon this year...well the last 3 years actually. I've put all eggs in one basket in the past. But not the last couple years. I had one primary target this year, and if that didn't pan out, (which it didn't) I had 5 secondary targets pinpointed to fall back on.
Josh. You able to zero in on core areas via topo and aerial maps? Then boot scout and hang cameras in specific spots to verify movement? Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
That's exactly what I've been doing. It's a lot of boots to the ground and camera work, probably 90% of it. Where as, my rut hunting was about 90% map work. On a grand scale, the core's seem like they go through some drastic shifts. But in reality, they go through a series of micro shifts. It's work to keep ahead of what's happening out there, I check and move my camera's around on a weekly basis starting in July. These two pictures, taken less then 100 yards apart, are of the same buck in his core...one from December last year, the other from September this year.
What are you finding is the average core size area of a mature buck? Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Not exactly sure. It seems that terrain, available habitat and cover play a key role. Age seems to play a big role also, older they get, the smaller the core seems to get. And then there's the disposition or temperament of each individual buck.... From 20 acres to 80 acres is probably real close to what I've seen. But that's misleading also, a bucks year around core might be 50 acres, and him never set foot out of a small 5 acre section, from June through August.
Josh, are you seeing a greater change in core areas and the size of the areas in the large timbered/hill country vs. farm country with more blocks of timbered surrounded by ag fields? We don’t have many large blocks of timber around here, but I’ve always suspected (possibly incorrectly) that bucks kind of roam a bit in the farm country here and that it is rare to find them using the same beds day after day (my 2 bucks this year aside ). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The core is spread out and more sporadic in the large blocks of timbered...in my opinion, the lack of a well defined, primary food source, and a lack of diversity, with definition, is the cause. The buck I shot this year was a prime example. His core revolved around a ten year old clear cut, (60+/- acres of nasty thickets) on a ridge over looking the river bottoms. There was no defined food source...aquatic growth in the bottoms, various brows in the clear cut. I couldn't find where he was bedding or how he was moving....BUT, in did know where he would be when the white oak became the primary food source. I moved a camera into the oak flat, anticipating the shift, two weeks prior. Checked it every 4-5 days, and as soon as he moved into the area, I slipped in and shot him. In a sea of chaos, a small change will go unnoticed...but in a sea of monotony, a small change will stand out. Deer will always gravitate to something that's a little different.... There is a tipping point in both directions....to much...or....not enough. With primary food everywhere, and prime bedding options throughout, patterns will be more sporadic also. You really can have to much of a good thing...which is great for carrying capacity and density, makes for exciting rut hunts, but it sucks for patterning a specific buck. I can say with certainty, that a bucks bed/beds and patterns become increasingly more consistent with age. My number one buck that I was hunting this year is a six year old...he used the same bed every day for two months straight back during the summer. The bed wasn't even wind specific, he bedded in the same spot regardless.
"BUT, in did know where he would be when the white oak became the primary food source. I moved a camera into the oak flat, anticipating the shift, two weeks prior. Checked it every 4-5 days, and as soon as he moved into the area, I slipped in and shot him." When you are setting and checking the cams this often do you wear rubber boots and do you set the cams in areas where you can access, but the bucks won't hit much of your ground scent? Like a steep ridge...access via the steep side and set the cam facing a flat of some sort? Keeping your scent in places deer won't travel much. This is interesting.
I'm a really good rut hunter. Finding and hunting topographic features, funnels, high edges, saddles, spurs and benches, compounded features that enhance and feed off one another....ridge top hubs....I discovered and defined the "thermal hub", "positive/negative terrain", the "social hub"...gateway's that connect multiple networks and social groups. I could kill a random buck during the rut with no problem....BUT when I started trying to kill a specific target buck, even with all the above knowledge, I failed miserably over and over. I had to back up and regroup, focus on finding and hunting core areas outside the rut, to start killing specific target bucks on a consistent basis.
Buck I killed in early October. Two of the base biologists said they believed he was 5.5 years old. He had survived 5 and a half years in a place that gets over 3 months of bow and gun pressure every year. I located a general spot of like 100 acres in the off season. It had been crushed with buck sign and it was .75 miles from the nearest road. Had cover, access to does, and big time white oaks. Slipped in there about a week before the season and started just to check on it. White oaks were getting hammered and the buck sign was outstanding. An aggressive buck had been in there recently as there were darn 30 plus small saplings broken in half within a couple of acres in and surrounding the dropping white oaks. Set a cam and then returned 10 days later. Saw him on the cam twice in the 4 days prior, just prior to and after sundown. Killed him one hour after sunrise coming into those white oaks ready to eat and check scrapes. After I shot him he ran about 250 yds and died in his bed. It was a bed that doesn't make any darn sense wind wise. Only made sense because it was on the edge of low ground blowdowns. He could look up on the ridge, smell below him, and then slip into those thick blowdowns if he felt pressured. I probably walked within 30 yds of that bed only 10 days prior to killing him, yet he returned to use it. I have a few big public land spots I can try your cam method out on Josh. They are all brand new to me but I'm confident that when I scout them here in January through March that I'll get onto something.
This camera in particular, was right on the high edge of the ridge, I could slip in from the bottom, up the ridge and check it with little too no impact. I always check my camera's in the middle of the night also. Deer will literally watch you pass from 30-40 yards away and never spook at night...if and when they do spook, they bound a short distance, then watch from there. Also, if I'm running a camera up close and personal to a bucks bed, I want to check it when he's not there. I try to place my camera's in low impact areas, but that's not always possible. I do zero scent control when checking them, usually fresh off a train and soaked down with deet, lol. Deer live in the moment, (unlike us, with one foot in the past and one foot in the future) and deal with predators on a daily basis. There's a BIG difference between stale scent (which deer deal with continuously) and scent stream (which signifies immediate danger). I have mature bucks walk around within an hour or two of me checking my cam's all the time, with little response...they're reaction towards stale scent is almost always more curious, than anything else.
