Well i have 3 very nice bucks that i am hoping to shoot this year. after 7 hunts i have not seen them which is understandable. But i haven't have pics of either one since before they still had velvet on. I know where there bedding, but i don't want to go fooling around setting and checking cams leaving my scent and screwing up my best woods. Just moved my cams to some scrapes and hopefully they show up there.the two larger bucks i have seen all last year and found 3 out of the 4 sheds. My property is about 250 acres with 125 acres of woods. we have the best food in probably a hole mile. Last year late season i saw these two bucks and passed them. Hopefully this weekend during the youth hunt i can connect with one. wish me luck
I'm sure they are still around there. They don't get big by being stupid. Hopefully you can be there when one of them makes a mistake. Good luck to ya!
About the time bucks start to shed velvet they change their home range typically. Up until that point they are generally living in bachelor groups. They will seek out their own fall range and will generally only overlap with other bucks. I have witnessed this happen to me on my property every single year. I either have a bunch of bucks using my place during the summer, or none. Once the middle of September rolls around, things turn a complete 180. Years where I have a bunch of bucks, I end up with only one or two decent bucks using it during the fall. The years where I have nothing on camera, I usually have one or two good bucks move in and start using the area. This last until after the first week of November. That's when all hell breaks loose with the rut and there's a chance I could see any buck within a couple mile radius. I've just learned not to get too excited for what I see on my trail cams during the early season, and I patiently wait until about mid-October to see what has moved onto my property. Then I take the week off before our rifle season (November 5th-11th this year) and hunt it every single say both morning and evening.
I typically have no big bucks on my ground until the rut. At that time no one around me sees big bucks, but I do
