First, finding this site with so many knowledgeable people who freely share share their advice and experiences has shortened my learning curve tremendously, so thank you. Hopefully some of you folks could benefit from mine. Background w/ Question: I hunt public land almost exclusively and had a successful 2008 season (2 does, 10 & 6 pt.) and a doe so far this season. I keep a hunting log and over the past two seasons I've seen deer on about 85% of my sits. I hunt out of my saddle so I guess that categorizes me as "mobile." I've hunted four different properties this season and have seen 9 bucks, all of them yearlings. I realize some of the blame may lay on the state of the deer herd but I don't worry about that since it's out of my control. Is there any thing you gurus can suggest to put me in front of more mature animals? As an aside, I scout with an emphasis on "deer" sign. Buck sign is nice but not usually a deciding factor.
Hey welcome. Try and get in those places where others are to lazy to go. Hunt edges, and shoot for areas between bedding and food. Im considering edges being two types of terrain. It may be a thicket edge where it meets a hardwoods thats more open. pre rut, find those scrapes that are there in numbers. Older bucks will sometimes just check them from down wind and not necessaraly come in to them. Look for those big nasty deep groved rubs that tell of a mature buck in an area as well as larger tracks. sometimes its best to start from an observation stand first, figure out what they are doing and then move in. great to have you here!!
WAAAZZUP?! :D Welcome to our humble little community! In my area, I usually DON'T find the big boys around where I find "most" of the sign. I usually have to go deeper and get in the nastier stuff before I start finding where they hang out.... Case in point: today's morning hunt. I had a guy get in on me on public land where I wanted to hang this morning... I got out of the area and hunted down the slough about 250 yards where I'd scouted some, but wasn't real excited about it. I got down a tad early and took the opportunity to do some in-season scouting.... I waded through some marshy stuff and got WAY back in some really nasty stuff... and guess what? I started finding rubs on trees as big as my wrist and up.
Thanks for the welcomes and the advice. I try to use streams as barriers but I can't seem to cross them without falling in. Hunting alone has its perks.
Welcome! A very good question you ask.The only answer I know is keep walking! Big buck sign can be deceiving,if you are not tight to the big buck's bedding area a lot of that sign can be made under the cover of darkness.To simplify,find the big buck bedding area's,look for the exit trails out of it,with your set up place steps in a number of tree's that enable you to be in the right one given the wind direction for that hunt. As chasing comes in time to hunt the doe's,getting down wind of their bedding and feeding area's or in their transition zones from bed to feed or from feed to bed. Sounds like you are doing a lot right already! You like many of us struggle with the same goal,getting on mature bucks. I have not perfected this in my own area,I do intend to use trail cams more aggressively in area's that I suspect are mature buck bedding area's,through the summer months and getting the cams out long prior to open season.I just want to know they are there and what is in the area. Best wishes for the rest of your season!
