Here are a few shots from Saturday morning, on the waterhole set up SUNRISE IN HILL COUNTRY VIEW DOWN THE RIDGE VIEW TOWARDS THE WATER HOLE The wind was crazy and swirling. I don't think a lot of deer were moving. The worst part about my thought process about the waterhole set up was that the buck does not bed there. I will explain here: I got down around 9:00 after a side by side came right up the quad trail to my right, and decided to look for some fresh sign. I wanted to be out of there around 10:30 or 11 anyway. I was walking the top tram which is super thick on both sides and decided to bump down the abandon tram road, so if I did see something I could actually get a shot. I found what looked to be a discrete deer trail and decided to follow it a bit, until it hit the tram road. There were leaves kicked up where the deer went down over, and a very deep depression from where his hooves hit some muddy ground. As soon as I came down over the hill, I could see a nice rub line. I continued down the tram towards my house and was struck with the scent of a rutting buck. It was so strong it almost made me sick. I perked up, and knew he had to be close. The leaves were damp, from the melted frost and my entrance was quite. A few feet up the trail I came across a buck bed. I know it is a buck bed because of the amount of rubs around it. I crouched down and felt the bed but it was cold, so I did not bump him. I could tell he was here in the morning because there was still some frost on the leaves around it but not in the bed. Kind of tough to tell in the picture here, my bow is 29.5 ATA and this bed is much bigger than that. Here is his bed on my gps. You can see my house on there. I could not enter this area from below, as he would hear me walking on the trams below and am sure he knew I walked by while going to the water hole. He would have been about 80 yards away from the access trail I used to get to the water hole set up. I wanted to see what the deer could see so I crouched down and looked. I tried to analyze why he was bedding in the middle of this semi-open trail. I broke it down to this: He is bedding angling facing up the tram, (which slopes down to him) and down towards bench. There is a clump of elephant ear/Japanese knot weed behind him, on the tram. There is a small slope behind him that leads to a dense thicket. Below is thick as well. He can see danger approaching from where he is facing (up the abandon tram). He has prevailing wind coming off of the top and thermals coming from below so he can scent the top and bottom at the same time. He is unseen from the bench below, and cannot see it, but could easily hear danger on that bench. He can escape into the thicket above him very fast and be free of danger in an instant. I saw this buck last Monday, and Last night he was under my apple tree about 40 yards from my back porch around 8:30 pm. Looking back I wish I would have set up on him for the evening, and got in early. I imagine he returned to his bed and smelled me. I practice good scent control, but know he had to have smelled my scent right in his bedroom. I was not expecting him to be bedded that close to the houses and such below, and figured he was out towards the waterhole and field more. This buck is very smart, and will be very tough to kill. He has a monstrous body. There is a scrape line and the largest scrape is 40 yards from my back porch under another apple tree. My camera is on that now. I do not have a hangon stand, and sticks but know this would be the best way to set up for him. What I am looking for is your thoughts on where he will go when he gets out of his bed, or what time to expect him returning to his bed. I could not imagine he would get up an walk up the old tram road. My thoughts are he will go down to the bench below and stay on that bench and move further up the hill through the thicket. I found his trails from the bed, and see he either dumps down to the bench, or walks down the tram through the elephant ears. I had a trail cam up earlier in the year about 80 yards from this, with the apples I picked up from the yard, and only got Doe and fawns on camera. I did find a tree close to this where I could set up. I am asking for the best way to set up for this buck. I am thinking that getting in on him early may be a bad move. I thought about setting up on the bench below him but at a distance and seeing where he moves after getting out of his bed, then try and set up for this on my next hunt. I will be off next Monday, and thought about setting up to observe him, on Saturday, then move in for the kill on Monday. Just hoping that the does do not come in this week, and he is gone for the rest of the season. I am hoping that he does not blow out of there due to smelling my scent, and am really kicking myself for not setting up on that bed for when he came back in the afternoon. Very bad descision. I was all around that apple tree the day before, and my scent was all over that, but I am sure he is used to human scent in this area
When deer leave their beds a lot of time they head for water first then to feed. With the rut coming up very soon (at least in the midwest) he could be anywhere at any time. You might be better off setting up on doe family groups and wait for him to come looking for them because they will only have one thing on their mind this time of year. Good luck.
